Author: juanrosasmp

american disasters intro-interpretations of disaster in history

May 3, 2017 / juanrosasmp / 0 Comments

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In the introduction of the book American Disasters, Steven Biel heavily discusses the interpretations of disaster in history. He considers history to be a different kind of history because disasters occur in different forms. And depending on the era in which the disaster occurred, the responses that is given by people is different as a result of different values and the kind of disaster that struck. As mentioned by Peter in his analysis of Bergman, disaster history overlaps with both culture and social. Although the details of Biel and Bergman are not completely the same, they both follow the same idea that disaster history is a part of history that reflects the era in which it has occurred. To prove his point, Biel splits his analysis into four parts; capital, faith, community, and possibility. Each part focuses on the responses that different parts of society of the era gave to the natural response.

I would also like to discuss on the first few paragraphs that Biel made in his introduction. In them, he describes his participation in a documentary. In the documentary, the narrator’s choice of words were done with the intention of creating a sense of mystery and awe. This reminds me of my previous post, in which people use sources differently.

cronon’s historical narrative

May 1, 2017 / juanrosasmp / 1 Comment

As I was reading Cronon’s introduction, I found it very interesting when he mentioned how two authors, Bonnefield and Worster, that were researching the same subject using the same sources had completely different conclusions. Aaron summarizes the two conclusions of the authors very well, in which Bonnefield portrays farmers as being extremely resourceful against the natural disaster of the Great Plains whereas Worster lays blame on the destruction of the Great Plains on the farmers. In my opinion, I think it was a good idea for Cronon to mention the differences between the two authors because in the field of history, this constantly happens all the time.

For example,the American Civil War has this kind of different views occur often. There are historians that view the same records, diaries, battles, etc, and also arrive to completely different conclusions. Some of the conclusions range from sympathy to the South to condemnation of the South. Even though the Dust Bowl and the American Civil War are two completely different historical events, each one had multiple historians tell different conclusions from the same sources. As such, this serves as a good reminder that when conducting historical research, to look at multiple sources since each one has a different conclusion. In addition, to also take into consideration essays such as the one Cronon wrote, since they could remind the researcher the differences that are withing multiple works.

arguments in digital history

April 17, 2017 / juanrosasmp / 2 Comments

It is repeatedly stated in the beginning of the article that digital history is a new section of history that came as a result of the computer. Cameron then follows this up by stating that although digital history has great appeal to people that are non-academics and do not have a deep passion of history due to its ease of presentation, it has repealed traditional academics because it rarely has arguments. The reason most presentations and research of digital history rarely have arguments is because it is usually a compilation of information that focuses on a specific topic with the intention of having easy access to that topic. This is done by having the research topic be readily available through the internet. In traditional research essays, the information that is gathered is presented in order to prove an argument that the author presents in the essay. As mentioned in Aaron’s post, Kozol is an example of a traditional academic paper because she makes an argument of genders during the Great Depression which is backed up with her research. If it was done through digital history, the research would have been simply just be a compilation photograph’s depicting women or something similar.

In my opinion, it is a good thing that the unique traits of digital history exists. It makes it easier for other academics to properly do their research because they would easily be able to find the specific information they are looking for. And by having an easy appeal to non-academics and non-historians, it would make them much more appreciative for history, in the same way that public history is viewed favorably by them. But I do understand the need for digital history to gradually develop arguments for their research. By developing arguments for the compilation of information, it would be able to tell people the purpose for the research, rather than just a pile of data.

american disasters intro

April 5, 2017 / juanrosasmp / 0 Comments

When I finished the intro, I began to ponder over his words that he used in the first few pages. He constantly mentioned that he felt that he was just a background object during the production of the Titanic documentary, more amplified when there was no mention of him to the general public during or after the show. In some ways, this is how a historian is, in which the historian is part of the background because the historian is observing events that have already occurred. In the case of the feeling of alienation that he felt, it could be interpreted in that even though an historian is watching the events that has happened, a historian cannot respond directly to the historical event, rather the historian can only respond indirectly such as through research.

By studying history, it is by observing and reading anything that was recorded or left behind from a particular historical era. At the same time, it also involves attempting to interpret what occurred or how the people thought. As mentioned by my classmate, the struggles and challenges that the white European immigrants and African American citizens faced could be interpreted as a Marxist struggle. Meanwhile, my other classmate mentions that in the sinking of the Titanic, there was a conservative attitude that occurred among the wealthy passengers.

In each case, the interpretation was derived from the evidence that was left behind. Each interpretation was done to show an idea or action has actually happened. They did not make up ideas that were not present in their interpretation. Even though its obvious that my classmates were not present in that specific historical time period, they were still able to understand the time period.

businessmen and marx

March 22, 2017 / juanrosasmp / 2 Comments

As i was reading the 2 readings, I realized that both selected readings involved businessmen that had a high interest in turning a disaster into a business opportunity and to prevent their business from being damaged by facts. I then began to read the blog post and noticed that the businessmen and Karl Marx would not see each other in the eye at all. In the writing of Kevin Rozario, it is constantly mentioned that businessmen did not see the disaster as a disaster to business but a huge boon for business. For example, businesses rushed to San Francisco to take part in the reconstruction process instead of leaving or staying away from the city. Meanwhile, a fire that occurred in New York earlier also attracted businessmen, in which they made even more money to replace the money lost in damages. As mentioned here, the article by Ted Steinberg discusses the methods that business did to prevent money loss. Newspapers attempted to downplay the disaster that struck San Francisco by using evidence to show that the earthquake was not that deadly. These practices of the businesses to benefit from disasters, which can be viewed as taking advantage of the suffering of the lower classes, would most likely clash and reinforce the beliefs of Karl Marx. I admit that they are different scenarios but a connection can be made. As summarized here, one of the key points of the Communist Manifesto is that the bourgeois takes advantage of the proletariat in order to maintain and increase their wealth. This is somewhat similar to the businesses that took advantage of the disasters to expand their wealth.

midsemester review

March 15, 2017 / juanrosasmp / 0 Comments

As I began to look over my posts, I noticed that I should pay more attention to the blog posts. I have noticed that I am missing one blog post and that I never posted my presentation post. I typed it up but I just realized that I did not submit my post, it was just labeled as draft so I went ahead and submitted it. In order for me to be successful in anything, I must pay attention to due dates or any details because my posts tended to be done in the day that it was due instead of being done calmly ahead of time. If I do not, my small mistakes will accumulate to a catastrophe. Due to my missing posts, it is somewhat difficult to see my progress since I cannot see the evolution of my writing but I did notice that there is a huge gap between my first post and latest post. My first post was a large paragraph that only did what it was told to do, analyze the reading. My latest post also analyzed the reading but it also included comparisons to similar events rather than just focusing on the topic. I guess it means that not only should I focus on the assigned work but that I should also have an open mind to outside material.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the posts of my classmates. They usually had an idea that I have not considered. But the thing that I want to write about is the end result of a post, mainly how it looks. What I am trying to say is that there are 2 types of posts, the ones with a large block of paragraphs (such as here and here), and those that have multiple paragraphs (here and here while the midterm reviews tend to also be written in paragraphs, such as here). Naturally, the length and number of paragraphs varies from topic to topic as well as how a person chooses to present their information. But my main point is that a person should not feel the urge to cram everything into one paragraph. It is ok to split the ideas into multiple paragraphs if it is needed. If not, then a whole paragraph is ok. lastly, the quality of the posts vastly improved. the ones in the beginning kind of had a feeling of summarizing the text or the analysis wasn’t pushed forward enough. the more recent posts became much more bolder in explaining their thoughts.

there will be blood thougts

March 15, 2017 / juanrosasmp / 0 Comments

Earlier in the week, I gave a small presentation in class regarding my views as a history student when i watched the film “There Will Be Blood”. Before I write about the history perspective, I’ll give some background information of the film in order for my point to be easier understood. The film takes place in the early 20th century in Southern California, which was the scene of an oil boom. In order to be authentic, the environment and clothing reflects how it originally appeared. As I watched the movie, I couldn’t help but think how rapidly the environment has changed in Southern California, from a wilderness to a continuous chain of cities from San Diego to Los Angeles and beyond. I am glad that the movie took special care to show this, since there is a number of movies with historical settings that place little emphasis on historical accuracy.

aftermath of the storm and similarities to other calamities

March 6, 2017 / juanrosasmp / 1 Comment

The final chapters of the book deals with the aftermath of the hurricane that struck the city and the surrounding region. People that traveled to the city described a bleak and depressing scene. Even though the people that were riding the train could not reach Galveston, they were still able to see the effects of the hurricane, such as flooded strands and wreckage from the city. Meanwhile, survivor accounts all recall that there was a large number of corpses everywhere in the city. As mentioned by zhoeffken, there was too many corpses throughout the landscape that the only way to properly dispose of them is to burn the corpses in a huge funeral pyre. This was done out of necessity because burying the corpses was taking too long due to the large numbers of dead and dumping the bodies into the ocean resulted in the corpses floating back to the coast. Due to the rapid need to dispose of the corpses fast, a proper count of the total number of dead was never conducted, which resulted in estimates.

As I was reading the last few chapters, I could not help but realize that even though this occurred in a different era with different technology and customs, there are some similarities in disasters, natural or man-made, in different eras. For example, during World War II, the Allied military conducted a bombing raid to the city of Dresden, Germany, with firebombs. In the end, there was also an unknown number of dead that was also scattered throughout the city, along with the need to dispose of the bodies quickly, which made tallying the total number of dead difficult. In the tsunami disaster that struck multiple Asian countries in 2004, there was also an unknown total number of dead and they also faced the challenge of burying the bodies. Lastly, the Johnstown flood also faced a similar pattern that the mentioned disasters faced. It is very depressing reading the survivor accounts.

the cow and the fire

February 13, 2017 / juanrosasmp / 0 Comments

the reading of the week, “Did the Cow Do It? A New Look at the Cause of the Great Chicago Fire” by Richard Bales, revolves around breaking the myth that a cow supposedly started the firestorm that swept Chicago. Bales faced the problems that arise in history, in which stories and gossip turned into fact due to lack of contrary evidence. and as the years pass by, it becomes into truth because there is very little confrontation against it. as jessicabode mentions, Bales does a great job in using primary sources in his writings, from people that lived there. in addition, he also had access to The Chicago Times from the time of the Chicago fire, tracking down one of the sources that spread the myth of the cow. Bale spent a lot of time reconstructing the event by using witness and newspaper accounts that were in microfilm. i find it very interesting that he admits that the odds are stacked against him because the fire took place over a 100 years ago, meaning that key information to finding out the truth is lost forever because it was destroyed or hidden away due to being forgotten. yet this should not deter historians from attempting to find out the truth, either actually finding out what truly happened or clearing away the myth that has evolved around the historical event. by doing research that answers questions, in this case finding out who started the fire, allows us to better understand the past rather than just simply accepting stories as the historical truth.