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Just yesterday in class, we did an exercise on theory, relating several historical theories to Isaac’s Storm. After rereading the blog posts we contributed over the first half of the semester, I noticed how prevalent theory was in our posts. Just about all the posts discuss around one or two historical theories. For example, peterrossi1 focuses on urban history by evaluating Cronon’s thesis, “Why do cities form where they do?” In the same blog post, peterrossi1 also explains the trends of urbanization, following up with his discussion of urban history. In these blog posts, we referenced each other’s work, often using it as an introductory sentence or to strengthen their own ideas. Zhoeffken references peterrossi1‘s focus on urban history and geography when discussing the urban planning for Chicago. Zhoeffken presented the idea of Chicago’s geography being both its boon and bane. Later, Sevallos would reference the “boon and bane” idea when discussing Cronan’s major point, “Second Nature.” I feel that this type of idea-building between blog posts, between historians, has strengthened our understanding of theory. We are free to take one idea from another historian and apply it to our own thoughts.

When the class reached Isaac’s Storm, students commonly referenced other students’ work on the Johnstown Flood, most likely because of the Galveston Hurricane and the Johnstown Flood having similarities in water-based catastrophe. McKenndy21 referenced Cluna3‘s dicussion on the Johnstown Flood in order to relate Johnstown’s lack of proper dam and water protections to Galveston’s lack of sea wall. Rebekahbenninger1 references Johnkane in the same way, also discussing the lack of water protection in both Johnstown and Galveston. There are a couple other blog posts that referenced Johnstown, so I feel that the Johnstown article was a strong transition into Isaac’s Storm since it presented the causes and effects of flooding to students.

To conclude, the blog is similar to the in-class discussions that we take part in. The key difference though is time. Not every student gets to speak in-class and present their ideas because of the limited time, so in the blog setting, we are given a large amount of time to form our ideas and to discuss them with others. It’s common for students to not share their ideas if they feel someone else has explained it better, but in the blog, I have seen students use other students’ strong ideas in order to support a strong analysis. As such, the blog feels more centered on the collective whole while the classroom feels more centered on the individual. Knowledge that we share on the blog may directly benefit others in their process of learning.