EV Chapter 28

        1960-1975 was a time of civil rights, liberalism, and another war (Vietnam War). Kennedy was President briefly during this time, before his assassination, and was well liked by many.  He was well liked because of his ability to relate to the people. During this time my dad was drafted in the Vietnam War at a fresh age of 18, I remember him telling stories of his brief years that he spent overseas fighting for our country, and the fond way of which he spoke of President Kennedy. To me it seems that to have a President such as Kennedy in such a time of crisis but to have him so fondly remembered by so many speaks wonders of him as a leader. Although another important leader figure during this time was Martin Luther King Jr.. The time of civil rights was a trying time for African-Americans and in my opinion an embarrassing time for the rest of us. It’s sad to look back and see how judgmental we were against other humans, the things that were done are so outrageous, i.e. pepper spray, attack dogs, spraying with fire hoses. All because we thought them to be less than human, and through all of this MLK Jr. fought against this in such a civil way, he didn’t use means of violence but instead simple words, and sit ins. He chose not to respond to violence with violence but to instead rise above. And this is why he deserves such great praise, his dedication to helping his people while still being able to respect the whites on some level is phenomenal.

            African-Americans were not the only ones to face discrimination. Mexican-Americans also faced some discrimination, although not quite as harsh as what the African-Americans faced. Mexican-Americans faced unfair work conditions.

Asian-Americans also faced discrimination, especially the Japanese during WWII. My maternal grandparents were actually a part of this. They were in their early twenties when the war broke out and they and their families were sent off to concentration camps. My grandfather was sent to Topaz and my grandmother sent to Tule Lake. My grandpa didn’t like talking about this time in his life, but I was always so interested so I would sit and ask question after question trying to learn what I could. He said he and his family had white friends who were willing to store some of their stuff while they were at camp and the rest they got rid of taking the few things that they could with them. The thing he always talked about from his internment camp was the baseball games him and the other boys and young men would form and play, he never really told me anything bad, but I don’t think he wanted to remember nor for me to know. I do know that in order for him to leave camp he volunteered for the American Army and served for 3 years fighting for a country that was fighting against his own people. I wish I would’ve known more from his experience…to believe that my grandfather was a part of such tragic history really makes you realize how recently our country grew up and became more equalized.

Sorry I got off topic…

Chapter 27

After the war many people tried to settle back into their pre-war ways.  Women however had gotten a sense of what it felt like to work outside of the home, and many craved to be able to continue to do so.  It was also a time of unease, where many feared an economic depression postwar, so the GI Bill was enacted to help prevent the feared recession by helping to ease the veterans back into the workforce, and help ease their new fear of female competition. The veterans really benefited from this bill, which I believe was a great thing that our government did for them. The return of these veterans also spurred the baby boom, my parents being a part of this generation. This post war era was a time of much change and advancement in both urbanization and industrialization. We suddenly found ourselves in a time of computers and development of suburbs. It’s sad to think that American medicine always seem to be one step behind the industrial world, here the United States was using things like fertilizers and pesticides and just spraying the crops including the workers in them, not realizing how horrible the side effects were for humans. Of course now we understand that but back then it’s sad to think how many industrial steps forward we took before we took a step forward with medicine.

            During this time the Highway Act was initiated which provided the United States with its first national highway system. It provided transportation across the country for the first time, which allowed people to more easily move and navigate the states. This was also a time when televisions started becoming a regular appearance in people’s homes. I remember my dad telling me when he was little how they would (as a family) all gather around the radio after dinner and listen to their favorite shows after dinner. He also, on several occasions, would recount the time when his family was finally able to afford a television and what a wonder he thought it was. He describes how all the shows were in black and white and how interesting it was to see faces of the characters to which he use to imagine. It’s even interesting to me know because my dad will point out old shows that they’ve added color to in the more recent years, it just makes me realize how far televisions have come within the last 40-50 years or so. On top of television and computers we also advanced by launching a satellite. This post World War II era was a major time of advancement in many aspects.

EV Chapter 23

Chapter twenty-three was about the changing times in the 1920’s and the fear and excitement that came with it. It was interesting to read about the new innovations that occurred during this time period such as the automobiles. Henry Ford was a leading man in this industry with the introduction of the Model A, as well as the perfected assembly line. Although Ford’s assembly line was very efficient job satisfaction was very poor in this line of work. Talking and laughter was forbidden by the managers of these assembly lines and as a result people’s job satisfaction began to diminish. During this time corporations started becoming a major part of United States life, with Ford dealerships and grocery stores having thousands of locations across the nation. This was also a time were department stores started to become bigger and more popular, with the help of the invention of air conditioning as well as window displays and advertising, this was true for movie theatres and restaurants as well. I found it very interesting to read about how quickly the United States became so materialized, it would have seemed that this would have been a more gradual process, but the way it is written almost seems like this occurred “over night”.

During the times the United States was largely Republican, with the exception of a few southern states. As the United States became a stronger nation in itself it was able to remain a world power although it refused to become a part of the League of Nations, which is somewhat surprising. During this time the women of the United States formed the League of Women Voters, in which they tried to achieve more political rights as a whole, this proved to be of little use initially. It was also during the 1920’s that urban communities began to outnumber rural communities, this urbanization also included many African-Americans. Those women who lived in the cities had less homely duties thanks to the major appliances that they now had in their homes. Some middle and upper class women were even lucky enough to be able to have cars and drive to work; although cars bought much ease to lives they also caused traffic jams, parking problems and more fatalities along with it. Overall it appears that this chapter is a major time of development and further industrialization to the United States. It was also a time for women to and some African-Americans to become more involved within their communities. The 1920’s was a major turning point and time of advancement for the United States. 

EV Chapter 13

It is amazing to think and read about how many immigrants came to the United States in such a short amount of time. It is strange that the people already settled in the United States were opposed to new immigrants coming over when most of them themselves were immigrants as well. The first settler of the United States created a strong nativism party against new immigrants. The nativist party created a group called the “Know-Nothing” Party, which seems slightly ironic that people would create a party that implies that they “know nothing” it would seem that with a name like that no one would take them serious. The main reason behind nativism was the fear of the new and the unknown people immigrating to the United States, the “natives” were afraid that the new immigrants would disrupt their new government and throw everything that they worked so hard to achieve into chaos. Many of the immigrants who came to the United States were in favor of the Democrat party because the Democrats were more sympathetic to the new immigrants. Another reason for their support of the Democrat party was because Republicans were in favor of abolishing slavery and the new immigrants, the Irish in particular, feared that the freed slaves would be strong competition for them with jobs/the economy; the Whig party also was big in religion and good morals which did not support the German and Irish ways of heavy drinking. As the population of the United States continued to grow so did the continuation of the expansion to the west. It was believed by many that there was a “Manifest Destiny”, meaning that god was telling the people of the United States that it was their destiny to expand westward until we couldn't anymore. Another reason for westward expansion was  due in part to that the settlers in the United States were not wisely using/harvesting the land and therefore would expand westward in search for new land for their crops. 

EV Chapter 7

Chapter 7 focused on the formation of political parties and a new government. Washington was the first President of the United States, after our gain of independence and formation of a government. It wasn't until his reelection that the United States had formed two distinct political parties, the Federalists and the Republicans. The federalists later became the Democratic Party although in the beginning the Federalists were against a democracy ruling whereas Republicans believed in equality and liberty, although their support in this only obtained to Whites.  It seemed interesting to me that it took Washington so long to come out and declare which political party he was affiliated with since now days we know what party the future president is before he is even elected as president. During the 1800’s is when women started to slowly become more recognized and noticed for things other than bearing and raising children, they began to gain some more respect and in very few states were even allowed to vote.  These times were a major turning point for women; with the support from the Republican Party some women were able to gain an educational equality as well as political equality. Although some women were able to obtain a higher education outside the home there wasn't many ways for them to apply it.  It seems strange to me that although women were able to gain an education that they weren't really able to apply any of that knowledge outside of the home; it seems almost pointless to gain an education that you are unable to use and apply in your daily life.

EV Chapter 11

While reading chapter 11 it was really interesting and fascinating to read how much the United States advanced within such a short time period, of twenty years. We went from a country of agriculture to one of both agriculture and great technology in a matter of years.  Inventions such as the steam engine, cotton gin, reaper, sewing machine, and telegraph threw the United States into a time of development and rapid growth.  Interchangeable parts was a large part of this, it allowed us to essentially mass produce.  The railroad was also a very important development as it allowed us to transport both passengers and freight long distances much faster than by the canal system. I thought it was interesting that we were able to create all of this technology and yet we couldn’t explain what caused diseased. It seems that technology being so complicated and intricate that we would also be able to know a little more about the human body than we did back then.  Something as simple as not knowing that clean hands before handling patients, which now seems so obvious, was not even something that was considered back then, the connection that dirty hands led to infected patients was not made. It’s interesting yet not surprising that technological advancements came before medical ones. Phrenology was one of the first big medical “advancements”, it was a belief that a person’s character could be read by examining the bumps on their skull. This practice was both widely accepted and frowned upon saying that it was godless. Something else that I found interesting while reading this chapter was that along with the development of technology came the development of entertainment. Where at one time people were able to entertain themselves for little or no money, the development of theatres and newspapers changed that. People now relied on others to provide them their entertainment and would pay money to watch shows and performances as well as on the newspaper. One form of entertainment that I found somewhat appalling was that they had minstrel shows, which featured whites playing blacks and depicting racial stereotypes and diminishing black Americans. I found it shocking that this was such a huge form of entertainment. During this time period Americans were not known for their works in poetry or fiction, it wasn’t until the American Renaissance that Americans role in literature skyrocketed. Women were a big part of the romanticism of novels and were great at enrapturing their readers.

EV Chapter 6

Chapter six was a focus on the Revolutionary war. The people of the colonies were opposed to being taken under the British's wing and against taxation and so were trying to stand up for themselves. it was surprising to learn that Britain so vastly outnumbered the U.S. and yet the U.S. was still able to hold of the British. The U.S. was able to be so successful because even through all the defeat they still kept fighting which showed their great determination and perseverance. There were many ups and downs during the war with victories for both the British and the U.S. but the U.S. had enough of an upper hand and was able to fend off the British and extend their territory as well as get the French on their side.

EV Chaper 4

In chapter four I learned more about the peopling/colonizing of the Americas, and what people settled where. There was a lot of battle about who got what land and many countries failed in surviving here because they were not prepared for the conditions here. Either with the natives or with bringing the correct supplies or enough food to survive for a long duration of time. This chapter focuses more on where these countries ended up settling. Slavery was a huge part of life from early on, many came to the Americas in slavery and were forced to work in cruel, fatal conditions.

 

These events led to the enlightenment. Although the enlightenment predominantly occurred in france it still had a large affect on the rest of the world

EV Chapter 3

In the Chesapeake society it was interesting to read that women were so far outnumbered and therefore able to come to the Americas as indentured servants and marry in to wealthy upper class families. Chesapeake women were also able to acquire land after their husbands died, their husbands would write their will to them so that the land and money could stay in the family and be passed to the children. In New England colonies women had much less power and were in charge of trade while the men and older children would tend to the fields, family, and business. It was interesting to learn that marriage was more of a contract than a matrimony. In New England Puritans were the majority and tended to be the ones who were in charge.

EV Chapter 2

Chapter two was about the rise of the Atlantic world, and how slavery was started as well as the colonization of certain locations. I found it interesting to learn about how the North American colonies were developed and how they each developed a form of an economic system. It was interesting to read that it took the French several attempts at establishing a successful colony in what is now Canada, first being chased off by the Indians, and then the Spanish. It wasn't until some French fishermen established a trade network with the Indians. It seems that traders unlike explorers and colonizers were the ones to recognize the need to establish friendly trade with the Native Americans was both beneficial and necessary for the coexistence of the new settlers with the Native Americans. I was surprised to find out that a large majority of settlements that were established by 1607 were abandoned by 1625, I thought they would’ve survived longer than that.  

EV Chapter 1

While reading chapter 1 I found  it interesting to learn how early on the peoples of the Americas domesticated animals and started trade and taxes. It was interesting to learn that taxes and armies started so early in life. I was surprised to learn that one "city" had a population of near one hundred thousand people. Kinship was a more valued relationship than nuclear bonds which are, married couples and their children, which I found to be very different. Kinship relationships were expected to be for life where as marriages were not expected to last for life. I also found it interesting to learn that a reason for most conflict was because of kinship related problems, and that matters of homicide were resolved between the victims’ family and the perpetrator. Before the Europeans came to the Americas Indians saw themselves as a whole rather than individuals. It wasn’t until the Europeans came that they were categorized and differences were emphasized.

 

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