In this course, we will explore the struggles and triumph "inbetween peoples" after Reconstruction and before WWII.
Upon first thought, the Summer of the Gods does not necessarily lend itself to a discussion of inbetween peoples. The Pulitzer Prize winning work is concerned with an entirely different group of people than this class has dealt with, thus far. For the most part, we have read about the struggles of those [...]
In reading Summer of the Gods, I am tempted in some respects to play devil’s advocate for people like Bryan, who feared that teaching evolution in schools would destroy the moral fiber of the next generation. When Bryan and Darrow face off in the courtroom, Bryan, on the witness stand, states, “I am simply trying [...]
As schoolchildren, we often learn about the now infamous Scopes trial in the rather simplistic terms, as a debate over the role of creationism and evolutionism in classrooms across America. The Scopes trial, however, was anything but simple. In his book Summer for the Gods, Edward Larson examines the Scopes trial and proves [...]
According to Darrow’s autobiography, “All in all, that was a summer for the gods!” (177). Edward Larson makes a point of fleshing out the colorful personalities of these “gods” in the Scopes’ Trial. The different biases and social agendas that these powerful attorneys brought with them is what shaped the meaning of [...]
Hey guys, ignore my earlier post if you happened to read it. This one
is the real deal:
Something I would not have realized or focused on as Enstad has is the
importance of creativity and choice in minor decisions and behaviors
for the empowerment of women. Though Enstad clearly focused on this
in relation to the choice of [...]
During my reading of the first part of Enstad, I was often bored by her frequent and exhaustive reiterations. So, as I sat down to begin chapter four, I was really hoping for something at least a little different. I was relieved when Enstad introduced a theory argued by James Scott in the introduction to [...]
Reading Enstad’s work has made me rethink what constitutes a “political act.” Had I been asked before, I would have responded via the traditional route: protest marches, boycotts, strikes—in short, large-scale, public, group actions. Enstad strives to break down such entrenched notions of the “political” versus the “non-political” by arguing that in [...]
Despite my general displeasure with Nan Enstad’s writing style in this book (surprise, surprise), particularly in the introductory material beginning each chapter, I found more than a few of her arguments convincing, particularly her belief that newspaper reporting played the most crucial role in turning the shirtwaist strike of November 1909 into the first massive [...]
The story of Charlotte Perkins Gilman finally sheds some light on the non-male side of Bederman’s efforts to study race and sex. Gilman set out to prove that “human advancement was a matter not of gender difference but of racial difference…Gilman argued that sex should not affect one’s contribution to civilization – that race was [...]
Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a different character than what we have seen. She wrote in order to further the cause for white women yet by doing so she tactically put the other minorities in a place that elevated her. Comparisons can be drawn to the situations that Roediger and Ngai brought up regarding the fight [...]