In this course, we will explore the struggles and triumph "inbetween peoples" after Reconstruction and before WWII.
How is society, and the individual in society, pushed forward? The past undeniably happens, even if you do not know its exact details (as is the case with Joe Christmas). It also undeniably defines your identity in the present, as we saw with the controversy surrounding Mormon Senator Smoot’s seat in the U.S. Senate. In [...]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWB_MaFBAOY (specific scene I want to reference)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEL7Hg1QhzA (trailer for the movie— pay attention to the last narrative line and notice how it ties to and resolves the only spoken line of the first link)
Ever seen “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints”? If you haven’t yet, I’d absolutely recommend it. The much-overlooked 2006 Sundance Film Festival [...]
http://www.magicalcat.com/images-recon/hap00068.jpg
Hands down, my favorite class first semester sophomore year was Principles of Design. Every couple of weeks, our professor, Natsu Onada, would ask us to read a novel or a play and design a set or costumes for it. This process validated the very visual process I undergo when engaging with a piece of fiction [...]
http://www.authentichistory.com/postcivilwar/cartoons/
I stumbled upon this site while trying to find a Reconstruction Era Political Cartoon for this weeks posting. Will definitely be useful for next year’s class, especially as they look for primary sources to connect to their posts in the beginning of the semester. Some of the cartoons we’ve looked at specifically in class (i.e. [...]
Topics of Interest: Assimilation through Consumption. How was this characterized in turn-of-the-century America? In what ways did it mitigate, permit, and sustain the hybrid American identifier (how did the act of consumption make you “American” while simultaneously permitting you to hold onto your ethnic identity?)
How I Anticipate this Research to Evolve: Ideally, I’d like to [...]
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/quixotewjb.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/sco_phot.htm&h=296&w=288&sz=34&hl=en&start=4&um=1&usg=__qyIkDrHW9GuVmHtqRQtSCJF-N5E=&tbnid=s5LPaAab-f6CnM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dscopes%2Btrial%2Bpolitical%2Bcartoons%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den-us%26sa%3DN
I really like the way this cartoon inverts civility and allows the “animal” group to comment on the “civilized” humans trying to separate themselves from it with turned up noses, just as we saw with Ida B. Wells.
Historical Thinking Matters asks us to consider how the Scopes trial was about more than just creationism and evolution. I think the fact that, in the multiple times I have encountered this topic in my academic career, I have never once been given the straight-forwards historical details about the case and have rather been asked [...]
It is quite difficult to do this exercise while consciously excluding the influence of the Smoot and Scopes books. With the added perspective of these texts, I am beginning to form a single, more unified vision of what brings our reading together, but, for me personally, these most recent selections provide the central tenet, whereas [...]
Don’t forget that your posting this week, should, at least in part, critique the Scopes Investigation from Historical Thinking Matters. You should create a login and complete the investigation (examine ALL of the sources and resources, answer the questions, and the essay). Then, consider the module in light of your reading.
Note: You’ll need the latest [...]
http://www2.truman.edu/parker/research/cartoons.html
Go to Edit -> Find -> Mormon, and a cartoon entitled “Religious Freedom Is Not Guaranteed” by Thomas Nast featuring two reptiles crawling over the U.S. Senate Dome should appear. I think the irony pointed out by the excerpt below it in the fact that Mormonism is a distinctly American strain of religious, and therefore [...]