Urban Life

           Without the new inventions such as electric companies, bridges, skyscrapers, and new forms of transportation, Urban life would not have been the same in the late 19th century and the early 20th century.

Edison Electric first generator

            After the invention of the light bulb and other utilities that needed electricity, the need and want for public electricity was very high. Edison Electric Illuminating company was the first electricity company in America. On September 4,1882 they started up their 27 ton generator that powered 1,100 lights. The price that they were charging was even competitive enough to compete with gas prices. Soon more and more electrical companies emerged, and by the end of 1900 there were 30 companies distributing and generating electricity.

The first Skyscraper

Cast iron and steel skyscraper frame

            The electrical companies also helped solve a big problem with skyscrapers. No one wanted to walk up 5 or more flights of stairs so buildings had to be shorter, but with electricity now being accessible to buildings it now allowed them to have elevators. The first skyscraper was finished on January 1, 1885, it was designed and built by William Le Baron Jenny from Massachusetts. Many architects before him had trouble getting building to be very tall, and now where near skyscraper tall. Building were nearly impossible to make taller then 5 stories. The construction of them was also very dangerous and expensive. Then in the 1870s there was a new method of constructing tall buildings, using cast iron and steel beams. This made buildings much taller and allowed for even more people to live in a smaller space.

Current picture of the Brooklyn Bridge

           More people living in a smaller space caused the need for new bridges and road. The reason bridges could not before the 1870s be that long was just like how buildings could not be that tall, the builders did not have strong enough materials to build them with. The use of steel beams, cast iron, and a new form of bridge, the suspension bridge, allowed for bridges like the Brooklyn bridge to be built. The Brooklyn Bridge was finished in 1833 and is still in use. Over 600 workers worked on it, and it helped connect Manhattan and Brooklyn. The need for larges bridges was not the only transportation problem. Many cities needed roads to accommodate the heavy traffic flow. Streets were too narrow and not paved. Cities soon developed new was to pave roads, but that still did not solve the traffic problem.

The first elevated railroad

            Cities started to realize that everyone needing their own personal form of transportation in a urban environment was not going to work, it was just way too crowded. Many cites turned to public transportation in an effort to solve their transportation issues. The only problem was they did not have enough space to put a big train running through a city, so they had to find new forms of transportation. In 1870 New York
opened the first elevated railway in an attempted to solve the transportation problem. In Richmond Virginia the first electric trolley was constructed in 1888. By the end of 1895 more than 850 towns had electric trollies. For some cities such as Boston electric trolleys  were not enough to solve their transportation issue. The trolley lines were moved underground in Boston to not take up space above group, therefore inventing subways. The first subway in Boston was finished in 1897. Soon New York got a subway too. It was the largest subway in American. It was 9.1 miles long and had 28 stations.
            All of these inventions allowed for cites to become even more urbanized. Solving the problems in these cities often created new ones, but it did not keep the inventors from trying to solve all of the problems that came with an Urban life.

Sources:

1.Conedison is the first electrical company supplying electricity to homes in New York. This is their website.

2.This website page on history.com tells some of the history of the Brooklyn Bridge.

4. This an Guardian article about the history of cities and it talks about the first skyscrapers.

5.This is an website for the Transit Museum and it talks about the kinds of transportation in history and when they were invited, where and how.

6. This is a history.com article about the first subway to open in the USA.

7. This is an article by the New York Subway Organization about the first above ground subway in the USA.

8. This is the book we are learning from in class. I researched about skyscrapers, transportation, and electricity in it.  

Migration

           I was surprised while researching about migration, that so many people migrate. I found that there are many different reasons for people to migrate. Some of the reasons are personal reasons, or ones that do not effect a large group of people. Other reasons such as diseases, wars, and governments can cause a large number roof people to migrate. When there is a large emigration like this it is iterating to see where people go. Some people will go to the closest country to escape the problem, this is what most people do. Others will travel far away, like traveling from North Korea to America.

 This chart show the migration from between countries in 2005. 

Philanthropy

          Today we discussed philanthropy in class, and i learned that it is very different that charity. Charity is when you see needs people have and you solve them right away. Philanthropy is when you try to do something to solve that problem permanently. If i had a lot of money to give away then i would try to increase the use of technology in places that don't have it.

I believe this picture shows how one persons charitable givings can inspire many more people to give money, and how just like the tree, one persons money can grow into something much more. 

Bradley Martin Ball

1. Based on this newspaper I can tell that all of the people thought that the Bradley Martin Ball was way over the top.  The newspaper talks about how much money and preparation when into the ball. The newspaper gave the story about the ball the front page, and showed it as a fun and cool event.
2. This article makes the ball seem like it was great and one of the best events to go on in New York for a long time. From this source you an learn the perspective of a person who loves the ball and what happened at it.
3.This article talks about how the clergyman thought the money should have been used to help poor people. He saw the ball as a problem because it made the gap between the poor and the rich greater.
4.This article talks about how you could see the people who attended the ball as they were leaving the house it was at in the morning. It also talks about tall the the different people they dressed up as.
5.

Thinking about success

Most important words for achieving success
1. hard work
2. opportunity
3. skill
4. luck

      I believe hard work is the most important part of being successful. If you ever talk to someone who has made a large amount of money, from a form of work, not the lottery, they will often say they got their money from hard work. You can start any where in life and if you work hard enough you can accomplish anything. Opportunity can make it so that you do not have to put in as much work and so that becoming successful will take less time. Skill is acquired through hard work and if you are not skillful at something then you need to put in more work. There are some special cases when someone might be disabled and have a hard time at becoming skilled at something or not be able to become skilled at something, but there are other things they can become skilled at so they should not give up.
Luck is not important at all because luck does not exist and if you try to rely on it then you will not accomplish anything.

Supply Chain Management

       After reading a article about Zara I learned how they are one of the most profitable clothing companies in the world. They always have the latest and most trendy clothes in their stores. This is because they focus on selling the most fashionable clothes as soon as possible at a low cost. They make a lot of money from this because every time a customer comes into the store there is a more fashionable piece of clothing for them to buy, that was not there last time they went to the store.
       The company H&M uses a similar approach to selling clothes. They do not change out the inventory of their stores as often as Zara. Instead, they have less trend items that are seasonal, and that are very unlikely to be unfashionable, that are changed every season. They also have a smaller amount of items that get changed every 2 weeks that are very trendy. Both companies are using a new and very profitable approach to clothing retail.

19th century textbook

a. link to textbook archive
b. I am writing a blog post based on how a child in the 19th century, reading this 19th century textbook for homework would have a bad view of indians because of how they are described in the text book. They are called savages numerous times. The definition of savage is, fierce, violent, and uncontrolled. The definition of savage is the quality of being fierce of cruel.
c. If I were a child reading this for homework, I would be scared of the indians. I would see them as very dangerous and uncontrollable. Many times the indians were not even said to be savage, but called savage instead of indians.

Journal Entry

Rancher living in California near the Baker River, written on October 9, 1880.
based on this newspaper





I am a rancher and I just moved near the Baker river. I am scared to leave any of my belongings unguarded here. A rancher just a little ways from me named Anderson Evarts lost his ax and other belongings a few days ago and ended up having to shoot an indian over it. I am tired of them stealing.  I have a revolver and I don't want to have to use it but I have now started to carry it where ever I go. I heard that Evarts just about got stabbed by the indians. There is talk of an indian outbreak, why can't they just leave us alone. I worry moving here was a bad idea.

news papers part 2

Our use of social media is selective and intentional so that we tend to remain interested in only things we've already been interested in, were as newspapers expose readers to information on a broad range of topics. This can connect communities by providing information about what others may be interested in. It may raise questions i never thought to ask.

news papers

3. A newspaper is a printed publication of folded unstapled sheets, containing news.
4. Newspapers where first invented in 1690 and in Boston.
5. Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestic was the first newspaper.
6. The leading stories are bad things happening around the world.
7. A news paper of record is a major news paper that has a large circulation. The first one was The New York Times.
8. News papers are printed at one point in time and show the news that is know at that one point in time. They can help you see past perspectives on events.

Indian tribes

       There are currently 562 indian tribes that are federally recognized. Out of the 562, 229 of the tribes are in Alaska.  The remaining ones are in 33 other states. Not all tribes are federally recognized, the ones that are federally recognized are the ones recognized by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Most of the tribes are recognized, because it is very important to the members of the tribe to have their tribe to have their recognized. This is because if the tribe is not federally recognized then they do not qualify for special federal and state programs, social services, and funding. It also validates their "tribal sovereignty".  The process is not easy however, there are many guidelines.
      Tribes are often very large, they have over 75 or so people most of the time. The need for so many people is because of the large number of jobs. Today there are not as many jobs but there are still a lot of people in a tribe because that was the way it used to be.

Sources:
 http://www.ncai.org/about-tribes/indians_101.pdf
http://www.californiaindianeducation.org/tribes/faq/
http://www.muckleshoot.nsn.us/multimedia/we-are-muckleshoot.aspx

First Quarter Reflection

     This quarter I have improved in many different ways. One of the main ways I have improved is in my ability to watch movies to learn history from them. I have learned how to analyze movies that I could not have before this Quarter. I used to think of lots of the parts of movies as irrelevant but now I am not only able to appreciate them but I am also able to learn from them. I have also become a much better blogger. What I mean by that is that I feel a lot more confident about reading someones ideas and incorporation them into my writing. I used to be very scared that I would plagiarize but now I am confident in my ability to cite the source properly, and how to paraphrase properly.
       I also improved a lot from the essay. The use of the note cards helped me to really organize my thoughts. When i was writing the note cards i was trying to only use one per topic, and that helped me to really think about what quotes are the best and witch ones meant the most. It also helped me to condense my research, witch made it a whole lot easier to read when it was  time for the essay.
      There are still several ways i would like to improve. One is that i would like to continue to further my skill of analizing movies. I would also like to learn how to see if a source is a good source. I know the obvious ones that teachers don't like such as wikipedia and answers.com, and i know teachers like resources with .gov and .edu. Other that that i really don't have much knowledge as to what makes a good source a good source, and i would love to be able to easily identify a good source.

Learning History Through Film

Books are often used while studying history, they can easily be substituted with movies and not negatively impact learning. History is about past events and the best way to understand past events is to reenact them. While many movies primary purpose is to entertain the audience, there are some movies that are also meant to teach the audience history. Two great examples are Glory and 12 Years a Slave.

12 Years a Slave is a great movie to teach students how slaves were treated in the past and to also show many other events that were going on in the past. The director of 12 Years a Slave wanted the movie to be as close to being realistic as possible. The director, Steve McQueen said “Everyone's an Adult here; they know how to deal with it. It’s not about sort of sugarcoating it. We’re here to do something we feel that is necessary.” Steve McQueen did not care about how people might react to what was in the movie, he just wanted the movie to be as close to real life as possible. There were some mistakes made in the movie however. For example Solomon did not have 2 children instead he had 3, and Patsey did not beg Solomon to end her life. Even though there are a few mistakes made in a movie does not mean the movie is not able to teach a student anything. The people researching what to put in the movie will most likely be looking at the same history we are. Also if a mistake is made then all we have to do is simply look up “historical inaccuracies” on the internet, and we will learn about all of the mistakes made so we will not believe them. Learning historical facts is not the only thing needed to have a knowledge of history.

While history is about knowing about all the past events it is also about know how life was back in the time period being studied. The director of Glory, Ed Zwick said “make a movie about the African-American experience.” If a teacher who only wanted to teach events in history heard this about Glory, they would assume it would have no educational benefit, but it does. It allows us see what the “ African-American experience” was like and how it is different from the modern day “African-American experience.” Even though Ed Zwick was said “make a movie about the African-American experience,” that does not mean that is was not historically accurate.

Glory was for the most part historically accurate, it had a few inaccuracies here and there, but nothing major. One great thing about movies that talk about history is that is often able to teach you a large amount of history in a short amount of time. The screenplay written by Jarre, for Glory, was mainly based on letters written by Colonel Shaw. Simply reading letters from one person's point of view does not give us a good understanding of history so we would need to read many other accounts of the historical events described by Colonel Shaw to understand history accurately. Historically accurate movies like Glory and 12 Years a Slave  have already gathered all of the information a put it into one view that best fits the many views used to make the movie.

To get a benefit from watching a historical movie you must first learn to think critically about it. Without thinking critically about what is going on in a movie then you are simply watching it for entertainment. In the movie Glory, of the slaves in the 54th regiment is a slave and one is a free man. Without thinking critically i might think that it is simply a difference in their personality that causes them to handle situations differently. When i think about is analytically I am able to see that is not only their personality but also that they are from completely different backgrounds and they believe very different things.

Glory and 12 Years a Slave have taught me a lot about history and have helped me understand life in that time period.  Movies many be considered unfit for education, but how how different are they truly from any other method of learning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_Years_a_Slave_(film) -12 years a slave cost and goals and intentions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_(1989_film) - gory cost and goals and intentions

http://ashbrook.org/publications/oped-owens-00-patriot/ -inaccuracies of Glory

http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/reel_new/films/list/0_10_9_22 inaccuracies of Glory

http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/12-years-a-slave.php -inaccuacies of 12 Years a Slave

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/10/how-em-12-years-a-slave-em-gets-history-right-by-getting-it-wrong/280911/ - inaccuacies of 12 Years a Slave

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/08/12-years-a-slave-steve-mcqueen-12 years a slave goals and intentions

http://www.historynet.com/basking-in-two-decades-of-glory.htm- glory goals and intentions

Practicing Incorporating a Quotation

      Steve McQueen the director of 12 years a slave wanted the movie to be as accurate as possible and to not hold anything back from the audience. In a interview McQueen said "Everyones an adult here; they know how to deal with it."

This is what Mrs. Lawson wanted me to learn today:

-Only use quote when it adds power and style to my writing.

-Always make it clear, from context, that i understand the full meaning of the quote.

-Whether I quote of paraphrase, always be transparent about the source and how I'm using it.

-If I use another author's exact words or phrases, to any extent, I have to use quotation marks to give credit.

-If I use another author's presentation of facts or ideas, but put their ideas in my own words, I better have a good reason for doing that and MUST give credit.

-Hyperlinking is so easy, there is no excuse for not being transparent about my sources.

I UNDERSTAND THIS!

Paraphrase Practice

In this article I found a quote by the actor Morgan Freeman and i will paraphrase below. 

"I don't have a problem with that. You cannot reasonably ask a white writer to do it differently. Now, if we're going to start citing some unfortunates, it might be unfortunate that a black writer didn't write it, but if a black writer had written it, there's a good chance he wouldn't have found a producer. So there you are. This is a movie that did get made, and a story did get told, and that's what is important."

This is my paraphrase. 

I do not have any objection with that. You are not able to acceptably request for a writer to do it in another way. If we are going to talk about mistakes then it is very sad that a black writer did not write it. If a black writer had written it then it would have been hard to find a producer. So that is it. This movie told the story and got made and thats what matters. 

Empathy vs. Sympathy

       Empathy is the intellectual identification or vicarious experience of the feelings, thought, or attitudes of another. Sympathy is experiencing feelings of pity or sorrow for someone else's misfortune.
       Feeling empathy for someone is not only possible if you have been in the same situation. I can Empathy for a slave owner in the 1800s. I do not support slavery at all and I think that it is terrible and I could never be a slave owner. I am able to feel empathy for the never the less because I am able to put myself in there shoes. I am able to think about how they must have thought it was not that bad because so many other people had slaves and it was not a big of a deal in the 1800s. Empathy is a key skill in studying history so that you are able to better understand why people in history did what they did and so that you will not judge them or study them with a bias view.