March

=March 29, 2010- Alex Manacher= =March 18, 2010-Moyo Oluleye= We began class with a few online quizzes on the Guilded Age. The quizzes addressed ideas such as Plessy v. Ferguson, the Credit Mobilier Scandal, and the Greenback Party. We ended up doing all for quizzes on the section for the Guilded Age many people were successful but others were not. We continued to review for the chapter test on the post civil war era by doing a worksheet on the Causes and Effects of American Industrialization.
 * We began class by looking at an excerpt from The American Spirit Vol 2.
 * Tomorrow the graphic organizer is due.
 * We discussed why America should not go to war.
 * they didn't want our help or us to get involved.
 * whose view civilization is considered right?
 * violation of American principles

=17 March 2010 -- Happy St. Patricks Day!= Please excuse the way this day is going to be laid out. My notes for today look a lot like mental and verbal vomit spewed on a college ruled notebook... == We began class today with a look at the previous days packet on the West. __//Twenty years later, the Rocky Mountain News://__ the class determined that these paragraphs reflected back on the situation in an interesting manner. The editorial discussed the motive in how they acquired the land, through the massacre of many innocent Indians but they feel they have to look past that because after all, they should be happy they have this land to live on. However, they don't really know how justifiable it really was to kill the women and children at Sands Creek. __Ghost Dance__ - After the outlawing of the Sun Dance by the Whites, a group of Native Americans formed a cult-like croup which swept through the Sioux nation. The Ghost Dance group believed that one day all the Indians that had been killed by the Whites whether from disease or actual physical killing would come back and join up with the living Indians to take co ntrol and kill the Whites, and life would be as it was... This did not work very well because __[|The Battle of Wounded Knee]__ proved to be yet another massacre of Native Americans. The Whites came through and killed 100's of the Sioux. __[|Carlisle Indian Industrial School]__ - This school was opened by Richard Henry Pratt after his visit in the West. He came back to PA to open up a school where Native American children were boarded and taught the "respected" ways of the White Men. The website itself contained many eyewitness accounts as well as images that allowed the class to better understand the concept and ground work of the school. __Turner__ - The class examined the premise of his argument on the West, and how he felt about it. Turner believed that as the West expanded and become something more, that it began to close it down. Once the "Full Potential" was reached, one could not realize its significance or stature. The physical aspect of the frontier began to close down and with that, all its beauty and mystery was lost. It was no longer a place of tall tales or adventure, but now a place where everyone flocked to.

There were no further homework assignments passed out, but PLEASE keep in mind of the unit exam that is fast approaching. It would probably be a wise choice to look over notes, study guides, online quizzes, and wiki spaces in order to prep for it in the upcoming days. Other than that, the class was much an open discussion and lecture.

=March 16th, 2010- Katie Marschka=

We began class discussing the 5 books we were assigned as partners to discuss on March 12th: Democratic Vistas, Maggie, Looking Backward, The Rise of Silas Lapham, and a book by Mark Twain. A major theme that occured was on the issue of society as reflected by these books. *Socialism, Government corruption, etc. --Next, we were each given a packet to begin evaluating the Cowboys and Indians.

__Dodge City__ --Unusual: a cowboy who is in a town for a mere few days "fancies" himself up --What did they do to get access to he town? Turn over your horses and your guns --This city was in the middle of the transport of cattle //**What fits the pop culture stereotype?**// -Colt 45 use, and being measured by your ability to use it -The unity of the group, ex. sitting around the fire together in harmony //**What does NOT fit the stereotype?**// -He came from a plantation, suggesting that he was wealthy..supporting the fact that one isn't born a cowboy, so where does he come from?
 * Next, we read the second passage on Nat Love, bringing about discussion on the stereotype of Cowboys

--Then we began looking at the "Drag Chart" on the next page --The cowboys base the position on the experience behind it..
 * Important to note: NOT a democratic society
 * Person with the most experience chose the Point position
 * Downfalls of the drag: following the pace, catching all of the dust leftover by the massive herds

>In looking at the first massacre, what is the officer's attitude given off? __His tone:__ prideful, indifferent to the Indian's well being >In looking at the second passage, what is this attitude given off? __His tone:__ more tactful, tasteless to it, certainly disagrees with it. Very strange--NONE wounded...so one can infer what they did to them = = =March 15, 2010- Jenni Kiebach= What national issues emerged in the process of closing the western frontier? Why does the West hold such an important place in the American imagination? - The West is only a small part of what was going on in the country - It could be romanticized more than what was going on in the city (industrial America) Key Tensions - the West involved a lot of emotional issues, so you couldn't take a neutral stance - Native Americans against buffalo hunters, RRs, and gov. - Cattlemen against sheep herders - Ranchers against farmers - Ethnic minorities against nativists - Environmentalists against almost everyone else - Lawlessness of the West against civilization Colt .45 invented - Only officers had revolvers during the Civil War - Gave access to anyone- contributed greatly to lawlessness Romanticized Criminals - Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Charles Bassett, etc. - How do you distinguish between criminals and people who are trying to uphold the law? Prospecting - Mostly CA, but also in Dakotas and other areas - "Get rich quick" scheme- People knew others who were rich, but very few found gold - Native Americans pushed out of places where gold is found - What was necessary for industrial growth (coal, iron) was not in the West Cattle Trails - huge trails New tech. - prairie fan water pump and steel plow - barbed wire- allowed for keeping cattle in land - changed Western farming and warfare Balck Exoduster Homesteaders - tried to move black from the South to the West - intended to move from sharecropping Discussed various books Whitman -felt America was full of hypocrisy and corruption- Democracy is the right system, but America was doing it wrong - too many people negatively influencing what happened Crane - Maggie a Girl of the Streets - Maggie is scared by what she sees in the apartment - her boyfriend is seduced by wealth and greed - book is critical of greed - connections to theories of evolution and survival- do the best or most cutthroat people get ahead?
 * Continuing within the packet, we next looked at the "Views of Sand Creek"
 * Notes:** See the Powerpoint on Moodle
 * Homework:** Study guide due Wednesday, read 590-600 tonight

=March 12-Alex Manacher= After doing a few of the AP quizzes of moodle we broke into groups and discussed 5 different books: Democratic Vistas, Maggie, Looking Backward, The Rise of Silas Lapham, and a book by Mark Twain. = = =Reminders:= Any powerpoints used in class can be found on my Moodle page through Manheim Twp. [|MTSD Moodle Login] It contains links to note sites that correspond with our textbook: The American Pageant. Students can also find a number of online matching and multiple choice sites that are excellent for reviewing for unit tests and the AP exam. =March 11, 2010-Curtis Houck= Class began with hoping to look at our Chinese images that were given assigned to find the previous night but it was delayed thanks to serve issues. To lapse time, journalism, basketball and the musical were topics of choice. We then walked around the room looking at each others photos. A few themes came out from these images: -Political cartoons portrayed Chinese as having distorted and exaggerated facial features (example: showing large numbers together) -Condescending of Chinese customs -Portrayed in an inferior way (political cartoons), racism with an attempt to **dehumanize** -Wearing traditional Chinese clothing -Some sore views of whites comforting/protective of Chinese and of Chinese that have assimilated -Presents historical argument about foreign influence Transitioned to the significance of the exclusion of Chinese....measure was a federal law and not just a state law when it only impacted one state (California) and maybe two others (Washington and Oregon). Next, looking at the actual transcript of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=47&page=transcript), it's made clear that much of what happened was due to labor. Right in the very beginning of the law itself, "chinese laborer" is mentioned multiple times. Section 4 of the document explains via an incredibly long sentence a tracking system for Chinese workers. U.S. gives them a certificate to them identifying who they are and their residence to prevent others from someone coming as someone else. In order to enforce the Act, ship captains would be fined $500 and possible jail time for bringing in Chinese immigrants and the towns would also help by self policing so to speak. We ended class with talking about the constitutionality of it in terms of equal protection and rights for it's citizens that federal and state governments can't deny. Tomorrow we'll look at the late 19th century in the American West.

=March 10, 2010 - Michael Hibshman= -We started class by analyzing immigration data to compare old and new immigration Immigrants were more likely to come from northern and western Europe: Old Immigrants came in larger numbers: New Immigrants were more likely to speak English: Old The best employment opportunities were in mining, construction, and manufacturing: New The larger percentage of women arrived during this period: Old

Immigrants were more likely to settle in cities (New) because most of the jobs available to them existed in cities. I. e. manufacturing / factory jobs Immigrants were more likely to be Protestant than Catholic, Jewish, or Eastern Orthodox (Old) because most of the religious backgrounds of the countries they were coming from were Protestant Immigrants were more likely to come in family groups than as individuals (Old) because new immigrants came as temporary laborers Immigrants were more likely to settle in ethnic groups of their own nationality (New) because language barriers would force them to do so Immigrants were more likely to look like native-born American whites (Old) because well duh. Italians don't look British.



We then talked about which expectations were realized by the incoming Immigrants. Opportunity- found some opportunity, but it was not unlimited Better Living Conditions- for the most part, the living conditions were better Escape from Violence- they were not faced with much violence in America Luxuries- some luxuries were gained, but possibly not as many as expected

Which immigrant group held the best position and which was the worst off? Austrians- very similar to the already-established Germans (spoke the same language, same religion) Apart form the Chinese who were resigned to doing laundry and building railroads, the Italians were the worst off because they brought Roman Catholicism, had different skin color, and spoke Italian.

Article: [] Assignment: follow the link on Moodle and find one aspect of Chinese immigration to talk about (one image, can be a cartoon, newspaper article, or a picture)

= = =March 5, 2010 - Geoffrey Gao= Laissez Faire- a French term referring to a market without government intervention Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations) - came up with the idea of Laissez Faire; believed government intervention in the market is inefficient and drives up prices Exceptions: government should regulate safety standards, food inspections

By 1865, businessmen are pushing for laissez faire. Prior to 1865, government intervention was positive when dealing with subsidies. However, they began to notice intervention dealing with working conditions, hours of work in a day, wages, monopolies, trusts, pools, and corruption. For the businessman, this intervention was negative because it would force them to spend more money and fix issues.

Pool and cartels are informal, non-binding agreements. The companies agree to stay away from other companies areas. A trust essentially creates a new company made up of smaller companies. The smaller companies combine their stocks to make more money. People supporting free markets are opposed to these things. These eliminate the competition. The lack of competition lowers the quality of the product while increasing the price.

Social Darwinism- the people who own companies and have tremendous wealth deserve to be their, and people who are working as laborers deserve to be there; if you don't belong in your environment, you will find a way out.

Gospel of Wealth- similar to the divine right of kings only applied to economics; God chose certain people to own companies; you were also obligated to use that money responsibly and donate to charities