Keep on Flappin' Girl.

This video is a perfect example of who the "new woman" (or flapper) of the 1920's was. I love the style that was of the time period and that's the reason for this video.
Moving on... HARLEM JAZZ!
I, for one, love jazz music especially Frank Sinatra. When black men came home from the war they wanted rights and full citizenship but that didn't happen. Blacks then turned to literature and the arts. From this emerged Langston Hughes who is a phenomenal poet who is very realistic in his words. One of his poems is: 

Hold fast to dreams 
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.


Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

I really like this poem because it's plain and simple and to the point. 

Another black man who emerged at this time was Aaron Douglas- a famous painter who linked African style with American style. 

In the form of art, music is a big deal. Jazz was the emerging style of the 1920's. One of my favorites by Louis Armstrong is a song called "Dream a Little Dream of Me". He's a fantastic singer and has the kind of voice that's real raspy in tone but the raspy sound adds to the effect of jazz. 

I think living in the time period would've been kind of fun... except for the crazy racism and prohibition. I think it'd be fun to be a flapper and dance around on stage. I love dancing, singing, acting, dressing up... would've been perfect. 

Girl, you got style; but don't be so selfish.

Women such as the women pictured above pushed men into the war. They encouraged men to fight in the war, World War Uno and they worked at home. 

While we had lecture in class yesterday I couldn't help but think about the fashion of the early 20th century; i'm a fashion major. It's fascinating to look at the fashion of different time periods. I definitely think that war histories and simply history alone have and do help fashion statements to be made. But I won't go into all that. 

I hate history but I found out some things about the progressive era. One thing I found out  was that around this time (early twentieth century) mucrackers were exploiting the awful side of American life. They told of child labor, horrors of lynching, corruption of city governments, and ruthless business practices. Theodore Roosevelt took over presidency after Mckinley. 

This is sort of out of context for this week but I watched the May 4th video today, and I'm very disgruntled with the way the stupid mayor from that other town handled the situation that wasn't even his to handle. He called in the  National Guard who ended up open firing on students! For this reason I feel that all those soldiers who shot their rifles on May 4th at innocent students should die. They should each be stabbed with their own bayonets. Yeah, I know they're all probably dead already from old age, I just hope they suffered. It was cruel, unjust, and I fear for the stability of government and our "soldiers". 

Back to actual history class...

So, the U.S. involvement in World War 1 was neutrality. We have immigrants at home who're on both sides of this  war and we didn't want fight at home to break out and have north vs. south or anything like that. Also, we figured it was a European problem and if we fought in it we'd make less profit. We were already making profit by selling the countries weapons that were killing hundreds. I think the U.S. should've been more involved right from the start. Instead of selling weapons we should've used them as a scare tactic. (tactic is tic-tac backwards :p ) I think instead of feeding the fire we should've helped to extinguish it. We only entered the war because our ships were sunk by the Germans. I think that just shows how greedy and selfish the United States was and now is. I wish someone would realize that. 

Thursday.

The definition of American Civilization in the late 19th century depends on who you ask. Everyone knows different facts and details. If you ask me, America is a promising land unless you're a non-white. "Whites" were very racist towards anyone who did not have white skin, and sometimes even if you did have white skin you were discriminated against. Around the 1880's people began coming to the U.S. for jobs which brought about the racism. Mexicans worked in mining and agricultural jobs which were the lowest paying and most back-breaking jobs and they involved harsh discrimination. Chinese peoples also came to the U.S. to escape poverty in their home country. Here they worked on railroads. Then in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was issued which basically forced the chinese out of the U.S. Soon Jim Crow laws came about and then the Plessy v. Ferguson created the seperate but equal theory. After 1877 discrimination started in. Then soon the Spanish-American war took place. The end.
So, in class today we discussed the reading about imperialism. I liked the discussion today and being in groups to prove a point. The people in my group were so stuck on their own ideas so it was hard to come to a conclusion to write on our paper to hand in. I did really like group work though, it was much easier for me to understand the concpets. Also, with group work I didn't feel obliged to sleep.
Mr. Jones, I am beginning to love your teaching style.

Frick; was just that.

In class on Thursday I was really tired and it was kind of hard to focus in on the lecture and then the discussion, but i did get something out of it. First I would like to add my two cents to the discussion from the end of class. One of the girls in the front row said something about how humans don't learn from our mistakes... I'd like to disagree. I think that it's just too easy to learn from previous mistakes and everyone is so thirsty for power and control over others that we simply ignore what we should've learned and simply continue on with our race for power. Americans as a whole are so greedy. I mean yeah, I'm sure there's the few people who never think of themselves and live for others but a majority of people are greedy. They get even greedier when it comes to money and/or power.
The Homestead Steel Strike sounds like a big ole mess. Here are lowly, poor women trying to get by with a dollar an hour and when Carnegie leaves he leaves Frick in charge who then cuts wages. Then th Pinkertons came and were private security or something? I don't really understand them but I guess they were a threat to these women's jobs. Being of the female race I simply adore the women who pummeled the Pinkertons to fight for what they wanted. After that though, the governer calls in the militia. That, in my opinion is just silly. More power to those women at Homestead though.

I must say, I think this class is getting better... slowly, but getting there.

Blog Number One.

I'm a freshman; I hate history classes. 
I was really dreading this class I have every Tuesday and Thursday from 11 am until 12:15. The class I'm refering to is named The History of the U.S.: The Modern Period, and the name alone makes me want to cry. After going to the class for the first time though, I realized it might not be so terribly awful... I mean I like our professor and his way of teaching us with these random projects involving a blog and youtube. So, maybe the class won't suck, but we'll see. I plan on learning about history, or at least trying. I don't retain information very well... unless it's a Snapple fact! I will try my best to learn the material though, and remember the important stuff for exams and then once I ace my midterm and then the final, all Mr. Jones' preaching and teaching will be gone. 

I can say that I'm glad the world has professors and students alike like Mr. Jones. If it weren't for the history buffs, we'd probably be in another Great Depression because if it's not studied and analyzed history will repeat itself. And nobody likes war. 

The picture i posted is of some freedpeople. This week we had to read chapter 16 about the end of reconstruction and to be completely honest I didn't every word of it. I did read parts of every section though so I have a good idea of what's going on. It's hard for me to read about things that don't really interest me, but i am trying. As for today, I lost some hope in the "fun" of this class but i'm keeping an open outlook. 

-Sarah.