Wedensday, February 19

Discussed in class on Feb. 19 was big business during the 1920s.  This was the time of big spending.  When America discovered that purchases could be bought on credit and no longer did many scrimp and save to buy these big expenditures.  A mentalite developed in the American mind to have the best and to have the most, but many were not confident in themselves or their purchases.  Giant catalogs were delivered to homes hoping to entice the average consumer, the housewife, with its wares.  Many of these advertisements highlighted on the lack of confidence.  As seen below for this 1920's advertisement for weight gain or loss.  Was this lack of confidence showcased in public or was it a private affair?
 

Wedensday, February 12

Discussed in class on the 12th was historical narrative.  Historical narrative is described as a moment of choice by a communicator.  Narrative cannot exist without the written or oral communication of an individual.  All of history would be lost were it not for the documentation of events as they passed.  Historical narrative can also be described a a moment of performance of the message.  How was that message delivered, did it favor one party over all others?  Historical narrative is also a moment of interaction with the audience.  How will audiences analyze events taking place in the present in the future?  Another way to describe historical narrative is as a moment of effect with communication.  When people tell of events from the past they do so to add effect, to show the seriousness of the situation therefore they communicate with effect.  These descriptions of historical narrative, written above, are also the four types of moments of action.  Action can also be described as a place or places where elements of the story gather causing a unity of action or cohesion or agreement with the characters in the story.  Do the characters or the events of the story make up the manuscript?  Who dictates what? 
In Jane Austen's masterpiece Sense and Sensibility, is a tale of two sisters Elinor and Marianne thorough circumstances which are beyond their own control are put in a reduced-circumstances situation and as the story evolves the reader learns that through their own folly they have made the situation worse. I wondered if the characters of Elinor and Marianne were at fault for their situation or were others at fault.  Did Elinor or Marianne value their choices?  Not at the beginning, no, but eventually they learned through their pattern of choices that many were not practical and that time eventually set to right the situation.
The key for any good author is to concentrate on the becoming not what it became, to provide dynamism, to resist clocks, calendars, and geography, leave readers with experience, not just understanding, and to develop vivid characters.  Why do you think Jane Austen is still popular to this day?

Monday February 10, Harlem Renaissance

How much do I know about the Harlem Renaissance?  Not much.  I always felt that it was one of those topics taught in high school because it was about African Americans, it showed diversity, and it showed them in a good light.  It was a topic that didn't involve slavery but instead highlighted the cultural aspect of the 1920s African American city life.  From readings and research done on my own time it sounded like a fun time.  The Cotton Club that ruled Harlem and other big cities such as Chicago, seemed to be very important to the musical aspect of the Harlem Renaissance.

"The Cotton Club was the most famous of the city's nightclubs in the 1920s and 1930s, attracting an audience that often included the cream of New York society. Its glittering revenues provided a medium for performances by the most prominent jazz musicians of the day, and the club's activities were brought to a wide audience by frequent broadcasts. The house band, Duke Ellington's orchestra, was engaged and its residency became the most celebrated in the club's history, lasting until 1931. Cab Calloway and his Missourians, who had first appeared with great success in 1931, then took over, and Calloway's time as the Cotton Club's bandleader was to make his reputation."
(http://www.pbs.org/jazz/places/spaces_cotton_club.htm)

How is it that all of a sudden beautiful pieces of music, poetry, and novels were pouring forth from from these minority groups?  Were they there but we just didn't hear their voices?  Why in the 1920s all of a sudden  did these groups shine?  It was change.  The shackles and ghosts of slavery's past had kept many from leaving their home towns (mainly located in the south), but as decades past a new generation born from this shame turned to make the 1920s their own.  The great migration from south to north precipitated by the promise of factory jobs brought many African Americans to the northern states.  A need to outset the Victorian standards of old brought forth the new type of music "jazz" and many famous musicians were able to get their big break in the night clubs of the big cities wooing audiences with their original music.  Such as Cab Callowey in this link I've posted below.

Cab Calloway

Wed. February 5

Prohibition, the end result of the passing of the 18th amendment combined with the Volstead Act sought to make America dry.  It was called the "noble experiment" later in its lifetime and that's what it was, an experiment.  If anyone in America in the early 1920's had been told that prohibition would live a short life they might have been surprised or even skeptical.  After all it was an amendment set in stone, not easily erased.  Plus it was fun being bad, if you had the means and money to do it you often went to little back alleys where you'd knock a secret code on some seemingly random door or you might go into a dry restaurant where a few well placed dollars in the right hands and a secret password might get you and your companion into a back room or a speakeasy.
Where liquor and good times flowed freely.  Of course this good time was not without consequences.  Crime skyrocketed as a result of the underground world of illegal booze.  As the criminals and gangsters of the speakeasies and backallys grew more confident and grew more richer they slowly spread their way up and out into the daylight.  Affecting even innocent civilians.  Below is a trailer for a movie that I think really sums up the roaring twenties and how innocent civilians were affected by the crime of the mobsters.

Movie trailer

Monday February 3, Normalcy

Normalcy was the term coined by President Warren Harding.  Its meaning stood for peace and prosperity.  It was to mark the end of an era, the years of Woodrow Wilson and the noble progressivism of the day.  The progressive reform that took place during Wilson's administration had overtures of President Theodore Roosevelt's time.  When reform took place in the food and drug arenas and when conservation was seen as a needed thing and when the government started to take a greater interest in the people's health and well-being.
Tired of caring around the cross of good moral character the people of America after WWI sought relaxation not reformation.  At one end of the spectrum stood, "the urbane cosmopolitans who chafed against what they viewed as the puritanical streak," (Allen).  Warren Harding highlighted in his speeches that he would ensure that America would not be pressured into doing anymore good deeds.
Another topic discussed in class was that of historical narrative or the practice of writing history in a story-based form.  There are two different types of narrative, traditional and modern.  Traditional narrative is the story of a single event in history whereas a modern narrative is a story that switches between chronological history.  Overall a narrative is an account of history or the voice of the past.  What to include in a good narrative is simple it requires a plot which gives the story structure.  There are three different plots:  the quest, the agnostic conflict, and the climax all of which provide context and conflict to the story.  A good historical narrative should have one of these three plot lines.

January 29, Historical Scale

Discussed on Wednesday January 29 was historical scale or in other words the level in which history is being presented.  The discussion delved into the difference between micro history and macro history.  Micro history is a very detailed account of history or even an event in time.  Macro history is the "big picture" of events that took place in history.  Good micro histories can often tell a larger understanding of macro history, but unless written well they can become long and tedious with its many details.
Macro history is the stuff kids learn in school K-12, the big so what stuff.  The overall picture that teachers tell you is important to learn.  Micro history tells you the why do I have to learn this.  Often micro history gives detailed accounts of individuals living during the time of great events.
So instead of talking about Napoleon's armies moving across Europe as one entity micro history can focus on the one soldier in Napoleon's army maybe using old letters that he and his wife exchanged while he was on campaign this gives an account not of how Napoleon's army fared on campaign but how an individual soldier might have felt.  The key is do the events of this one soldier relate to the army and its campaign?  Did they come out of the same circumstances?  How can writers of history write newsworthy micro histories but tie it into the larger part of macro history so that its not just another story in the annals of history.
Can we understand micro history without knowing our basic macro history?  No.  If written right micro histories add to the overall picture that is macro history.  They have to some how be related.  I as a reader have to understand why I should care about a lonely soldier's life in Napoleon's army and how the circumstances of this micro history tie in with the circumstances of the macro history.