HISTORY 125/ SPRING 2001

MODERN AMERICAN HISTORY

COMPUTER LAB

Driving the golden spike to complete the firs
 transcontinental railroad in 1869/ National Archives

OVERVIEW | ASSIGNMENTS | READING GUIDE

COMPUTER LAB | LINKS | EXAMS AND PAPERS

 

COMPUTER LAB

 

January 31 - February 14:  Two Photos; Many Stories

February 21 - March 7:  Expansion and Race

March 7:  Mid-term Preparation

March 14:  Up South

March 28 - April 4: TVA - Electricity For All

April 18  "Instructions to all People of Japanese Ancestry"

January 31 - February 14: TWO PHOTOS/ MANY STORIES

Activity. You will work in an assigned group.

January 31

Step One.  First, working as an individual, examine the two photos. Observe closely.  Look closely for detail.  Then -- based on your careful observation and whatever prior knowledge you bring to the task --,  write a few paragraphs explaining what you see. Your writing can take the form of a story, poem or historical comment.   You will write your story in BlackBoard.  

click picture   click picture          

Step Two. Share your writing with your group (by reading one another's posts on BlackBoard). Collaborate on a list of what you observed in the two photos and what hypotheses you might draw from those observations and whatever prior knowledge you bring to the task. Then create a brainstorming list about what else you need to find out in order to explain and put the photos in some meaningful context.   If there is time, as a group post your brainstorming list and questions to BlackBoard.

Next,  go to the Archives of the West/ Episode Seven website <http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/wpages/wpgs670/w670_001.htm>. Find and identify the images. 

February 7 and 14

Step Three. Create a division of labor with your group for the following task. Gather information in secondary and primary sources in text, images and audio that help you situate and understand the two photos using the:

  1. Henrietta Chief, I Just Loved That School
  2. Edward Goodbird, The White Man's Road is Easier
  3. Ellis Childers, "All That is Passed Away" : A Young Indian Praises U.S. Government Policy Policy in the Late Nineteenth Century
  1. Sun Elk, He is Not One of Us
  2. Lone Wolf, None of Us Wanted to Go
  3. Luther Standing Bear, Back to the Blanket
  4. Old Lady Horse, There was War between the Buffalo and the White Man
  5. Richard Pratt, Kill the Indian, Save the Man
  6. President Arthur, To Introduce Among the Indians the Customs and Pursuits of Civilized Life
  7. American Progress (lithograph)
  8. American Progress (text document)

Then pick three documents — if possible, one text, one image, and one oral — that you think will best add context and meaning to your initial reaction to the photographs.

Step Four. Go to BlackBoard.  Write a group post explaining why your group chose your three documents and how (together with your reading of The Iron Horse vs the Buffalo and your viewing of the film In the White Man's Image) they better enable you to explain the photographs and put them in historical context.  

Step Five.  Read the comments your classmates wrote to complete step four.  Write an individual response to another group's post.  How did that group's post  add to your understanding of the two photos?  Is there anything in that group's post that you might question, or want more information on?   Then as time permits, respond to other interesting posts and issues in this discussion thread.

Related Reading:  Iron Horse vs. the Buffalo

 

February 21:  EXPANSION AND RACE

In class on Wednesday, February 21.

Based on your reading and viewing of the video, what do you see as the late nineteenth century links between (1) continental expansion, (2) overseas expansion, and (3) racism?  Between the political, economic and cultural forces driving policies of expansion and racial superiority.

What connections do you see between the two Indian photos you examined (see the "Two Photos/ Many Stories" exercise above) and the themes you explored about race and expansion in the video Savage Acts and some of the documents we have examined?  Be as specific as time permits. 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:  Put these ties about race and expansion in the context of time and place.  In other words, why in the late nineteenth century did continental expansion accelerate in the Trans-Mississippi West and overseas expansion in the Philippines and Caribbean?  What were the political, economic and cultural factors driving policies of continental and overseas expansion and racial domination at this particular point in history?  For example, could this same expansion at the expense of Indians in the Trans-Mississippi West and Filipinos in Southeast Asia have happened thirty years earlier?

February 28 - "Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl"

Watch the movie "Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl."

How did the two main characters in the film, Ida and Angelica, change?  What factors shaped these changes.  Do you think these changes were positive?  Negative?  What do you think was the most important change?  Why?  Have you gone through similar changes in your own life?

As you answer these questions, give examples and draw as specifically as possible on material from the film.

As time permits, comment on posts made by classmates.

March 7 - Preparing for the Midterm

This lab will focus on preparations for the midterm

March 14 - Up South

1.  (Thirty minutes) Watch the video Up South.

2.  (Ten minutes) Read the interviews  (go to: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/text/548a-Johnson.html) conducted by Charles Johnson beginning in 1917 with recent migrants from Mississippi to Chicago.  Try to get a sense of why people migrated; of what was positive and of what was negative in their experience in Chicago.  Take notes.

3. (Ten minutes)  Go to ArtsEdNet at: http://www.artsednet.getty.edu/ArtsEdNet/Resources/jacoblawrence/2over.htm .  Look at the eight reprints from Jacob Lawrence,  The Migration of the Negro series.  Lawrence painted sixty panels for this series in 1941, depicting the great African-American migration from rural South to urban North.  (Click HERE for a brief description of each of the sixty panels*.)  Study the eight reprints.  How do they add to your understanding of the Great Migration?  Take notes.

4.  (Twenty minutes)  You will be teamed with a partner.  You will assume the persona of an African-American who has just moved to Chicago after WWI.  You are writing to your partner, assuming that he or she is a close friend left behind in Mississippi.  In your letter, tell about your experiences in the North.  Is it your experience in the North good?  Bad?  Both.  Give advise to your friend as to whether or not he/she should come North.

5.  (Twenty minutes)  Now assume the persona of a southern African-American receiving your partner's letter.  On BlackBoard, answer the letter.

 

*NOTE: there are eight sections for the Migration series:

Causes of the Migration
Stimulation of the Migration
The Spread of the Migration
The Efforts to Check the Migration
Public Opinion Regarding the Migration
The Effects of the Migration on the South
The Effects of the Migration on Various Parts of the North
The Effects of the Migration on the Negro

March 28 - April 4: TVA - ELECTRICITY FOR ALL

(This activity was created by Stanlee Brimberg, Bank Street School)

You will do this exercise with a group.

Overview: The controversy surrounding the Tennessee Valley Authority
was profound and complicated. It raised constitutional, economic, social,
philosophical and ethical issues. Once students become familiar with the
facts and the issues by reading and studying the material in the collection
and other material you provide, they will be in an excellent position to
debate these issues.

Objectives -- to help students: In this activity you will:

1.Acquire information about TVA
2.Understand that, depending on a person's identity and situation
(social, educational, economic), he or she would have a different
opinion about TVA
3.Develop understanding for all the points of view about TVA
4.Learn to make compromises to resolve disputes.

Resources: Documents from "TVA: Electricity for All" and the Image and
Document Libraries of the New Deal Network (http://newdeal.feri.org).

Collection Background: Materials concerning TVA in the Image and
Document Libraries of the New Deal Network include editorial cartoons,
advertisements, the Tennessee Valley photographs of Lewis Hine,
dramatizations, and articles from The Nation and Opportunity Magazine.

Exercise:


Step One.  Meet briefly with your small group. Each individual should quickly choose an identity from the list below. (In a classroom setting, you would divide the class into seven sections and assign each section one of the characters.)


Step Two.  Working as an individual, use the resources available in the TVA collection to find information that clarifies the point of view of your character. Look for facts, opinions, reasons, and explanations, including testimony (oral history). You might want to develop a chart listing the pros and cons to TVA from the perspective of your character.

Searching tips: Useful information can be found in three separate areas:

TVA: Electricity for All (http://newdeal.feri.org/tva/index.htm) presents an
overview.


The Image Library (http://newdeal.feri.org/library/index.htm).


The Document Library (http://newdeal.feri.org/texts/subject.htm). 

Resources in the two libraries are often cross-referenced by subject. You may find helpful information by pursuing a subject other than "Tennessee Valley Authority."

Although the site does not have global keyword searching capabilities, remember that your Internet browser can search a given document for keywords.  This may speed your search. 


Step Three.  Review your evidence and prepare and post a short statement on BlackBoard  about the TVA, from the point of view of your character. Your statement should include a concluding segment that expresses support for TVA, or opposition to it, or a combination of support and opposition.

Step Four. Meet again with your small group to share your presentations and discuss the activity.

Step Five.  The whole class will meet (face-to-face and online in the Speakeasy Cafe) to share presentations and sum-up what we learned and what questions still need to be explored. 

April 18 -  : "INSTRUCTIONS TO ALL PEOPLE OF JAPANESE ANCESTRY"

Step One.  In class, on Monday, November 15, you will be given a hard copy of this poster.   Do some detective work to place the poster in time and historical context.  Make notes in the margins and underline passages that you think provide clues.  Then, write a few sentences explaining as best you can what the document is about.  Bring your hard copy of the poster and what you write to the computer lab on Wednesday, November 17.

Step Two. You will be assigned to a group of four or five students.  Meet with your group.  Share what you wrote (as instructed in step one).  Assess what else you now need to find out in order to:

1. Fill out the story,
2. Put it in context of time and place, and
3. Give it a human face.

Step Three.  Working at computers next to one another, you will gather information to fill out the story.  Start by exploring the Japanese-Interment Site http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8420/main.html.  Follow the links to other sites.  Try to create a division of labor so that not everyone is looking at the same sites

Step Four.  As a group, share and discuss the information you found. 

Step Five. By the end of class on Wednesday, November 24, post two items on BlackBoard on the following questions:

Item one.  What did you learn?

Item two.  What do you think is the most importance lesson for the U.S. to learn from this experience?  Explain your answer.