Free Reading Book

The free reading book that I decided to choose was The Murder of Jim Fisk.  I found this book to be interesting.  However, I only read the first 5 chapters out of about 30.  I think that there were two main reasons for why I didn't get too involved in this book.  The fist reason is because I never could find a great time to do the reading.  I tried to use our time at the end of the day to my advantage, but found myself rereading the chapters as I had forgotten the information.  The other reason why I didn't read too much of this book is because we had such a long time to did it.  There was definitely a little procrastination on my part.

Overall, I think this assignment could be very beneficial.  I agree with you in the fact that it is important for us to read.  However, one suggestion would be to assign the reading over only one semester rather than the whole year.  I think that more people would read their books if this was the case.  One more suggestion would be to assign an assignment/writing at the beginning of the reading.  This would cause us to pay close attention to details and make sure the reading was completed on time.

Where did African Americans use their economic strength to effect change?

African Americans used their economic class as a way to try and change policies and rules that they deemed unfair.  Many African Americans were in the lower class during the civil rights movement, but they played a rather large role in the economy.

One example of the role that African Americans played is the selective buying campaign.  The African Americans knew that they bought and supplied many of the local store owners with money.  However, they continued to face police brutality.  In order to effect change through economic conditions, they decided to boycott all stores and to not purchase any items from these people.

Another example of African Americans showing their economic strength was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The African Americans knew that they made up a very large portion of the social class, and that they therefore needed public transportation.  So, without the African Americans, the bus companies in Alabama would not have succeeded.  So, to try and gain rights, the African Americans didn't use the bus system.

One more example is the Greensboro Sit-in.  This was an event were two black males went to a counter, designated for white people only, and sat there the whole time.  They knew that they weren't going to be served but were trying to make the point that they deserve equal rights.

All of these examples show the ways that African Americans used their economic strength to their benefit in order to effect change.  The whites had to recognize these claims or else the economy would have suffered.

Edcafe reflection

On Wednesday, our class had our Edcafe about WWII.  My group consisted of Eliza, Anson and me.  We lead two discussions back-to-back at the beginning of class.  In the first session, all members of my group facilitated the conversation.  It went well and many people participated.  Eliza started off the conversation by talking about the layoutof the concntration camp and many of the supervisors and people in charge.  Then I talked about different forms of torture that the Nazi's used on their victims.  I talked about a range of torture methods from medical experiments to techniques used in the death/extermination camps.  Then, Anson took over and specifically talked about Aushwitz.

During the second session, Eliza went to participate in another group while Anson and I stayed back to lead our Edcafe.  This session went as well, and Anson and I tried to fill everyone in about Eliza's information/

Overall, Edcafes are a great way for group participation in a class room.  It is important for us to be able to work in a group, and this type of project helps with this. One thing in particular that I enjoy about Edcafes is that we can really learn about whatever we want.  We get to pick our path and investigate about something that we are interested in.

One suggestion that I would make for future Edcafes is that we should only have two groups per session instead of 3 groups all going at once.  This will make the 2 groups bigger.  I think it would be advantageous to do this because I think that more people would make the conversation better.  There would be more people who have information to offer, and the group won't need to rely on one or two people to really dominate the conversation.

Nazi and American Propaganda Videos

Nazi Propaganda was used by Hitler to try and recruit people to come to the war. He was very successful with his propaganda as many Germans praised him and eventually joined the army. The propaganda video depicted that the Germans were always happy and had a positive outlook towards Hitler. They made him look like a hero by always praising him. The Germans treated Hitler like he was god and would do anything that he wanted them to do. In addition, all of the Germans look like they agree with each other and nobody appears to oppose Hitler. The video also showed kids supporting Hitler which shows that everybody is in favor of Hitler. In the video, it also shows that Hitler tried to make kids feel like they are important. He does this so that they can join the war when they get older.

Throughout the whole video, there is no video footage of anything negative about Hitler and the Nazi Party. They only show things that make the Nazi Party look good. They don't show any violence or any other nagative quality that the Nazi's have.

The american propaganda video is different from the Nazi's because it actually shows warfare. The video tries to show the size and power that the US army has.  The US citizens look very patriotic and show a stong sense of nationalism.  In the video, it discusses information about relations between the US and other countries.  This is different from Nazi propaganda as it only talked about Germany. 

It is interesting to see the difference between two different forms of nationalism.  The US took a more direct form of propaganda by simply showing the size and power of the army, while the Nazi's simply showed Hitler and everyone praising him. 

Can the severity of the Great Depression in the 1930's happen again?

No, the Great Depression that occured in the 1930's can't and will not happen again.  I strongly believe that there will be a depression in the near future; the stock markets have been going up for the past year, and they will eventually go back down, as they always have in the past.  However, I don't think the severity of it will be anything close to that of the 1930's.

There are many reasons why such a huge disaster won't happen again.  The first reason is that it is very unlikely that a stock exchange such as the NYSE could fall as greatly as it did in 1930.  This just won't happen in the present day market, as stocks are not very volatile.  A second reason is that in the early 20th century, many countries were tied together through the gold standard.  When the price of gold plummeted, the countries did as well.  It is interesting to know that the earlier a country left the gold standard, the less deavasting the depression was on them.  And on the other hand, a country that satyed on the gold standard for a long time was usually heavily hit by the depression. So, for example, Great Britain left the gold standard relatively early in 1931.  Although they were hit by the depression, it was not nearly as sever as in other countries.  And countries like France or Switzerland, that didn't leave the gold standard until 1935, were hit much harder.  One more reason why the Great Depression won't happen again is because of the security nets that are now in place.  There are many different systems that have been put in place in order to prevent this from happening again.

In addition to the previous reasons, I strongly believe that more people are becoming smarter with their money.  They realize that they need to save their money and invest it.  Many people hire a financial advisor to help them because they realize the importance of thier money.  This will also definately help prevent a crisis, because if something weird happened, then people would be prepared.

So, overall I don't think that it is possible for the world to suffer though another Great Depression of the same magnitude.  But I do predict that the United States will have a moderate economic depression in the near future.

American Dream Part 2

A couple weeks ago, I posted a blog about what I thought the American Dream was. In it, I mentioned different reasons for immigrants coming to America, the circumstances that they had in their previous countries and also information about job security. Since then, I have learned much more about the American Dream and immigration. Overall, my ideas about the American Dream are relatively similar. However, some of the minor details about the American Dream have changed.

The big picture for the American Dream is the same. Immigrants come to the U.S. from all around the world with various different reasons. Some of these reasons could be income, fighting, racism etc. The immigrants come to America hoping that they can restart their lives and get a new job with a new chance. They know that the move to America, is better than just simply staying in their home country. When they get to the U.S., most of them find out that getting a high paying job is much harder than they originally though. Many will struggle and most of them will contemplate returning to their home country.

Like I noted at before, I learned a lot of information about minor details about the American Dream. Firstly, I found it very interesting that there are some many immigrants from Africa here in the U.S. Or at least I didn't know that there were so many of them. In addition, it was very interesting to compare the information I researched about Israel with the information that Jessica researched about Jewish immigrants. There were lots of comparisons, including the immigrants populating near other Jewish people. This is why there are sporadic concentrations of Jews through the country.

Overall, I find the American Dream and immigration very interesting. It is cool to find out how America got its diversity. Perhaps without all of the conflict, low income and other sources for immigration, America would not be as diverse as it is today. One thing that this unit got me thinking about is immigration in the future. I am curious about this subject because sooner than later, the U.S. will be overpopulated and everybody won't be able to immigrate to the U.S. due to lack of space.

The American Dream

What exactly is the American Dream? I think that there are many different interpretations to it. My interpretation is immigrants coming to America, to live the free and amazing life they are told occurs. The immigrants usually don't have the best circumstances in their country, and want to come to America to start their life over. They want to make their lives productive, and live a life full of pleasure.

The American Dream started during the late 19th century and early 20th century. America just finished its civil war, and everyone was starting to agree with each other more. Fighting occurred much less often, and everyone loved America. During this time, there were still many countries around the world that still didn't have their freedom. The citizens would be very mad at their country, and would want to move elsewhere. America was the place they went. Also, many soldiers or indentured servants from around the world would try to escape their country and find a way to come to America. Back then, it was much easier to enter the United States then it is now. The immigrants would have to pass a simple test to just become a citizen. They would have the same right that the whites have. I find this very interesting because many blacks who have lived in America, and helped out, couldn't even get their "freedom." One would think that it would be a little harder for any random immigrant to become a citizen of America.

One main theme that I have already hinted at, that describes the American Dream, is immigration. Immigration is a major thing for a country, because when new people come, they bring new ideas, techniques and methods with them. In addition, they also bring diversity. Immigration during that time period, was very different than immigration of today's. Today, we are constantly hearing about illegal immigrants. They are usually from Mexico or somewhere else near there. This was not nearly as common then.

Overall, the American Dream is a vision that people have of America. They think it is the best place on earth, where everybody gets an equal opportunity. They think it is a place to restart your life, without anybody accusing you of your previous actions. And because of these reasons, many people wanted, want and are going to want, to come to the United States to experience this.