Author Archives: Nelson Tran

05/24/11

African Burial Ground

I visited the African Burial Ground for the extra credit assignment. In the exhibit, it also talks about the lifestyle the African Americans had. They were usually born into slavery and work at a very young age. Common causes for their deaths are diseases such as smallpox and yellow fever. Other cases usually are from the lack of nutrition they had. This is covered in the material of how Africans Americans usually were mistreated and lived in horrible conditions.

The sacred burial ground was closed in 1974 in order to be divided and sold. It was in 1991 when the government wanted to build a federal office that led to the finding of this area. They found a total of 419 coffins and bodies under the ground. There is expected to be much more bodies under the ground as the area is much bigger than what the federal building occupied.

I found this museum very interesting because I felt it was very meaningful. It allows us to learn a great deal of early American history. I enjoyed the monument and the burial ground. I think they did a great job redesigning and reburying the place.  I thought it was a great idea for them to continue to preserve a historic national area.

05/16/11

Banking on that Regulation

In 2009, Obama proposed to make stricter regulations in the financial sector. AIG was an insurance giant company that has major influence all over the world. It’s failure would destroy the financial system. Obama proposes that the government be able to seize companies in order to save them. This stricter regulation would hopefully bring a check to other companies.

During the 1980’s, there was a movement pushing for government to have deregulate the financial sector. Some acts proposed allowed firms to take part in competition in traditional banks, investment bansk and insurance companies. There was also the creation of credit default swaps which was the reason why AIG failed. Many people blame the crisis in 2008 due to the deregulation from the government in the financial sector.

Source: 

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/16/business/fi-financial-regs16

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deregulation

05/11/11

Cultural Wars of 1990’s

During the 1990’s one of the most upcoming events was the cultural war. There was a struggle to define America and there were a huge polarization fro American politics and culture. Some “hot” issues that came up and were heatedly debated were abortion. gun policies, separation of church and state, privacy, recreational drugs, censorship and homosexuality.

The views on these issues usually weren’t even divided by origin, race, ethnicity, social class or political view, but rather it was more of the individual world view. This was a defining change as America evolves. People took sides for their views and often argued or protest their position of some of these issues.

05/2/11

The answer is Blowin’ in the Wind

The first song Blowin’ in the Wind by Bob Dylan questions the issues about peace, war and freedom. During the time, it’s been described as an anthem of the 1960s civil rights movement. The second song Makeshift patriot by Sage Francis is about America’s response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. The song talks about how people uses the media to exploit this tragedy for personal gain. In the song, Sage Francis states, “There is a new price on freedom, so buy into it while supplies last.”

In June 1962, Bob Dylans makes a comment saying, “Too many of these hip people are telling me where the answer is but oh I won’t believe that. I still say it’s in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper it’s got to come down some  …But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know …and then it flies away I still say that some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong and know it’s wrong.” He believes that the answer is in the wind but no one is looking. The second song by Sage Francis reinforces this notion with his lyrics, “Some of them dug for answers in the mess but the rest were looking for trouble.”

04/27/11

Student’s Against Vietnam

During the 1960’s there was an increasing rise of students in America going to college. With that, students became more focused in other areas of society such as politics. They created the “New Left” which they wanted to make America a true democracy. They questioned and compared the drastic differences between American ideals and America’s reality. As a result, they became actively involved and protested against the Vietnam War.

The Vietnam War started in the 1950’s in which America feared Vietnam would fall into the domino effect and fall into communism. Vietnam was separated between the communistic North and  democratic South. Although America slowly regretted entering into this war, Johnson and Kennedy feared they would not be forgiven for “losing” Vietnam. This led to students strongly protesting against the war and demanding a recall of U.S. involvement on the war.  Ultimately, U.S. lost the war in Vietnam.

04/10/11

Happy Go Spending World

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zVUUFBEHss

One of the most important elements of the economic growth in the beginning of the golden age sets back to the rise of residential construction and the spending on consumer goods.  The erupt demand for housing, television sets, home appliances and cars, transpired from a population shift from the cities to the suburbs. As Foner has stated, “By 1960, suburban residents of single-family homes outnumbered urban dwellers and those living in rural areas.”

The film above illustrates the cultural differences from urban and suburban residents; alluding the viewer a cherry image of suburban life with its color motion, where as, depicting the urban life with black and white motion. It also portrays the consumer culture of the time, targeting young adults that derives for the demand of a new kind of marketing. Like the film stated, it was a “happy go spending world.” Shopping malls were created in their image, building in fountains, statues, restaurants and free standing stairways. The stores also included many banks, loan offices and rental plans.

04/4/11

Can(not) Be Contained

The idea of containment as a U.S. policy started in 1946 when George Kennan telegramed the Truman Administration explaining that the Soviets can not be dealt with as a normal government. The Soviets idea of communism is expanding throughout different parts of the world and it must be contained and therefore started the containment policy. Ultimately, the United States didn’t want the “domino effect” where more and more countries would be reeled into communism.

I think if the United States and other countries did not act out to prevent the growth of communism, most of the world would be in a communistic government. Who knows, United States may have turned into communism as well and life for everyone would be much different.

03/20/11

NRA: Negroes Ruined Again

L. Rogers, Chicago Defender, 1934

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal created many controversies where some were optimistic about the new programs and others were left in doubt. One particular cartoon artist L. Rogers expressed his stance of the latter by publishing a series of political cartoon that direct towards anti-New Deal sentiments. As a prominent writer for a black Chicago newspaper he published the cartoon above, in 1934, conveying his discern of the first New Deal establishment, the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which was created to abolish corrupt business practices and to induce rights for workers by setting standards of minimum wage and maximum hours.

The cartoon above displays a joyful family where the father is telling his wife news about his company becoming a member of the NRA, and his presumptions about better wages and better hours. On the second half of the cartoon it shows that the father later learns that the company has cut his job and his fellow workers by exclusively hiring whites only. The factory discriminated blacks because they did not want to promote more black rights. The cartoon shows that white racists were using the New Deal as a way of furthering discrimination against the blacks. Lynching and wage discrimination were still very much prevalent in the 1930s, and eventually the NRA was even referred to as “Negroes Ruined Again.” L. Rogers created this cartoon to illustrate Roosevelt’s fail recognition of the blacks and his sentiments that the New Deal was only created to aid the whites.

03/14/11

Worse Way to End the 1920’s

People are waiting on line for food. Ironically, they stand under a poster glorifying the American standard of living.

People lined up in London to protest about the Great Depression

The Great Depression not only hit the United States but effected the global economy. In the first picture there are people waiting on a line to get food. During this period, most people couldn’t afford anything and even the wealthy became poor in one day. Ironically, the pictures shows a poster saying how great the standard of living the United States is. It goes to show that it doesn’t matter where they are and how prosperous the country was, the Great Depression was affected globally.  The second picture shows another line of people in London where they protested about the lack of food and to get relief from this disaster. In both pictures, it shows that both countries had obstacles in fighting the Great Depression.

03/10/11

I Ain’t “Lying”, But I’m Still Roaring

[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/SclJ94h2oyQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]

The roaring twenties became a time where Americans broke away from their old traditions. People starting becoming more involved in doing things that haven’t been done. Such things are people spending more and more of their money on leisure activities such as vacations, movies and sporting events. Radios owners exponentially increased and served as their daily entertainment resource. With that, the radio also became a great asset to spreading information. With this sudden upscale of the quality of living for Americans, the roaring twenties ended with the Great Depression in 1929.

03/2/11

The Test of Mental Strength

During the beginning of World War I, there brought many controversies in the United States to whether to join the war or not. There were groups such as the Industrial Workers of the World and the Socialist Party whom were completely against entering in this war. They deemed this war as “a crime against the people of the United States.” With so much negativity towards this, the Wilson administration created the Committee of Public (CPI) on April 1917 to counter these groups. The job of the CPI were to create propaganda to promote people to join the war efforts in order to fight for their liberties. Edward Barnard considered this as a “intelligent manipulation” to the masses.

Foner did a good job explaining how the Wilson Administration went about to counter the negative feelings about war and ultimately convincing people into joining the war. This confirms what I’ve thought about propaganda being used and added in a way on how propaganda was distributed

02/28/11

McKinley’s Last Show

President McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz on September 6, 1901 but did not pass away until September 14, 1901. He was shot twice, one causing minor damage while the other pierced through his abdomen, pancreas, kidney and stomach. Only one of the bullets were taken out because the other couldn’t be found. Shortly after McKinley was shot, it look liked his health was improving and would live, but he ultimately didn’t make it. McKinley’s assassinations led to Roosevelt to succeed him

02/23/11

Checking from Coast to Coast

Chinese immigrant getting checked at Angel Island, San Francisco Bay

Immigrants receiving a skin test for infectious diseases at Ellis Island.

These images both portray immigrants being subject to checks of their current health. Whether you are coming form the East coast at Ellis Island or the West coast at Angel Island, immigrants get their health checked for any infectious diseases. Immigrants had to pass through numerous examinations before they can enter the States. It goes to show how much of a struggle it is to migrate to the United States. It’s a struggle just to leave your country, but then once you arrive, you must go through different examinations before you can enter.

02/14/11

The Amendment that Freed U.S.All

The thirteenth amendment was adopted on December 6, 1865 and became the first amendment of the Reconstruction. This amendment abolished all slavery and involuntary servitude except for punishment for a crime. The importance of this amendment is that it was passed shortly after the Emancipation of Proclamation to show that the proclamation was not just a temporary war measure for the Civil War. President Lincoln wanted to guarantee the slaves their freedom.

In addition, it is also important to know that it took many years for this Amendment to pass. The amendment was rejected the first time by the House of Representative. It was President Lincoln whom worked closely with the House that got the amendment passed the second time around.

02/7/11

O’ rly?

After reading the review on David Blight’s book, I can tell that this book would be an informative and an interesting book to read. This book talks about the vast point of views that history can be interpreted. It all depends on how you were taught the piece of information. War history is always written by the winners. Most people don’t realize that there other sides to the story. It is safe to say the victors always portray themselves as doing the justified. I think this book would give insight to others on how history is portrayed and how foolish it would be to only look at one viewpoint of the story.

Let’s take a look at what happened in the American Revolution. To Americans it might feel as though we want to emancipate ourselves from such tyrannical British. To them it could just be them wanting to keep the American colonies and the British in unity as a group.  Looking from different perspectives can change everything. Ultimately, countries like to tell history in showing themselves as holy and justified in every aspect. Therefore history is politically driven as people can retell it as whatever they like.

02/2/11

There is no “everyone” in PRIVACY, or is there?

We’ve come a long way from the strenuous and tedious handwritten recordings on paper. Entering the 21st century, the Internet era has completely taken over. The technology of computers and other electronics has not only become tools to enhance productivity but has become the way we live. People are constantly on the Internet looking for data, whether it is  information to help them on their project to even information on social networking sites to see what their friends new status is. Whatever it is you’re looking for, the Internet probably offers it. This is a huge step forward in information gathering. It helps not only everyday people but as well as historians whom are always sifting through loads of information. With that comes consequences as well. The access to information has become so easily attained that people have become reliant on technology and the Internet. People become mind boggled when something unexpected happens: like their phone running out of batteries. Also people do not appreciate the information attained when generations before people would die (exaggerated) for these information.

In addition, another issue rises. With sites like Twitter and Wikileaks being archived, people may feel that our privacy is taken away from us. Ultimately, that is the case. There really are no secrets on the Internet. Once it is posted on the Internet, there is no way of taking it back. With that, people need to start screening what they post if they don’t want their secrets being found. Nonetheless, the Internet still is a great aspect to our future.