Many of the people and incidents that make up the the plot of Ragtime are real, even the sensational ones. For instance, Harry K. Thaw really did shot and kill architect Stanford White, and he really was married to Evelyn Nesbit. Emma Goldman really did conspire with Alexander Berkman to assassinate Henry Clay Frick.
Check the historical validity of an incident in Ragtime and post your results. Use an incident that neither I nor any of your classmates who have responded before you have mentioned. In doing so quote the passage from Ragtime, mention what chapter it is from, and provide a confirming or dis-confirming link.
Harry Houdini is known worldwide for his captivating illusions and stunts, especially his escapes. While most people know that Houdini was an entertainer, E. L. Doctrow suggests in his novel Ragtime that he was also an aviator. In chapter 13, Doctrow writes that “he attended the public demonstration of a French-made flying machine, a Voisin, a beautiful biplane with boxed wings, a box rudder and three delicately strutted bicycle wheels… Within a week he was the owner of a new Voison biplane. It had cost him five thousand dollars. It came with a French mechanic who gave instructions in the art of flying” (84). As a piece of historical fiction, Ragtime contains a well-balanced mixture of truth and fiction. The website Houdini: His Life and His Art (http://www.thegreatharryhoudini.com/aviation.html) confirms that Houdini was an aviator. The information this site provides is extremely close to the details Doctrow included in Ragtime, indicating that this section was well-researched. According to this website, Houdini indeed purchased a French Voison biplane for five thousand dollars in 1909 (“Houdini Over Australia”). This biplane was built specially for him. In order to fly and maintain it, he hired Antonio Brassac as a full-time mechanic (“Houdini Over Australia”). In the year 1910, Houdini crashed the biplane once and made about twenty successful flights (“Houdini Over Australia”). After this, the plane was stored in England, never to be flown by Houdini again (“Houdini Over Australia.”). The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum possesses footage of Houdini boarding his biplane and taking flight (http://www.airspacemag.com/videos/category/history-of-flight/houdini-in-australia/). The Smithsonian reports that Houdini’s biplane was given to a friend in 1913; however, its fate remains unknown (Maskel).
Bibliography
“Houdini Over Australia.” Houdini: His Life and His Art,
http://www.thegreatharryhoudini.com/aviation.html. Accessed 2 Oct. 2016.
“Houdini In Australia.” Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine,
http://www.airspacemag.com/videos/category/history-of-flight/houdini-in-australia/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2016.
Maksel, Rebecca. “The Hunt for Houdini’s Airplane”. Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine,
Nov. 2013, http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/the-hunt-for-houdinis-airplane-8082655/?no-ist=&page=2. Accessed 2 Oct. 2016.
In reading Ragtime, by E.L. Doctorow, I was curious if the strike described in chapter 16 actually occurred. This chapter focuses on Tateh and his daughter after they left the city. According to the novel, “in three days every textile mill in Lawrence was virtually shut down [and] people from the I.W.W. who knew how to run a strike quickly came up from New York and organize things”(121). The novel also describes many incidents that occurred during the strike. For instance “a woman worker was shot in the street” and even though only the police had guns, “the two strike leaders, Ettor and Giovanetti, were arrested for complicity in the shooting”(121, 122). The novel also explains a plan “whereby children of strikers were to be sent to other cities to board with families in sympathy with the strike” and describes how Tateh signed up his daughter (124).
According to my research, this strike really occurred and is called the 1912 Lawrence textile strike. Just as mentioned in the novel, when the workers realized that their paychecks were “reduced by 32 cents” they became enraged and went on strike (History.com). In fact, “by the end of January 12, more than 10,000 workers were out on strike”(History.com). Moreover, “in late January, when a bystander was killed during a protest, IWW organizers Joseph Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti were arrested on charges of being accessories to the murder”(Wikipedia). Furthermore, just as the novel suggested, “striking families sent 119 of their children out of harm’s way to Manhattan”(History.com). Clearly, the strike from Ragtime described in chapter 16, including specific details, are historically valid.
These are the confirming links:
http://www.history.com/news/the-strike-that-shook-america-100-years-ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_Lawrence_textile_strike
In chapter 20 of the novel Ragtime, J.P Morgan and Henry Ford meet at Morgan’s home in New York City for lunch. After the lunch, the men sit down in front of a fire place in the adjoining library, and Morgan starts to inquire about Ford’s motivation for creating the assembly line. Morgan comments on how relatively similar humans are, but Ford responds with “Exceptin the Jews…The Jews, They ain’t like anyone else I know. There goes your theory up shits creek.”
Ford’s response makes one believe he was anti-Semitic. Ford was essentially pointing out that he didn’t want to be classified in the same category as people of the Jewish faith. After some research, Henry Ford did indeed dislike the those soley for their jewish beliefs. He published a four volume set of pamphlets called “The International Jew” which blamed Jews for issues in America at the time. Ford was also awarded “Grand Cross of the German Eagle” from the Nazi leadership during World War II for his influential anti-Semitic writings (PBS).
Although it is unclear if Ford said those exact words to Morgan, the remark is characteristic of Ford. Ford’s attitudes were accurately portrayed as one can get a feel for his dislike for Jews from the novel. Through research, one can find the extent to which Ford publicly spread anti-Semitism.
Confirming Link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/interview/henryford-antisemitism/
So Houdini meets the archduke Franz Ferdinand. In the final pages of chapter 13, Doctorow introduces a mysterious man to Harry Houdini. All we know is that he’s royalty as Houdini notes that the man wears a spiked helmet indicative of German royalty. High-ranking officials in the German military ask Houdini if he could fly his biplane for the man in the car and “Sitting in the car was the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne” (Chapter 13, location 1094).
If you know anything about history you know that the archduke was a pretty important guy. That seemed to me something straight out of Forrest Gump. This meeting was so impossible, improbable that I just had to see if it was true. I highly doubted that the archduke of Austria-Hungary would be in Germany just to see a plane but anything’s possible.
So as it turns out I can’t find any record of this. Only that it is true that Houdini bought the French Voison plane for $5,000 and made a flight in Hamburg, Germany but Doctorow seems to have taken some liberties with a true historical event. Truly the best way to write historical fiction in my opinion.
Link http://www.thegreatharryhoudini.com/aviation.html
After reading Ragtime, by E.L. Doctorow, I was interested in researching the anarchist Emma Goldman from the novel. Her speech for the “Socialist Artists’ Alliance of the Lower East Side” and her role in exposing Evelyn Nesbit in Chapter 8, showed her strong wish for change. She captured the audience’s attention and brought the two differing groups together, asking, “can you socialists ignore the double bondage of one-half of the human race?” She continued to captivate the audience by stating, “if white slavery is a problem why is marriage not a problem? Is there no connection between the institution of marriage and the institution of the brothel?” (53) Such statements evoked emotional responses from the audience to which she was speaking and brought attention to Evelyn as she sat in the audience.
After researching Emma Goldman, I found that such events as the one described in the novel were accurate and actually common in her lifetime. Goldman fought for the rights of women as well as all people who were underrepresented. She sought freedom for all and embraced the ideals of anarchy as it placed an emphasis on liberty, harmony, and social justice. Similarly to how her speech was recounted in Ragtime, Goldman was seen as dangerous and caught the attention of police forces through her work. She was often arrested or harassed while lecturing and faced hostility from authority figures who believed her ideas threatened those of mainstream America. Such common opinions of Goldman gave her the reputation of being on of the most dangerous anarchists in America at the time. Through this research, I was able to confirm that Emma Goldman’s role in the novel was indeed accurate. The way in which she was depicted in the Ragtime showed how easily she could create an uproar and spark reform movements for the people who faced discrimination in society.
Confirming Link: http://jwa.org/womenofvalor/goldman
In reading Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, a particular incident was interesting for me due to the uncertainty if it is historically valid. In chapter 13, Houdini is said to see a demonstration of a French-made flying machine. The author writes, “the machine lifted off the ground. He thought he was dreaming. He had to willfully restrain his emotions, commanding himself sternly to keep the wings level, to keep the throttle continuously in touch with the speed of the flight. He was flying!” He proceeds to buy his own and even teach others about the art of flying. I have always known Harry Houdini as a illusionist and escape artist but never as a pioneer for flight.
So I decided to do more research about it.
It turns out that it is indeed true. In 1909, Houdini brought a French Voison biplane for $5000 and even hired a full-time mechanic. He made his first successful flight on November 26th in Hamburg Germany. After, he further attempted to fly across Australia and finally on March 1910, Houdini became the first person to fly over Australian soil while flying over Diggers Rest, Victoria, just over Melbourne. In addition, Houdini was the first aviator to document the events on film.
Confirming Link: http://www.thegreatharryhoudini.com/aviation.html
In chapter 19, JP Morgan speaks of a dinner party he held years before with some of the wealthiest men of the time including Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Harriman. I’ve always been taught that these men were innovators and geniuses. It is difficult for me to believe then that Jp Morgan could say “Not an ounce of wit among them. Not a light in their eyes” (140). These men were supposed to be his peers. Therefore, I decided to research whether or not this dinner party ever happened and if so what records are there of what was said at this dinner party.
Upon further research I have found there is no evidence that this dinner party actually occurred. But the loneliness Morgan faces in this chapter where he begins to seek out Ford in hopes of finding a true equal is very real. His first marriage was very brief because he had married his first love despite her terminal illness and lost four months after marrying her. Furthermore, the sentiments Morgan expresses with regards to his fellow industrialists in the book are most likely Doctorow’s manifestation of the rivalry among these men that did exist. Those exact words, however, are not recorded anywhere.
Links: https://101books.net/2013/05/02/wealthy-old-constipated-guys-from-ragtime/
http://www.history.co.uk/biographies/j-p-morgan
One incident in Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow I questioned was the explosion of the Emerald Isle Engine station house. Doctorow first sparked my interest when he introduced Coalhouse Walker in Chapter 21 with a description for a black man I have never imagined would be possible during the time period of the novel. He introduced Walker as the owner of “a new Model T Ford” with “a glass windshield and a custom pantasote top” who casually walks up for Sarah’s hand in marriage (155). Not to mention Doctorow described Walker as a confident and daring man who did not care for any of the racial divisions between white and blacks especially when Walker encounters Mother with “eyes so intense as to suggest they were about to cross” and enters the house without permission (156). Any black man or woman during this time period would know any better that the slightest action towards white people could be mistaken for hostile and send them to the death row in a snap. With such an intriguing character connected to a devastating event, I decided to research it further.
From my research I have found that Walker is a fictional man who Doctorow created to shine light and irony on the black stereotype during the novels time period and perhaps even during the novel’s publishing time period. In Chapter 23, Walker begins his downfall from a respectful and well-dressed man to the ‘dangerous black man’ stereotype. Although he stays calm and avoids ingratiating “himself in the fashion of his race” as the firemen first harassed him and vandalized his car, Walker finds himself postponing his wedding to take this matter to court (176). This is the catalyst for Walkers transformation to become the ‘angry black man’ after Sarah dies and he became the symbol for “murder and arson” (185) when he initiated the firehouse explosions and the murders of policemen and firemen (206-212). Walker follows the classic hubris and downfall tragedy as Doctorow sets him up to symbolize the difficult realities of society for the black minority. Although there are plenty of black men and women who do not uphold the racist stereotype, Doctorow highlights to his readers to challenge the common belief of stereotypes and dramatizes how they negatively affect everyone in society. Furthermore, Walker is based off the German novella Michael Kohlhaas by Heinrich von Kleist who faces similar incidents as Walker and shares “his [Walker] increasingly unbalanced search for a dignified resolution” (Wikipedia). Coalhouse Walker might have been fictitious, but Doctorow created him to represent the harsh realities of every black man, woman, and perhaps every people of color have faced in society in breaking down their stereotypes and trying to live their lives in peace and harmony within their communities.
Links: http://blurredlineshistoryasfiction.blogspot.com/2012/02/ragtime-more-that-just-novel.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragtime_(novel)
Revised first sentence: After reading Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, I was interested in whether or not Coalhouse Walker existed and carried out his violent riots and explosions against the firemen and police.
As I was reading E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, I came across a description of JP Morgan that struck me as surprising. Doctorow describes how Morgan spent half the year in Europe and collected different artifacts and paintings in his ships. Looking at them, Morgan “…felt if there was something more than he knew, it lay in the past rather than the present…” As Doctorow further talks about Morgan’s quest for purpose and explanation of the truth, he discovers the civilizations of ancient Egypt and learns about the ideology of reincarnation. Morgan then goes on to tell Henry Ford about his fascination and plans a voyage to Egypt, in the novel. I felt extremely curious to find out whether his life really took a turn according to Doctorow, and if he really felt this way about Egyptian culture.
After much research, I found out that Doctorow’s claim of Morgan funding the Egyptian archaeological expeditions of the Metropolitan Museum was true. I further discovered that Morgan was extremely involved in the ancient Egyptian ideology. There are copies of ancient Egyptian texts, dating back to almost 1,200 years ago that were found in the Morgan Library and are still there today. Also, if we take a look at the history of the Metropolitan Museum, a board of trustees agreed to an Egyptian Expedition to conduct excavations, and Morgan being the museum’s president, was extremely influential in this decision. Morgan visited this Expedition until his death.
http://www.livescience.com/27840-shape-shifting-jesus-ancient-text.html
http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/curatorial-departments/egyptian-art
Chapters 19 & 20 btw
“Father was an amateur explorer of considerable reputation. He was past president of the New York Explorers Club to which he made an annual disbursement. In fact in just a few days he would be leaving to carry the Club’s standard on the third Peary expedition to the Arctic.” (Chapter 1 Page 8)
Right off the bat, we hear about Father’s departure on the Peary expedition to the Arctic and, to me, it seemed to just be an adventurous and riveting detail to capture the reader’s attention. An expedition to one of the last frontiers – what could be any more exciting?
Lo and behold, a quick google search of “Peary expedition” reveals that it is indeed a historically valid event.
The third and final expedition of Robert Peary, which Father is set to be on during the novel, took place between 1905 and 1906 aboard the SS Roosevelt, the same boat named in the Ragtime. “In 1902 Father built a house,” therefore the timeframe of the actual expedition does match up with that of the novel’s expedition.
Many facts from the original expedition appear in the novel in chapter 10. For example, the Peary expedition did in fact make use of native “Esquimos,” or Inuits, and sled dogs to reach the North Pole (which, subsequently was not actually reached in real life). The actual expedition also experienced exceptionally cold temperatures, reaching a minimum of -67ºF at one point. Thus the fact that Father has a very rough time during the expedition as “[his] left heel, for instance, froze every day, no matter what he did to protect it” is extremely plausible (Chapter 10 Page 67). However, research seems to point that the Esquimos on the expedition were all men and that there were no women, thus any reference to Esquimo women (e.g. “Sometimes the Esquimo women would unaccountably tear off their clothes and run into the black storms howling and rolling on the ice” Chapter 10 Page 63) is inaccurate.
Therefore, through the historical metafiction used in Ragtime, Doctorow uses facts from the actual Peary expedition in his novel, supplementing the them with fitting story information, and altering minor details of reality for the story’s sake.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pearys-expedition-reaches-north-pole
http://ageofex.marinersmuseum.org/index.php?type=explorersection&id=136
“There was a strike in Pittsburgh. At the Homestead steel plant of Mr. Carnegie. And Mr. Carnegie decided to break the union. So he ran off for a European vacation and had his chief today, that infamous piece of scum Henry Clay Frick, do the job. Frick imported an army of Pinkertons. The workers were on strike to protest the cutting of wages.” (Chapter 8, pg 58).
This quote from the novel refers to the Homestead Strike that began in 1889. Andrew Carnegie had his employees working long hours in the iron steel hills. He took advantage of his wealth and broke the union that fought for their working rights. With little government interference, the workers were pushed to perform 84 hours a week. His second man, Henry Frick, tried to organize the workers. Carnegie left for Europe and Frick was in charge of the Homestead negotiation. Frick was harsher in his commands and expectations of the employees. He slashed wages.
Thus, this quote from the passage is valid and can be historically proven. The Homestead Strike was a fight for better employee rights after Frick took control of the iron steel mills.
http://www.history.com/topics/homestead-strike
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/peopleevents/pande04.html
“He [Sigmund Freud] said to Ernest Jones, America is a mistake, a gigantic mistake.” (Chapter 6) This quote from E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime refers to Sigmund Freud’s first visit to the United States. The book’s recount of Sigmund Freud’s experiences in America obviously indicate that he was not remotely impressed. For example, Doctorow states, “He believed the trip had ruined both his stomach and his bladder. The entire population seemed to him overpowered, brash and rude.”
Sigmund Freud visited the United States for the first (and only) time in 1909. G. Stanley Hall, the first president of Clark University in Massachusetts, had invited Freud to give a series of lectures on psychoanalysis, which at the time was a new concept. Freud considered the American people to be vulgar. He described them as lacking sophistication. Also, Freud did in fact refer to America as “a giant mistake.”
Doctorow writes, “A few professional alienists understood his importance, but to most of the public he appeared as some kind of German sexologist.” This is also historically accurate. Freud’s ideas and theories didn’t really take off in America until almost a decade had passed since his departure.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40258702?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/health/11first.html
During the course of my reading Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, I came upon the idea of “poverty balls” and I want to explore the background and the validity of this idea. Although the idea of poverty balls seems to be a noble idea, it feels degrading and inappropriate in the hands of the elite because of how they conduct the balls . I feel that although the elite proclaim that the ball is a means of charity for the poor, it seems to be just another fashion trend for them and a means of showing off their wealth to their peers( the only group that ironically was allowed to attend their balls even though the balls were not held in their honor).
In the book, Doctorow describes poverty balls as balls given by upperclass members of the 1920s New York City and Chicago society to “honor” the poor of their cities. In chapter 6, Doctorow recounts the balls as, “Guests came dressed in rags and ate from tin plates and drank from chipped mugs.Ballrooms were decorated to look like mines with beams, iron tracks and miner’s lamps. Theatrical scenery firms were hired to make outdoor gardens look like dirt farms and dining rooms like cotton mills. Guest smoked cigarette butts offered to them on silver trays. Minstrels performed in blackface…They dined and danced with hanging carcasses of bloody beef trailing around the walls on moving pulleys. Entrails spilled on the floor. The proceeds were for charity.”( chapter 6, page 58-59)
I wanted to research the poverty balls to see if they were an actual thing in history ,and not a figment of Doctorow’s imagination. There is very little information about poverty balls but through my research I found out that the balls did exist in the Gilded Age and although we look back at them as politically incorrect and insensitive for a number of reasons, the balls were actually highly popular because they were a fun and fashionable ways to raise money for the poor that were so prevalent in the Gilded Age. Poverty balls were not just popular with the elite of the society, they were also held by other organizations such as churches, local sports teams, and schools to raise money for causes. Although, as Doctorow alluded, the balls held by rich people were mainly a means of entertainment, poverty balls held by local organizations actually helped fundraise various resources for the needy in the community. Examples of these are poverty balls held by the Junior league of Baltimore, and St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of Boston.
Sources:
https://historythroughthepages.wordpress.com/2014/08/13/poverty-balls-2/
http://foundationsofamerica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=441:ballrooms-dedicated-to-look-like-mines&catid=34:ragtime-articles-of-interest&Itemid=62
In Ragtime, I found the details of the trial of Harry K. Thaw’s murder against Stanford White to be interesting and surprising. The one aspect that I wanted to check the historical validity of was in Chapter 4: “The key to the defense of Harry K. Thaw would be that he had become temporarily deranged by the story she had told him about her ruination at the age of fifteen” (Doctorow 22). I wanted to see if Evelyn Nesbit really did tell Thaw this story and used this excuse to defend his actions against Stanford White in the trial. Harry K. Thaw was a violent man so many didn’t believe that he would become insane and kill White just because of the story Nesbit told him. I did some research on Harry K. Thaw’s trial and found out that Nesbit did indeed tell the story of how she was mistreated by Stanford White to Thaw. Thaw wanted to know the cause of her tears when he proposed to her and it’s suggested that he wanted to seek revenge on White for his misdeeds against Evelyn Nesbit as well as protect her (The Trials of Harry Thaw). This aspect of the trial from the novel was historically accurate as demonstrated by the link below:
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/thaw/Thawaccount.html
E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime was a very interesting historical fiction reading that showed the great wealth inequality that occurred between the rich and poor in New York City during the early 20th century. One interesting passage that I found shocking was how Jacob Riis made maps in the latter end of Chapter 3. I previously knew that Jacob Riis took pictures showing the horrific nature of tenements; a fact that is shown in the novel as well with Doctorow writing, “The tenements glowed like furnaces and the tenants had no water to drink. The sink at the bottom of the stairs was dry” and “The bedroom, although it had a window, was almost as dark as the front room. It looked out on an air shaft.” It is shown that the nature of living in the tenements was horrendous and inhumane, and Riis tried to help by bringing attention to the condition of the slums. However, while I previously knew that Riis was a famous photographer taking pictures of settlements and showing the horrific nature of them through our Tenement museum visit and class lecture, I found it really interesting that he also made maps to display the racial tensions occurring in America. Doctorow writes, “Riis made color maps of Manhattan’s ethnic populations. Dull gray was for Jews… Red was for the swarthy Italian. Blue for the thrifty German. Black for the African. Green for the Irishmen. And yellow for the cat-clean Chinamen” (17). I previously did not know that he also made maps and found this fact very captivating in the novel.
Confirming Link:
http://foundationsofamerica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=489:017-riis-color-maps&catid=34:ragtime-articles-of-interest&Itemid=62
In chapter 6 of E.L Doctorow’s novel Ragtime, Sigmund Freud travels to America to give a series of lectures at Clark University. Accompanied by his associates Carl Jung, and Sandor Ferenczi to help him on his trip, the group tours New York City. Freud dislikes the noise and the chaos he sees in New York City and it all adds to his bad perception for America. To add on to his bad experience in New York City, he also experienced intestinal problems which really put the icing to the cake. He quotes that America was a “gigantic mistake” and is relieved to have returned to Vienna. In the novel, it states that a rising rift between Freud and Jung had begun during the group’s trip to America. Although Doctorow exaggerates a little bit about the pair’s rising conflicted, stating that Freud had fainting spells when in the presence of Jung, the majority of what Doctorow wrote is factual. The pair did indeed experience conflict, but some details have been exaggerated.
Link: http://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/09/freud.aspx
One instance in E.L. Doctorow’s book that I found fascinating was the story of the Giants mascot in chapter 30. Though it may not be too significant in developing the plot of the story, Charles Victor Faust is described as “a strange skinny man whose uniform was ill-fitting”, as if he didn’t belong at the game on the Giants sideline. Doctorow adds that “he was listed in the program as a mascot”, meaning that he had no business wearing the team uniform. Faust is further criticized, characterized as “a dirt eater.” These harsh descriptions of Charles Victor Faust led me to investigate the incident.
Sure enough, Faust was a player for the New York Giants (who have since moved out west to San Francisco) in 1911. He only made two appearances for the team in October 1911, after the Giants had clinched a playoff berth. It turns out that Faust had been on the team since the summer of that year, and with him on the roster, the Giants won 36 out of 38 games. Though he only got two chances to pitch, the Giants kept Faust on the roster as a good luck charm, and the following season they finished 54-11. Because he was on the roster, but never actually played, Faust became known as a mascot, the same character described by E.L. Doctorow in Ragtime.
Verifying Link: http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/d1ee8535