Hi Everyone,

It's a boy!  Everyone is healthy and happy.  I'll show you pictures on Monday.

There is an optional review session tomorrow beginning at 1:30.  We have the room for 2 hours, but we won't take that long, I expect.  I have reserved a room in the library, (SNO 153)   My goal is for you to write the best final exams possible.  The more you can bring to the review session, the more you can all help each other.  So bring drafts, topic sentences, outlines, ideas, source material, etc.  If you can't make it, I'd be happy to answer questions via email up to Tuesday night. 

Final Exam

The instructions for your final exam are available HERE.  Please read the instructions with care.

Let's meet on Monday to discuss your answers.  I will confirm the location, but let's plan on 1:30 in our classroom.

Also, I am happy to answers questions over the weekend.  As you finish your labwork, let me know if you're having problems or stuck on developing a particular idea.

Get to work! 

While you're waiting for your exam...

Check back tomorrow for your exam instructions.  

In the meantime, read this great article about a slavery museum in Louisiana (if you like).

The Final Week...

Hi Everyone,

After two weeks at home waiting, relaxing, doctor's appointments.  More waiting.  There's still no baby.  I can't explain the strange feeling of sitting around on my hands.

I will be at school on Monday.  We have a lot of ground to cover.  I want to hear an update on your labwork progress.  We should discuss the transition from the radical sixties to the conservative eighties.  And talk about the final exam, which is coming up.  I will distribute the questions to you on Wednesday.  Your exam will be due the following week - two questions, two essays.  We should find a time to schedule a review session either later this week or early next week.

See you monday.

Best,

Alex

Well, the midterm grades are in the books...

For the record, grading is the most thankless task for us teachers. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy reading your work. But quantifying the value of your effort in a number is difficult.  History is tricky.  Unlike biology or math, we don't ask you to memorize stuff or get one "right" answer.  Instead, we ask you to think deeply about what has happened, try to make sense of it, and articulate those thoughts.  I provide the following comments to help you think more about your answers.

The average grade was a 3.2, a high B.
I don't grade on a curve, but there were scatter of 4.0 answers (not very many)

I have three general comments -

1. Analysis as well as Description.  Many of you pointed out interesting and insightful details about Chaplin's Modern Times (the assembly line, feeding machine, surveillance of the boss, even the ladies fashion) - but the best answers use those observations as a means to an end.  E.G., "For audiences in the 1930s, the little tramp's fall into insanity reflect what many workers might have felt with the revolutionary changes in Fordism, combined with the Great Depression."  It's filling in the blanks that demonstrate thoughtfulness, comprehension, and synthetic thinking.

2. The balancing act of Specificity and Breadth.  All of these questions invite answers that incorporate multiple materials from our class.  It is particularly effective to reference specific examples and evidence when crafting answers.  That specificity should be balanced with breadth.  Can you utilize lots of materials in your answers?  Just because a question mentions a particular document doesn't mean you can only discuss that one.  In considering Mae Ngai's discussion of immigration, you might consider how to incorporate Monica Sone, Frederick Douglas, etc.

3. There are a number of instances where your answer might be "correct," but just not fully developed.  A few thoughts about how to do that:  The first is thinking about the big picture.  I include a thesis statement at the beginning of every class for a reason.  If you line up all those statements, it provides a narrative of the big picture and the most important themes from class.  Otherwise, we can get lost in the flurry of names and dates.  However, names and dates do matter sometimes.  Here, you just have to pay careful attention and write fast and furious.  While I hope that you enjoy the lectures in class, they are not provided for mere entertainment.  Ultimately, a college class is about comprehension, but also synthesis.  Consider the question about Sone's two heads.  You can read that passage and understand it.  But can you look through your notes and pick out other items that intersect with this concept?  One central topic of class is the question of citizenship.  How might you marshall Ozawa and Thind for this answer.  Or even the experience of African Americans during Reconstruction.  

With the final exam still on the horizon, consider my comments and remember that demonstrating improvement is always rewarded.  But I am happy to talk with you individually about what you wrote and how to improve.

The Second half of Nisei Daughter

A photo of the Minidoka Interment Camp,  1943

1.  Pay careful attention to her trip to Japan, which immediately precedes your reading section for today.  How does she feel in Japan, and how does that mesh with her emotional place in America? 

2. What are the kinds of responses available to Sone's family or her neighbors after the attack on Pearl Harbor?  

3.  Mae Ngai argues that immigration laws rendered Asian immigrants "unalterably foreign" and unassimilable to the dominant (white) culture in America.  Do you see evidence for that argument in Sone's personal account?

4.  In reading Nisei Daughter, it is useful to contrast the tone Sone used to describe internment originally in 1953, to her description in the preface to the 1979 edition (pp. xvi-xvii).  What explains this difference?  Why might she "remember" internment so differently?

5. Many have described the incarceration of the Japanese during the war as an aberration in American history.  What do you think about that statement?

Advertising Lab

Your lab assignment for this week is now live.  Find it on the right hand "lab" link.  Say what you like about this class, but you have to admit, I give you options.  3,300+ advertisement await you!  

Hopefully our discussion in class about this ad provided you with some ideas.  Let me know if you have any questions.  In an ideal world, by week 5, you will have finished one or two of your lab assignments.  So get to work.  Remember, I'm happy to discuss selections, ideas, etc.  And you can submit your work for a provisional grade and feedback anytime.  

Early Movies

It's impossible to screen all the important and interesting early silent films.  But if you're into film, you should know these artifacts from the silent era:

The Lumiere Brothers invent the modern camera.  I think I mentioned the Arrival of the Train in class.

The first is George Melies', "A Trip to the Moon."  This particular version has been hand-tinted, a practice common in the early 20th century.  Imagine the creativity it takes to make something like this.  The forging of the spaceship; the lunar underground; crazy lobster aliens.  Many suggest this was the first Sci-Fi film.

The second is The Great Train Robbery.  This film is absolutely groundbreaking.  It was the first film to employ a variety of complex editing techniques.  And it set the standard for framing shots, moving action from background to foreground.  And the last scene is iconic.  If you watch carefully and critically, you will see how this film continues to shape the entire genre of action/western films.

Rather than show Modern Times, which we'll watch in class, here is Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr., also one of my favorites.  This is the first movie to incorporate a dream sequence.  And it's done superbly.  This film is really, really funny.

Enjoy!

Monica Sone, Nisei Daughter, First Half

Here are a few questions to ponder as you work through the first half of Monica Sone's Nisei Daughter for Wednesday the 28th.  We have two long extended readings this quarter, which give us the opportunity to think about how individual lives can be used as a window on larger historical events.  You need not write formal answers to these, but they will form the basis of our discussion in class.

1. Describe the world in which Monica Sone grows up? How does it accord with what you know about Seattle and the United States at this time?
2. Studies of immigration often focus intently on generational differences. What are the differences you see between the Issei and Nisei generations? How did each adjust to conditions in their adopted country? Why did Monica Sone’s parents decide to remain and make a life in the United States? As always, be prepared to cite specific passages in the text to support your answers.
3. Sone’s story is told from the perspective of a young girl. How does that influence what we learn? How and why would the book be different if told from her father’s perspective? Or from someone outside the community?
4. What kinds of opportunities and barriers exist for the Itoi family in Seattle?

The Legacy of Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King has become a kind of American saint.  Revered by politicians of all types, his birthday is a national holiday.  Kids memorize his "I have a dream" speech in grade school (I did).  Those are powerful words.

But somehow on the way to the 21st century, most Americans have forgotten how truly radical (and disliked) MLK was at the time.  In addition to his call for racial justice, he also criticized the war in Vietnam and advocated for a substantial redistribution of wealth in America.  And he was willing to go to jail for those ideas.

Those actions and beliefs did not sit well with most Americans.  At the time, almost 2/3 of all Americans viewed him unfavorably.  Nowadays, 9/10 of America sees favorably.  How does such a reversal happen?  Well, perhaps its a testament to how far we've come?  Or, have we so thoroughly sanitized his image that it has become palatable to the majority?

In a piece for the Huffington Post, Peter Dreier reintroduces us to MLK and suggests where he might stand today.  It's worth considering.

"In his critique of American society and his strategy for changing it, King pushed the country toward more democracy and social justice. If he were alive today, he would certainly be standing with Walmart employees, fast food workers, and others fighting for a living wage and the right to unionize. He would be in the forefront of the battle for strong gun controls and to thwart the influence of the National Rifle Association. He would protest the abuses of Wall Street banks, standing side-by-side with homeowners facing foreclosure and crusading for tougher regulations against lending rip-offs. He would be calling for dramatic cuts in the military budget to reinvest public dollars in jobs, education and health care.

It is hardly a stretch to envision King marching with immigrants and their allies in support of comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship. He would surely be joining hands with activists seeking to reduce racial profiling and the killing of young black men by police. He would stand with activists organizing to end the mass incarceration of young people. Like most Americans in his day, King was seemingly homophobic, even though one of his closest advisors, Bayard Rustin, was gay. But today, King would undoubtedly stand with advocates of LGBT rights and same-sex marriage, just as he challenged state laws banning interracial marriage."

Selma '65

Amidst all the press coverage of the movie Selma, I ran across this new exhibit that went up at that NY Historical Society.  The origin of the photographs are almost as compelling as the images themselves.

You can see more here.

Reading

Each of the individual readings are available as links in the calendar, should you need quick access.  But I would suggest you print out a copy of all the readings so you can bring them to class, mark up the pages, and make notes for yourself.  The full PDF document is HERE.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
—Emma Lazarus, 1883

This does seem like a very useful place for us to begin. The immigration through Ellis Island and the national narrative of the Golden Door is a compelling one. But, no national narrative should be accepted passively. Why has it been such a potent image? Who are the stakeholders in that image? How might we read these lines from a variety of different perspectives (indigenous, Chinese, Eastern European, or even earlier immigrants) each with different effect? As I said, a good place to start.