Historical Interests

www.sparknotes.com/history/

http://www.timemaps.com

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

1) What qualities did Sinclair believe a person must have to succeed in Packingtown?
In order to succeed in Packingtown, Sinclair believed that a person would have to have a job with no decency, hatred and dishonest competition to be able to hold a life-supporting career.

2)According to the passage, what is the plant owner's main goal.
The plant owners goal was to make money no matter what quality of product and to harness power by controlling workers, unless shadiness was brought under light by law enforcement. 

3) What does Sinclair mean when he says, "...there was no place in it where a man counted for anything against a dollar....?"
He revealed how no person had genuine care or concern for their fellow co-workers, even if it meant risking lives over money.

    Meat packing plants, like many industries in the early 20th century, were known to overwork their employees, failed to maintain adequate safety measures, and actively fought unionization. Public pressure to U.S. Congress led to the passing of the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act, both passed in 1906 on the same day to ensure better regulations of the meat packing industry as well as better treatment of its employees working there.
    Mid-century restructuring and renovating by the industry of the stockyards, slaughterhouses and meat packing led to relocating facilities closer to cattle feedlots and swine production facilities, to more rural areas. It has been difficult for labor to organize in such locations. In addition, the number of jobs fell dramatically through technology and other changes.
    Though the meat packing industry has made many improvements since the early 1900s, several changes in the industry since the late 20th century have caused new labor issues to arise. Today, the rate of injury in the meat packing industry is three times that of private industry overall, and meat packing was noted by Human Rights Watch as being "the most dangerous factory job in America". The meatpacking industry continues to employ many immigrant laborers, including some who are undocumented workers. The more isolated areas in which the plants are located put workers at greater risk due to their limited ability to organize and to seek redress for work-related injuries.
 
Work cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat_packing_industry

The Sinking of the Maine

    The USS Maine was a US navy battleship that was most famous for its catastrophic sinking in Havana Harbor. On the night of February 15,1898, the ship exploded and 266 American naval volunteers' lives were lost. For loss of factual evidence of the cause, American newspaper and officials claimed Spain responsible. Many papers featured yellow journalism on the subject of Spain's terroristic bombing. The phrase, " "Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain!", became a common rallying cry for violence.          

    Determining the cause of the explosion was fiercely opionated. With several different accusations and perspectives on the loss of men, the answer was decided for America. On March 28, 1898, the United States Naval Court of Inquiry found that the Maine was destroyed by a submerged mine. Although there was no direct blame, the implication on the Spanish was clear. 

    By 1976, the case of the USS Maine was reopened by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover who believed modern science was the answer. After consultations of experts and reexamining documents from the first investigation, it was concluded that the damage caused was inconsistent of that of a mine. Rickover claims is was most likely a coal dust fire. Even today, his findings have been disputed and there has been no final solution as to what caused the explosion of the Maine.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_(ACR-1)

www.pbs.org/crucible/tl10.html

Interesting historical websites

http://www.besthistorysites.net

http://www.havefunwithhistory.com

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/thayer/e/gazetteer/topics/history/american_and_military/home.html

Albert Einstein

    Albert Einstein 

By: Amanda Beesler

      Albert Einstein lived from March 14, 1879 to April 18, 1955. He was born in Germany and was a theoretical physisist who developed the general theory of relativity. Einstein was best known for his formula, E=MC2. After World War II, Einstein was a leading representative in the World Government Movement. He was offered the Presidency of the State of Israel, which he declined, and he worked with Dr. Chaim Weizmann in creating the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Einstein also settled in America and brought forth ideas of nuclear fission warfare. He published over 300 scientific papers and 150 other pieces. In 1921, he received the Nobel Prize for Physics.
     At the start of his scientific work, Einstein realized the inadequacies of Newtonian mechanics, and his special theory of relativity came from an attempt to legitimize the laws of mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. He dealt with many classical problems having to do with statistical mechanics and problems in which they were merged with quantum theory. These discoveries led to an explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules. He investigated the thermal properties of light with a low radiation density and his observations laid the foundation of the photon theory of light.
     Einstein always had a strategy of his own and was able to visualize the main stages on the way to his goal. One problem solved was just a stepping-stone to solve the next. Albert Einstein's vast intellectual discoveries made a enormous impact not only in the science world, but foreshadowed the idea of modern scientific, theoretical, and philosophical breakthroughs.




Works Cited: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/einstein-bio.html ,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

Ella's Dealing With Workers

 Dealing with Workers 

                                            By: Ella Huggin

    The relationship between workers and employers on the Transcontinental Railroad was rather uneasy. Considering that the majority of the railroad workers were Chinese, they were not treated with the respect that would have been given to them if they had been American. They were forced to live in camps with little food, water, clothing, and shelter and were expected to be nomadic with their work (they were required to travel frequently). Not only were they expected to work treacherously long hours under these conditions, but they performed the tasks for extremely low pay. Chinese laborers also had to work on unfamiliar territory far from their families or any real civilization. These facts prove that working conditions were very unstable. To improve working conditions, an employer could supply the laborers with warm clothing, adequate shelter, food, and tools. This would improve and quicken the rate at which the tracks were built. On the other hand, a worker could have improved his own working conditions by appealing to his employers. American workers were known for causing violence among other workers, while the Chinese gained the respect of their employers by avoiding uproar. While an employer was unlikely to better work conditions, the conditions will not have worsened if the workers continue to remain on task.

The Builders

The Builders

   By: Amanda Beesler

I think the people who were workers built the railroads because they were the ones putting in physical effort and time into the construction of the railway. The government merely supplied sources and enforced labor.  The state only contributed in the same way. I think the builders saved their money or used it for household costs, the state probably put it in recreational or transportational funds, while the government most likely used it to build the economy or enforce labor.

Transcontinental Railroad

Alec Winsor -

http://winsorus.blogspot.com/2013/10/workers-of-central-pacific-railroad.html

Amanda Beesler - http://www.amandabeeslerhistory.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-impact-of-transcontinental-railroad.html 

http://www.amandabeeslerhistory.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-builders-amanda-beesler-i-think.html

Brian Downer -

http://downersushistory.blogspot.com/2013/10/life-in-camp.html

Ella Huggin - http://amandabeeslerhistory.blogspot.com/2013/10/ellas-dealing-with-workers.html

 

William Anderson "Bloody bill"

                 


                            William Anderson's blood-curdling crimes

     William Anderson, or  "Bloody Bill"  lived from 1840-October 26, 1864.
Bill Anderson served as a lieutenant in Confederate Captain William C. Quantrill's group of viscious murderers that rampaged through the states of Missouri and Kansas. Because of his violent reputation, Anderson had earned the name "Bloody Bill". But when one of his sisters was killed and another crippled he gained even more recognization as a psychotic cold-blooded killer. Anderson participated in Quantrill's murderous rampage in the town of Lawrence, Kansas in August 1863.

     By the next spring he had argued with Quantrill and, taking many members of the band with him, set out to cause more havoc. He and his 100 raiders preyed on any Union detachments or easy targets that came within their reach. Federal soldiers would often be found scalped, with their throats slit. One of the dead soldiers had a note pinned to him signed by Bill Anderson that said, "You come to hunt bush whackers. Now you are skelpt." Anderson decorated his horse's bridle with the scalps he collected.

     On the morning of September 27, 1864, Anderson and his men rode into the small railroad town of Centralia, Missouri, and began looting, burning buildings and getting drunk. They stopped a passing train, robbed the passengers, and lined up and murdered 24 unarmed Union soldiers. Laughing, they rode out of town. Soon after, 150 Union cavalry men set out after Anderson, only to be ambushed and massacred themselves. 116 blue troopers killed were found shot through the head, then scalped, bayonets thrust through them, ears and noses cut off. One month later, "Bloody Bill" was killed by two bullets in the back of his head in a fight with Union militia in northwest Missouri. Anderson's killers propped him up in a chair and had his picture taken. Then they cut off his head and mounted it on a telegraph pole.