Studs Terkel 8: Working

The two interviews I read were with Mike Lefevre, a steel worker, and Phil Stellings, an auto worker.  Both of these men had very similar stories about their jobs.  During the introduction, Studs said that men working during the 60's and 70's lacked "a meaning to work well over and beyond the reward of the paycheck."  This quote stuck with me and I felt that it described a lot of what Mike and Phil said.  They still had labor jobs which weren't what they used to be during the 20's and during the war.  Mike said, "you can't take pride anymore."  I was wondering if this was because the pay wasn't good enough or because the work wasn't going to anything special like the war.  This was answered when he said, "your doing this manual labor and you know that technology can do it."  Machines being used to build things were becoming much more common and I connected this to outsourcing today because many Americans can't get jobs when someone over seas will do it for a fraction of the cost.  Both of these men also talked about how they were bored with their jobs and that it was the same old thing.  I believe that it is because during this time America started to have to norm of going to college instead of going into the army.  They referred to the business men as "snobs" because these men thought they were better than everyone else.  Yet at the same time Mike was hoping that his son would become one of these men because that is the path most Americans were taking to be prosperous.  What these interviews taught me is that America changed into a much less labor dominated working country partially because of peer pressure and how attractive wealth was.

Studs Terkel 7: Division Street: America

The first interview I read was with Dennis Hart, a cab driver in Chicago.  He talked a lot about how the people of America have changed in the later half of the 20th century.  Something I thought was interesting was that even after the civil rights movement, there was still a huge color barrier.  Dennis said, "It's a rare incident to see a white man cry."  This struck me first as peculiar because I haven't seen many adults cry and then I began to wonder why black men would cry more than white men.  Dennis went on to say that white people's only goal is to have more money.  This made me think that during this time period many many people were trying to get more white collar jobs while blacks began filling up blue collar jobs.  I believe that what lead to this was the Kennedy Administration because the staff during that presidency were much younger than any before.  Not only did this lead to different jobs but it is also what gave young people the confidence to protest and stand up for their beliefs.  Dennis also talked about how society was during that time as well.  He said, "The average individual, if he saw a communist on the street, he would pick up a stone and throw it at him.  This shows how negative people were towards communists just as they are towards terrorists today.  Dennis explained this by saying that everyone was in a state of panic.  This shows that the cold war caused people to become afraid and fight that fear with anger.  Overall, what I took from this interview is that the 50's and 60's in America were very complicated times because of all of the changes.  The best comparison I can make with this time period is America was going through puberty because it was changing, emotional, and slowly maturing.

The second interview I read was with Tom Kearny, a Chicago police officer.  Just like Dennis, he talked about how society was changing and that labor jobs were being turned in for white collar jobs.  Society as a whole was changing and I believe that this is because of how leadership changed.  The entire first half of the 20th century was lead by the same politicians but their time had ended and a new one began.  Of course, the change over was not perfect as Kearny quoted, "it's a corrupt society."  He based this on the large amount of youth revolt.  There are different types of revolt though.  One was standing up to the government peacefully and exercising the first amendment.  Another was a revolt against the elders of the country.  Kearny explained this when saying, "the younger generation doesn't think to highly of us.  They think we made a mess of things, which we did."  This quote is saying that because the past leaders had made very controversial decisions that went against the thoughts of the people, the new youth didn't want to tolerate that.  This lead to drug use and protests.  The change over from past to present was awkward and described well by Tom Kearny. 

Open Response #3

I really enjoyed learning about the end of the 1920's and the beginning of the depression because I believe that these times in American history have most largely shaped the present.  The 20's was a new era that included the use a credit, an everyday necessity in the 21st century, and the production of new consumer technologies such as the radio.  The depression helped shape the nation because it corrected many economic and social flaws.  I have always believed that people learn best from their failures and looking at America today shows that they have learned from the past.  Many programs that America has today started during the depression as part of the new deal.  This shows that the government made successful programs by looking at what failed.  America should learn from this time period because it will help the government figure out the best path for the country to be on.  For example, I feel that congress should allow more laws to be passed to see if they work or not.  If they don't then the law can be taken away but if they do then it was worth taking the risk.  Another example of this working is the U.S. involvement during WWII prior to pearl harbor.  They would only give supplies that were fully paid for and they would not cover transportation.  They did this because of how much money the U.S. didn't get back after WWI.  Comparing the early 1900's to now, it is interesting to see what has changed and it will be interesting in just 20 years to see what else has changed.

Open Response #2

Something that struck me as weird and interesting was the fear of communism during the 1950's.  I found this weird because for as long as I have been alive, I have always felt that each American was treated equally and not falsely accused like many were in the 50's.  I also found this interesting because even though the 50's were very prosperous it seemed like the entire nation was afraid.  Not only afraid of communism but also desegregation.  America has a tendency to be cruel to those that they are afraid of and it even holds true today with the fear of terrorists.  Fear of terrorism and communism are very similar because in both cases people stereotype and accuse fellow Americans.  Both fears also started because of an attack on America that showed Americans that they are not untouchable.  Something that was peculiar to me is why people in Hollywood were the most accused of being communists.  It is something I didn't understand because if anything I would think politicians would be the most accused.  Also, during the 1950's there was never a law that prevented someone from being communist so I never knew how they were able to question people in court.  What I learned from this is that America always tries to cover up their fears with prosecution.  In essence, they were bullies.  Joseph McCarthy was the largest contender of this because of how unfair he was with people he accused.  During this entire unit, I kept thinking to myself "What defines someone as a communist?" and by the end of it I still had no idea how the government was getting away with this.  Hopefully America can learn to overcome fears opposed to covering them.

Open Response #1

The day that we watched Saving Private Ryan was the most powerful day for me when we were learning about WWII.  Besides hearing about battles and casualty numbers, I had never been able to visualize or feel what the war was like for soldiers.  Seeing how gruesome war was made me think about the men that volunteered to go into war back then and about the men that volunteer today.  Did these men know back then that war was as messy as it is?  Thanks to movies and television, soldiers have a lot more background knowledge before joining the army.  When we later learned about Vietnam and heard details about soldiers getting wounded, I could imagine the wounds.  It scared me and made me really sad but also opened my eyes to the reality of war.  A large realization that I made was later when playing Call of Duty.  In the game people fire fake weapons and you see fake soldiers fall and die.  I then understood how sheltered I have been from war my whole life.  It isn't necessarily a bad thing but it isn't good either.  My respect for soldiers seems to go up everyday because nothing is comparable to the courage soldiers have.  I remember watching Rocky I a few years ago and in it Rocky is treated badly because he is a Vietnam veteran.  Thinking about this now, I can't fathom how a person could disrespect a soldier.  I became even angrier when Mr. McDonald told us about how poorly he was treated as well.  What I have learned from all of this is that soldiers go through so much to protect America and even though they are treated much better today I still feel that they deserve more.   

Studs Terkel 6: The Good War

The first interview I read was with Peter Ota.  Peter's father was put in jail because he is of Japanese decent.  He said it was shameful to see his dad behind bars and in prison clothes.  This showed me another example of racism going on during the 1900's that wasn't only directed towards blacks.  Peter said that the worst part was that in Japanese culture "shame was worse than death."  Peter later was reunited with his dad at an internment camp.  He was later drafted into the army and talked about the irony of fighting for freedom when he wasn't free himself.  Reading this made me think about how cruel and hypocritical the U.S. was because they were against Hitler having concentration camps but they were doing the same thing.  I think that the entire country wouldn't have thought so badly of Japanese-Americans if the U.S. had not interned them because then there would be no bandwagon for people to follow.  Peter also said that he only ever wanted the American dream and that by the end of the war he had become part of white America.  The connection I made with this was when Spain first went to Mexico and forced Christianity upon them.  America changed people to become more "American" even though America is a big melting pot. 

The second interview I read was with Betty Basye who graduated high school in 1941.  News such as Pearl Harbor didnt' travel as quickly because of the lack of technology.  She had many friends that were killed in Pearl Harbor which prompted her to help the war effort.  She became a nurse in the army.  I thought that this some what connected to 9/11 because it was an attack from another country but the difference was that people heard about 9/11 instantaneously.  It also didn't connect because not everyone liked the war on terrorism but many people during the 1940's supported the war.  Betty said that her first experience with soldiers was gruesome and disgusting.  I was trying to understand but I still could probably never conceive what the war was actually like.  She said, "I never really became used to it."  I thought about every nurse and medic during the war that saw scarring and gross things.  She ended up marrying a soldier that was wounded and ended by saying, "you could never get the father of my four children to talk about the war."  Hopefully I will never need to see what war is like but as of right now it is something beyond me that I could never fully connect with.   

Studs Terkel 5: The Good War

The first interview I read was with Peggy Terry.  She talked about the transition from the great depression to WWII.  She said "the first work I had after the depression was at a shell-loading plant."  This taught me that women taking over previous manly roles happen instantly.  It is another example as to how the nation united.  She also said that she wasn't thinking a lot about the war but mostly about keeping herself and her family alive.  I saw this as the U.S. not being fully on board with the war until they joined it or were set financially.  A lot of people also moved to Michigan for better wages even with no worker rights and poor conditions.  This showed how desperate Americans were at the time.  They took jobs in order to survive regardless of the safety or location.   Things then changed in American Society once the war began.  Peggy talked about how she hated the Japanese but that she also didn't know anything about the internment camps.  During times of war, the government tends to cover up anything that seemed bad and only show what is good.  This also happened during the Vietnam war where until Tet, Americans believed they were winning the war.  I feel that even when learning about this era, the history books only cover things that are good and not always the bad.  We learned about how after the war America prospered but Peggy Terry talked about how the war "brutalized" men.  Then men who had came home were still so distraught from the war even during the changing times.

The second interview I read was with E.B. Sledge who was captured in Japan during WWII.  He was so distraught from the experience that he said he had "nothing much to say about the war."  This reminded me about when we were reading Night by Elie Wiesel and he said that there were still many things that he has never spoken of.  He did say that the Japanese were inhumane and it turned the prisoners into savages.  I could never imagine having to go through that and how it changes a person forever.  Sledge's final message was that people only talk about the terror of the Nazi's but not very much about the cruelty of the Japanese.  Until this year I had never thought about this mostly because I am Jewish and only heard about the Nazi's during WWII but i agree that they cruelty of the Japanese should be more widely known because of the men that died over there.  

Studs Terkel 4: The Good War

The interview I read was with Bob Ragmus, a rifleman during WWII.  He said that he remembers the war very well and that people that weren't there can not relate.  This made me think of how gruesome war is and was for soldiers.  Back home terms like "jap" and "nazi" were used everyday.  I feel that this connects to how people use derogatory words today such as the r-word or gay.  Overseas, many soldiers were young and "some lost their innocence."  The war changed them because in order to survive they had to mature and be strong.  The army was also a mixing pot similar to America.  Men from each part of the country came together to fight as one.  For the civil rights movement, I think that this was a big step that brought different races even closer together.  The role of people on the home front changed too.  Blacks had more factory jobs and women did more hands on work.  WWII on the home front was a turning point in American history because it was the start of a culture that still holds to this day.  The racial barrier is broken and women obtain more new jobs every single year that used to be only masculine jobs.  After the war life prospered and all of the soldiers came home.  Bob said that the "GI Bill was a blessing."  I'm glad they did this because being part of the army was a job and these men needed to support there families.  It also showed that the government had learned after WWI when the soldiers marched to D.C. for money.  Bob also was in Vietnam and remembers "every hour and every minute of the 42 days." He said that WWII was a lot different than Vietnam.  I feel that the problem the U.S. had in Vietnam is that they had the wrong strategy.  It was a different war than WWII and couldn't be fought the same way.  The VC laid a lot of booby traps and waited for the U.S. to come to them.  If the U.S. had adapted then maybe the war could have been won.  Overall, Ragmus teaches us that wars have a large effect on a nation and especially its citizens.  

Studs Terkel 3: Hard Times

The first interview I read was with Jane Yoder and her son Tom.  She talked about the effects of the Great Depression on the average person.  Her father was an immigrant and needed work.  She said that,"During the depression, my father took a great deal of psychological abuse."  Reading this opened up my eyes to see that the depression was more than an time of a bad economy.  Just like today's times though, the rich were still rich.  Her father was employed thanks to the WPA but work still defined the class people lived in.  Jane said, "They were just two separate, separate worlds."  In all times during American history there have been different classes however during this time the distance between them was huge.  I feel that this debate over how big the gap should be needs to be settled so that America doesn't have anything similar to the great depression ever again.  Jane's son, Tom, talked about how the only way to move foreword was to forget about the past.  I agree with this because the only way to improve is to reflect and take self action.

The second interview I read was with Peggy Terry and her mother Mary Owsley.  Mary Owsley was the spokesperson for poor southern whites.  Life was hard because her husband had shell shock which made him "restless and disturbed from the war."  I thought this was interesting because it shows a time in U.S. history when women's roles had changed to having more power.  Women needed to step up in this time too because of disasters such as the dust bowl.  Mary also said, "There were a lot of suicides that I know of."  People weren't able to make a living and thought that death was the only option.  Peggy did say however, that reading The grapes of wrath helped cope with the hard times.  I think that this is because it let everyone known that the nation was struggling and that they needed to work together to get out of the poor economic times. 

Studs Terkel 2: Hard Times

The first interview that I read was with Arthur A. Robertson, a wealthy mogul during the 1920's.  He talked about what made the 20's so flourishing and also what happened to him during the great depression.  His biggest point was that the stock market caused the largest amount of change in the 20's because it was an easy way to get rich.  During this time, banks also took over because of the use of credit in order to buy now and pay later.  Banks were also difficult to deal with as Robertson says, "The worst day-to-day operators of business are were bankers."  Banks gave out a lot of money in loans during that time as well.  The largest problem with society during that time however was that people followed what the big shots did.  When moguls realized the market was falling and they pulled their money out of stocks, so did the rest of the country causing the economic collapse.  Since moguls were able to pay off bank loans they turned out okay but the rest of the country did not.  I found it interesting that the country followed the hot shots because that's what happens today when celebrities do advertisements.  Following the 20's, Robertson talked about his experience during the depression as a scavenger.  He said that as a scavenger he used to buy broken down businesses that banks took over.  Unlike most, Robertson was able to stay successful during the depression and not fall into poverty.  This very closely relates to the occupy wall street movement because they movement points out that very few are in the upper class while the rest are in middle or lower classes.  Something that I learned from this is that a lot of modern day things such as credit cards all began back in the 1920's however they had many flaws that have been fixed today.

The second interview that I read was with Oscar Heline, A farmer during the Great Depression.  Oscar talked about how there was no food or money during this time and that every sale was a competition.  He told Terkel, "The farmer is a pretty independent individual."  I always thought that farmers grew most of their own food but of course they needed to feel that food to pay for other necessities and during the depression they had to sell to survive.  They also had to burn grain in order to stay warm.  When the government asked farmers not to sell, Oscar was effected for a short period of time before becoming more prosperous.  I feel that this was a necessary move by the government in order to drive up prices but if this hadn't worked then things could have gotten worse.  We discussed the laws mad during the new deal during class and until reading this I was always skeptical about why the government emphasized the role of farmers so much.  Even though crop prices were going up, other prices were still low.  At one point Oscar said he was so desperate that he "couldn't afford to feed $3 hogs so we went out and bought them and killed them.  That's how desperate we were."  They killed the hogs to make them more scarce and drive those prices higher.  Luckily, after enough time farmers began to make money and prosper.  From Oscar's story, I learned that the government can't deal with everything sometimes Americans need to take matters into their own hands.  

 

American Dreams Lost and Found (1980)

The first interview that i read was with Vine Deloria, a 45 year old Native American author and teacher.  He grew up as a Sioux Indian and currently teaches political science at the university of Arizona.  During the beginning of the interview Deloria commented on how his upbringing with the Sioux was during the time when Native Americans around the country were transitioning into white culture.  Common values of respecting the elders seemed to have faded away.  The problem that Deloria pointed out was that Americans kept wanting to be young and never grow up which caused controversy among many Native Tribes.  This is because their own culture and values were slowly being diminished.  They were being destroyed by the whites because as Deloria pointed out, "when the whites came to the new world they were full of fear. Of nature and animals alike."  This quote is saying that the whites tried to rid this fear not by overcoming but by taking it away.  Something very powerful i feel that he said was that the American Dream is always looking to the future but never focusing on the present.  I agreed because even after manifest destiny no one stopped to appreciate that they achieved the American Dream. Instead they looked ahead to achieve the next step without enjoying the one they just reached.  Deloria concluded  that because of this, only a small percentage of Americans have meaningful lives. this is because the rest keep trying to achieve an unreachable utopia.  Something else that was intriguing was Deloria said that Americans are always trying to forget their dark past whether it was slavery or discrimination and i feel that due to these past events, Americans feel that they always must be better to prove to themselves and to the world that they are changed and are dominant.

The second interview that i read was with Finnish immigrant Andy Johnson.  Andy was born in Finland and came to America in 1906 to escape the Russo-Japanese war.  He said early on "the poor came to America because they had no opportunity back home." He also talked about how many immigrants go "Kuume" or the American Fever which is thinking that America is the land of wealth and opportunity.  This was true because of the many labor jobs offered and people from all cultures came to America for this.  This was the American Dream that immigrants had in mind. Coming to a new world with jobs and hope for their families.  Andy's father had jumped from job to job though which gave Andy the idea that even though there were jobs, none of them were favorable or promoted happiness.  Later they most west and got free land from the government.  This was truly the American Dream because it gave immigrants the taste of manifest destiny and having their own land.  The American Dream wasn't as high and mighty as talked about today.  Just how today there is the 99% protesting against the 1% of elites in America, the same held true back then.  Today getting rich and living in a big house are high goals for some but due to the corruption of elites during the early 1900's, America turned into a system of classes closely resembling nobles in European countries.  It was a rank that could not be achieved but could only be received which made the dream of Americans just above survival because of the this truth.  Survival of the fittest was the term that guided society and Andy concluded that because of this system, "Americans were going straight to hell. 

The Progressive Movement

1.  The most influenced area's of the progressive movement were working conditions.  Before the movement, children were pulled out of school to work long hours with little pay in unsafe factories.  Due to this, events such as the Triangle Shirt Waste factory fire happened.  145 people were killed because the owners had locked the doors from the outside.  This needed to be changed so President Roosevelt initiated the Keating-Owen Act of 1914.  This started child labor laws and is currently still working to this day.    Women and men were also working long hours with low pay in horrible working conditions.  The book "The Jungle" gave insight to the disgusting world of meat packing in Chicago and unveiled the horrible food conditions and the even worse working conditions.  Thankfully, the Illinois Factory Act helped by shortening work to an 8 hour work day which also laid down as an example for other states. Labor union strikes began to spike up all over the country hoping for even more rights.  Economically, the government issued a minimum wage to help with the large gap between workers and owners.  Other rights regarding conditions began to emerge as strikes went up. Eventually, workers had fair rights and were treated with respect.

2. At the turn of the century one of the biggest developments that brought about the progressive movement was the vast amount of immigration.  Immigration brought millions of new workers into the country filling up factories and manufacturing jobs.  The large amount of people searching for work allowed the wealthy owners to pay workers unfairly small wages.  These small wages then caused immigrant families to have their children and wives work to be able to afford expenses.  Due to immigration, problems such as child labor and horribly working conditions erupted.  Luckily these problems also lead to solutions in what was called the progressive movement.  Child labor laws were then initiated along with the solutions to other social issues such as a shorter work day.  Populism was seen during this movement everywhere because most Acts that were passed by the government started by the people raising awareness for them to help the majority of the nation.  Workers and immigrants were helped which shows how populism played a role during the progressive movement.  Even though populism was in the progressive movement the two eras were still different.  The focuses of the progressive movement were the problems in mainly social issues and economics in the country and how they were changed for the better while populism had a much broader focus.  

After thoughts on Populism

So in class we just finished learning and studying populism and how it takes place in modern times.  Populism is defined as helping the common people of the country and dividing wealth into different classes.  In my opinion, I hate it that our government had to come up with a title for helping the majority of the people.  It should be common sense that the government helps everyone. I am disgusted that even though we do have classes, doing things to benefit the upper class isn't labeled but helping 98% of the country is.  The country is designed to be fair but helping those who need it should still come up as a top priority.  The cost of living in America is five times that of China yet Americans would rather help the larger amount of poverty in China then the still significant amount in America.  There has been a lot of talk about taxing the super rich much more than now because they will still have a bunch of money left over.  I understand this but frankly, I don't trust the government with our money.  Obama even admits that there is countless spending driving up our debt.  Giving the federal government more money just gives them a cushion of security but will make them spend more and do more harm.  I would rather stick with the taxes and lower middle class taxes because this will make the government focus more on needs instead of wants so that they can eventually decide what really matters.  The super rich on the other hand use their money wisely.  The millions of dollars invested into Charity's every year are more beneficial to the health of Americans than giving an immature government more money in a candy store.  Once populism isn't though of as a word but as common sense, maybe then should the government be able to take charge of the economy.