Thinking About Progress

1. To me, the word "progress" connotes a development or improvement of some sort.

2. The Progressive Era is the time period of the 1890s to the 1920s in America, according to a George Washington University website. These years fall under this title because there was a focus on improving the country in response to the problems caused by industrialization and corruption in government through social, political, and economic change.

3. The textbook informed me that issues associated with the Progressive Era include women's suffrage, rights of labor, corruption, racial equality, roles of political parties, economic reform, and immigration. The same website linked before noted the rejection of Social Darwinism was another important issue, and Wikipedia mentioned prohibition. As a result of the Progressive Era, women earned the right vote, gain custody of children after divorce, and be in control of their own money and possessions. The 17th Amendment was passed to battle corruption in government, and the 16th Amendment let income tax be collected.

4. These progressive reforms, minus prohibition, all seem to be moving toward the modern United States. The issues that were prevalent during that time are either similar to issues of debate today, or they were resolved during that time, allowing for a more current, advanced country as a result.

Before this movement, women could not even vote. This photo shows people against them doing so.













Now, we are used to women voting, and we have women politicians like Hillary Clinton and Nikki Haley. Feminism is still necessary today, though. We have not perfectly achieved gender equality in the United States, much less in other less progressive nations.


5. Essential Goals:

-Improved rights of laborers
-Improving conditions for immigrants

Good Goals:

-***Women's rights and racial equality (I think these were definitely "essential", but I guess they are not "necessary" for life, though I am very tempted to put these up there)
-Getting rid of political corruption/ economic reform
-Clarifying the roles of political parties

Strange Goals:

-Prohibition of alcohol

Not A Good Idea:

-Possibly prohibition as well

Predictions about the Future from 100 Years Ago

I worked with a partner, Avani, to research about what people used to think about the future in the past and about 100 years ago.

We found a couple of articles, including "Ten 100-Year Predictions That Came True" from BBC, "7 of the Craziest Predictions for the Future, From the Past" from TIME Magazine, and "How Our Predictions for the Year 2000 Changed Throughout the 20th Century".

What predictions about the future were people making 100 years ago? 50 years ago?

The article "Ten 100-Year Predictions That Came True" about the predictions of John Elfreth Watkins shows he thought fruit would be larger, trains would go 150 miles per hour, people would be able to communicate from across the world, and people would be taller.

Determine if the list is a “wish list” – as in, these are the things one might hope for in the future, or more a warning.

The majority of the predictions I read were optimistic. A few, however, were warnings.

Which predictions seem to have come true? Which turned out to be bizarre, off-track, or still out of reach?

"Ten 100-Year Predictions That Came True" lists that it was predicted that "digital" color photography and cell phones were predicted, in a way. A bizarre prediction from "7 of the Craziest Predictions for the Future, From the Past" was that people would eventually all be illiterate because of television, and that people would turn into cyclops.

Can you identify any trends or patterns in these predictions? What concerns or achievements do they seem focused on?  For example, do people in general seem to be anticipating a better world?

I can anticipate that people were generally excited about a future of healthier, more interconnected people. They all focus more on the health of people, transportation, and communication. "How Our Predictions for the Year 2000 Changed Throughout the 20th Century" says that Robert Heinlein predicted small mobile phones and interplanetary travel.

It is your turn to predict a future world.  What do you see?

I see the future as highly, highly specialized. More and more people are going to college. It is becoming an expectation for a large percent of the population. The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande talks about how doctors and other professions require increasingly more years of schooling, because technology is so advanced; we have to go further than acquiring a general education in certain fields just to keep up with what we know. I feel like in the future, people will not enter the workforce until they are super old.

Imagine this older professional is new to his practice.











How much control over the future do we have? What role(s) do you see for individuals, institutions, groups like international organizations, corporations, non-profits, NGOs, governments, etc. in shaping what happens?

I think that I, an individual, have a little bit of control over the future, but I do not know where. Groups have more control over the development of the world, but individuals, in a way, have the most power, because they choose what groups they wish to join and what areas they want to help progress. Individuals strengthen the groups, and groups uplift individuals. I do not have a desire to enter the tech industry, cyber security industry, or social media industry, and I really think that these groups of people have a lot of power over shaping the future popular and economic trends. Everyone in politics, government, and religion are part of a larger entity, so they will have power over the future in monitoring the views people develop in the future.

How do you analyze a political cartoon?

I looked at a guide to analyzing political cartoons. From this guide, I learned that there is often more intention than is evident in what a political cartoonist chooses to label. I noticed labels before, but now I know to think about why certain people or objects were labeled. It probably means they are important, because the cartoonist is sacrificing wittiness to make a point particularly clear. I already knew a lot of what it listed, like how political cartoonists often utilize exaggeration, symbols, analogies, and irony. I knew that it is our jobs as readers to, after identifying all of these elements in the cartoon, deduce what the cartoonist is trying to convey through the devices.

Going forward with the practice of interpreting political cartoons, I will first observe the entire cartoon in its entirety, then look for details. I will use prior knowledge to identify the people and events drawn. Then, as instructed by the guide, I will look for labels, exaggeration, symbols, analogies, and irony, and then I will think about what the cartoonist is telling me through them.

I just located three political cartoons.

This political cartoon is titled "The Open Door".
Like I planned, I first observed the entire cartoon. I identified Uncle Sam, a symbol for America, with my prior knowledge. I saw he was welcoming people through an open gate with the label "Philippines", and I know that the United States was once in control of the Philippines and exploited it for trade from my last history reading. I did not recognize the man in front of the column labeled "India", but I could recognize that I am missing that piece of information. I then looked for other labels, exaggeration, symbols, analogies, and irony. I saw that the four men Uncle Sam was ushering in had extremely different sorts of attire. I could deduce that each man was a symbol for a different country because of their differences in clothes and the labels on their hats, though the labels were too blurry for me to read, and I could not identify which countries they represented. They had many boxes and bags, and they looked very eager. They were exaggerations of the overzealous international trade American control of the Philippines allowed. The cartoonist was trying to shine a light on this greedy trade that America allowed.

This one is titled "School Begins". After observing it in its entirety, I used my prior knowledge to identify the classroom's teacher as Uncle Sam, or the United States. I saw a Native American in the back with a book on the alphabet being read upside-down, and an African American boy washing windows to the side, while a bunch of studious looking white children sat in desks. I knew the United States is notorious for mistreating of both African Americans and Indians and for giving them unequal rights compared to those of white people. They were not receiving schooling, which was analogous to the United States' treatment of these two groups. I noticed this was ironic, because the front row of the classroom was composed of child-like pupils with the labels "Cuba", "Puerto Rico", "Hawaii", and "Philippines". These were also non-white people, but Uncle Sam, America, was forcefully teaching them a lesson in United States government. They looked scared and unwilling. This was analogous to how the United States forcefully took control of these islands. The cartoonist was trying to illustrate the United States' its mistreatment of several peoples, but also the hypocrisy of the imperialist United States.

Finally, this political cartoon is titled "Uncle Sam Watches Over Cuba and the Philippines". Once again, after looking at the cartoon thoroughly, I identified Uncle Sam, who represented America, sitting on a small island's mountain with his hands on his knees, observing two babies on two other islands. I saw labels around the two babies that told me the babies represented the people of the Philippines and of Cuba. The fact that the Cubans and the Philippines were babies while the United States was an adult is an analogy used to depict the paternalism of imperialist America. The Cuban baby was playing with toy soldiers, a boat, a drum, and, most importantly, the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of freedom that Americans value so dearly. This was symbolic of how the United States helped Cuba with its independence. The Filipino baby looked visibly shocked at this unequal treatment, because the United States clung to upmost control of the Philippines. The babies are similar in appearance and age, so it was ironic that one is receiving better treatment. The cartoonist was trying to highlight the hypocrisy of the imperialist United States with its occupation of the Philippines.

Hawaiian, The Legend of Eddie Aikau

This film is called Hawaiian, The Legend of Eddie Aikau because Eddie was a hero in his death and saved many lives, but he was also a hero in that he helped save surfing and Hawaiian culture from being overrun by Americans and Australians.

Topic: Eddie Aikau

Focus: The Hawaiian identity and surfing career of Eddie Aikau

Angle: Eddie Aikau was the embodiment of the Hawaiian identity through his dedication to Hawaiian culture, specifically surfing, and passion for helping others.

This documentary was made as part of ESPN's programming, which shaped the film's content to be more angled toward the sport, surfing, as well as Eddie Aikau's heroism. The filmmakers might have had the assumption that the film's viewers would be mostly sports fans that needed lots of action to stay interested.
The film might have gone more into the history of Hawaiians if it was made by PBS or the History Channel. It would have been angled more toward a general viewer than a sports fan, and would have given more details about the Hokulea and traditions. It would have had less action shots of him surfing and less detail about the specific surfing contests.

Eddie Aikau









If I were to write a documentary based on the latest reading, my topic would be President William McKinley. My focus would be his political career as a Republican and his work to improve the nation during his presidency around the turn of the century. I would first go into how he advanced during the Civil War on the Union side, and then begin illuminating his climb from Congress, the office of governor of Ohio, to the presidency, beating out Williams Jennings Bryan twice. I could utilize reenactments while teaching about the war. His assassination during his second term, which was unfortunate, could also be used to make his story more interesting to viewers. I would highlight his propensity for tariffs that helped America's industry grow. I would discuss in detail how he was the president during the Spanish-American War, which was won quickly, and the acquisition of Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam. The angle would be that though McKinley cared for the country, allowed it to be led it to prosperity in the future, and died tragically while leading it, his underrated legacy was unfairly overshadowed by Theodore Roosevelt.

Phrenology

1. Each member of my group walked up to the porcelain phrenology head bust and quickly took notes so that we could research it online. We learned about phrenology, the study of the concept that the brain's areas each have specific functions of the mind, and its popularity in the 19th century led by L. N. Fowler and his brother.
2. I learned about research a bit today. Whether something is a primary, secondary, or other type of source is dependent on circumstance. The type of research is important. For example, we discussed how this head wouldn't be a primary source if we were researching 19th century knowledge of the brain. However, it would if we were studying the types of scientific antiques people kept in the 21st century, or if we were studying the products made by the company in Oregon that produced the model.
3. Provenance: a. the place of origin or earliest known history of something  b. the record of ownership a work of art or antique, used to guide to authenticity or quality
4. This is L. N. Fowler, who researched the areas of the brain.

This is the head bust.