Brooke (U.S. History)

Interview A Boomer

Essential Question: What impact did Vietnam, Watergate, and Ronald Reagan have on Americans?

Through my interview with my father I was able to gather valuable insight into the impact of Vietnam, watergate, and other major events of the 1970’s on Americans.
My father expressed to me, through explaining his personal experiences with the draft and the conflict the war and the presidency in this era brought to his life, that America was infact a “nation in turmoil”. However, my father explained, “turmoil” was not necessarily as detrimental to the nation as the word seems to imply. This turmoil, as it my father expressed, brought a restlessness and energy to America that fueled a political awakening and allowed the social changes that occured in this era to take place. From my interview I can conclude that Vietnam and Watergate were hurtful to the nation in the sense that they undermined the security of many Americans but the positive repercussions of such events seem to out weigh the negatives. These events also caused the backlash of the youth culture known as “counter-culture”, a notion that added to the surging energy of the nation and, although many of the baby boomer’s parents viewed it as a negative type of culture, allowed the youth to express their political and social beliefs in a stronger, more unified manner. This youth culture and expression through music and pop culture is an everlasting affect of the 1970’s that has forever positively changed the way politics and the government are run in America.
I was able to uncover what one baby boomer percieved as the biggest difference between politics and the political beliefs of Americans in the 1970’s and today. My father observed, logically, that the sentiments Americans feel towards the government and towards their country are the same feelings they have always had and they are just as strong now as ever, but the means through which Americans express these emotions has changed drastically. The more physical demonstration of the 1970’s seemed to have been more powerful and uniting than the digital and cyber petitions and protests we see in the twenty fist century.

listen to brooke.mp3

What primary sources have you found? How did you find them? (Describe tools and search strings) Do you feel that you have adequate primary and secondary source material on your topic? If not, why not?

I have found a bunch of primary sources, mostly government memo's, telegrams and transcripts of meetings. I also have a book that is the war diary of Breckinridge Long, a close advisor to FDR during the years I am investigating which offers immense insight to the inner workings as well as the biases that were being fed to Roosevelt. I have found google advanced very useful, especially beign able to limit the domain (.gov, .edu) I have used the strings "FDR and Holocaust, America and Holocaust, Roosevelt Holocaust, Breckingridge Holocaust, FDR holocaust advisors" to find the most results so far.

I do feel I have adequate sources at this point.

At the Nobles library I found 2 books and one movie:

"The Abandonment of the Jews"
David S. Wyman

"A race against death: America and the Holocaust"
David S. Wyman and Rafael Medoff

"America and the Holocaust: Deceit and Indifference"
(movie)

-- seems that David Wyman is a scholar in the field, maybe i will do some research on him

Ordered from the CLASS union:

"The Policitics of Rescue: The Roosevelt administration and the Holocaust"

How I plan to narrow down my research: After going through these books I plan to find out about discussions and information he had as well as who and what influenced his decision to stay out of the Holocaust, maybe to find journal entries on how he felt persoanlly about the decisions he made..etc

Also from some other reasearch on the website

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/filmmore/reference/primary/index.html

I found some names of ppl involved in the US decision making pertaining to this matter:

-Beckinridge long adamently believed the US shoudl stay out of the Holocaust

- Sumner Welles, secretary of state, who was recieving the telegrams and other info about the concentration camps, etc

also found numerous documents on this website that document the progression of the matter from the first news of the holocaust to meetings with FDR and his reluctance to face the matter

- references to Bermuda Conference. I plan to look into this..

Research Project Question

Here is what you need to do this weekend:

1. Identify a general topic

- US involvement in the Holocaust

2. Identify what interests you about the topic

- I am interested what FDR knew about the Holocaust, what he didn't know, what he felt the public should know, his reactiosn to news of these events

3. Do preliminary background reading (encyclopedia; history web site; book chapter) and develop an effective keyword and subject search strategy:

-keywords: FDR, any names of advisors/informants, Holocaust, Concentration camps (auschwitz, dachau, etc), Diary entries, reflections, government documents, reactions, involvement, America, US

-keyword search strings: FDR and Holocaust, FDR holocaust involvment, FDR holocaust information, FDR knowledge of Concentration camps, Holocaust Government documents, US and Holocaust, US intervention in Holocaust

-- found a review of a movie about FDR's response to news of the holocaust:
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=FDR+holocaust&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/filmmore/reference/primary/index.html#pres
PRIMARY SOURCES
* convorsations with FDR: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/filmmore/reference/ primary/presmemorandum.html
*notes from meeiting about the matter: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/filmmore/reference/primary/presareport.html

Brooke Hammer
US History
11/25/2006
One Dollar Thirty Eight Cents

It’s hard to remember now why we thought it was a good idea, my brother and me, to leave home for the CCC we’d gotten word of. Foolish of us, thinkin’ the ride there’d be easy or somethin’- from Kansas all the way to Michigan, an’ from the way its lookin’ and what the other ‘bos are sayin’ it won’t be any easier when we get there to the CCC. And as I sit here, crouched in the corner of the rail car and gnawing on a toughened bit of meat, maybe beef I think, I found in the pocket of the musty jacket I took from my dad’s closet yesterday mornin’. Now all the other ‘bos are callin’ for what we got for a mulligan stew, so I close my mouth tight around the shrinkin’ morsel of food I got in my mouth but I do offer up the laces of my shoes- they’re fallin’ apart anyways an’ they’ll make for good flavor in the stew. I shake off one sleeve of this old coat to lend my brother Matt some warmth, or what bit warmth that sleeve might give him with its linin’ fallin’ off an’ all.

Matt an’ I’ve been on the rails just about two days now, but boy does it feel like more, and every night I remember the comfort of our cots back in the house in Kansas, where we’d whisper to each other late at night, Matt tellin’ me things he’d heard mom and dad sayin’ ‘bout us kids and me tellin’ him the updates I’d heard on the president’s latest fireside chat- and it was never as good as he made it sound. An’ we’d always talk ‘bout how we could help, you know, make a few cents here an’ there, but we never seemed to be able to think of a way to make a big difference ‘til the night Matt suggested he knew a way to help mom and dad out so much they wouldn’t know how to thank us. “Well go on then,” I said, squinting to make out the expression on my older brother’s face, “how could we do that?”

“Well, today I overheard Henry talkin’ at the soup kitchen ‘bout a CCC up in Michigan where they give the boys food an’ clothin’ and all you gotta do is just plant some trees or somethin’,” Matty finished and I lay silently in my bed thinkin’ ‘bout how we’d do up there in Michigan, not even considerin’ the travels a problem. So that mornin’ we scrounged ‘round the house for any money we could, figurin’ it was okay for us to take what we wanted, ‘cause we’d be leavin’ the family such less a burden. So with our dollar and thirty eight cents and the fullest stomachs we’d have for a long time, we left mom and dad a note on the door and started out on the first of many cold walks.

Getting’ to the train stop before the sun even rose that day we saw the rest of ‘em kids like us that were all headed for that CCC in Michigan. The plan, they told us, was to get the train here to Missouri and then from there to Michigan, but we’d have to be ware of the bulls or we’d never make there in one piece they said. And they were right- that first night we all were just getting’ to sleep when we heard those clunkin’ foot steps. The whispers whipped around the pile of teenagers: “bulls are comin’”.

So as much as we tried to hide in the corner under a jacket or what ever other pieces of clothin’ we could find, the bulls knew we were there and with the butts of their guns poked at us- gently at first, then hard ‘nough to break a rib, ‘til we gave ‘em half our pot each. Sixty nine cents between Matt an’ I. Thank God they believed us we were brothers of they would’ve had to hurt one of us, like they did Henry that night too, ‘cause he only had just ten cents, not enough to pay the fare of a train ride, they said. We arrived at the Missouri stop and spent the rest of the night in a hooverville near the train stop there. Just a lil’ while ago we caught this train, and hopefully we’ll be arrivin’ in Michigan soon, and we’ve been hopin’ the CCC will take us all, ‘cause it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve turned some ‘bos down, or so we hear.

1920's Project Progress

As I set out to find information on Advertising and Consumerism of the 1920's, I found myself having a difficult time finding sources about this topic, but after some more digging, I was able to locate a few good sources that allowed me to come up with the information I have gathered so far.

So far I have found that advertising and consumerism had a huge affect on american society in 1920. The public image and how different groups in America percieved themselves in the changing modern society. Consumerism, the buying trends of the american people, propelled the economy to a new prosperity while the advertising industry changed the publics perception of wealth. Coming out of the war, the economy was on the rise, with the percapity income of the average US citizen growing 30% (polytechnic.org).

The Sloan car company demonstrated both aspects of this boom in consumerism and the changing advertising industry. While Ford continued to reform improve efficiency, Sloan changed the image of cars to one of wealth and status, introducing different levels of status within the lines of his car company: general motors. This introduction of status symbology with cars was one of the first times the concept of materialism, one that would become a trademark of America, was introduced into our society.

What is the proper role of government in American Society?

It is hard to draw a clear line as to where government should interfere with American society and where it should stay out. In my opinion, I believe the government should regulate areas of society where the health of the public is at risk- food and drug regulation especially, and areas where corporations could abuse power because the way that government does these things currently works well. However, I do not agree that the US should feel obligated to spread democracy and capitalism to countries around the world. It is not our responsibility and often times we end up getting ourselves into wars where the other country could have taken ccare of themselves. It is necessary to interevene in this matter sometiems, as it maybe was in Iraq, becuase if the US is in anyway in danger, the government needs to step up and protect its citizens.

Ragged Dick

1. Honesty, integrity- Dick refuses to steal, no matter how tempted or hungry he might be
2. Being hardworking and willing to work- this is how Dick gets enough business to support himself
3. Being a good person/friendly- this is how Dick makes friends and connections that help him get more business and sometimes a place to eat, this is also how he meets Frank
4. "honest looking"- without this Dick would not have gotten the chance to make some of these connections
5. Being smart/aware- Dick has to always be on his toes, as was demonstrated with the "dropping" of the wallet. without this quality Dick could have been easily taken advantage of

Ragged Dick

1. Honesty, integrity- Dick refuses to steal, no matter how tempted or hungry he might be
2. Being hardworking and willing to work- this is how Dick gets enough business to support himself
3. Being a good person/friendly- this is how Dick makes friends and connections that help him get more business and sometimes a place to eat, this is also how he meets Frank
4. "honest looking"- without this Dick would not have gotten the chance to make some of these connections
5. Being smart/aware- Dick has to always be on his toes, as was demonstrated with the "dropping" of the wallet. without this quality Dick could have been easily taken advantage of

Industrial Age (Post #1)

The activity we just did was to show us how it felt to work in a factory during the industrial age. We had to balance the quality of our products with the pressure of time. It was frustrating because you could only do your one job and you had no control over the other people on the assembly line or the final product. We were trying to go the fastest to "win" time off of class Monday, but instead we ended up making crumpled or sloppy paper planes that didn't count anyways. This is connected to the scientific management we read about last night.