Presentation Grades

Wow. I just looked at they syllabus and saw that we only have two weeks of class left! So time to talk about the presentations! We can discuss these more in class tomorrow, but again, I can't stress this enough - make them interesting!

I will randomly draw names during class on Thursday and next Tuesday, so please be prepared to go on both of these days. There is a possibility that these presentations will run over into next Thursday, so please plan accordingly!

I was having trouble dealing with the issue of attendance on these two (possibly three days), but here's what I came up with: if you do not have an excused absence, your presentation grade will drop by 2.0 (on a 4.0 scale). We can discuss this in more detail tomorrow. But I cannot stress enough that your attendance, courtesy, and attention to others' presentations is just as important as your own.

I hope to see you all in class tomorrow since I will be going over the grading rubric for the final along with some other details.

The Blog Grades

I know I promised to give you an update of your blog grades this week. I've provided a general rubric instead that will give you the opportunity to decide where your grade is right now and how much more contribution you will have to put into the blog for the remainder of the semester to receive the grade you want. Remember that if you submitted a write-up for the REOlds museum, your blog grade will go up by 1.0 (everything's on a 4.0 grade scale). On the rubric,"***" posts signify that you have gone beyond my expectations for the blog, you have contributed an above average number of comments to other people's blogs, or you have continuously written in-depth blog entries. Therefore, even if you don't meet the minimum amount of blog entries, you may receive a higher grade if your blog was exceptionally well-written or you provided a lot of feedback.
Blog entries will be closed for grading as of 12/6/10. I'm grading on your average overall performance throughout the entire semester, so don't expect to receive a great grade if you had very few entries throughout most of the semester.

Here's the breakdown of the blog grades:

26 (or more) posts
OR
23***posts
----------->4.0

20-25 posts
OR
17***posts
----------->3.0

14-19 posts
OR
11***posts
----------->2.0

8-13 posts-----------> 1.0

less than 8 posts----> 0.0

We will go over this in more detail when we meet again for class on Tuesday November 30. At that time, I can also tell you if your blog entries have gone beyond my expectations and received the "***" rating.

Finally, next Tuesday, I will provide a grading rubric for the final paper. Please be sure to attend class so you can get this from me!

Have a great holiday everyone!

Some financial incentive to do well on your paper...

Every year the Labor History Association presents a prize for the best undergraduate paper on labor history. The winner, in addition to receiving $250.00 will carry the honor of having won a national competition.

I will probably encourage a couple of you to submit your papers, but anyone can enter. I will be willing to work with any of you in the upcoming semester to continue to refine your paper if you are interested in entering the competition. Below is the announcement of the 2009-2010 winner as well as further information about this year's competition:

The New York State Labor History Association is proud to announce that the 2010 Barbara Wertheimer Prize has been awarded to Rose Friedman for her essay, "The IWW and the Mesabi Miners, 1916-1917." The Wertheimer committee was very impressed by Ms. Friedman's sophisticated handling of the idea of “race management” and her thoughtful analysis of the divergent forces at work in the IWW and the Mesabi mines. Her research paper was written for Professor Peter Rachleff at Macalester College.

BARBARA WERTHEIMER PRIZE IN LABOR HISTORY

To recognize serious study in labor and work history among undergraduate students, the New York Labor History Association will award the Barbara Wertheimer Prize of $250.00 for the best research paper written during the 2010-2011 academic year. An abstract of the winning entry will, with permission, be posted on the NYLHA website. Please encourage your best undergraduate students to submit their work.

Papers on any aspect of labor or work history will be considered. Entries will be evaluated on the basis of scholarship and literary merit.

Entrants should send one copy of their paper to:

Brian Greenberg,
Department of History and Anthropology,
Monmouth University,
West Long Branch, NJ 07764.

The deadline is June 15, 2011

Thursday and Tuesday Meeting Schedule

Here is the schedule for Thursday and next Tuesday. Please note that if your name appears to the right of the "/" then you will meet on Tuesday:

Thursday November 18/Tuesday November 23
8:30 – Kristin Cross/Luke Arends
8:40 – Micah Fields/Morgan Saunders
8:50 – Sean Cappello/Emily Hambright
9:00 – Kelsea Raether/Allen Wolfe
9:10 – Hilary Podgers/Amanda Smith
9:20 – Stacie Morrison/Jim LaFave
9:30 – Laura Richards/Marites Woodbury
9:40 – Anna Hardenbergh/Josh Barens
9:50 – Julius Lietuvninkas/Josh Bertolet
10:00 – Jason Allen/

I'm looking forward to reading what you have written so far!

Julian Gabaldon's House

Today during class, we did an in-class activity based upon the 1910 census. For those of you that were there, remember that one of the people we discussed was Julian Gabaldon (he was the merchant that spoke Spanish, wife spoke English, both were born in Mexico and both were labeled "white". Here are two photographs of his home:


Photos Courtesy of the Arizona Historical Society Archives

Some more information that I've written about this from my disseration:
"The Gabaldon's resided in a large, ornate house made of wood, rather than the more common and cheaper adobe material. The house was complete with stained glass windows and a wrap-around porch. In a remote mining town like Clifton, luxuries such as these were difficult to come by and were usually reserved for the wealthiest residents in the town. The Gabaldons also celebrated both their Mexican and American identities. In a photograph taken by the town's photographer, O.A. Risdon, Concepcion stands outside of her home with flags of Mexico and the U.S. decorating the front porch. The Gabaldons' wealth, education and social status provided them with the opportunity to be something besides the 'other'."

Monday - Post-Halloween/Sugar Rush and Back to the Grind

I'm reading quite a few blog posting over the past couple of days that seem to be saying the same thing: everyone's busy with term papers, midterm exams, etc. I know how overwhelming work can get around this time of the semester. I'm also feeling the crunch of being past the mid-semester mark and needing to do a LOT of work for my dissertation chapter. Best of luck to everyone!

I know you're all busy trying to crank out a rough draft for this class as well. The readings for the next couple of weeks are not too long, however, and I'm hoping that you have a chance to finish them and come prepared to class to discuss the readings. I'm preparing some good discussions for this week and next, but they will probably be much more interesting to you if you do the readings! The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction tackles some conceptual ideas that would give you some major bonus points (hint, hint) if you could begin to think about them in your own paper (such as race, citizenship, etc.). The amount of contribution you put into the class and discussion will directly reflect your own performance on your final project.

I'll have lots of primary sources to share this week and next concerning our topic of discussion as well. Here's a newspaper clipping:
New York Times, October 7, 1904

I'll also try to share several of the photographs from Clifton Morenci that I found in the archives while I was there.


Mr. Risdon was the town photographer in this area of Clifton-Morenci at the turn-of-the-twentieth century. His work documents the diverse families and communities that were in this small mining area at this time. The family pictured above is unidentified but speaks to the fact that Arizona's frontier was comprised of people of various backgrounds and ethnic identities. Many of these photos may challenge our own understanding of what communities and families looked like at the turn-of-the-twentieth century.

Back from Detroit!

Hey everyone -

I'm playing catch-up with everyone's blogs. I've finally responded to several posts that I wanted to. I spent the weekend at a conference in Detroit. In case you've never been to one, history conferences consist of a bunch of researchers from all over the country (and sometimes world) discussing a common field. This conference was specifically geared for labor historians and I presented on a section of one of my dissertation chapters. As much as I HATE presenting in front of a group of strangers, the talk went over really well. People were very supportive and I got some great feedback. Plus I got to hear some other great presentations as well.

Remember at the end of the semester, each of you will be responsible for presenting your research in front of the class. In case anyone has any reservations about presenting in front of a group, please remember that we're here to support each other, not criticize! Hopefully, as college students, you've all learned by now that, when it comes to education, all we can do is learn more! I've already learned a lot about labor history from the class just by listening and reading about your research, so please remember how valuable your ideas are. Please don't be afraid to share them!

I'm planning on going over some information about the paper on Tuesday, so please come to class prepared to ask questions and get help! Bring any work you've done so far with you. I'm not going to be judging the amount of work you have, but you may end up getting some valuable help from the class!


That's all for now!

Extra Credit

As I stated in class on Thursday, the next three weeks will be open to an extra credit opportunity that could boost your blog grade up by .5 (on a 4.0 scale). Here's what you need to do:
Visit the REOlds Transportation Museum at 240 Museum Drive, Lansing (this is just east of the Capitol and just off of Michigan Ave.).

A link to the museum can be found here.

Be sure to keep your receipt or some sort of proof that you visited the museum.

Write a two-page paper (12 pt Times New Roman, double-spaced) about your experience at the museum. I would like you to analyze how well the museum portrayed the history of the REOlds company. Who is represented in this museum? Workers? Founders? Lansing? What was your impression of REOlds after your visit? Was it different than your impression of the REOlds family that Lisa Fine writes about in her book? Provide specific examples!

While you are there, be sure to look for the baby REO! Kind of like a Power Wheels car for a super rich kid!

Archives Trivia

Ladies and Gents -

Portia has asked me to pass this information along to you: It's worth a shot and a good way to test your MSU history knowledge:

October is American Archives Month. In order to celebrate archives, the MSU Archives & Historical Collections is holding a trivia contest.

The questions can be accessed via Survey Monkey at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W2VDRXZ

The contest is open to MSU faculty, staff and students; MSU alumni; and the greater Lansing community. This contest opens on Monday, October 4 and will end on Friday, October 29. Three winners will be chosen at random from among the correct entries and will be notified during the first week of November. This year’s prize is a color reproduction of a class rivalry poster. To learn more about the Freshman-Sophomore class rivalry and see poster samples, see our blog post at: http://msuarchives.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/class-rivalry-posters-on-flickr/

Good luck and thank you for playing!!

Possible Sources

Hey folks -

I was looking through the Library of Congress' website and just did a quick search for Clifton, Arizona where my research is based. It came up with several sources that could be potentially useful in my research. It's definitely worth taking a few minutes to see if there's anything digitized on there that could be helpful for your own work.

Library of Congress

Interviews

For Thursday's class, I'd like you to listen to the following interviews in addition to reading Chap. 3 of the Pursuit of History:

Peggy Terry, migrant worker, Part 1&2
Sally Rand, fan dancer
Tony Soma, speakeasy owner

These interviews are about the Depression Era. The recordings for each of these interviews can be found here.

The interviewer for each of these recordings was Studs Terkel. A short bio about him can be found here.

While you listen to each interview, I'd like you to answer the following questions. Please jot your answers down somewhere and bring them to class with you so that we can talk more about them.

*What do you know about the interviewer? About the interviewee? What can this information tell us about the interview before we even listen to it?

*What information, from each interview, did you find especially useful or insightful (if you were studying this time period)?

*What types of precautions should historians take for listening to these interviews (provide specific examples from each interview)?

*Which interview was your favorite and why?

....
If you are planning on using oral interviews in your research paper (including your own interviews or interviews that others conducted) this class is mandatory!

New Readings on ANGEL and some other stuff...

I've posted the assigned chapters of next week's readings on ANGEL. Please either print them out or bring your laptop to class next week so you have the readings in front of you to reference.

As a side note, I'm using the third edition because it was the only one available at the library.

Next Thursday we will be reading oral histories as well. This would be a good time to incorporate that workshop I was referring to for conducting research interviews. If you are interested in doing interviews as a part of your research, please plan to attend.

I'd like to thank all of you that have been attending classes regularly despite the early hour, dreary weather, and lack of attendance policy. Your continued participation will undoubtedly reflect the quality of work that you continue to do for this class. I thought that the small workshop today went really well and I'm glad to see we have a community of researchers interested in their project!

The blogs are looking fantastic as well! You guys have done a great job keeping them updated and keeping up with everyone's posts. I've seen some really great suggestions and stories so far and I'm looking forward to continuing to read them! If you haven't been writing as much as you think you should, I'd encourage you just to write a few things every few days. You do not need to make grandiose entries (it's a blog, not a book!) and feel free to write about anything you find, need help with, think, etc.

On a final history related note, my uncle just gave me several photo albums that my grandmother had put together when she was younger. She passed away in 1990 and I just now discovered that these were in our family's possession! There are two full albums that document her life growing up in a coal mining town in Western PA. I'm in the process of digitizing them for our family, so here are a few pictures:

My grandmother and her brother posing in rather fancy clothes behind their not-so-fancy house.

Picture of my grandfather(left) before he was married to my grandmother.

Oliphant Baseball Team (my grandfather played for them).

The actual town is called Oliphant Furnace and is located in Western Pennsylvania. It was a small mining community based around the cokeworks. Talk about a mining community - they even had "furnace" in their town name!

Thanks for letting me share a bit of family history!

Just a Reminder...

Hey everyone -

Don't forget that you want to be well on your way in the research process with your upcoming proposal and annotated bibliography due in a little over a week! If you have any questions about where to find things or if you're still having trouble with a topic, please come see me soon.

On Friday I stopped by the MSU archives (at Conrad Hall) because I had to do some outside research for a class I'm taking. I am researching the history of Demonstration Hall and needed to find some old photographs of it as well. When I walked in I told Portia what I was researching and she was able to find several folders for me. Here are a couple of the photographs:

Photo courtesy Michigan State University Archives

Photo courtesy of Michigan State University Archives

Chapter 3 - Forever in Debt to the Company Store

As I mentioned before, I'm going to be writing about my own research and writing process right along with you folks in class. Chapter 3 of my dissertation is going to be looking more in depth into the communities of Clifton-Morenci, AZ and Kimberley, SA. Many of the same questions and issues that we are tackling in our class are similar to the ones I'm trying to figure out in my own research.

Company Store in Clifton, AZ:
Photo courtsey of Arizona Historical Society Archives

Kimberley, 1871
Photo courtesy of Kimberley Africana Library

When I sent my committee members my dissertation proposal, one of my professors told me that I needed to define "community" in my paper. I hope that I can learn as much from all of you as you do from me this semester! I have my own work that also can benefit from a class of new history scholars!

Last week I began by jotting down some book titles I need to get from the library. Although I've already completed a good portion of my archival research, I'm constantly going to the library to help find more information. I found several books in the library's Cesar Chavez collection that provide community descriptions of Clifton-Morenci along with a couple of books that look at company towns in general.

I also made a list of some of the topics I'd like to cover in this chapter:
*the frontier
*gender/family roles
*vigilantism
*disease/health
*the compound system (used to house workers in South Africa)
*celebrations/holidays
*vice (use of liquor, gambling, criminal arrests, prostitution)

You may find yourself using some of these topics as well, but remember that you also need to look at outside factors (technological developments, market demands, Federal policies, etc.).

New Library Page

The last picture on the left-hand side of the blog page will link you to our own library page. Mike Unsworth, one of the history librarians was kind enough to create this page for us. It provides some of the sources I went over with you in class as well as some additional research information. Please take the time to look through the page.

The End of Cotton in the US?

Here's an interesting article from NPR today, showing how agricultural demands in the US have changed over the past two centuries:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129892028

If you are interested in studying the textile industry, the story might be worth having a look at. Hope everyone is having a fantastic Friday.

Hey! Get to Blog Writing!

Hey folks! Don't forget that we are now entering our third week of class. You should be writing on your blogs more often and commenting on other people's blogs. Don't forget that blogs count as 20% of your grade and that if you do the minimum amount of work I'll give you an average grade (2.0). If you're looking for something higher than average, be sure to remain an active blogger throughout the week! If you've started to write more specifically about a possible topic, make sure to check your comments. I did leave some comments on some of the newest blog entries this week.

I also wanted to share a clip from youtube with you. This is Merle Travis singing, "Sixteen Tons," a song dedicated to mine workers and the hard life that they endure. I actually titled my dissertation after the song and found the lyrics to be very relevant to what I found in my own research of mineworkers.

Don't forget that cultural sources like music can become an important research source for your paper topic (think back to the important role it played in Harlan County).

The Mining Communities of Clifton-Morenci, Arizona and Kimberley, South Africa

Just as the students of History 201 are responsible for writing about a working class community, I am also going to be writing about the aspects of community life as part of my dissertation. I'd like to use part of this class blog to share that part of my research with you just as you are responsible for doing on your own blog.

Since I've been researching my own topic for quite sometime, I really have an advantage over everyone because I know exactly what I'm writing about. My dissertation is a comparative history of two mining towns - one in Clifton-Morenci, Arizona and the other in Kimberley, South Africa. Both towns existed almost completely around a single industry. In Clifton-Morenci it was the copper mining industry and in Kimberley it was the diamond mining industry.


























Both towns developed around the same time, in the 1870s after the discovery of minerals in the 1860s. Both communities contained a large migrant population of people from many different background and ethnicities. Their ability to work together and create a community is part of the reason I was drawn to them.



Mineworkers in Clifton-Morenci pose for a photograph



Diamond mineworkers preparing a meal inside of their compound housing.

The Coal Miners of West Virgina and the Massey Energy Disaster

*Remember that whenever you read anything, be aware of the source: Is this a reliable source? What do you know about the author? Does it seem to be bias or politically motivated? You should ask yourselves these questions with ALL sources you come across.

Please watch parts 1 and 2 of Don Blankenship's speech during a labor day rally in West Virginia. Blankenship is the CEO and Chairman of Massey Energy Co. This rally was held in September 2009.

What does Blankenship discuss in his speech?
What subjects seem to get the most response from his audience?




Next, please read this article from April 2010:

W.Va. Mine Blast Disaster Kills at least 25 - an article from USA Today


And then watch this short clip (my apologies about the annoying commercial)




America's Dark History of Coal - an article from the Los Angeles Times

Union Busting Associated with Massey's Coal Mining Disaster - an article from DigitalJournal.com

Labor Terms

Here is a list of the terms we went over today:

Blacklist – list of people/organizations that are discriminated against
Rank and File – all other members of union separate from officers
Boycott – collective action of refusing to do something as a means of solving a dispute
Pie card members – union members that are just interested in benefits of union but do not really support the union
Scab – worker that refuses to join in strike, also workers that are hired by company during strike
Bargaining Unit – group of employees recognized by company and union who are responsible for collective bargaining with company
Grievance – Formal complaint filed by employee when they feel employer has violated terms of bargaining contract
Wildcat Strike – go on strike without authorization of union
Sit-down Strike – workers physically occupy the factory/workspace until terms of strike have been met
Featherbedding – Union demands for payment of work not performed, or the practice of hiring more workers than needed, generally used by management to describe wants of workers
Wobbly – Member of the IWW



Don't forget to start thinking about your research topics! See you Tuesday.

Welcome!

Welcome to Section 005 of History 201 - Workers and Their Communities. I'm really looking forward to working with each of you as you create your research projects!

For your first assignment, I would like you to create a blog of your own. When you have the web address for your blog, please send it to me (sulli294@msu.edu) so that I can add it to my blog roll. Your blog will be your journal as you build ideas for your project, locate interesting findings in your research, and begin the writing process. Your audience for this blog will mainly be your fellow students (although I'll be reading and writing along with everyone). If you are having problems in the research process, feel free to talk about them on your blog. Chances are, other students are having the same problems. If you've found a collection that could potentially be useful to other students, feel free to share it. It's up to each one of you to keep our community of bloggers active and interested! Don't forget to respond to your classmates' posts, as well.

For your first entry, I will give you more specific directions:
I would like you to discuss what area, time period, and/or subjects in history are most interesting to you and why. If you haven't thought about an area of history that could be interesting, now is the time to start! If you are able to provide me and your classmates with some idea of your interests, then we may be able to provide you with a better research topic!

Please also let us know what your major is (if you have one) and what year of study you are currently in. Finally, what is your experience with history? Textbooks? Archives? Other college courses?