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?