History Comics

This doesn't bill itself as a history comic, it just happens to be one.

I find it quite funny.

Find more comics at Married to the Sea.

A Student's Thoughts on the Importance of "The Birth of a Nation"

Below is the astute and very well-written perspective on a film called, "The Birth of  Nation" which debuted in 1915. Here is the trailer:

What this trailer does not do well is express the racially loaded tones and scenes of the film. For more on that, see the clip to the left.

One student wanted to content with this film, discussing the ways it acts as an important primary source document -- not of the Reconstruction Era, but of the time in which it was produced and became wildly popular. Here is their work: 

              Film has become an essential component in the understanding of history.  As opposed to other artifacts, films have the ability to visually preserve live action events.  Visual evidence has proven to be important in history since it can be more explicit than other forms of evidence; visual evidence is hard to ignore.  Films have the ability to make a record that better captures the values of a society than any other media.

 “The Birth of a Nation” has forever encapsulated the shameful racist history of the United States of America. “The Birth of a Nation” is one of the best examples of how a film provides additional understanding to historical events.  “The Birth of a Nation” was originally used as a recruiting tool for the Ku Klux Klan but now serves as an educational tool that gives deep insight to the racist ideologies of early 1900s America.  If there was ever any doubt of racism being a major part of the history of the United States of America, “The Birth of a Nation” demolishes those doubts. 

“The Birth of a Nation” is truly a charcoal smudge on the American flag, as it encouraged racism.  Racially prejudicial scenes were explicit and plentiful.  One memorable scene features a Southern white family being saved by the Ku Klux Klan in a heroic fashion from predacious “blacks.”  Scenes from the film reveal how a good portion of the population of the United States felt towards “black” equality.  This film was designed to make the “white” American viewers in 1915 more inclined to hate “blacks” who are becoming freer through political provisions.

“The Birth of a Nation” captures the feelings of an attempt of revisionist history.  Director, D. W. Griffith wanted to revise certain aspects of political happenings during the early 1900s.  In an attempt to thwart “black” progress, Griffith produced animosity towards “blacks” through pure revisionist attempts at history.  For example, “The Birth of a Nation” showed “blacks” as the aggressors in the American Civil War and showed the Southern plantation owners as purely defending themselves.  Like many racist Caucasians, it seems that Griffith was scared of losing political and social supremacy over “blacks.”  The early 1900s saw a dramatic change in the political standing of “blacks.”  Books such as The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois, landmarked the fact that “blacks” wanted to be treated more fairly and were not going to take “no” for an answer. 

The reason that such an immoral film is considered one of the “greatest” American films ever made is for its ultimate failure in its attempt at revising history.  Instead of making all Americans believe racist ideologies, “The Birth of a Nation” made future citizens question the motives behind certain political writings, music, and/or films.  The film reminds society of the racist environment and ideologies that once ruled America.

 “The Birth of a Nation” has proven that cultural values and opinions change overtime.  A good example is the opinion Americans held during World War II and the opinion Americans hold now regarding World War II.  During World War II the majority of the American people felt it was a necessary war in which America was the “hero” but after almost seventy years many American’s acknowledge the strategic path America took during the war that ensured economic prosperity after it.  “The Birth of a Nation” gives perspective on how historical events are viewed differently when taken out of context, or viewed from various vantage points.

“The Birth of a Nation” ironically teaches a viewer the unintended lesson to be aware of historical reversions made by special interest groups though it originally tried to accomplish the opposite.  Will Americans have a totally different view on what America’s objectives were with its “War on Terror?”

College students foolish?

Recently, some politicians made some grandiose statements about college students; they are "foolish" and they "vote with their emotions." I passed out a few articles on the topic, which you can read here, here and here. I am posting some of the responses below.

The first response is from Mr. A, from my United States History 1865-Present class:

                    If New Hampshire's new Republican state House speaker William O'Brien is granted his wishes of limiting the voting rights of college students, the United States would be set back four hundred years.  To say that only young adults vote on emotion is an insult since voting and emotion seem to go “hand in hand.”  For instance, George W. Bush ran his second campaign completely on emotion; Bush won his second election because Americans sympathized with his response to the September 11 terrorist attacks.  In a Matt Lauer interview in 2010, Bush said, “while my emotions might have been similar to those of most Americans, my duties were not;” an admittance that emotions drove many of his actions and those of citizens during his regime (MSNBC.com). 

                  Now if you look at almost any presidential election prior to 2008's when Barack Obama was nominated, young adults had virtually no effect in the voting process.  Now that young adults are voting and making a political difference, conservatives like O’Brien are on the defensive.   O'Brien even went as far as to say that college “kids” are “foolish” and vote based on their “feelings.”  O’Brien’s statement is completely unfair and makes little logical sense as it can be seen throughout American history that many voters, regardless of age, elect candidates based on emotions.  If emotions did not play a key role in the election process then why would “image” matter so much?  Why would people even care if the president was divorced or married?  Presidential elections prove that the majority of votes a presidential candidate gets are based on the emotions he or she brings up in the voting citizenry.  Presidential candidates kiss babies on campaigns not for their love of everything cute but for the emotional feelings people attribute to the touching image of a potential candidate and being kind to a baby.  If emotions did not play a big role in elections then the next presidential candidate to run for the either party should start to kiss strippers instead of babies and should visit strip clubs instead of elementary schools.

                  Another concern that comes with limiting the people who are able to vote is that it gives an unfair advantage to a special interest group or groups. The poll taxes of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, which almost exclusively limited voting to white males, resulted in decision-making political power almost exclusively benefitting white Protestants.  If young adults are not allowed to vote and have a say in laws enforced on them then the age of being considered an adult should be changed.  If at eighteen a person is too “foolish” to vote then they should be considered too “foolish” to go fight in a war and take lives.  If the day comes when a young adult of eighteen years old is not allowed to vote but is allowed to sign up to fight for the army, it would prove the corruption and hypocrisy of the United States government. 

Many young adults have proven to be less “foolish” and more productive than their older counterparts.  Take Mary Shelly for example.  She wrote one of the greatest books ever written when she was only eighteen years old.  On the other hand, look at the “foolish” acts Seinfeld's Kramer or Charlie Sheen have committed. Perhaps some people who are young are “foolish” and some who are older are not responsible. It is an insult to young able adults everywhere to say that their thoughts should not be taken seriously due to their age and not their merit.

"Excerpt: Bush in His Own Words on 9/11, Iraq - Books - Biography Memoirs - TODAY.com."TODAY.com: Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Ann Curry, Al Roker, Natalie Morales - TODAY Show Video, News, Recipes, Health, Pets. 11 Nov. 2010. Web. 02 Apr. 2011. <http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/40075575/ns/today-books/>.

I hope to post more excellent responses soon! 

Sometimes we just eat.

A few weeks ago, a student approached me and asked if they could cook for the class. My gut reaction was to respond in the affirmative, because our class happens in the evening and begins around dinnertime; one of the challenges of a three-hour lecture course. However, I realized that even though some well-crafted food would certainly be a boon to students with low blood sugar, I wasn't sure this fit in with the overall pedagogy of the classroom. My preference is that every activity, no matter how insignificant, makes a connection between past and present. Building a bridge that reveals the importance of the past and its relevance to the present is of utmost importance.

So I asked my student if they could connect their cooking plans to the material in our class. This is when the student informed me that she worked at a historical site and was trained in 18th-century cooking techniques. We started talking about 18th-century cookbooks and how they fail to provide actual measurements in recipes. They call for a "dash" of this or a "goodly amount" of that. For example, here is one recipe for salmon:


"Boile your salmond with a strong pickle of salt as usual, and after it is boiled take it from the pickle, lett it stand till cold, scume all the fat from mixe and boile it with Jamaica pepper and a little black pepper and a few Bay leaves, when it is cold, take half of this pickle and half vinegar and putt over your salmond, I have not one exact weight for the epicerie that is just as you would have it keeps long."

Yes-- I do have an interest in 18th-century cookbooks. For those that are yawning, you really need to check it out!  Look here.

But I digress. Ms. K made some delicious food, [most likely because each dish had at least one stick of butter in it] which the students and I really enjoyed eating..  Ms. K treated us to Election Cake and bread pudding with a lemon butter to drizzle on top. As you will see from the pictures, we could not use 18th-century dishes and utensils. Unfortunately, we had to go with something far less environmentally friendly. It is great to have something entirely out of the ordinary. However, with recipes as rich as these, it is a good thing we do not do this every class!

Please note: Any student appearing in a photograph on this blog has given their vocal and written consent and has been consulted before being referred to on this blog.

Have you heard of STUDYBLUE?

My student, we'll call him "Mr. J," turned my study world upside down last night.  I asked the student to share their study rubric in a short presentation for the class. I knew he was doing something on the Internet, that could be used on an Internet-capable phone, an iPad, and iTouch, or any computer. [The iPhone does have its own app for this!] The student showed us his materials at STUDYBLUE. This student chose STUDYBLUE because they love technology [so much so that they downloaded Mozilla Firefox to the classroom computer during their presentation so that it would be faster] and they wanted to be able to study for exams anywhere, at any time.

At first, the class, was not totally wowed. We began with flashcards, which you enter by class. It looks like this:

You can make them as simple or as detailed as you would like. You can play with fonts, color, bolding, italics-- all of it.  We started to really get more excited about the program [which is free, but can be upgraded for a fee if you feel the need for more features] when he showed us that you can use this for all sorts of learning styles. For example, if you look at the flash card's sidebar on the left, you can see that you can drop in both an audio file or a picture: great for visual and auditory learners. Most computers let you speak right into their built-in microphones and create MP3 files; you could speak your flash cards and drop them in here, then listen to your material where ever you are. Visual learners can take free images and place them in these flashcards, giving themselves a visual touch-point to recall during exams and class discussions. However, Mr. J was not finished.

In this screen, I am in the process of studying. Once you click on the green emblem, you can flip the card or you can test yourself and keep track of your answers. There is a thumbs up and a thumbs down option. You can choose whether or not to see the definition or the answer first. In this case, I've only made one card. Let's assume I didn't know the correct answer, and I've pressed the red "thumbs down." Here are my results:

See? It is showing me that my score is a zero. Now here is where it gets interesting. You can study again, focusing only on those answers you got wrong, or you can study all the material again in its entirety. For students that enjoy tracking their progress or competing against themselves and others, this is a great tool. Furthermore, you can post your results on facebook or twitter if you'd like.  The class was more impressed at this point, and then we learned that you can take all your information, look at it in flashcard form, note form or tablet form. You can create three kinds of quizzes for yourself modeled after real exam formats, including multiple choice and true or false.

I think this is a fantastic website-- it is visually appealing, well-organized and has enough options for students to make it their own. I was truly impressed with STUDYBLUE and will be telling all my students about it going forward, particularly because I imagine that more and more of our educational lives will begin happening "in the cloud." No, I'm not plugging a program because I'm getting a kickback-- no one at this website knows our class exists. What I am passionate about is finding new ways to engage students and help them enjoy the learning process. Students like Mr. J are teaching me new ways to do this all the time.  Where would I be without them?

The anti-rubric rubric

For the first time this semester, I required one of my classes to do a midterm exam "rubric." I use this word loosely-- very loosely. I wanted the students to take glossary compilations they had been working on each week, compile the information and add more from our class lectures and activities. I told them they could arrange it any way they liked, but I encouraged them to do it the way their brains worked.  [By this I mean through their learning styles and/or multiple intelligences.] Some of the students came up with really creative formats, and I have included photographs of their work below. As with all projects, some students really loved this kind of studying and other really didn't find something that worked for them yet. From a teacher's perspective, I am ecstatic about the results of assigning a study model two weeks before the exam is due. Not a single student failed; the lowest grade was a "C." In fact, a number of students approached me during the exam and asked if they could answer more than what was required. Well sure, I said. Go right ahead. The average exam grade was a 92 percent and this was on an exam that was largely written. I tested the students using multiple choice, short answer, long answer, matching and media assessment. They did beautifully. I handed out a very short questionnaire after returning the exam grades to get an idea of how the "rubric" idea worked for studying history and if they though it might work in other classes as well.

Here is some of the feedback I got on the project:

• "I have never made a rubric before...I feel that my rubric helped because it helped me organize my information and remember everything...I would probably change the font for each chapter/unit.
• "I don't feel like it helped much-- I will try something different."
• "It helped-- it got me started...this helped me learn how I study the best...I [will] continue to improve the rubric and expand on it. It was a starting point that got me going and helped me stay on task. I continued to use it throughout my studying."
• This student made online flash cards and their own quiz: "It helped because I could study any time and anywhere because I can access study materials on my phone." They went on to say they are already using this program in their other classes. [An upcoming blog will describe this program!]
• "I think it helped, but also doing the glossaries and really liking classes...Next time I'd like to maybe turn [my rubric] into flash cards and draw on each of those individually."
• "I made [my rubric] on google docs and at the time I had no idea what I was doing until after I finished it. I started getting ideas of how I can do it better next time...I see how useful they are when studying...I think it helped but next time it will be better because of how much I learned."
• "I feel like it really helped my grade, because I had to read throughout all my notes to be able to divide them into sections. I feel like [for] the next rubric, I will use more art. I learn better through vision and seeing things. [For] the next rubric, I would like to separate each vocabulary word and subject but draw it out!"
• "It helped. Straight up. I would make a few adaptions to make it less than 15 pages...I would write it out by hand on a poster board; I study better with handwritten notes versus typing." 

A photographic display of the post-WWII era

My student Laura was trolling around on the Internet recently and came across this link:


http://community.livejournal.com/everyday_i_show/85173.html 


The photographs are by Henri Cartier-Bresson and they beautifully illustrate many of the themes we are studying in Chapter 14 of our text entitled, "Twentieth-Century Political and Cultural Ferment." I think the photos are overly representative of life in Europe and the United States, but the Cold War certainly complicated travel. The picture of the student demonstration in China is beautiful.


For those that need the warning, one of the pictures at the end does display full nudity.  As Laura said: "I highly suggest you check it out, there are pictures of things I just read in chapter 14!!"  I agree, and I think photography is a powerful way to depict historical themes. These photographs hauntingly illustrate some of the most complex, terrifying and beautiful moments in the 20th century-- they are not to be missed. 


Here is a teaser: 

Welcome

I teach, study, read, write and photograph history. However, this blog is not about me. It is about my students and their work. I teach undergraduate college students of all ages. I love to see my students discover the histories they find most fascinating, and I think other individuals should have this privilege as well.  My vision for this blog is that it will have at least three kinds of posts: first, this blog will be used to display my students' work. Second, it will be used to illustrate the things we do together in class, with references to things such as learning strengths and multiple intelligences. The third kind of post will attempt to share interesting news and events that reveals new information or discusses political and social developments impacting the college students with whom I work. My hope is that they will comment on these developments from their perspective.

The most interesting thing about what my students and I do together is how unlikely their interest is -- initially. It is rare that my students are history majors, so I try to find ways to make the material as relevant and interesting as I find it. Luckily, I believe that the past we discuss in class has a direct connection to their present lives. I try to build bridges between past and present to invite them to look more deeply at both. When I have not put them to sleep and they have decided to engage the material, they do the same things I do as a historian. They get excited, curious -- sometimes angry -- and they always have more questions. This is where their work comes in. I'm proud of the progress they make in our class time together, and I think their work should have a place in the blogosphere.

To that end, a few students are currently preparing work for this site. I hope to have it here soon.