Book Notes -11 - Summary A Different Mirror: a History of Multicultural America PDF

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Notes /questions/answers of important events and people and critical thinking for that specific chapter. ...

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Book Notes Chapter 11 1. Who are the main characters and why are they significant?  Abraham Cahan a Jewish Daily Forward became a symbol of American socialism and Jewish immigration, and assumed the role of an Americanizing agent instructing its readers in the social, economic, political, and cultural aspects of the United States.  Thomas Woodrow Wilson was an American statesman and academic who served as the 28th President of the United States from 1913 to 1921. He also led the United States during World War I, establishing an activist foreign policy known as "Wilsonianism."  Susan A. Glenn was a historian, her teaching had focused on twentieth century U.S. cultural, intellectual, and social history.  Clara Lemlich Shavelson was a leader of the Uprising of 20,000, the massive strike of shirtwaist workers in New York's garment industry in 1909.  Abbott Lawrence Lowell was a U.S. educator and legal scholar. He was President of Harvard University from 1909 to 1933.  Madison Grant was an American lawyer known primarily for his work as a eugenicist and conservationist. 2. What are the significant events (cite dates, periods, locations)?  In 1879, 38 percent of the Jews were employed in manufacturing or crafts, 32 percent in commerce, and only 3 percent in agriculture. Their concentration in crafts made many of them especially vulnerable.  World War 1 began in 1914. Empires were destroyed, millions were killed and the world was upended in a war meant to end all others. On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, a move that came a month after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. In a matter of days, Europe's great powers went to war. Then the United states entered.  In 1911, a fire suddenly exploded at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. Eight hundred workers, mostly women, were trapped in the burning building.  Many of the dead women had gone out to strike in 1909-10 participating in the famous “uprising of twenty thousand.” In July, a spontaneous strike had erupted at Rosen Brothers, and then in September at Leiserson’s and the Triangle Shirtwaist factory.  On November 22, 1909, thousands of workers crowded into the Cooper Union to attend a mass meeting organized by the striking women. They had gone to demonstrate their support for the strikers and to denounce the intransigence of the bosses and the brutality inflicted against the picketers by hired thugs and the police.  Between 1909 and 1920 a wave of strikes and mass organizational campaigns swept through the garment trades, changing a largely unorganized industry into a women stronghold. By the end of WW1 clothing workers were among the best organized members of the American labor force.

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A government study conducted in 1907-08 found that only 8 percent of RussianJewish wives were wage earners, compared with 17 percent for southern Italians. In 1924, Congress passed a severely restriction immigration act. It limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origin’s quota.

3. What important themes does Takaki focus on in this chapter?  One theme that Takaki focuses in chapter 11 is on the Jewish immigration experience. One of the components of the Jewish immigration experience that Takaki discuses is when many of the Jewish decided to move from Manhattan, the lower east side in particular, to Brooklyn. Stereotypes says that Brooklyn is commonly viewed as a neighborhood dominated by African-Americans. Takaki's chapter on the Jewish immigrant experience, with his descriptions of pogroms, life in the lower east side, and conditions in garment factories 4. Identify the power takers in this chapter. By what means did these individuals or groups gain power?  The power takers were the high authorities of the United States in the 20th century during the immigration of the Jewish to America. This groups gained power, control and wealth. They had the Jewish working in the sweatshops. “By 1910 the city was producing 70 percent of the nation’s women’s clothing and 40 percent of its men’s clothing, creating jobs for newly arriving Jews.”

5. Identify the characters whose power was appropriated. What were the circumstances that lead to their oppression? How did these characters demonstrate resistance to their oppression?  The characters that had their powers appropriated were the Jewish Americans. What lead to their oppression was when they started arriving to the United States. They were relocated to lower parts of New York where they were put to work in the sweatshops. They were also attacked and couldn’t really do anything. For example, in page 263 it says “Life in the shtetls, Jewish towns and villages, was also intensely insecure, for Anti-Semitic violence was a ubiquitous reality. Especially dreaded were the pogroms- massacres of Jews and the destruction of their shops and synagogues.” They their work they were exploited. The sweat shops demanded were long work hours and under horrible working conditions. Although a way they were able to resist the horrible work was they were able to communicate in their own language. The work, however, did not prevent the performance of religious duties, the observance of the Sabbath, or the celebration of religious festivals....