History 130D Notes One PDF

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Summary

American Dreams/American Realities  Paul Johnson- “A History of American People”  “A People’s History”What is this Course about?  Trying to define American character o Friedrich- being an American is an ideal o Riech- Myths turn memory into meaning o Crudens- American myths – Anglo-Saxon male myt...

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1 American Dreams/American Realities  Paul Johnson- “A History of American People”  “A People’s History” What is this Course about?  Trying to define American character o Friedrich- being an American is an ideal o Riech- Myths turn memory into meaning o Crudens- American myths – Anglo-Saxon male myths in origin - are capitalism, democracy, religion Can this course be anything but history course 50 years from now?  Will non Anglo-Saxon minority become majority? o Minorities want access to the myths  Myths have defined who we are  Myths have served as a cultural glue o Will European dream eclipse the American dream? o As BRIC nations surpass us, will the American dream change? 

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History is fact plus interpretation o Who interprets them?  How do you find the facts and how do you interpret them?  Have to make sure to dig deep enough and not mistake what appears as reality Croce- “All history is contemporary history” o History is relevant to the questions we are asking today Desjardin- “To understand a thing fully is to know its history” o Structure and function o Understand development you can better understand the culture Joep Leersen- “We know most foreign cultures, and most of our own culture, by reputation only” o We’re perceived by stereotypes Michael Kammen- “Societies, in fact, reconstruct their past rather than faithfully record them.” o Recreate their past the way they want them to be rather than exactly what happened Richard Slotkin- “The mythology of a nation is the intelligible mask of that enigma called the national character.” o Can’t define, have to create

What is a myth and what are its functions?  An idea rooted in the past, interpreted in the present, looking forward, whose multiple functions are to offer hope and justify the shortcomings of reality o Organize a reality o A myth can obscure reality if taken literally

2 o A myth can make reality bearable Relationship between myth and history  Nicholas Cords and Patrick Gerster- “Myth and history have always enjoyed a close working relationship. Myths are the traditional stories a culture tells itself about itself…. Myth and reality are complementary elements of the historical record. The intersection of myth and reality when people base their beliefs on the myths and act as if the myths were true.” US myths are not unique  The way we interpret them are The success myth  Prefer success over status  Success in the US is most vividly  Clinton Ross- “Class refers to stages not caste.”  Mobility o Upward mobility  Self-made person  Puts the burden on you if you’re a failure  Rags to riches  Being questioned now because its mainly people in the middle class, not the lower rung  Do people in the lower class have the opportunity to move up? o Geographic mobility  People around the world tend to live in the same places as their ancestors Paige Smith- “Americans, in absence of any traditional ways of authenticating themselves and finding themselves in the system, class, caste, clan or order have to depend primarily on money making; making money became the validation of personal worth early in our history.”  No such thing as a free lunch  What is man but a money making machine? o Wall Street Journal  “The daily diary of the American dream.”  Toby, The West Wing- “The American dream is a financial one, not an ethical one.” Frenchman 1830’s Alexis De Toqueville- “It is clear to me, Americans value everything on Earth in response to how much money it will bring.” Overview of the Myths  Frontier Myth o Rebirth o Perfection lies in the future o Second Chance

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o New beginnings o Unlimited opportunity o John Edwards- “Opportunity is a birthright in America.” o “In England I was nobody. Here, I am somebody.” o Look for the Garden of Eden in the future (Same as success myth) Agrarian myth o Finds the Garden of Eden in the past  If we can only get back to the past, that’s where the purity lies o Virtue is tied to the land o Thomas Jefferson- “Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever He had a chosen people, whose breast he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.”  Virtue is tied to the land  Those who work with their hands in the soil, that’s where virtue comes from  Quest for purity  American innocence  Individual and national  We see original Americans as pure and noble o Family values  Norman Rockwell  Thanksgiving o Portrays perfect agrarian America o Idealized o Individualism o Identified with protestant Christianity  Particularly old testament o Van White Brooks- “Insane individualism” o Richard Slotkins- Regeneration Through Violence  If an impurity enters society, you have every right to pluck it out through violence The Foreign Devil myth o Identity through repudiation  Define who we are by defining who we are not o Captivity Narratives  Fear of being captured by Native Americans  Feared that you would identify yourself with them  Stockholm syndrome o British  King George o Roman Catholic immigrants o Communists o 1990’s  No distinguishable foreign devil  Splintered culture

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o 9/11  Brought us all together around one foreign devil again  Cultural glue The City on a Hill, Beacon to the World o Example to the world o Shift during independence  Switch to being missionaries  Spread democracy all over the world o American exceptionalism  Are we god’s chosen people? o Do not roll out into the world and exercise our missionary function until 1890 50 years from now will the immigrant groups buy into these myths? o Northeast  Success myth o South  Agrarian myth o West  Frontier o Midwest  Agrarian and Frontier

The Success Myth  Rome, GA article- “Anyone can become successful if they really work at it. This is the land of opportunity.”  Basic Elements o Puritanism  “Were the Puritans puritanical?”  Medieval Catholicism- retreat from the world, go to a monastery, live an aesthetic life  Puritanism rejected the monasticism and aestheticism  Pleasures of the body were not to be forsaken  Sexual life was not dull  A Pauline doctrine said, marriage was something other than the alternative of burning  Perfect life is a life of chastity, but if you have to, get married o Therefore, marriage is better than burning in hell  John Cotton, “Man should not live alone.”  Permitted divorces  “God sent you into this world as part of a workhouse not a playhouse.”  Puritans expected nothing of life, so any good that came they rejoiced  “The Puritan at his best was a moral athlete.”

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Obtained a moral standard higher than what was to be expected  Constantly tried to be a better person  Priesthood of all believers  Every person is his or her own priest, and allowed them to talk to God themselves  Responsibility  Puritan has become the Yankee o Social Darwinism o The Enlightenment Success myth is a secularized version of Puritanism o Puritans believed in themselves, their morality and their mission to the world o Puritans were principle source for individualism in early stages in America o Virtue of work and wealth  Has remained with Americans o If you work hard you will succeed o If you fail you are a sinner The Rise and fall of persistence of Puritanism  Father of Protestantism was John Calvin o Reform tradition  Puritans were basically Calvinists  Calvinism claims that God is sovereign o He has control over everything  Puritans based their theology on this idea o TULIP  Total depravity  No essential good in anyone in the human race  Adam’s fall sin in all  Everything we do is tainted a little with sin o St. Augustine says any selfishness is sin o Eg  giving to charity feels good o Only act performed without sin was Jesus’ sacrifice  Unconditional election  Elected to salvation by God alone  Limited atonement  Jesus died for the chosen only  At-one-ment  Irresistible grace  If God elects you, you cannot decline  Perseverance of the Saints  Once you are numbered among the elect, you will preserve in good works

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o Puritans looked at North American continent and saw a land pregnant with possibility o Jonathan Edwards  Combined Calvinism and the enlightenment  The Great Awakening  You can affect your own salvation with the American way  God will give salvation if you show him you are worthy o Blew a hole in Calvinist argument  Preached “Sinner’s in the Hands of an Angry God” o Atypical for Edwards o Edwards claims that in order to be saved, you need to be born again  God will look favorably upon you o Gives agency back to individual from God o George Whitfield  Powerful preacher  Influenced Ben Franklin  Shows power of preachers to influence even the most hardnosed  Life was getting better, so religion seemed less attractive  General apathy toward religion Social Darwinism Feeds into a few myths 1859- Darwin publishes o Humans had evolved through natural selection o From simple forms of life to more complex o Process represented a struggle for existence resulting in the survival of the fittest  Strong survive, weak die out o Publication divided into three groups  Scientists  General support  Clergy  Outraged by theory  Removed humans as greatest of God’s creations o Discontinuity between humans and God  Evolutionary theory changed nature of nature from harmony to struggle  Laymen  Tried to reconcile science and religion o Herbert Spencer  Bridge between Darwin and Social Darwinism  Human society and human institutions passed through the process of natural selection  Survival of the fittest applies to society

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Makes crucial addition to Darwin’s theory  Evolution=progress  Therefore there should be no human intervention in the process  Governments should not intervene o The weak will die out on their own and the strong will grow freely  Implies that accumulated wealth is the best evidence of fitness to rule  Dispersed his ideas in Popular Science Monthly  Published in 1872  John Fiske o Harvard Professor o Reconnected God and human after evolution o All science adds up to progress, but linking it all together is a master plan, a benevolent God  Attempting to reconcile science and religion, Darwin and Genesis  Called intelligent design o William Graham Sumner  Professor at Yale  Conservative Darwinism  Competition promotes progress  Hard work promotes  Chief mission in life is to accumulate capital  Best known book called Folkways  Social classes owe each other nothing  Second book, The Absurd Attempt to Make the World Over  Radical proponent of laissez faire  Leave it alone  People are governed not by reason but basic customs  Represent what the people want, so the government should not interfere  Heavy government involvement could lead to self serving groups seeking control of the government for their own purposes  Might be captive of some diluted philosophy  Only reason government exists is to guarantee liberty of individuals  Sumner believed in Protestant ideals  Work hard and you will succeed  Synthesized three traditions  Protestant work ethic  Classic economic theory- Adam Smith o Self interest as the invisible hand in the marketplace

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Darwin’s natural selections: biological laws justifying the market Lester Frank Ward  Background of poverty, self educated, and a government clerk for 40 years  Accepted evolution, but opposed to rigid determinism described in Spencer’s theory  Believed human race can control the evolutionary process  Differentiates us from animals  Wrote in Dynamic Sociology  Bears have claws, men have intelligence  Humans can substitute cooperation for competition  Human beings make progress by protecting the weak  Reform Darwinism cooperation replaces competition to promote progress  Controlling agent is the government  Increased action by government is required and desired  Wanted education and cooperative planning Political Conservatives support Sumner’s laissez faire, while the liberals support Ward’s government action Sumner  Failure is your fault Ward  Failure is society’s fault

Frontier Myth and Its Spin Offs  Introduction o Unlimited opportunity o New genesis o I was nobody, now I am somebody  Frontier in American culture, “Plow in one hand, six shooter in the other.” o Insists that frontier myth is jammed with nationalistic propaganda and egocentric self congratulation o But notes both positive and negative aspects of Westward expansion o Our view of the west was greatly shaped by 2 men  Frederick Jackson Turner  1893- significance of the frontier in American history o Pictured frontier as free  Buffalo Bill  His Wild West Extravaganza depicted a different frontier o Showed warring scouts and Indians  Showed blood thirsty Indians attacking scouts  If Turner marginalized American Indians, Bill demonized them  Turner- frontier was conquered with the axe and the plow  Buffalo Bill- frontier conquered with rifle and six shooter

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Turner took as his theme to be conquest of nature, he considered savagery incidental  Buffalo Bill made the conquest of savages central; the conquest of nature was incidental  Two men presented compelling stories, not fact  White shows that basic elements of Turner’s narrative were long entrenched in popular imagination  Combining Bill’s story and Turner’s, we have a story that has a major gap in story of Indians themselves  8 Cheyenne artists wrote a book recollecting their experience  Indians depicted themselves as superhuman warriors unscathed by bullets around them  All 3, Turner, Bill, and Indians, are mythmakers o Spinoffs  Frontier has become commodity and political tool in the 20th century  Western has become staple in many contexts (eg. Disneyworld)  Pioneer concept has become prevalent throughout  Politicians use frontier concept often  JFK, Reagan  Other author is aware of powerful concept of Frontier myth  Many uses of Frontier mentality in American life, regardless of ethnicity  Whether or not it suits my preference, concept works as a mental glue that holds us together as a cultural group  Most people will continue to live their lives embracing the concept of the Frontier myth  “All America lies at the end of the Wilderness Road and our past is not dead past, but still lives in us. Our forefathers had civilization inside themselves the wild outside we live in the civilization they created but within us the wilderness still lives. What they lived, we dream, what they dreamed we live…”  When Americans tell stories about themselves, they are always set in the West  West represents a mentality, not a spatial concept The Three Frontiers: From “Lord of the Flies to Little House on the Prairie” o From anarchy to home fronts o 3 frontiers in American history  Mining frontier  1840-1870  Montana south to Arizona  Individual stage o Pig pan, donkey, to skim metals off the surface  To Capitalist stage o Have to bring machinery to get gold

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Served as prototype for the Cattleman’s frontier and the Farming frontier  Cattlemen’s frontier  1865-1885  Texas through Wyoming  In movies, Indians always shown wearing darker clothes while whites wear lighter ones o Reductionist view of good vs. evil o High Noon  Good guy, wearing white, shoots bad guy, wearing dark clothes in shootout  Romanticizing of cowboys as glamorous figures  Good guys round up cattle and ship them up to the North  Individual stage o Each person can round up cattle and send them away  Capitalist stage o People breed cattle and industrialize the industry  No longer cattle wandering around for rounding up  Farming frontier  Continuous in American history  While cowboys and miners are mobile, farmers are stable o Settle down with women o Little House on the Prairie type civilizations  Individual stage o Farmer comes with horse and plow  Capitalist stage o Need tractor, farmers, etc. o Now its an agricultural business Alexis de Tocqueville and Frederick Jackson Turner o 1890  Superintendent of Census declares that we longer have a continuous frontier line  People hear that we no longer have a frontier at all o 1893  FJT argued that settlement of new land in the West did more to mold American character than did European heritage  National character came out of the frontier  FRONTIER THESIS o 1830’s  ADT arrives in America  Claims, “As soon as they are able, people (American immigrants) reproduce the civilization they left behind” o ADT vs. FJT

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ADT  West gave people opportunity to recreate themselves but only in the context of what they knew o FJT safety valve thesis  Frontier served as a safety valve to keep down discontent in the East  “This is terrible, next year we’re going west.” o Idea that kept people going o Part of the optimism that the future would be better o Provided a second chance Walter Prescott Webb’s 3 Legged Stool o Civilization built on three legged stool of land, water, and timber o People from the East go into the Midwest, where water and timber dry out o They have to continue on to the West o Midwest has a very different style of life because of a lack of water and timber

The Agrarian Myth  Introduction o “Land, land – the only thing worth living for.” –Gone With the Wind o Agrarian- Of or relating to the land. Of or relating to, or characteristic of the farmer or his way of life o Movement back to the past and the good old days of agrarian lifestyle o Farmers want progress, but want it without change  Maintain the good old days, while accepting advancements o Industrial revolution  Move from hand tools to powered machinery  Change society drastically by leading to urbanization etc. o Certain states believe that farms are going to drive the entire state  Mr. Jefferson’s Farm o Thomas Jefferson established Agrarian Myth  Jefferson drew upon several sources  Experiences he had living on farms throughout his life o As a boy, but also in Monticello  Jefferson had a vision that Americans would live as subsistence farmers  He maintained a very large family on Monticello where they all supposedly lived entirely off their land o Though he was heavily in debt and had slaves  Jefferson believed in the value of self sufficiency and individualism  Jefferson had a classical education  Jefferson sought to parallel Cincinnatus

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o Jefferson wanted to hold office, but then voluntarily retire and go “till his own acres.”  Jefferson learned the virtues of farming from reading the Bible o “First parents in Eden are the happiest we can follow.” o In school, he studied the association between virtue and agriculture  John Taylor of Caroline wrote a work called “An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of Government of the US” o Taylor wrote about the virtues and values of innocence and purity that were linked to the soil o Only basis of a democracy was landed interest  Thomas Jefferson wrote “Notes on the State of Virginia”  Claimed that virtue comes from the soil o Jefferson believed in the power of the Agrarian Myth as well as the Frontier Myth  He believed that the Frontier would provide a space for the farmer to expand into  Hoped that farmers would spread the agrarian way of life with the new start that the Frontier provides  Sent out Lewis and Clark to spread the Agrarian Myth to the West Mr. Bryan’s Farm o Ran for office 3 times o 1892, 1896-on Populist movement o Farmers endured hard times in the 1890’s  Blamed it on tariff, business, railroads  Actually, farmers were overproducing o Populist wanted to add silver to the gold backing of dollars o This would circulate more money, which would help the indebted class o While Mr. Jefferson’s farmer was a yeoman farmer, Mr. Bryan’s farmer was a capitalist “Standing Jefferson on his head” – Carl Degler o Jefferson believed in a weak central government to protect the rights of t...