Final Presentation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0FOXnlCJuk&feature=youtu.be

My Final Presentation on Early Human Creation Stories....it is 9:31 long...tried to cut it down as much as I could.

Overall this is one of the first history classes I have truly enjoyed. Different than any other history class or textbook I have read. The textbook focusing mainly on the aspect that Strayer is not writing based on a Eurocentric type view. I tend to get my news from BBC simply because it tends to be the most well-rounded option. Watching news channels, in particularly the Fox channel drives me up a wall because I don’t like the feeling that I am not receiving the whole truth. Strayer and our professor for that matter gave great lessons on the WHOLE world rather than our own little bubble.

Other countries are too often painted out to be less than what they are in order to boost our own opinions of ourselves as “Americans”. After taking this class, I now know that even the term “American” can be seen as insulting to others, something I had never even been aware of before. Also, realizing that China is in fact a superpower and has been for a long time also came as a “duh” moment to me.

One thing that I have been turning over in my head is the idea that we are in fact moving into a new era, one could possibly call it the “Era of Technology”. When my two year son is fifty I know that the world will be a completely different place. Hopefully we as humans will realize that we are truly connected with the earth and that it’s a symbiotic relationship between the two.

Headed in the right direction

I often wonder what kind of environment my son or even my grandchildren will inherit. Being environmentally conscious, although the idea has been around for long time did not really take off until just recently, I feel, in my lifetime. I remember learning about recycling in grade school and how it truly was a new concept but now I virtually don’t know anyone who doesn’t recycle in their home, at work or even on vacation. Do I think we still have a long way to go? Definitely. We are faced with new issues every day, the generations to come will have to pay for the sins of their predecessors and it is our job to try and lessen the burden they did not create. Not only are we becoming more aware of our world and what is happening to it but we are becoming more aware of what is going into our bodies. Many people only buy organic and go for a farm to table kind of diet. We are sickened by the hormones injected and living conditions of the mass produced livestock. We are beginning to hold these massive and corrupt companies accountable for the damage they are causing, both to our world and our bodies. As the most evolved species on this earth, we have a duty to all other living things. We alone have the ability to save or destroy our planet, no other animal has that. I know that my son will be so aware, more than I, of his home and how he and people around him live and interact with the planet. We are an evolving species and I think we are in the middle of that process….once again. Slowly but surely, we are shedding our wasteful and destructive skins and adapting to our new environment and looking for ways to improve it.

The Great Depression

The “roaring 20’s”, filled with change and energy. Traditions were being broken and people were turning their backs on “what used to be”. “Enormous causalities [from the war] promoted social mobility, allowing commoners to move into positions previously dominated by aristocrats. Women increasingly gained the right to vote. Young middle-class women, sometimes known as ‘flappers’, began to  flout convention by appearing at nightclubs, smoking, dancing, drinking hard liquor, cutting their hair short, wearing more revealing clothing, and generally expressing a more open sexuality. A new consumerism encouraged those who could to acquire cars, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, electric irons, gas ovens, and other newly available products. Radio and the movies now became vehicle of popular culture, transmitting American jazz to Europe and turning Hollywood starts into international celebrities” (633). And so, this was the age that the consumerism we experience day in and day out was born. “It’s very success generated an individualistic materialism that seemed to conflict with older values of community and spiritual life” (633).

Although the early 20’s seemed to be filled with excitement, this lasted only a short time…the stock market crash in 1929 was the nail in the coffin for many people. “On the day that the American stock market initially crashed (October 24, 1929), eleven Wall Street financiers committed suicide, some jumping out of skyscrapers. Banks closed, and many people lost their life’s savings. Investment dried up, world trade dropped by 62% within a few years, and business contracted when they were unable to sell their products.” (633). “Vacant factories, soup kitchens, bread lines, shantytowns, and beggars came to symbolize the human reality of this economic disaster” (634).

   This picture is in the text, although it is definitely not the first time I’ve seen it. A truly heartbreaking picture, one that can really put the Great Depression into perspective for those of us who didn’t live through it. You can almost hear the growl of her children’s stomachs and you can certainly see the hardship and worry this mother carries in her face. I highly doubt this woman was past the age of 35, yet she looks much older.

President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was formed to pull the United States out of what seemed to be a never ending downward spiral. It was “a complex tangle of reforms intended to restore pre-Depression prosperity and to prevent future calamities.” (635). “Roosevelt’s efforts permanently altered the relationship among government, the private economy, and individual citizens.” (635). Welfare programs, Social security, relief programs, organization of labor unions, government agencies and public spending for things like highways, bridges and dams were all attempts to stimulate the economy, help the citizens of this country and end the Great Depression.