The Robber Barons

Nationalism and Religion

September 7th, 2011 by Charli

In the early nation, “nationalism” and “religion” were a lot alike.

One of the first examples that the book gives for the similarities between “nationalism” and “religion” is the feelings that they both envoke on a person. There was a close parallel to evangelical Protestantism which sought to “establish sentimental, affective bonds among audiences, impart certain norms of behaviour, and inculcate a voluntary attachment to abstract principles. The religious sentiments held would serve as a motor for promoting “nationalism”.

Another example that the book gives is the civic texts being parallel to books in the bible. When reading the civic texts, the citizens were encouraged to take the texts to heart, in the same way that they were encouraged to take the words of the Bible to heart. The Bible was also to be read as universally as possibe. The civic texts emulated the idea of the universality of the Bible. The citizens were also taught to read the civic texts with the same “extraordinary intensity” as they used to read the Bible. The intensity of these civic texts turned the people that wrote them into icons like people in the Bible and Jesus himself.

Washington, himself, was compared to people in the Bible. Many people thought that Washington and Moses were alike because they both brought the people of their land out of bondage. The mourning rituals of Washington’s death were similiar to the religious rituals: such as the thirty days spent mourning Moses’ death. Washington’s life itself became a sacred text and a “volume” to be read, studied, and memorized by future generations. According to the book, “they created nationalist traditions that could be replicated long into the future by consenting Americans, perpetually bound together in everlasting remembrance of Washington. One visitor stated that the Americans felt the need to have a likeness of Washington in themselves as we feel the need to have a likeness of God in ourselves as saints. Sometimes the most lavish and the only pictures in people’s homes were of Washington. People from every region started making trips to Washington’s home at Mount Vernon after his death to “drop a tear at the tomb of Father of his country.”

I feel like there was an extremely thin line between the “nationalism” and the “religion” of the early national period. The fact that the nation was formed based on the purposes on religious freedoms helps to blur those lines even more. The way that the early citizens immoralized Washington and the civic texts makes it extremely hard to draw the line between what was nationalism and what was religion. The only argument that I can think of that they were not alike was that the people did not go to a special place to worship Washington or the civic texts, but at the same time, the citizens did keep those things in their Bibles and studied them in school which makes my argument weak. I personally believe that the Americans of that time did not have a difference between “nationalism” and “religion”.

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Legendary American research

September 7th, 2011 by Charli

After researching about some of our candidates, I found a lot of interesting information on all three of the candidates.

The first candidate that I researched was Al Capone. Al Capone began his gang activity after he was expelled from school when he was 14 years old. Capone became dedicated to smuggling, bootlegging liquar, prostitution, bribing government figures, and other illegal activities. Although he was involved in many illegal activities, he became a public figure and known as the “modern day Robin Hood”. During the Prohibiton Era, Capone provided $100 million per year in revenue to the Outfit. He recieved his wealth from many illegal activities but majority of the money came from the illegal sale of alcohol. As Capone’s revenue increased, so did his grip on political figures and law enforcement, which helped Capone and his gang to operate without fear of legal intrusion.In 1931, Capone was indicated for income tax evasion and various violations of Prohibition. One of the facts that a found very interesting was what happened after his Cadillac was seized. There were many attempts to assasinate Al Capone, so other than being heavily guarded, Capone had his Cadillac fitted with bullet proof glass, run-flat tires, and a police siren. His car was seized in 1932 due to prohibition issues and was later used President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s limousine. Capone’s isolation at Alcatraz and the repeal of Prohibition in December 1933 reduced a major sourcce of his revenue and diminished his power. Even today, Capone has been the subject of articles, books, and films. His personality and character has been used as a model for crime lords and criminal masterminds ever since his death. The stereotypical image of a mobster wearing a blue pinstriped suit and tilted fedora is based on photos of Capone.

I found Billy the Kid to be especially legendary due to the fact that there’s several ways to tell the stories that are known about him. I favored Billy the Kid more so out of all the people on the list because of a tv episode that I have watched once. I believe it was an episode of unsolved mysteries when a man claimed to have been Billy the Kid eventhough most people said that Billy the Kid was killed. What really intrigued me was that some people thought that it was possible that the man could be Billy the Kid and some people thought that there was no way possible for the man to be Billy the Kid, but there is not any evidence that could prove either of these notions, so that will stay an unsolved mystery. Even as I tried to research about Billy the Kid I saw that there were many different variations to the stories of the things that Billy the Kid did. Most of the time they ended with the same things, death, but there were different variables that led up to the ending in each story. Eventhough there’s not a lot of concrete things about Billy the Kid and what he did, I would like to research him the most because I feel like the things that are unknown about him will make him the most interesting to learn about for me.

I didn’t spend quite as much time researching Henry Ford as I did Al Capone or Billy the Kid. The only things I knew about Henry Ford in the past is that he was responsible for building the Model T. I know that it is rumored that he used slaves to produce his cars but I did not look it up to see if it has been proven. Since I have spent most of my time doing extensive research on Al Capone and Billy the Kid, I will try to dedicate most of my time this week to research about Henry Ford and find some facts about him that really stand out to me.

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Thoughts on our shortlist

September 7th, 2011 by Eric

So, after looking over some material on our three candidates (Billy the Kid, Henry Ford, Al Capone), I came up with some points about each of them:

Billy the Kid: To me, he is the most “legendary” of the group. Since Ricky already did a bit of digging and asked some good questions, I just researched some of the surface information and looked around to make sure there would be enough material to create a decent syllabus of readings. There should be plenty. A quick search of Fondren reveals pages and pages of books about him, as well as newspaper clippings and songs and poems. Also, there has been a movie adapted from his exploits every decade since the 1930s. Beyond the abundance of resources, there is a lot about his legendary status to be explored. Why did people criticize the sheriff’s killing of an armed and dangerous outlaw as “unfair”? What made people so attached to him? Was he some sort of vicarious scapegoat for the people of the time, someone they could pin crimes on and imagine his reckless life as their own? At this stage, I’m inclined to pursue him as our legendary figure.

Henry Ford: Henry Ford is different than either Al Capone or Billy the Kid. Most of what he did was well documented, so he is not the “shrouded in myth” kind of legendary, but instead he attained massive amounts of respect by innovating and revolutionizing industry. It is hard to believe one man pioneered as much as he did: the 40-48 hour work week, a relatively high minimum wage, the assembly line, and the car for the working man. There are a few questions that warrant asking: how do people reconcile such an undoubtedly great career with his apparent anti-Semitism? Did he really invent everything people attribute to him, and what does that say about the public’s perception of inventors? There is plenty of material on him as well, but I think I would prefer to work on Billy the Kid.

Al Capone: As another criminal, many of the same broad questions can be asked of him as Billy the Kid, especially about his perception by the general public. The most basic: why was such a criminal admired by people? Is this a distinctly American thing? Society teaches us that crimes and therefore criminals are bad, but there appears to be some threshold where a person goes from inconsequential and looked down on to revered. What defines that threshold? In Al Capone’s case, we could look at the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre and other, lesser known crimes to see how they are remembered and how they affected his image. There is tons of information on him as well, to the point where we might become overloaded trying to slog through it all to find interesting, quality readings for the class. Overall, I like the allure of Billy the Kid’s western escapades a bit more than the straight gangsterism of Al Capone.

In the next week or two, we should read through some of the books in the library or scholarly journals online to get a sense of what we’re up against!

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Quantity Over Quality: A Transformation of Civil Texts

September 6th, 2011 by Eric

The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence remain as canonical as ever, though Washington’s Farewell Address seems to have fallen by the wayside. Modern times offer more such texts, however, at the cost the public’s devotion to each one, and given the long term effects of canonical texts, this might be a good thing.

Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech qualifies, and several of JFK’s speeches like his inaugural address and the speech he delivered at Rice concerning the space program are canonical civil texts, though to a lesser degree than something like the Farewell Address. There are plenty more “iconic” texts from the past century, like FDR’s speech on fear, but these speeches do not influence American culture to anywhere near the degree that the texts of yore seemed to. They provide a few pithy quotes, a stir of patriotism, and a reminder of what a solid team of speechwriters can do. Civil texts still remain from past eras, such as the Gettysburg Address and the lyrics to the national anthem, but these too hold much less sway than documents from the late eighteenth century.

Most of my readings in school would not qualify as “popularizing texts.” History classes were the exception, since most curriculums are almost designed around popularizing the old civil texts. But I did not learn to read with Declaration of Independence or practice memorizing Martin Luther King’s speech. In fact, I do not think I have ever read the entire text of JFK’s “ask not what your country can do for you” speech, much less seen it republished in newspapers or distributed in pamphlets. Perhaps it stems from the timing of my generation. Other stresses and distractions keep people from paying too much attention to civics, and the past few presidents have offered little material that could be immortalized as the defining patriotic sentiment of the era. As such, much of the lessons in the classroom refer to the “good old days” when everyone apparently knew what they were doing.

In regards to that, Furstenberg delivered one of the most interesting points of the book in the epilogue, where he questions whether civic texts, though massively beneficial for a fractured country, are holding America back in the present day. The quotes from Jefferson about modifying the Constitution were new to me. Previously, I was in the camp that supported the Constitution as almost untouchable, created by visionaries in a time when politics were much clearer and cleaner than they are today. The author dismisses these notions however, as he points out the costs of deifying our forefathers with such civil texts; they unify the nation but tether it to outdated figures and ideologies. The admonition is that a country that is set against change will not survive in the world for long.

With that in mind, I feel conflicted about the lack of landmark civic texts in the my time. Without anything to replace the old documents, the country’s identity still seems to be based around exuberant nationalism. While this was necessary back in the first 50 years of the nation’s founding, it makes less sense in the increasingly globalized world of today. However, this same dearth of current civic texts means that generations from now, people will not be hooked on the ideas of the late 20th century. If the respect for the Founding Fathers returns to rational levels, they might even be free to innovate without feeling like they are betraying the country’s roots. As such, I am glad the popularizing texts have opted not to blow any speeches or documents out of proportion.

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