This is the course blog for WRIT 1133, section 26, a first-year writing course at the University of Denver that focuses on rhetoric, research, and the cultures, histories, and geographies of the North American West.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Summary (or Description) of Your Primary Text
Before class on Wednesday, please post (here as a comment) a 250 word summary (or description) of the primary text that you'll be using for our current assignment.
The primary source from which I will be extracting much of my information and analysis comes from a book entitled “The Los Angeles Riots” by Mark Baldassare. The Los Angeles riots in spring 1992 were among the most violent and destructive events in twentieth-century urban America. The book addresses three main questions: What were the causes of the riots, what actually took place, and what are the consequences and meaning of the riots for U.S. cities? These findings provide strong evidence that the existence of an inner-city "underclass," the persistence of black-white tensions in U.S. society, and the emergence of inter-ethnic hostilities in urban neighborhoods are critical to understanding the Los Angeles riots and their implications. I expect this book to be immensely helpful as it seemingly covers most facets of my paper topic. Within my paper I hope to explore the incident involving Rodney King and the ensuing LA riots, and how it played a central role in shaping both the immediate atmosphere of LA as well as other major cities around the United States. The book offers: substantial demographic backgrounds, in-depth looks at the Rodney King verdict and public opinions before and after the incident. The book also illuminates other interesting factors such as a profile of the most commonly arrested citizens during the riots and the extent to which the damage and violence played a role in the strive towards equality. My hopes are that this book will bestow a solid foundation upon which secondary sources can further demonstrate the riot’s importance in the shaping of the American West.
One of the main texts I will be using for our next project is Man, Beast, Dust: The Story of Rodeo. For this assignment, I’m writing about how livestock shows and rodeos are large pieces of Western American culture. They reflect many aspects of early frontier life and they exist today giving the West a unique identity. The text I am using focuses on several aspects of rodeo. It begins by discussing early cowboy life in the West. It then talks about how that lead to the creation of cowboy sports. It talks about the different types of cattle and how they are used (e.g. bull riding, cattle roping). These events transitioned from being daily tasks that cowboys faced to being a form of entertainment. Although this book does cover a variety of information I would like to include in my paper, I think it may leave out other aspects that I am interested in, including stock shows (because it is focused on rodeos). However, I think it is a good starting point for my research and I think it will contribute a lot to my paper.
I have been struggling to not only find a primary document, but a topic of western history in general. I decided to find a document on the Indian Removal Act which led to the trail of tears. I found Andrew Jackson’s message to congress on “Indian Removal” from 1830. The message tries to persuade and justify the removal policy which had been established earlier that year. He tries to make it sound like the removal of Indians and settling them in Oklahoma would be better for the settlers and the Indians themselves. So far this is what I think my primary document will be for this assignment. The rhetoric in the speech is very interesting, with some parts sounding very vague and political and others parts that are very blunt. A very interesting part of the piece is where Jackson tries to compare the movement of the Indians to our movement to the colonies form England and our movement west. He makes it sound like this removal act will be doing a favor to the Native Americans and will hopefully make them more civilized.
My original idea was to focus on prostitution here in Colorado and how it affected the development of the area. However, I was not able to find a primary document that related to this topic, so I may have to change my topic to Chinese prostitution in San Francisco. If I cannot find any primary document from Colorado, I will probably be using a newspaper article about the problem of Chinese Prostitution in S.F. The article is entitled “The Chinese Conspiracy Case” and discusses a trial that is going on in the city. The defendants are several owners of brothels, and they are being tried by the city in order to get the brothels shut down. This article makes it clear that the problem with Chinese prostitution may have been facilitated by the American society, but was ultimately developed and pushed by the Chinese people themselves. This particular case concerns a woman who was bought from China by another Chinese man. She then escaped from his brothel and met Yet Sung, who she then married. Based on Chinese law, Yet Sung was required to pay for his bride, because she was the property of the brothel owner. There are a few other articles that I may use instead. One pertains to another trial against brothel owners, and the other tells the story of a woman named Ah Loy who was a prostitute in San Francisco. I may also use a firsthand account of what it was like to be one of the women in this brothel, but I will have to look further into that.
The primary document I will be using for this research assignment is a book entitled “Cities of the American West: A History of Frontier Urban Planning.” It is a very interesting piece of work in that it details the urban development of the west. In my brief glance at the table of contents, I discovered that this book will be a valuable resource. It contains chapters that discuss the development of California after the years in which it was dominated by the Spanish, the “Origins of the Mormon West” is the title of another chapter, and another chapter that is covered in this book is about the mining towns of Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, and Colorado. I had the opportunity to look over a chapter about the urban planning of the Pacific Northwest beginning with Oregon. It was interesting in that it discussed the very beginning of the urban planning process from its roots of the trek of Brigham Young and the Mormons who ended up by the Willamette River to the buying and selling of land to the construction of buildings. The book is a valuable resource in that it also contains extensive maps, drawings, and blueprint for the developing cities. An interesting component of the book, especially in the chapter about Oregon, is the fact that it discusses how the landscape evolved. An interesting piece of information from the book was the fact that it discussed how, in spite of the towns growing, Oregon still kept some of its frontier landscape. This bit of information sparked a question and I am interested to learn about how the landscape of the west changed and if some of its “frontier” landscape was kept intact or stripped away.
Alcatraz has always been known as a leading institution for the prison system. This top-security prison has held some of the most prestigious gangsters and criminals in the 19th century. Although I have not chosen exactly what primary source will be the main influence on this paper, I am quite certain I know which one I will choose. Alcatraz: The Gangster Years tells stories of people held in the prison during the supposedly gangster years. They are called gangster years because famous “public enemies” such as Al Capone, George Kelly, and Alvin Karpis were incarcerated there. This book deals with the lives of the prisoners and how staying in the prison affected their psyche. It focuses on how they lived their lives and even talks about the escape attempts and the three men who were successful. It also raises questions about prisons such as this such as the need or even practical use of them. The information in this book will provide a compelling idea into how this symbol of Alcatraz defines not only the U.S prison system, but how this affects the way America is viewed. By focusing on these “American” gangsters, one can identify what motives were behind the American ideology. The debates over Alcatraz and its validity as a federal prison have changed the American philosophy on western judgment towards crime.
John Gadsby Chapman painted The Warning of Pocahontas in 1836. Born in Alexandria, Virginia Chapman studied art in Washington, Philidelphia, Florence, and Rome between the years of 1824 and 1831. In his paintings, such as The Warning of Pocahontas, he recreated historical events from America’s past. He chose to represent expansion westward in his paintings in a positive manner. Instead of painting scenes of the major conflict he chose to paint peaceful moments. He mythologize He concentrated many of his paintings on the life of Pocahontas.
The main document my project will revolve around is the manifesto written by John L. Sullivan which triggered the movement or ideology that has become known as manifest destiny. This text will be the basis for my rhetorical analysis as I’m trying to analyze the effect this document had on American politicians such as president James K. Polk and how the general American public reacted to it. Basically, Sullivan starts out by outlining the different values the American nation were founded upon such as liberty, democracy and such. The introductory paragraph is an ovation to the foundation of the U.S. as a nation and that it had diverged from “older” ways of thinking and oppressive types of government that completely separated America from European history. The overall style of writing is very political and at times it resembles the style by which the Declaration of Independence was written stressing those values that led to the creation of something greater. The interesting aspect of the document is that Sullivan didn’t directly implied that gaining territory western to the Mississippi River and “eliminating” lower groups of people living in that territory, and he didn’t called this philoshophy as Manifest Destiny, he just mumbled a lot about the deeds the American people were supposedly destined to accomplish for the greater good like personal freedom and such. I feel that this document will be a good starting point and that I will be able to find other sources that will be able to show me the effect this exact document had in its rhetorical context.
I think it's safe to say that I have narrowed down to the research topic I would like to explore. I have always been fascinated by Native Americans and the lack of rights and resepct they have received since the white settlers have invaded and imposed on their land. I came upon a book called "Native American Testimony" by Peter Nabokov who reaches out to various Native American tribes interviewing and recording the views and thoughts of Native American individuals. In a series of powerful and moving documents, Nabakov presents a history of Native American and white relations as seen through Indian eyes and told through Indian voices. I came upon a couple of documents that include own Indian opinions on the Indian Reorganization Act. Native American individuals take the stand on whether they believe this act is morally correct or even genuine on the part of the US government. It seems like a promising topic that will allow me to gain more insight on the lives of Native Americans by analyzing the rhetorical strategies employed by the authors and the effectiveness of their persuasion.
The primary text I will be using is the book Amache: The Story of Japanese Internment in Colorado During World War II. It is a compilation of interviews with people involved in the internment camps and how they affected them. There are also other documents and articles included in the book that could help me further understand the internment camps. The book will provide me with a large variety of different information and sources so that I will get a diverse selection of information. I will be looking at how people’s attitudes change during wartime and the things we are willing to do to one another when we are in fear for our own safety. The most effective way to do this will be to include the perspective of those who are actually affected by decisions like the internment camps. It is much easier to agree with decisions like this if the perspective of those actually present is ignored. By providing both sides of the situation (the first hand accounts and the need for national security), I will further my argument.
The main text I used for my second writing assignment was called “Write to Die” and it was an article that the Oregonian published in 1994 on the debate and process of the first Physician Assisted Suicide law in the nation. It traces the steps the writers of the bill took in order to have a politically palatable bill. It follows the bill’s writers for a few months and how polling and political pressure at the time had a tremendous impact on the final product. I hope to follow up the story with secondary evidence that shows the exact debate and polling that the primary text discusses. I chose the text as I am from Oregon and am very interesting in learning something that, until recently, had been considered horribly wrong and murder, I hope to gain a further understanding as to why such a palatable bill had been passed. The article covers both sides of the argument as well, which is why I aim to cover the pros and cons of the debate that raged across party lines during the fall of ’93 and ’97.
The primary source from which I will be extracting much of my information and analysis comes from a book entitled “The Los Angeles Riots” by Mark Baldassare. The Los Angeles riots in spring 1992 were among the most violent and destructive events in twentieth-century urban America. The book addresses three main questions: What were the causes of the riots, what actually took place, and what are the consequences and meaning of the riots for U.S. cities? These findings provide strong evidence that the existence of an inner-city "underclass," the persistence of black-white tensions in U.S. society, and the emergence of inter-ethnic hostilities in urban neighborhoods are critical to understanding the Los Angeles riots and their implications. I expect this book to be immensely helpful as it seemingly covers most facets of my paper topic. Within my paper I hope to explore the incident involving Rodney King and the ensuing LA riots, and how it played a central role in shaping both the immediate atmosphere of LA as well as other major cities around the United States. The book offers: substantial demographic backgrounds, in-depth looks at the Rodney King verdict and public opinions before and after the incident. The book also illuminates other interesting factors such as a profile of the most commonly arrested citizens during the riots and the extent to which the damage and violence played a role in the strive towards equality. My hopes are that this book will bestow a solid foundation upon which secondary sources can further demonstrate the riot’s importance in the shaping of the American West.
ReplyDeleteOne of the main texts I will be using for our next project is Man, Beast, Dust: The Story of Rodeo. For this assignment, I’m writing about how livestock shows and rodeos are large pieces of Western American culture. They reflect many aspects of early frontier life and they exist today giving the West a unique identity. The text I am using focuses on several aspects of rodeo. It begins by discussing early cowboy life in the West. It then talks about how that lead to the creation of cowboy sports. It talks about the different types of cattle and how they are used (e.g. bull riding, cattle roping). These events transitioned from being daily tasks that cowboys faced to being a form of entertainment. Although this book does cover a variety of information I would like to include in my paper, I think it may leave out other aspects that I am interested in, including stock shows (because it is focused on rodeos). However, I think it is a good starting point for my research and I think it will contribute a lot to my paper.
ReplyDeleteI have been struggling to not only find a primary document, but a topic of western history in general. I decided to find a document on the Indian Removal Act which led to the trail of tears. I found Andrew Jackson’s message to congress on “Indian Removal” from 1830. The message tries to persuade and justify the removal policy which had been established earlier that year. He tries to make it sound like the removal of Indians and settling them in Oklahoma would be better for the settlers and the Indians themselves. So far this is what I think my primary document will be for this assignment. The rhetoric in the speech is very interesting, with some parts sounding very vague and political and others parts that are very blunt. A very interesting part of the piece is where Jackson tries to compare the movement of the Indians to our movement to the colonies form England and our movement west. He makes it sound like this removal act will be doing a favor to the Native Americans and will hopefully make them more civilized.
ReplyDeleteMy original idea was to focus on prostitution here in Colorado and how it affected the development of the area. However, I was not able to find a primary document that related to this topic, so I may have to change my topic to Chinese prostitution in San Francisco. If I cannot find any primary document from Colorado, I will probably be using a newspaper article about the problem of Chinese Prostitution in S.F. The article is entitled “The Chinese Conspiracy Case” and discusses a trial that is going on in the city. The defendants are several owners of brothels, and they are being tried by the city in order to get the brothels shut down. This article makes it clear that the problem with Chinese prostitution may have been facilitated by the American society, but was ultimately developed and pushed by the Chinese people themselves. This particular case concerns a woman who was bought from China by another Chinese man. She then escaped from his brothel and met Yet Sung, who she then married. Based on Chinese law, Yet Sung was required to pay for his bride, because she was the property of the brothel owner.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few other articles that I may use instead. One pertains to another trial against brothel owners, and the other tells the story of a woman named Ah Loy who was a prostitute in San Francisco. I may also use a firsthand account of what it was like to be one of the women in this brothel, but I will have to look further into that.
The primary document I will be using for this research assignment is a book entitled “Cities of the American West: A History of Frontier Urban Planning.” It is a very interesting piece of work in that it details the urban development of the west. In my brief glance at the table of contents, I discovered that this book will be a valuable resource. It contains chapters that discuss the development of California after the years in which it was dominated by the Spanish, the “Origins of the Mormon West” is the title of another chapter, and another chapter that is covered in this book is about the mining towns of Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, and Colorado. I had the opportunity to look over a chapter about the urban planning of the Pacific Northwest beginning with Oregon. It was interesting in that it discussed the very beginning of the urban planning process from its roots of the trek of Brigham Young and the Mormons who ended up by the Willamette River to the buying and selling of land to the construction of buildings. The book is a valuable resource in that it also contains extensive maps, drawings, and blueprint for the developing cities. An interesting component of the book, especially in the chapter about Oregon, is the fact that it discusses how the landscape evolved. An interesting piece of information from the book was the fact that it discussed how, in spite of the towns growing, Oregon still kept some of its frontier landscape. This bit of information sparked a question and I am interested to learn about how the landscape of the west changed and if some of its “frontier” landscape was kept intact or stripped away.
ReplyDeleteAlcatraz has always been known as a leading institution for the prison system. This top-security prison has held some of the most prestigious gangsters and criminals in the 19th century. Although I have not chosen exactly what primary source will be the main influence on this paper, I am quite certain I know which one I will choose. Alcatraz: The Gangster Years tells stories of people held in the prison during the supposedly gangster years. They are called gangster years because famous “public enemies” such as Al Capone, George Kelly, and Alvin Karpis were incarcerated there. This book deals with the lives of the prisoners and how staying in the prison affected their psyche. It focuses on how they lived their lives and even talks about the escape attempts and the three men who were successful. It also raises questions about prisons such as this such as the need or even practical use of them. The information in this book will provide a compelling idea into how this symbol of Alcatraz defines not only the U.S prison system, but how this affects the way America is viewed. By focusing on these “American” gangsters, one can identify what motives were behind the American ideology. The debates over Alcatraz and its validity as a federal prison have changed the American philosophy on western judgment towards crime.
ReplyDeleteJohn Gadsby Chapman painted The Warning of Pocahontas in 1836. Born in Alexandria, Virginia Chapman studied art in Washington, Philidelphia, Florence, and Rome between the years of 1824 and 1831. In his paintings, such as The Warning of Pocahontas, he recreated historical events from America’s past. He chose to represent expansion westward in his paintings in a positive manner. Instead of painting scenes of the major conflict he chose to paint peaceful moments. He mythologize He concentrated many of his paintings on the life of Pocahontas.
ReplyDeleteThe main document my project will revolve around is the manifesto written by John L. Sullivan which triggered the movement or ideology that has become known as manifest destiny. This text will be the basis for my rhetorical analysis as I’m trying to analyze the effect this document had on American politicians such as president James K. Polk and how the general American public reacted to it. Basically, Sullivan starts out by outlining the different values the American nation were founded upon such as liberty, democracy and such. The introductory paragraph is an ovation to the foundation of the U.S. as a nation and that it had diverged from “older” ways of thinking and oppressive types of government that completely separated America from European history. The overall style of writing is very political and at times it resembles the style by which the Declaration of Independence was written stressing those values that led to the creation of something greater. The interesting aspect of the document is that Sullivan didn’t directly implied that gaining territory western to the Mississippi River and “eliminating” lower groups of people living in that territory, and he didn’t called this philoshophy as Manifest Destiny, he just mumbled a lot about the deeds the American people were supposedly destined to accomplish for the greater good like personal freedom and such. I feel that this document will be a good starting point and that I will be able to find other sources that will be able to show me the effect this exact document had in its rhetorical context.
ReplyDeleteI think it's safe to say that I have narrowed down to the research topic I would like to explore. I have always been fascinated by Native Americans and the lack of rights and resepct they have received since the white settlers have invaded and imposed on their land. I came upon a book called "Native American Testimony" by Peter Nabokov who reaches out to various Native American tribes interviewing and recording the views and thoughts of Native American individuals. In a series of powerful and moving documents, Nabakov presents a history of Native American and white relations as seen through Indian eyes and told through Indian voices. I came upon a couple of documents that include own Indian opinions on the Indian Reorganization Act. Native American individuals take the stand on whether they believe this act is morally correct or even genuine on the part of the US government. It seems like a promising topic that will allow me to gain more insight on the lives of Native Americans by analyzing the rhetorical strategies employed by the authors and the effectiveness of their persuasion.
ReplyDeleteThe primary text I will be using is the book Amache: The Story of Japanese Internment in Colorado During World War II. It is a compilation of interviews with people involved in the internment camps and how they affected them. There are also other documents and articles included in the book that could help me further understand the internment camps. The book will provide me with a large variety of different information and sources so that I will get a diverse selection of information. I will be looking at how people’s attitudes change during wartime and the things we are willing to do to one another when we are in fear for our own safety. The most effective way to do this will be to include the perspective of those who are actually affected by decisions like the internment camps. It is much easier to agree with decisions like this if the perspective of those actually present is ignored. By providing both sides of the situation (the first hand accounts and the need for national security), I will further my argument.
ReplyDeleteThe main text I used for my second writing assignment was called “Write to Die” and it was an article that the Oregonian published in 1994 on the debate and process of the first Physician Assisted Suicide law in the nation. It traces the steps the writers of the bill took in order to have a politically palatable bill. It follows the bill’s writers for a few months and how polling and political pressure at the time had a tremendous impact on the final product. I hope to follow up the story with secondary evidence that shows the exact debate and polling that the primary text discusses. I chose the text as I am from Oregon and am very interesting in learning something that, until recently, had been considered horribly wrong and murder, I hope to gain a further understanding as to why such a palatable bill had been passed. The article covers both sides of the argument as well, which is why I aim to cover the pros and cons of the debate that raged across party lines during the fall of ’93 and ’97.
ReplyDelete