What have you learned in history so far this year?

Americans continue to struggle with respecting Native Americans culture. I did research on cultural appropriation, meaning, there is controversy about the way Americans use Native Americans’ symbols, labels, and motifs specifically in the fashion industry. Around mid 1800s, Americans forced the natives out of their home place. We waged wars against them and destroyed villages, families, and tribes all for land. We did not give them a chance. Today, we continue to disrespect their culture, and clearly have not learned what their beliefs are and how they want to be treated. There are many examples of Americans disrespecting the Native culture. Something as simple as buying a fake Navajo blanket is insulting because those blankets had religious significance to Native Americans and most Americans still do not understand this concept.

I was surprised to learn about “leisure time”, and how people considered “leisure” “laziness” in the 1800s. It is odd that no one had free time or weekends. I live for the weekend. I could not imagine never having time to sit down, watch Netflix and text. I suppose I had always assumed weekends were apart of life and that most people had a “summer vacation” or a “fall break”. If I had no leisure time and had to come to school on the weekends and during the breaks we have now, I might loose my mind.

It was unpleasant to learn that the world is becoming very visual. It is becoming hard to imagine things. A great example of this would be my reaction to watching 12 Years a Slave. It really opened my eyes to how slaves were actually treated. Watching someone get hung, and almost beaten to death for borrowing soap was appalling to watch, but shocking to realize that this actually happened to most slaves. So, why couldn’t I get that picture from the readings I had done in the textbook? Its simple, most people today are becoming very visual and this is unpleasant.  

I will be able to remember when I could relate things to the present. For example, when our class talked about Chain stores and the consumer society, I will remember that companies sent catalogs to houses to get people to buy there products. These giant textbooks were basically a “Wal-Mart in a book”. It is so interesting a giant book could make shopping glamorous. I don’t know about you but I love to shop, it has always been so fun for me. So to learn about how “mass consumption” intensely affected women’s lives helps me to understand why catalogs were created, and why shopping became enjoyed by most women.

I would name the time period from 1865 to 1920, “Productivity Age”. During this time America, and Americans were producing items, remaking itself, and productively inventing new relationships. During the reconstruction period, Americans were producing new cities, and architectural styles. Americans were productively succeeding at forcing the Natives out of their homeland and productively producing new industries, new people and new techniques about how to be successful when starting a business. Soon after this, Americans were producing new products for the consumer society. So, the “Productivity Age” encapsulates the period from 1865-1920 perfectly.