Final blog - NDNU History cass - Summer 2011

I wanted to start this blog off, by saying that I have really enjoyed this class. Although it seemed tough at times to meet the deadlines for the assignments and read all the chapters – which by the way I am grateful we got a break on – it was a very enjoyable class to be a part of. I have learned an immense amount being in the class. I enjoyed the teaching style as well, and really appreciate the many exercises that Patti did in class to ensure that we learned what we needed to learn to be successful, not only in the class but in our knowledge of important historical events that took place in the past centuries. Although I feel I have a lot more to learn, this class really did set a foundation for me in understanding the history of the world.

II have said it before and I will say again, that many people have perhaps criticized Strayer’s way of writing, I would say that he seems to have  been a little more repetitive than he maybe needed to be at some points in the chapters. Even though he could have been less repetitive, I would say that it has helped me to retain a lot of the information that was taught in the chapters. Strayer did a good job of having a balance between, sharing the facts and his opinions. It makes it very difficult when you are trying to learn something and it is all coming from one point of view. He seemed to lay out the facts based on his viewpoint and back them up with information that he thought was pertinent to the events.

I did also enjoy his somewhat poetic style of writing, this is mostly what I think helped me to stay engaged and enjoying the chapters.

Some of the points that stood out to me and where I felt he was writing with a poetic style in a couple of the sections in Chapter 23, were the following:

§         “In 1900, European colonial empires in Africa and Asia appeared as permanent features o the world’s political landscape.” (Page 692)

§         In 1940’s India, Pakistan, Burma, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan and Israel were among the first to break free of the colonial rule and structure of those who governed them during this time.

§         “Never before had the end of empire been so associated with the mobilization of the masses around a nationalist ideology; nor has these earlier cases generated a plethora of nation-states, each claiming a place in the world of nation-states.”

§         These decolonization, were comparable to European colonies in the Americas threw off the British, French, Spanish.

§         “The 20^th century witnessed the demise of many empires.” (Page 693)

§         “WWII ended the Japanese and German empires.”

§         “Empires without territory, such as the United-States, in Latin America, came under attack from highly nationalist governments.”

§         “As the twentieth century closed, the end of the European empires seemed an almost “natural” phenomenon, for colonial rule has lost any credibility as a form of political order.”

§         “Explaining the end of colonial empires focuses attention on fundamental contradictions in the entire colonial enterprise that arguably rendered its demise more or less inevitable. The rhetoric of both Christianity and material progress sat awkwardly with the realities of colonial racism, exploitation and poverty.” (Page 694)

§         “At the same time, social and economic circumstances within the colonies themselves generated the human raw material for anticolonial movement.” (Page 695)

§         “Veterans of the world wars; young people with some education but no jobs commensurate with their expectations; a small class of urban workers who were increasingly aware of their exploitation….all of these groups had reason to be believe that independence held great promise.”

§         “These reforms and, ultimately, independence itself occurred only under considerable pressure from mounting nationalist movements.”

§         “The most prominent among them became the “fathers” of their new countries as independence dawned.” (Page 695-696)

As I read the final few chapters that were assigned I found myself very interested in the process of India and South Africa becoming independent and in some of the differences between the two, and in the two major leaders of both countries.

It is so amazing to me how one person can make an impact in such ways that can change the course of the current times and essentially changing the course of history itself. People like Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, Socrates, Mohammad, Christopher Columbus, Martin Luther, Adolf Hitler, Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, and many more, over time have had such an impact in their communities and really throughout the world. Even though not all of these individuals made an impact for the better or the good of the people and the world, I have a respect for them for stepping out into the unknown world and doing whatever it was that they wanted to do to make their mark on the world.

The unfortunate thing for me with the so-called world leaders, is that many of them – Hitler especially in my opinion – may have used their power for the greed and evil of the world. I always wonder about Hitler type people who have such a massive impact on the world, what would have happened if they had done good with the power that they so readily thought was theirs. And then there are people like Nelson Mandela, who’s goal was to bring people into a state of equality and peace. It was nice to read that there was a decolonization and movement of equality that was less violent and less separated in the end than some of the other like in India for example.

After learning more about these people and the wars, the takeovers, the empires and even the early settlers, I really hope that one day our world will come to more peace. I see more now than ever that perhaps we may never truly have extreme world peace, but I do believe that if people let down their pride and greed and truly looked out for the interest of their neighbor as they did their own; we may be able to paint a colorful future without a much of the color red and the repercussion of pain and hatred.

Oral History Presentation -

Since I can't be at the last night of class, I have attached a video of my presentation of my oral history project.

Albert and Beth Vanderhurst in Normandy France for 40th D-day reunion



Picture that Albert Took of the beaches of Normandy many years after the blood shed




Beaches of Normandy - provided a silent healing to the young soldier within Albert




Original Sketch of the Outsen Mill in San Francisco



The Great Depression

The great depression was a rough time for many Americans, as well as many people in the world to where the depression spread. October 1929 marked the beginning of the great depression, where close to one in four Americans were unemployed. Many lost their homes, banks and businesses were crumbling, and the stock market was not at all what is had been in the past. Farming and agriculture was not what it was either; it was said to have dropped by 50 percent by 1932. During this time one of the main issues with agriculture, was that there was not a balance between what the country was producing, and what it was consuming. Innovations that were born out of the first world war, made it difficult and almost impossible for the regular wage earners, and the typical US farmers to survive the times financially. While the lower middle class and lower class were getting poorer, some of the rich were getting richer. Some of the rich and upper middle class also lost a lot of money, if they had invested in the stock market at the time. However, there were still many families that survived this time, such as the Outsen family. Many believed that the depression was caused by poor choices of the American government. An argument was that the economy was stable, but that it has been shaken by the repercussions of a worldwide depression. In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt, won the race for president by more than seven million votes. Americans were ready for change and at the time excited for what President Roosevelt had in store for the country, which was called "the new deal".

In 1933 bread lines were normal to see across the country, since so many millions of Americans were out of work. Thousands of people travelled the country searching for food. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was formed during this time, to help with the unemployment issue. It primarily affected men who were 18-25, who would be sent to work in camps across the country to work for a wage. They would plant trees, maintain national forests, help eliminate stream pollution; they created fish, game and bird sanctuaries, and they worked to conserve coal and other natural resources. Unemployment programs such as these, seemed to be favored by the government over welfare. In 1933, the Agriculture Adjustment Act (AAA) was also formed to help farmers, and the farming industry get back on its feet. The idea was to raise crop prices, by providing farmers with a subsidy to account for cutbacks. From the time the AAA was put into place until 1935, the farming industry was back up by 50 percent, and federal programs were partially to thank for this. After the AAA was dissolved in 1936, another act was created which made a mandatory regulation for farmers to implement soil erosion prevention techniques, and were also paid to follow specific farming practices. The increase in farming income helped many citizens across the country, to become more confident in the economic landscape, and future of the nation.

Beth Vanderhurst was born in San Francisco California, to proud parents Pearl and James Outsen, on February 24, 1926. Beth is my husband Jeff’s grandmother, on his mother’s side. Beth’s grandmother and grandfather Outsen met in San Francisco, after immigrating with their parents from Norway and Denmark respectively. Hans Outsen, Beth’s grandfather, started the Outsen Brothers Milling Company in 1874. When Hans passed away, Beth’s father James Outsen and his brother inherited the milling company. They owned the company until 1968 when her father sold the company, before he died a few years later. Their story is quite different than that of most local San Franciscans, and Americans really during the great depression.

Because Beth's father owned the mill during the depression, Beth and her family never felt the negative effects of the depression, unlike millions of others. The mill was the only one in San Francisco, and it provided grain to Honolulu, Hawaii. It also provided barley for beer to several breweries across the country. During the depression, even though people could barely feed themselves at the time, Beth said that people never let their animals go hungry. They were the main provider of grain for the local horse stables, and animal feed stores. James was the buyer and seller for the mill, during the time he owned it. This was an interesting twist on the time during the great depression; I was not expecting her to share this type of story, when I asked her about the first historical event that she lived through. Beth was an only child, and grew up like few other wealthy children of her time. When she was older she wanted her father to pass the mill onto her, rather than selling it. Her father would not let her take over the mill, even though she was confident she could run it. He would not pass it on to her at the time because, women were forbidden to go on the grain exchange, or work in the mill in any way. It was especially not allowed for women to be in management.  In 1933, there was a strike at the Outsen mill; the mill lost a lot of money during this time, mostly because they lost grain that spoiled, since they were forbidden to work the grain lines and ship to their customers. Beth's father had to be escorted to and from the mill, since people were very aggressive toward him at times. It amazed me after all the country was going through during the great depression and people scrounging for food and resources, Beth's family were among the few elite in the country during one of the worst economic times the United states had ever experienced. Beth’s mother’s father, Phillip Stolz, immigrated to the United States from Germany; he owned one of the first butcher and vegetable markets in San Francisco, on Grant and Sutter Street. He didn’t make it to the depression since his market was completely destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, and he died shortly after in 1914.