City Life Research Essay

Central Park was known as the “first urban landscaped park” that started construction in 1857 that was stated in the article of New York City The History of Central Park. Two main key effecters of this park were Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the winners of the park contest called the Greensward Plan. Together these two architects created a park that was viable to being ecologically, governmentally, working, economically, artistically, and very sociable park in the United States from the book Public Parks: The Key to Livable Communities By-Alexander Garvin. Central Park portrays a trend of evolution of urban life and urbanization towards New Yorker’s living around the park.
This park was designed to be a serenity to New Yorker’s, like the backyard to their homes. It was constructed to show European styles that Americans did not have, which caused more to visit. There was a sudden growth of people moving closer to the Park, in the newspaper article The Sun Apartment Renting Guide New York. Also this primary source about apartments sold near Central Park The Sun- Apartment Guide New York. It pictures the growth of apartments and need for urban life. Since the park ran through 5th Avenue prices of houses and apartments were more expensive. This maintained an idea of Central Park being “the playground for the wealthy”. Around the earlier years,1950’s, this park was visited by wealthy New Yorker’s because of it’s social attractions, carriage rides, being able to be insight in the park It also gave an opportunity to the lower class not to drink all day but advantage from a clean environment and enjoyable activities. Around the park consisted of residential homes that the wealthy resided in, which caused urbanization to grow. Olmsted and Vauz wrote, said in Public Parks: The Key to Livable Communities By-Alexander Garvin  “[…] Let us consider, therefore, what will at that time to be satisfactory, for it is then that the design will be judged…No longer an open suburb[…]”. The park had several conflicting view points about the construction of the park and the way that the land was being used for, but this park caused many rapid developments that New York City needed.
When this 840 acre land stretching from 59th street to 106th street and 5th to 8th avenue was opened it turned to the publics eyes. They saw it as a beautiful place, that was constructed aesthetically. Central Park had created a need for more parks in the city which changed the scene of urban life in the city. The primary source shows a newspaper The Sun, April 27, 1919, Section 7 Magazine Section, Image 69, that talks about the author of the article having a friend from Japan walk through the park, saying, “How much this all is like home, like Japan.” The country Japan consist of Japanese gardens, with beautiful flowers, that this person saw a similarity in Central Park to his country and gardens. The European styles made the Park seem less American and more of a different perspective.
Their was one problem with the use of public money for urbanization in the city. Tammany Hall’s misuse and fraud of the public money jeopardized the chance of gaining more public parks in the city. Before smaller parks and recreational areas could not be allowed financially by this corruption. The Citizen’s Union did not want the public money to go to waste by this act of corruption, they were against the stinginess and wrongful doing of the economy. In the primary source Small Parks and Recreation Piers for the People- jstor it states that“A liberal, thorough, careful expenditure of money is demanded by the present needs of the people and the prospective needs of future generations in Greater New York.” This then allowed the proper use of money to go into funding public parks and a overall growth of urbanization.
Without the creation of Central Park, the growth of residential areas near the park might have never came to be seen. The park as of now consists of a skating rink, a zoo, and is centrally located in the city. This development still would cause urban life, because of the benefits of the park to the classes of New York. Without this park the city would seize to grow economically, governmentally, working, ecologically, artistically, and a sociable park.
Central Park was a domino effect of mass urbanization and growth of urban life in New York City, and other cities in the United States. There was a need for more parks in the city, which also caused the park to be more visited.

Central Park

Central Park Aerial View

Central Park Apartment Renting Guide

Greensward Plan by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux

Ice Skating Rink

Central Park Bridge

Sources

New York City The History of Central Park
This source told me the background information about Central Park and how it was developed.

Public Parks: The Key to Livable Communities By-Alexander Garvin
Book about why Central Park was built and the benefits of it.

Primary Source: The Sun, April 27, 1919, Section 7 Magazine Section, Image 69
About the description of the parks design and how it was built to be a artistic scenery.

Primary Source: The Sun Apartment Renting Guide New York 
Showed the ads of apartments being sold and how urban life was affected, because it was around Central Park.

Primary Source: The Sun- Apartment Guide New York 
Showed the ads of apartment being sold and showing urbanization.

Primary Source: Small Parks and Recreation Piers for the People- jester
This source talked about the misuse and fraud of public money by Tammany Hall. How they used the money versus how they should be using the money.

       

Migration

People moving around the world are defined as immigrants and emigrants. Taking the PBS race quiz was confusing to me because most people did not appear to their actually race. Their identities are different from what people see. But migrants and migration can change the way you see people because you don't actually know what they are, from where, who, and where they live. It's all just one big mystery. Migration can occur anywhere in the world, especially coming to the United States, "for a better life". migration effects the way people look and perceive a person by their color of their skin or where they look like they belong. Most countries received significant amounts of people into their country for many years, especially the US, but one thing was weird was there were no migrants from the Soviet Union.

Migration Can Happen Anywhere

Philanthropy

Philanthropy to me is the act of actually helping people and making the world a better place and not just donating money, but also your time. I connected philanthropy to humanitarianism and helping other people around the world. Their are a lot of problems in the United States but also around the world. I think that the philanthropy that Rockefeller and Carnegie really helped the world in the certain aspects they wanted to contribute to. Rockefeller did his alma mater but Carnegie helped something outside of his beliefs and life accomplishments, which really made a more long lasting effect.

World Philanthropy

Thinking About Success

1. Hard Work
2. Opportunity
3. Skill
4. Luck

First to gain success you have to be a hard worker and have a strong work ethic. Opportunity is second because without any chances to be successful there is no way it can happen. There has to be a opportunity for you to lead to success. Having a high skill level in something is important because if you are good at one aspect in that job success will come to you because you stand out more than everyone else. Last is luck because some people may be lucky and the business deal is successful but others may not, and not receive anything in return except for failure. All of these factors contribute to success but in my mind the most important is hard work because if you don't have hard work to me you can't get anywhere in life.

Success

Business Innovation Research

While researching the business innovation I realized that most nice quality and branded items do not all come from China and Vietnam like people would think. I noticed that because of the high supply and demand and need for these clothing they create a more credible and centralized locations where the clothes can be distributed from efficiently. Also that H&M makes there clothing fit to two seasons which cuts back on the constant need for attaining new trends because of just having the two seasons. Some of the retail production does not happen in China and Asian countries but in the central European countries. I question how these items still have the same quality and time frame that they are to be produced in say China? How is it that people don't know the difference between the items made in the next door country and items made in a whole different continent? 

Zara in Spain

Indians in School Textbook Research

Savage is defined as a member of a people regarded as primitive and uncivilized and savagery is defined as the quality of being fierce or cruel. Today I used a textbook archive to search about the findings of Indians in the New World and what the settlers thought about them. But also before the time of coming to the New World the Vikings, or the Northmen, first came to calling the Indians, savages. I understood that once the Englishmen were starting to get killed by Indians the name "savages" came up. This then started the conflict of the English and Indians and the uprising of the name. The word savages started to pop up in the text when the story of Captain Smith came up. As a student reading the text, I would shape they way Native Americans are viewed in a bad way because they were named since the beginning savages. Which is a cruel way of putting it, because every person in the world is a human being and nobody should be treated the way the English treated the Indians. Just like Savagery is defined as a quality of being fierce or cruel, cruel is the main influence on innocent people.

Savagery

Letter from Indians in Newspaper

Monday, October 31, 1887

Dear Mama,

I was sitting in The P.K. Saloon waiting for my meal, when I saw a couple of Indians walking around. I could tell looking through the window they were Crows because most of is whites acknowledged them. Some I noticed had white wives, which i had never seen before and was confused. Whites and Indians are starting to get together? What? Sometimes I wonder how the Indians came to so much fortune, but others I just try to ignore them and not stare. Later that day after getting off from my shift at the lumber yard, I hurried home, but on the way home witnessed the Indians doing something very strange. "Wrapping the deceased in blankets and buffalo robes and fastening them to forks on the tree". I sat and watched for a while, until I got a whiff of an unbearable odor and hurried away. I read earlier in the local newspaper that Chiefs of the Crows Indians are becoming deceased, which was probably the reason for this smell. This was very weird sight for me to see and I didn't realize any of this was happening in this city, I call home. To everyone else the Indians are starting to seem more as friends than foes here in Hailey, Idaho, which has changed a lot. I feel that times have changed a lot because they are shaping our community into a better society.

Miss you,
Bill

Crow Indians

Indians in the News

The article I read was titled The Indian Troubles, which talks about how the Indians are not actually poor as everyone says they are, but they are actually the opposite. "The Indians are called poor, but they are in reality the richest people in the world in proportion to their numbers." The Indians are so successful by their lands they own, positions, and jobs in society. Below the headlines it says, "Our rich Indians- Families at $35,000 each and tribes at $3,000 per head. The chiefs passing away- civilizing the Indians slow work. The article also discusses the how the death of chiefs effect the tribes and what goes on. How they are not rivals to the white people but starting to help them improve in many important aspects. Also the Americans are trying to educate the Indians on language and writing and other important things to them. This article illustrates the exact opposite of what I thought it would be by the headline. It talks about how Americans and Indians are working together to make vast improvements in their societies by coming together.

Deep Thinking

"Our use of social media for news is selective and intentional so that we may tend to remain interested only in things that were are already interested in. On the other hand, professional news outlets like newspapers expose readers to information on a broad range of topics this helps me to see what other people are interested in or think is important."

Newspaper Exhibits Post

3. A newspaper is defined as "a set of large sheets of paper that have news stories, information about local events, advertisements, etc., and that are folded together and sold every day or every week". 
4. The first newspaper that came into existence by Germany was in 1609.
5. The very oldest newspapers in the United States was The Boston News-Letter, The New-England Courant, The New Hampshire Gazette, and The Hartford Courant.
6. The New York Times shows their leading stories as things going on in Russia, ISIS, the 2016 election, and planned parenthood. 
7. The meaning of the newspaper of record is a “major newspaper that has a large circulation and whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered professional and typically authoritative”. The US newspaper that was first designated as the nation’s newspaper of record in 1913 was The New York Times. Other US papers that are considered to be a newspaper of record Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.
8. Their are many differences between newspapers and social media. One big difference between the two is that a newspaper is written on paper, and social media is written online. When you think of social media people think of Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, ect. All of these social medias are used as tools of viewing news just like a newspaper exhibits but faster and more efficiently. Any mobile device or device with wifi can tell you what is going on through social media without needing to look at a newspaper. They are used to keep people updated just like The New York Times and USA Today online does. News is more updated when it is published online because it keeps you more updated on the go. In the old days for news to be updated on a newspaper they would have to reprint it and hand out the Extra newspaper. Social media keeps people more updated by a push of a button because it is constantly being talked about on TV, Twitter, and other significant social medias. Just like the how picking a song on your phone is difference between having a song being played on the radio. Your more interested in the song the radio plays rather than choosing it yourself. The music playing shows the difference between looking at a newspaper different from social media.

9. Newspaper

1st Quarter Recap

This first quarter in US History has been fairly successful. I haven't learned about US History since the Eighth Grade so this first quarter has been a good refresher and opener with the Civil War and Slavery. This quarter I have learned a lot more than I usually do the first quarter of History. I have learned about paraphrasing and incorporating quotes in my paraphrasing, which I was helpful. Interpreting if a source is "high quality", like the difference between the NY Times and a 10 year olds blog about the movie Glory. We also discussed the difference between empathy and sympathy, learning about analyzing primary sources for the two films we watched and then putting our skills to the test by hyperlinking, blogging, posting it, uploading the blog, and captioning a photo in the blog. We had started off the year by learning about the Civil War and how connects to slavery even in the South and North of the United States. And after the Civil War how their was a constitution but not a real one because African Americans did not have as many rights as they do now and as the whites in the United States. This lead to discussion of Black Codes which led to Reconstruction. After we were done with the Civil War and slavery we went straight to the topic of the Western and different events that had occurred during this time. We had used the topic of Empathy to understand the films, Glory and Twelve Years a Slave. We also had drawn conclusions from data about the films sales made from Box Office. Also how slavery was more involved in southern states and who it connects to them being the poorest states in the United States.

Overall from this first quarter in US History I have grown as a better writer and thinker. Writing in my blogs and with the skills of posting a blog, paraphrasing, and hyperlinking items that needed to be hyperlinked. This quarter my areas that I have really succeeded in was paraphrasing and incorporating in quotes in my paragraphs. I have thought a lot more about the significance of my homework and classwork. I realize if I didn't pay attention in class, I would not be able to understand how to do my homework or participate in discussions in our small groups. I understood how to paraphrase important items that would benefit my essays in the future. In History I hope to grow to make my blogging more efficient. By instead of writing full on paragraphs on my notecards, bullet points that are less wordy. Also showing more evidence in my essay would have benefited me.  I now know how to actually paraphrase a paragraph without feeling conscience about turning it in. And I feel more confident with identifying accurate and important "high-quality" sources that will benefit my writing and learning skills. Last year in my works cited I missed the most last year because my citations didn't have a certain level of accuracy in the. I hope to further my knowledge of the Western part of the United States, as I have not particularly learned this before. I'd like to understand more about the involvement of the United States in World War II. This quarter's work and effort I have put is how I will be working the next 3 Quarters in US History.

Native American Post

I read about the fashion of the Native Americans and the fashion controversy with the 2015 New York Fashion Show. The controversy was between the designer Bethany Yellowtail and London established company called KTZ. Quoted from BBC by Bethany Yellowtail wrote "The dress as stated on my website embodies a Crow design from my great great grandmother...funny I didn't realize @ktz_official knew the Yellowtails or the Crow people,". Also quoted from BBC said, “[…] but what happens when you blatantly take cultural valuable designs from Indigenous people?[…]”. Personally I think this is not only disrespectful to the designer, Bethany Yellowtail, but also the Native Americans and her family who originated the style. The fact that this dress had been produced the year before and was released the next year in the 2015 Fashion Show frustrates me. Stealing ideas and designs from one designer an putting it toward your outfit has been done before. But when it has to do with indigenous peoples designs that have been passed down from generations it is not so easy. Picture 1 shows Bethany's designs from 2014 and KTZ's dress "that they created". In image 2 it shows the influenced designs and geometric shapes that influenced Bethany Yellowtail's dress and design she created. In my opinion even if you do get caught copying another designers design it still is not fair and right to that designer that spent the time on it, and if they had special significance to it.

 Picture 1: Native American Fashion

Picture 2: Bag that Influenced Bethany's Dress

Analytical Skills Film Essay

In my opinion watching the movies gives students a better understanding of what they are about to learn and how it accurately happened. The historical accuracy of the movie really comes into play with this because if the movie isn't accurate then there is no purpose in watching the movie. But in the case of both films watched, Glory and Twelve Years a Slave, they are said to be historically accurate from the website New York Times review and review from Reelviews. 

Just by watching the movies, gave me a better understanding about how slavery and the Civil War affected the lives of so many people. Movies allow students to have a connection to modern technology, which can lead to thinking in a more critical way about movies and there way of production. Though filmmakers are faced with a challenge of the timeframe and the way they show and say things about the main characters that may be false. In Twelve Years a Slave, to me it felt as if the director had shortened and took out the non important events so he could make a time crunch of two hours. The filmmaker is faced with a challenge of what to take out and what to keep in because it’s all shown to be historically accurate. Taking something out could potentially change the film, but if he didn’t make the necessary changes he could lose the paying audience. But the director thought it through and made the changes needed, which lead to the film making 140 million dollars globally said from the article in CBS. This film in particular showed hidden truths within Solomon’s writing and feelings based upon his book. The accuracy in the film was based upon the accuracy of Solomon’s memories and writings from the New York Times Article. Even by distorting the movie historically the director, McQueen, still had a clear goal and purpose for the movie. McQueen wanted to show other people other aspects of slavery, and had a goal to go ahead of just racial differences and salves in movie from The Guardian. After discovering and researching McQueen’s intentions for the film it all was put together how the movie wasn't all just focused on slavery, slavery, slavery, but other real life connections about family, feelings, and hopes. Twelve Years a Slave is more one-sided, because it lets the watchers empathize with Solomon more. But this novel and film is mostly important because no slave has ever been shown as a main character, because there are no stories shown about them. 

Glory was a movie that I had seen before when I was in the 8th Grade, but seeing it now I had a totally different perspective and reaction towards it. Even though the challenges the director, Zwick, had faced he overcomes. The film was shown correctly historically by all the events occurred and main characters appearance shown in the article from Reelviews. There were some minor errors from the film said in McGill Blogs, but me seeing these errors that were said doesn’t change the movie that extensively. It was said in McGill Blogs that, “Errors make the film much less effective as a tool of historical learning.” But to me these errors are just ways for you to learn more from the filmmaker’s mistake. This was a challenge that Glory from 1989 had faced. The other challenge was putting a two hour frame on a movie that goes through most of the Civil War and deciding what to keep in and what to take out, and the backdrops of the wars and living quarters. All of this was very well planned and all main events and characters were seen. Glory still made money earning $26,828,365 total said from Box Office Mojo. Even though that most of the main characters lives ended in death they still conveyed that wether you were white or black you were all fighting for the same thing. Which race was a huge issue during that time but for these men to still fight together showed how much of a family they really were. The movie Glory had shown both perspectives of a white and black man, which can change a film rapidly by displaying woman sides and not making it one-sided. 

Together these two films show us the affect of slavery and the Civil War upon people living in both the North and the South. 

Scene From Movie

Historical Accuracy Of '12 Years A Slave' Already Being Discussed, Huffington Post

The Surprising Success of "12 Years a Slave”, CBS

An Escape From Slavery, Now a Movie, Has Long Intrigued Historians, New York Times

Glory (United States, 1989), Reelviews

Glory, Box Office Mojo

Glory Awards, IMDb

Steve McQueen on 12 Years a Slave: “It’s not about sugercoating history”, The Guardian

Glory, McGill Blogs 

Glory Quotes, Movie QuoteDB

Quotes, IMDb

Practicing Incorporating a Quotation

When we watched the movie Glory, the characters seemed really realistic and alive and made the movie seem more accurate. The events occurred showed that is was accurate. In this quote from the article on Reelviews by James Berardinelli says, "The characters in Glory never seem less than three-dimensional." All the main characters are real characters in our history, like Fredrick Douglass and Shaw. 

The process of paraphrasing has gotten easier for me, it is an easy way to understand the quote more by putting it in your own simpler words. Paraphrasing is all about using different word choices and different order of saying these words, and no repetition. Also it is an easier way of not breaking the honor code and not coping it straight from the article, which helps.

This is what Mrs. Lawson wanted me to learn today:

• Only use a quote when it adds power and style to my writing
• Always make it clear, from context, that i understand the full meaning of the quote
• Whether I quote or paraphrase, always be transparent about the source and how I'm using it
• If I use another author's exact words or phrases, to any extent, I have to use quotation marks and give credit
• If I use another's author's presentation of facts or ideas, but put their ideas in my own words, I better have a good reason for doing that, and I MUST give credit
• Hyperlinking is so easy, there is no excuse for not being transparent about my sources

I really understand these things.

Paraphrase Practice

The passage is from the website called Reelviews on the movie Glory, written by James Berardinelli. This is the excerpt from the article in Reelviews, "The historical backdrop against which Glory transpires is mostly historically accurate. In fact, a great deal of effort went into getting the details correct. The main events shown in the film happened much as they are depicted, some of the key characters (Shaw, Frederick Douglas, etc.) existed, and the outcome was as Zwick presents it."  


This is my paraphrase, most of the movie Glory was historically correct especially with the historical background. A lot of the work from the movie was for getting all the exact work and details correct so it could be accurate. All of the main characters, like Shaw, Frederick Douglass, and more all actually appeared during this time and during these key events. The results from the movie actually happened, which was shown by the director, Zwick. 

Empathy & History

Empathy is defined as the intellectual identification or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, attitudes of another. Sympathy is defined as feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune. Empathy differs from sympathy by empathy meaning I would have to understand their feelings, attitude, and imagination. Sympathy only refers to having pity for a person and what the have gone through. An example of empathy would be when the Nazi's had a group who went around killing innocent Jewish people. Some other Nazi's declined the offer to do this to innocent people, like women and children. Probably because they had empathy rather than the other group. The ability to empathize while studying history has to do with the fact of imagination and critical thinking in order to actually understand everything about it.

Empathy