WWI Big Questions

1. One of the events that helped the US become involved with WWI was the Zimmerman Telegram which was a telegram Germany sent to Mexico suggesting that if the US and Germany go to war, Mexico should help Germany. Great Britain intercepted the telegram giving it to the US. This built sentiment to join the war. The second event was the fall of the czarist regime in Russia in 1917. The US didn't want to ally with a despotic monarchy. Armies on both sides of the war were decimated by the time the US decides to get involved. Great Britain specifically was suffering from many losses from German submarine attacks. Germany also torpedoed 3 American ships which pushed the US to declare war. The US sent out wartime drafts to hundreds of men to be drafted into the army to prepare for the war. They also used propaganda to get American people more involved and dedicated to the war.

2. The US didn't want to ally with Russia as long as it had the czarist regime. America was split because German Americans and Irish Americans sympathized with Germany and many others sympathized with Great Britain including President Wilson. The US stopped trading with Germany because GB placed a blockade on Germany, but kept trading with Great Britain. Their supplies to Great Britain were being intervened by German submarines. Wilson's League of Nations was also a topic of debate. He claimed it would guarantee world peace post war.

3. The involvement in WWI for the US was terrible because of the life in trenches. They were frequently shelled, muddy, polluted, and infested with rats. Also, many diseases spread through the trenches.

4. The war affected America's government, economy, and society. The US spent about 32 billion dollars directly towards the war. This money came from liberty bonds bought by American people and taxes. The WIB coordinated the many government purchases of military supplies. The government had to mobilize an industrial economy for a total war which took a lot of involvement in the economy and people's lives. The US lost about 112,000 people in the war due to mostly disease. The Great Migration occurred due to the war which was hundreds of thousands of black people moving from the South to northern industrial cities to find work in factories. The war created new opportunities for women which led to the creation of the Woman's Peace Party and National American Women's Suffrage Association fighting for women's suffrage.

WWI Propaganda Cont.

The posters we reviewed probably accomplished their goal of either getting young men to enlist or other Americans to contribute to the war in their own ways because the artists were very intentional with what colors and what imagery to use to catch people's attention. Many artists knew what kind of images would draw emotion out of people and make them believe in their cause. Also, there weren't a lot of other sources of communication like the posters at that time period, so the propaganda on posters was the most logical and useful form to get information out to the people.



The main focus of this image is a young girl in rags and looking very sad and hungry. She looks frail and broken. The image is titled "The Child at Your Door" which is a way of saying that the orphans are the people's responsibility to get them off the streets. The words 400,000 orphans and campaign 30,000,000 also draw attention to show the abundance of children and money needed. The background is a dull brown to represent the bad shape the orphans are in. At the bottom there is a list of foreign countries. This poster might be aimed at immigrants who are from those countries. It could also be aimed at mothers who are the ones to take care of the children. Finally it is aimed at the men to contribute their money to the cause. The poster probably makes people feel bad for the children.



This poster features a basket of fruits and vegetables that appear to be sitting in a battle field. The brights words Food Is Ammunition draws your eye and explains the strange image of food in battle. There is an American flag in the background to represent America's responsibility to provide food for Europe. Because they have this responsibility the poster is demanding that people can't waste their food. The artist probably wants to inspire people to want to save their food and only eat certain foods so that the men in war and the families in Europe can not starve. This poster is aimed at American families back at home.

This poster features a young little girl looking happy hugging paper to her chest. She has a red bow in her hair. The words The Third Liberty Bond stand out because they are in blue when the other words are in red. The poster is literally asking the viewer if they bought their liberty bond like the little girls daddy did. Basically, if you buy liberty bonds, you will be happy and make other people happy. The little girl creates a sense of responsibility in people to keep her happy. It is aimed at men who can buy the liberty bonds to help the war effort.

This poster features a soldier and a dying and bleeding horse on the battle field. It is titled Save the Army Horse. And then in smaller font, To Save the Soldier. In the background there fire and smoke to show how bad it gets and the horse was in the middle of it. The artist wants people to feel bad for the horse and contribute to the Animal Red Star Animal Relief to help this horse and the other horses that could die. The artist is assuming the viewer is an animal lover or sympathizer to draw their emotions to want to contribute to their organization. It is also showing that if we help the horse we will help save more human lives. The poster is aimed at Americans back at home not fighting.

WWI Posters

1. Propaganda is images or posters used to convince people of an ideal. They were used manipulatively and were biased on their topics.

2. Propaganda-   ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause 

3. Scrolled
 


4. This picture features the American flag and marching soldiers and a silhouette of a white man in a suit on two sides of a window. The eye is immediately drawn to the bright colors of the flag and the yellow word ENLIST and the red word YOU. These words are probably brighter than the other words because the artist wants to emphasize the need for people to enlist in the army. The dark figure inside the window represents the wrong decision and the brights colors outside represent the right decision. The flag is the main focus because it represents patriotism.

5. The flag and the soldiers outside the window represent patriotism and American pride in people.  The image is making men feel like they need to enlist to prove their pride and patriotism. The artist want people to feel motivated to join army and proud of America. This is evident in the waving flag and the bright colors of the flag.

6. This poster is aimed at young men because there are only men in the poster and they are the only ones who can officially enlist in the army.





4. This image features a man in industrial clothing and a silhouette of a soldier in the background in the same position as the worker. These two figures side by side show that they are fighting the same war, but they are contributing differently. One is at home in America working with mechanical tools and the other is abroad in battle with guns. Again, your eye is drawn the the bright colors of the American flag and the soldiers sky because they are brighter colors.

5. The artist is hoping to encourage men at home to be inspired to work just as hard as the soldiers abroad to help the US in the war. The artist is showing that the people at home are just as important and are doing important work.

6. The ideal target for this poster are the male mechanics and industrial workers not enlisted in the army because the poster features a guy working with a tool.




    

4. This poster features the American Red Cross and a blob of knitting thread. The word SOX is in all caps and very large font so your eyes get attracted to that word. This is to emphasize the importance of people to do what the poster is telling them to do. The knitting in the very center and enlarged is to show how much sox the army needs which is a lot. The red cross is a symbol of protection so the artist wants people to want to protect the boys at war.

5. The artist is hoping to instill a sense of being needed and duty in Americans, specifically the ones who contribute to making sox. The artist is also telling people their responsibility and that they need to be accountable.

6. This poster is probably aimed at women because they are typically protecting figures and the one who knit sox and other clothing.

7. It makes me somewhat uncomfortable that the government is spending tax money trying to manipulate myself and the rest of the country to do what they think is right or what they think we as a country need. It does not feel good to be told what to think or do.

8. The government felt the need to use propaganda during WWI because they felt that this was the only way to prove to Americans back at home that the men fighting in foreign countries need support and help from them back home. Americans back at home probably didn't;t have the perspective to understand their important role in the war effort.

Progressive Post

We have control over our future in many ways. Our individual decisions every day dictate smaller details about our own future, but other bigger choices can affect the rest of the world. Things like recycling, a kind gesture to a stranger, or choosing to go to school are ways we have control over our future. We can make a difference in the world even if it is a small one simply by speaking our minds or writing about something we care about. Other times, we have no control over our future, because other factors are making those decisions for us. The weather, some technology, and other people are examples of things that not only we can't control, but could control us. Every choice we make in our daily lives is not placed in a vacuum where nothing can affect it as it takes place. Everyone else's choices are constantly effecting everything that happens in our lives. A great example of this is traffic. We depend on everyone on the road to make safe decisions so that we can get to where we need to be safely and on time. The government and other big institutions will in some ways play a big role in controlling the future. These organizations are made up of many people who will eventually decide together important decisions for our country dictating how our lives will be like.

Thinking about the Future

People were predicting that we would have moving sidewalks and pneumatic tube delivery of everything like food or newspapers. They thought airships will be invented and be flying in the sky daily. They basically envisioned the opposite of the slums in the cities and the cities will be beautiful. Boston specifically predicted that in 100 years, the city will have a morning and afternoon local newspaper. They thought the population would be between 350 and 500 million people. Life expectancy will grow because people will find a way to fight disease better and sewage and garbage would be nonexistent. They envisioned that everyone would have cars, airships sailed over the city, and moving sidewalks would make transporting giant populations easier. Smoke and noise would also disappear from cities with new ways to generate heat. This list is more of a wish list because the people of Boston live in a big city where all these new inventions would benefit their comfort in the city. Many of these things improved, but did not come true. Garbage in cities are still a huge issue and of course there are no airships yet. The trend of these things are improvement of city life in many aspects like smoke and traffic. Airships seemed like the most bizarre. People do seem to be anticipating a better future.

The Smithsonian

An civil engineer in 1900 predicted digital color photography, the height of Americans to increase,  invention of mobile phones, pre-paid meals, the population growth to decrease, hot house vegetables (faster), TV, bigger fruit, no more C, X, or Q in alphabet, and no more cars or mosquitoes. These predictions seem like a wishlist to help improve everyone's lives. The alphabet losing letters and no more cars seem to be the most bizarre and out of reach. Everything else seems reasonable or has already happened. The trends in these items are improving the health of Americans like making bigger fruit and decreasing disease and mosquitos. People are anticipating a better future by imagining these items. I think our future is going to consist of more environmentally safe transportation and machinery, and more efficient forms of energy conservation, but also some mistakes along the way that will hurt the planet and the people. The future could be better, but might also be very dark and unsafe.

BBC

Ragtime

Urbanization and the rise of mass consumption in the late 19th century changed American lives forever in many ways. As new technology was invented, the need for human labor decreased creating an alienated term called leisure. Leisure was a brand new term for the American working class and, at first, people did not know what to do with it. (Alan Brinkley) Americans started to search for forms of entertainment and because of urbanization, industrialization, and immigration, ragtime music gained a very large audience fast. Ragtime, in its simplest form, was piano music that had syncopated or "ragged" sounding rhythms and melodies giving it a swinging feel. (The Library of Congress ) It originated from jigs or march music played and composed by African Americans. As ragtime gained popularity in the 1880s, ragtime mostly reflected stereotypical, black characters through album covers and lyrics. Ragtime in the early 1900s, however, was romanticized and less ridiculed. Piano was a very popular instrument and was kept in many households because middle class families put high value on learning to play an instrument, especially piano. The new availability of instruments and sheet music propelled ragtime into everyone's lives. Ragtime will become influential to modern composers and inspire new genres of music and dance.

Composers and Musicians

Ragtime was called “the one original and indigenous type of music of the American people” (Susan Curtis) in 1915 because it represented the patriotism and spirit of American people in the nation’s cities. Ragtime for the longest time was passed on orally and had very little opportunity to be written down. Before 1870, ragtime was mostly played at minstrel shows or accompanied song and dance, but around the 1880s,  ragtime caught the attention of white audiences and white composers began to imitate ragtime styles. (Ingeborg Harer) Pop culture was also developing alongside ragtime and was an important contributor to the growing popularity of ragtime. New, rapid developments in communications and printing technology helped develop pop culture and, in turn, helped ragtime become popular. Once this music got published, ragtime got its liftoff into the progressive lives of American people. Ben R. Harney was one of the first practitioners to bring ragtime to vaudeville shows in New York and, as an all round entertainer, he helped ragtime to spread even further to the mainstream public. A young composer who followed Harney teamed up with John Stark, a famous publisher of the time, and published his first rag Maple Leaf Rag. His name was Scott Joplin, who is known today as the King of Ragtime.

Ben R. Harney

Scott Joplin was born in Texas and grew up playing piano, cornet, and singing in a quartet. He later moved to Sedalia, a city outside of St. Louis, Missouri, which was where ragtime flourished. He wrote music, played in many small ensembles, and was a member of The Maple Leaf Gentleman's Club where he wrote his most famous song. Missouri was considered the heart of America based off its geographical location just like ragtime was thought to represent the heart and soul of America. Missouri got a lot of musical attention because of the railroad hubs, thriving community of commerce and transportation, and the many travelers seeking entertainment. (Crawford, 538-546) Missouri was “The Gateway to the West” so musicians thrived there because cities like St. Louis were going through social, commercial, and cultural change which attracted a lot of people.  

Maple Leaf Club, Sedalia, Missouri

Joplin among many other black composers struggled to get their works published because many of the big brand publishers would refuse to publish black composers. For example, Will Marion Cook, a black composer, started out studying classical violin, but found that classical music was prejudice against his race and decided to, instead, compose for shows centered around black characters where he was more successful. One of the most famous publishers of the time was civil war veteran, John Stark, who met Scott Joplin in 1899 with his unpublished song “Maple Leaf Rag”. He was one of the only publishers who ignored his prejudice and agreed to publish Joplin’s work. Because of this, John Stark and Co. actually became more successful than the other publishing companies. (Library of Congress) In only 15 years, "Maple Leaf Rag" sold over 1 million copies. Scott Joplin’s goals were to give ragtime music a salable form, expand the range of customers, and raise the status of ragtime. The only way to accomplish his goals was to get ragtime published and written down for all of America to enjoy. The new printing and distributing technology that was available at the time made this possible. John Stark and Scott Joplin were very important figures in history that helped make ragtime immortal.

Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin

It was not a surprise that ragtime caught on so fast after the first publication of ragtime music.  Americans during this time period were very spirited and energized as a whole because of the new opportunities they had due to leisure time. Ragtime was a musical representation of this energy and complimented many locations like saloons, sporting houses, ballrooms, and private homes. (Ingeborg Harer) The tunes were very catchy, foot- tapping, and humorous. What separated ragtime from all other music at the time was the unpredictable rhythms and beats. Ragtime introduced syncopation, which was the act of putting emphasis on the “weak” beats in music. Instead of the strict dance beats that put emphasis on beats 1 and 3, ragtime emphasized 2 and 4. Ragtime broke a lot of musical rules, but that was what made it so appealing to Americans. Composers brought to the stage a new sound by using syncopation, bending pitches, and exploring various vocal and instrumental sounds and techniques. For example, Scott Joplin created a unique technique in rag called “stop time” where the music stops and you just hear the musician stomping their feet to keep the beat. This premiered in his song “A Stop Time Two Step” in 1902 and later became a critical music device in Jazz and Blues music. (Jim Paterson)

Spirited Americans

Ragtime faded in popularity around the 1920s, because of the rise of Jazz and Blues music which originated in New Orleans. Even though it was fading, many aspects of rag were still prevalent in Jazz and Blues like syncopation and stop-time. Rag was also used in many broadway shows and is the inspiration for many broadway composers today. Ragtime was even popularized in Europe when Arthur Pryor, a ragtime composer who grew up playing trombone, composed rags for John Philip Sousa’s marching band to play while they toured Europe in 1900. (The Library of Congress) Urbanization and the need for entertainment created a platform for ragtime sheet music to be a nation wide household item. Even though ragtime is no longer in our Top 100 billboard list, it changed the way people viewed black culture and created new music genres and styles we still listen to today.

Works Cited 

“Back to Nature.” University Missourian [Colombia]. Library of Congress, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89066313/1913-11-14/ed-1/seq 2/#date1=1789&sort=state&date2=1924&words=ragtime&sequence=0&lccn=&index=6&state=&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=ragtime&year=&phrasetext=&andtext=&proxValue=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=725.

Primary source about personal opinions about ragtime.

Berlin, Edward A. Ragtime: A Musical and Cultural History. PDF ed., University of California Press.

Gave history behind the naming of ragtime and discussed attitude towards rag.

Brinkley, Alan. A Survey American History. 12th ed., McGraw Hill Company.

Gave background and set up for ragtime. Talked specifically how urbanization contributed to the popularity of ragtime.

Crawford, Richard. America’s Musical Life. New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.

Discussed specific examples of people and places that were crucial to ragtime popularity. Especially publishing companies and Scott Joplin.

Curtis, Susan. “Ragtime.” Encyclopedia of Urban America. Literati, literati.credoreference.com/content/entry/abcurban/ragtime/0?searchId=beba0eff-eb0f-11e6-a028-0e58d2201a4d&result=0.

Gave information about spirit of people and Missouri and that translating into ragtime. Gave primary quotes of people commenting on the music.

Harer, Ingeborg. “Defining Ragtime: Historical and Typological Research.” JSTOR. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/902493?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=ragtime&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3Fgroup%3Dnone%26wc%3Don%26acc%3Don%26fc%3Doff%26amp%3D%26amp%3D%26amp%3D%26amp%3D%26Query%3Dragtime&seq=6#page_scan_tab_contents.

Discussed african american culture behind ragtime.

“History of Ragtime.” Performing Arts Encyclopedia. The Library of Congress, memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200035811/default.html.

Discussed why ragtime is different than any other music of the time. Sycopation, odd beats, etc.

Paterson, Jim. “Ragtime Music.” mfiles, Music Files, www.mfiles.co.uk/ragtime-music.htm.

Discussed the prejudice ragtime had to overcome to convince white people of its worth.

“Popular Culture in the Gilded Age.” History Study Center. History Study Center, www.historystudycenter.com/search/displayMultiResultStudyunitItem.do?Multi=yes&ResultsID=15974DFD3FD&fromPage=search&ItemNumber=1&QueryName=studyunit.

Discussed the technological advances that ragtime needed to get started.

Oakland Ghost Ship Fire

The Oakland Ghost Ship was a warehouse in Oakland, California that was a venue for music and art. People partied, worked, and lived in the warehouse. Artists and musicians rented studios and affordable homes in the warehouse. On December 2, a party was being held with several DJ's and rooftop dancing. Ghost Ship was not approved for the amount of people who came to the party or for people to live in.

A fire broke out in the bottom floor of the warehouse. It spread throughout the warehouse and because there was no sprinklers or fire alarms. People think a source of electricity caused the fire to happen. There were so many victims because the building broke every safety percausion. Fire alarms nearby were not heard because the music from the party was so loud. The warehouse was extremely overcrowded with all sorts of stuff like pianos, art, furniture, even mannequins. The people on the top floor had to exit using two stair cases which were far from the actual exits on the main floor. Smoke had trapped many people on the second floor. The staircases and most of the building were made of wood which basically kindled the fire. Once on the main floor, the exits were extremely hard to find and then even harder to get to because all the clutter. People had to crawl to avoid the smoke which slowed down the escape.

The Triangle Fire in 1911 is similar to Ghost Ship because both buildings were very dangerous working places. Both buildings were packed with flammable materials. The doors to the stairs were supposedly locked like how all the furniture blocked people in Ghost Ship from the staircases and exits.

http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2016/12/13/ghost-ship-fire-atf-to-address-oakland-inferno-that-killed-36/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/oakland-ghost-ship-warehouse-deadly-fire-gallery-1.2901036?pmSlide=1.2901030

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/oakland-artists-fear-crackdown-ghost-ship-fire-44081810