Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Coney Island: Cultural History as Gender, Race and Class



By Jaime Roberts
            Coney Island was instrumental in creating a mass American culture of leisure. It was a place for all classes and genders although the upper class didn’t have need for it and often fought for the closure of its parks, “the place was shunned by ultra-respectable New Yorkers.”[1] Coney Island represented all that was vulgar, hedonistic, adventurous and daring.  This however, is exactly what drew massive crowds of poor, working and middle-class Americans, often immigrants, who couldn’t afford to go to the Riviera, but instead would save their pennies to experience the many wonders that were Coney Island. As one observer noted, “Nowhere else in the United States will you see so many races mingle in a common purpose for a common good.”[2]
            Arguably the most important consequence of Coney Island was that it “took America from the Victorian age into the modern world.”[3] It convinced working class Americans that the pursuit of play was a democratic right, not just for the rich, but for everyone, “an absolute necessity for the working world.”[4] Men and women of different ethnicity and lifestyles all mingled together on the beach, in restaurants and enjoying the many other attractions it had to offer.

            What attracted all these people and set Coney Island apart from other amusement parks was the amount of mechanical devices, inventions (It was the birthplace of the hotdog) and the new spectacles all in an urban setting. In its three major parks the average American could enjoy amusement rides, dance halls, gambling, race tracks, carnival games, side shows, music, movies and so much electricity that Coney Island could be seen “thirty miles out to sea.” [5] Of course there was also the beach and bathing houses. Dreamland Park had people brought in from all over the world and their cultures recreated, in a sort of people zoo. Recreations of disasters such as massive fires were played out every day, while huge crowds watched as firemen put them out. Infant incubators, a new technology, were a display that was a huge hit. Coney Island was not just for fun, rather it reflected and perhaps even created changes, in American deportment.
                        A series of misfortunes led to the decline of Coney Island. There were fires, bankruptcy and World War I. America was different, and now as an industrialized and internationally powerful entity, Americans moved on.[6] Today Coney Island still attracts visitors and its influence is represented in many modern leisure activities, such as Disneyland. Much of that dangerous thrill experienced on gravity defying rides and from witnessing disasters can be seen as still being pursued in activities such as bungee jumping or skydiving.
            Changing economic and social conditions [7] brought about by the industrial revolution created changes in American culture. Pursuit of commercial entertainment that appealed to all classes linked Americans together, leaving the Victorian era behind with its emphasis on morality into a more modern era with a focus on pure esthetic pleasure.


[1] Coney Island: A Documentary, Ric Burns.
[2] Ibid
[3] ibid
[4] ibid
[5] Coney Island: A Documentary, Ric Burns.
[6] Ibid
[7] John F.Kasson Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century (New York: Hill and Wang 1978) ebook.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

How massive Civil War Casualties Affected American Culture



America the Changed
            The massive number of casualties from the Civil War changed American Culture not only on an individual level, but also a national level. In the book This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, Drew Gilpin Faust focuses her attention on the subject of death, and the country’s attempt to assign meaning to the casualties of the Civil War. The scale of death experienced during the Civil War not only changed traditional mourning practices, but also affected many American’s faith in God and popular ideas of the afterlife; This "harvest of death" ultimately shaped government policy permanently, changing its relationship with American citizens, all of which was reflected in the popular culture of the time.
            “Mortality defines the human condition.” [1] Americans were no stranger to death during the middle of the nineteenth century. They had idealized concepts of death at the time. The idea of the Good Death centered on family and home; individuals died surrounded by family, friends and sometimes clergy, who would witness last words and be able to assess the future state of people. “These last moments…would epitomize [their]… spiritual condition.”[2]  These Christian beliefs had become a general cultural belief about how to “do” death. However, the Civil War began to challenge these traditions and beliefs as men died on battlefields far from home, alone or surrounded by strangers, with no family to witness their “Good Death.” Often fellow soldiers would attempt to act as surrogate family and pass on last words by letter to families. “Sudden death represented a profound threat to fundamental assumptions about the correct way to die.”[3] Many soldiers killed were thrown into mass graves marked unknown. This resulted in a loss of a sense of closure previously provided by nineteenth century ars moriendi and it not only affected individuals but the entire nation as well. American culture began to reflect this in popular songs such as an “ANSWER TO: Let Me Kiss Him for His Mother” which “expressed gratitude” to the nurses caring for the injured, “sought to reassure” the family at home and provide some measure of peace.[4]
             However, despite these efforts at condolence, Americans still struggled to assign meaning to the casualties. The Civil War remains statistically the bloodiest war in American history. The staggeringly high percentage of death does not include civilian casualties from violence, starvation, and disease, as there was no accounting system in place for this. In just four years, the death toll reached over 620,000 casualties or 2% of the American population.[5] Many Americans turned to their faith for strength, but even religious beliefs were affected by the Civil War. Faust maintains that from traditional ideas concerning heaven and hell, a new “modern notion of heaven” had begun to emerge, however it had not been a complete “transition… as the Civil War opened.”[6] These ideas “intensified as war made questions” about an afterlife more relevant, especially as men died so far from home without benefit of the ritual of a Good Death.[7]
            During the war, both sides justified the killing and death by claiming God was on their side. After the war’s end, only the North was able to reconcile their loss by placing Northern soldiers death’s as the ultimate sacrifice for preservation of the nation. For the soldiers of the South and their families, there would be no easy meaning in their dead.[8] The “carnage” of the Civil War threw nineteenth century America into a “crisis of belief that propelled many Americans to redefine or even reject their faith in a …deity.”[9] New technology of warfare often made men unrecognizable which challenged traditional beliefs that a man must be whole in order to be resurrected. [10] The use of makeshift and sometimes mass graves along with the brutality and killing of fellow man, created for many Americans difficulty in reconciling what makes man different from animal.[11] According to Faust, the massive amount of death in the Civil War required the “transformation of heaven into an eternal family reunion” an idea not only adopted by Christians but by Jews as well.[12]
            Faust cites mid-nineteenth century songs, literature, speeches, sermons and poetry to illustrate how Americans reacted to and tried to cope with these new questions regarding death. Within the popular culture of the time, authors like Emily Dickinson and Herman Melville reflected the growing sentiment many Americans held, in terms of religious doubt. [13] Books such as Visions of Heaven for the Life on Earth by Robert Patterson and The Gates Ajar reflected changing ideas of heaven and hell.  [14] Poems by Walt Whitman served the function of “cultural work of mourning- on behalf of the nation.”[15] Some people turned to Spiritualism, made “attractive” by the promise of contact with a loved one whose body might never be recovered.[16] Many of these concerns regarding a loved one’s absence from home at time of death and desire to find meaning in the soldier’s death through religion or spiritualism, also resulted in more practical cultural changes.
            During the Civil War, American culture was changed as government and individual soldiers entered into a partnership of sorts in which “citizenship represented a contract… both assumed certain rights and duties… for which either could be called to account.”[17]  Initially, the conditions of the war made it difficult to provide careful interment and documentation of the dead. Eventually, procedures began to reflect growing changes in accounting and in 1864, Congress passed a bill to create new “principles” for taking care of the dead.[18] Although the amount of casualties often made it impossible to carry these duties out, it showed an effort by the government to respond to the growing concerns of the general population regarding the bodies of loved ones. After the war, the United States federal government passed a bill that “legally signaled its acceptance of responsibility for those who had died in its service.”[19] Not only were permanent National Cemeteries established, but a massive reburial effort was undertaken.[20] A “national project of memorialization” became a way to “reunite” the states; all could serve, as Walt Whitman said, “the dead, the dead… South or North, ours all.”[21] The “Four years of Civil War propelled a remarkable shift in attitudes and behavior in accounting for the dead,"[22] and with these efforts, citizens were recognized as the “literal lifeblood of the nation.”[23]
            “We still live in the world of death the Civil War created.”[24]American culture and American attitudes had no choice but to change as a result of the massive death toll of the Civil War. As individuals tried to find meaning in the death and destruction, mid-nineteenth century popular culture reflected these struggles. New government policies solidified these changed attitudes on a national level. By no means was it an easy or even complete transition, however in the end, not just individuals were affected, rather the entire nation had been irrevocably changed.


[1]Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (New York: Vintage Books/Random House, Inc.2008), xi
[2]Faust,10
[3] Faust,18
[4] Faust,13
[5]Faust,266
[6] Faust,178,179
[7] Faust,179
[8]Faust,192
[9]Faust,210
[10]Faust,184
[11] Faust,210
[12]Faust,180
[13]Faust,207
[14]Faust,187
[15]Faust,161
[16]Faust,181
[17]Faust,229
[18]Faust,135
[19]Faust,234
[20]Faust, 235
[21] Faust,269
[22] Faust,135
[23]Faust,269
[24] Faust,271

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A CountdownThe Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown by Claire Ridgway
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This really was a countdown to Anne Boleyn's fall. After a brief introduction, the book jumps straight into Summer of 1535 and The Royal Progress. It doesn't just end with the execution of Queen Anne; There are a few short chapters on Jane Seymour and a sort of "where they are now" of many of the royal "players" after Anne's execution. It was very informative, clearly written and interesting.

I am a history major with a concentration is on US history, therefore, although I have studied some European and Asian history, it has been mostly in a general context which covered vast periods of time. From this book I was able to get a better understanding of a very specific period of history; Henry VIII's "love life" from 1535-1536.

I also wanted to mention, that the author used footnotes, but although the number was there, I was unable to find the corresponding footnote, unless I went to her website where she listed Notes and Sources plus a full Bibliography. I found that a bit tedious and inconvenient.

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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Perpetually Mixed Messages



“The history of American women is about the fight for freedom, but it’s less a war against oppressive men than a struggle to straighten out… perpetually mixed message about women’s role that was accepted by almost everybody of both genders.”[1] Collins uses the example of Southern Matriarchs who acted helpless and womanly, yet were capable enough to run plantations while their men were gone. Collins points out even daughters sometimes had to help with tending cattle and cultivating tobacco, etc.[2] This passage got me thinking about how gender roles are taught in the home. I have two sons and a daughter and I tell them girls can do anything boys can do. However, actions speak louder than words. When my daughter was climbing a tree yesterday, her dad kept telling her to be careful and get down while he didn’t say a word to her twin brother, who was also climbing a tree. Also, in twelve years of marriage, my husband has NEVER cleaned the toilet and alternatively, I have NEVER mowed the lawn. Gender roles are still evident and many of the same attitudes exist today, that were prevalent in American history.


[1] Gail Collins, America’s Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines (New York: HarperCollins 2003) xiv
[2] Ibid., 12