I want to tie down your alter ego characters once and for all. I will be sending out e-mails to those who haven't presented one in their bridges blog. To those who have, I'd appreciate it if you would elaborate on your original presentation just a bit. You've had more time to think about this, and I want to introduce you or re-introduce you to each other and let you talk together in the personas of your alter egos.
For Monday April 7
Read, in Schlereth
Chapter 7, Striving
There is always a way to rise, my boy
Always a way to advance
Yet the road that leads to Mount Success
Does not pass by the way of Chance
But goes through the stations of Work and Strive
through the valley of Persevere
And the man that succeeds while others fail,
Must be willing to pay most dear.
Alexander Lewis
Some of you will remember the little poem quoted above. Schlereth's chapter looks at the relationship between religion and education and the effects that religious ideas prevalent in the period acted as a stimulus for self improvement. This is all part of the movement to reform and clean up The gilded Age, which began in the 1890s. We'll follow this through formal institutions like schools and colleges and into informal institutions like the Chautauqua Circuit and various schemes of self-education.
Internet Assignment:
Visit http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/traveling-culture/essay.htm which is an essay on the Chautauqua Movement. After you've read about the movement and its history, go to the home page of this collection from the University of Iowa. There is an earlier version at at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/iauhtml/tccchome.html Browse through the materials there, choosing ONE of the pre 1910 lecturers or performers which stikes your fancy. Record your character's reactions to the event. Give yourself some time for this, so you can select carefully, as a goodly portion of the materials are outside of our period. Note there are sound files as well as pamphlets and the like.
Three seminal social philosophers of the late 19th century. Click on their portraits for further information about them and their work. Do you see any elements of their arguments in the political arguments of today?
Sumner's name links you to a .pdf of a book of essays entitled The Challenge of Facts and other Essays. If your browser allows you to search through .pdf files, you can search for the titles of the three essays I would lke you to read: WHAT MAKES THE RICH RICHER AND THE POOR POORER ? and the next one., THE CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH: ITS ECONOMIC JUSTIFICATION. and also WHAT THE SOCIAL QUESTION IS.
Ward's name links to an essay he wrote entitled SOCIAL CLASSES IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN
SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY. Ward has been called the father of modern sociology, and the article appeared in the American Journal of Sociology.
Rauschenbusch's name links to his book Christianity and the Social Crisis. If your browser allows you to search through .pdf files, you can search for the titles of the two chapters I would lke you to read: Chapter 2, THE SOCIAL AIMS OF JESUS, and Chapter 5 THE PRESENT CRISIS
If your browser doesn't allow searching Look at the illustrations below for another method.
How to find sections of the above books, using Adobe Reader X
Next, Click on the page icon (left side of the screen) and the comment button, top right. Then your screen will look like this:
Then, click on the sticky note bubble on in the column. A short note will tell you where you're going.. For example clicking on The Sticky note "Page 62" will get you to the beginning of Rauschenbusch's Second Chapter.
Read, in Schlereth
