Tuesday, October 30, 2012

HIST 240 Lecture Notes for Tuesday 10/16



My apologies for not getting these located here sooner.

HIST 240 Lecture Notes
Date: 10/16/12
By Valerie Slitor

There was some discussion of the upcoming midterm. The term Argonauts was clarified (gold-seekers; those who came to CA in the gold rush).

The expansion of san Francisco was covered in great detail.

The Golden Gate was named after the Golden Horn, hearkening to the mythological notion of PLENTY and the Golden Horn Bay… this place would be even more valuable.
Market Street was built upon the influence of Philadelphia’s main thoroughfare by O’Farrell and is a wide, grand boulevard.

In terms of the structural expansion of the city, hills were a problem (hills killed horses and made transporting goods and services on foot difficult). The solution was a cable car system.

However, the result of this expansion is massive inflation and a population boom. .. which comes with problems. As the population booms and the Rail Road expands, what was meant to bring prosperity actually brings depression as too many unskilled laborers flood into the city.
·          
The Chinese are blamed for this (SCAPEGOATS). It’s argued, for example, that Chinese Laundries are too efficient, that they work too hard, and are putting other (non-Chinese) workers out of employment.
o   In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act goes into effect. The Chinese are the first group to have their entrance in the US restricted. Chinatown is populated by Chinese men and not women or children… wives were not to be brought along.

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