United States Current Events: GOOD

Recently at Starbucks, I picked up a mini-newspaper they have near the drink-pick-up-bar called GOOD. Apparently Starbucks is sponsoring this non-partisan publication which is trying to educate the public on major issues, particularly leading up to the November elections. The current issue, on immigration, caught my eye because immigration is one of the topics we are covering right now in U.S. History. Among the interesting things I learned: the top five countries of birth for recent U.S. immigrants are (5) Vietnam (4) Philippines (3) India (2) China and (1) Mexico with 11.67 million.

Currently Reading...

In preparation for upcoming units, I'm reading a couple of books. For our French Revolution unit in World History, I've started Napoleon: A Life by Paul Johnson. Johnson, a Briton, is also the author of a popular United States history book called A History of the American People which has helped me through some of our U.S. History units. Napoleon is a pretty small book so I'm hoping to get through it rather quickly so that it will help my students understand his role in history.

The other book I just received today (from Buy.com; great prices, btw) is W.E.B. Du Bois' classic The Souls of Black Folk. Our unit on the Progressive Era is coming up soon and Du Bois plays a major role. Now if I can just get out of morning supervision duty, and football duty, and social science department meetings, I might have some time to actually READ these books!

Book Review Brief: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I joined a new site, thanks to the suggestion of my buddy Mrs. Halsey over at Sanger High School. It's a book site where people can post reviews and list what books they've read, are reading, and plan to read. It's called GoodReads and I just posted my review and am also placing it below.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

My review

rating: 1 of 5 stars
I realize I'm in the minority when it comes to this book. It was the winner of the Nobel Prize, an Oprah Book Club selection, and the reviewer from the New York Times Book Review said, "One Hundred Years of Solitude is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race." People love this book. I didn't get it.

I like to think that I'm somewhat of an astute reader but I just couldn't grasp what the point was. The back cover says it's "brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul."

TRUTH
The only truth I saw in the book was the idea that humans are depraved.

COMPASSION
Where is compassion in the book? Was the version I read missing chapters? I saw a lot of deceit and selfishness but very little compassion.

LYRICAL MAGIC
I guess that's in the eye of the beholder. It was bizarre.

And the names--THE NAMES! There were so many characters that it was difficult to keep track. Part of this is my fault; it took too long and too many sessions for me to get through it. If I had read it in a shorter span, it would've helped. But here's a passage from the book and you tell me if this isn't confusing.

Santa Sofia de la Piedad was wandering about in her solitary old age, cooking the little that they ate and almost completely dedicated to the care of Jose Arcadio Segundo. Amaranta Ursula, who had inherited certain attractions of Remedios the Beauty, spent the time that she had formerly wasted tormenting Ursula at her schoolwork, and she began to show good judgment and a dedication to study that brought back to Aureliano Segundo the high hopes that Meme had inspired in him.

And for the record, Amaranta Ursula and Ursula are two different people. Come on dude.

World History: Iwo Jima Revisited

Above:  Tsuruji Akikusa, an 81-year-old Japanese WWII veteran and survivor of the battle of Iwo Jima, looks across the the island after landing Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008.

Time has given us much perspective on history.  To be able to go back and talk to people who were involved in some of the world's most notorious events is enlightening.  In this article a japanese veteran, Tsuruji Akikusa returns to Iwo Jima, site of one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific Theater of World War II.  

It was there that his family thought he had died.  They later held a funeral service when--guess who??--Akikusa showed up.

United States History: Ellis Island and the Immigrant Experience

In my U.S. History class we're embarking on our new unit tomorrow, Immigration and Industrialization. I'm going to start by showing the first 25 minutes of the 2003 film In America. It's about an Irish family that comes to modern America to find a better life. While it clearly depicts the hardship that immigrants face, it also highlights some of the beautiful moments of family life and the opportunities that the U.S. affords.

One of the most memorable and gut-wrenching scenes though is when the family goes to a local carnival for a fun night out. The only money they have is their rent money, yet the father is determined to win a stuffed animal for his young daughters at one of the carnival games. If you're not on the edge of your seat during that scene, you simply are not human.
To me, it's one of the more powerful and poignant scenes in recent movie history.

One of the resources I'm using for the early portion of this unit is an Ellis Island website that is terrific. It's rich with visuals ranging from graphs to both recent and historical photos. Great enrichment for the material we'll be studying.

United States History in Books: Library of America

Spent a little time at Borders this morning with two of my daughters.  As I've previously written, I'm becoming acquainted and in some cases re-acquainted with the classic novels.  One of the books I was looking for was Henry David Thoreau's Walden. In between tugs on my pant leg and pleas of, "Daddy, when can we go to the kids section?" I found a couple of editions on the Borders shelf and started to look at them quite carefully.  I've been trying to find enduring editions that we'll be able to keep on our shelves for our kids to enjoy.  I'm not necessarily interested in hardcovers as those generally cost more, but I'm definitely interested in authoritative editions that are nicely put together (ergo, my interest in the Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions).

One edition of Walden that I perused was an edition published by Yale University, which I ended up purchasing.  The other was a paperback edition published by the Library of America.  I noticed as I looked through the shelves that they had published a bunch of the classic books that currently interest me.  I ultimately didn't get that edition because this Yale edition seemed to offer a bit more (and for $2 cheaper).  However, I was intrigued.  So I Googled "Library of America" and found their website.  Turns out they are a non-profit organization that is helping to preserve the great works of American literature.  

Apparently, last year they celebrated their 25th anniversary and their website has a neat video about the organization and American literature as a whole.  One great point made in the video by a Yale American History professor is that we often think of the writings of America's founders (Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, et al) as separate from the literature of America's writers and novelists (Hawthorne, Cather, Twain, et al).  Her point is that the two enhance each other and that when one reads both, one can understand "the American character in all of its complexity and different modes."  Here's the video:

While I didn't end up purchasing the Library of America edition, I will definitely keep them in the back of my mind as I'm shopping around for upcoming reads (including Edith Wharton's House of Mirth.)

Remains of 3 sailors from Pearl Harbor identified

(Above: The Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.)

Story posted today by the Associated Press about sailors who were killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Glad to see that the families have been afforded some closure. We'll be discussing Pearl Harbor as part of our World War II unit in the spring.