Friday, August 24, 2012

Books That Shaped America

The Library of Congress has put together this recent list of books it feels have shaped the United States.  Comments?


"Books That Shaped America"

  • Benjamin Franklin, "Experiments and Observations on Electricity" (1751)
    In 1751, Peter Collinson, president of the Royal Society, arranged for the publication of a series of letters from Benjamin Franklin, written between 1747 and 1750, describing his experiments with electricity. Through the publication of these experiments, Franklin became the first American to gain an international reputation for his scientific work. In 1753 he received the Copley Medal of the Royal Society for his contributions.
  • Benjamin Franklin, "Poor Richard Improved" (1758) and "The Way to Wealth"
    As a writer, Benjamin Franklin was best known for the wit and wisdom he shared with the readers of his popular almanac, "Poor Richard," under the pseudonym "Richard Saunders." In 1758, Franklin created a clever preface that repeated a number of his maxims, framed as an event in which Father Abraham advises that those seeking prosperity and virtue should diligently practice frugality, honesty and industry. It was reprinted as "Father Abraham’s Speech" and "The Way to Wealth."
  • Thomas Paine, "Common Sense" (1776)
    Published anonymously in Philadelphia in January 1776, "Common Sense" appeared at a time when both separation from Great Britain and reconciliation were being considered. Through simple rational arguments, Thomas Paine focused blame for Colonial America’s troubles on the British king and pointed out the advantages of independence. This popular pamphlet had more than a half-million copies in 25 editions appearing throughout the Colonies within its first year of printing.
  • Noah Webster, "A Grammatical Institute of the English Language" (1783)
    Believing that a distinctive American language was essential to creating cultural independence for the new nation, Noah Webster sought to standardize rules for spelling and pronunciation. His "Grammatical Institute" became the popular "blue-backed speller" used to teach a century of American children how to spell and pronounce words. Its royalties provided Webster with the economic independence to develop his American dictionary.
  • "The Federalist" (1787)
    Now considered to be the most significant American contribution to political thought, "The Federalist" essays supporting the ratification of the new Constitution first appeared in New York newspapers under the pseudonym "Publius." Although it was widely known that the 85 essays were the work of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, the initial curious speculation about authorship of specific essays gradually developed into heated controversy. Hamilton left an authorship list with his lawyer before his fatal duel. In his copy, Madison identified the author of each essay with their initials. Thomas Jefferson penned a similar authorship list in his copy. None of these attributions exactly match, and the authorship of several essays is still being debated by scholars.
  • "A Curious Hieroglyphick Bible" (1788)
    Hieroglyphic Bibles were popular in the late 18th century as an effective and entertaining way to teach children biblical passages. Isaiah Thomas, the printer of this 1788 edition, is widely acclaimed as America’s first enlightened printer of children’s books and is often compared to John Newbery of London, with whom he shared the motto "Instruction with delight."
  • Christopher Colles, "A Survey of the Roads of the United States of America" (1789)
    Irish-born engineer and surveyor Christopher Colles produced what is considered the first road map or guidebook of the United States. It uses a format familiar to modern travelers with each plate consisting of two to three strip maps arranged side by side, covering approximately 12 miles. Colles began this work in 1789 but ended the project in 1792 because few people purchased subscriptions. But he compiled an atlas covering approximately 1,000 miles from Albany, N.Y., to Williamsburg, Va.
  • Benjamin Franklin, "The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin, LL.D." (1793)
    Benjamin Franklin was 65 when he wrote the first part of his autobiography, which focused on his early life to 1730. During the 1780s he added three briefer parts that advanced his story to his 50th year (1756) and revised the first part. The first book-length edition was published in Paris in 1791. The first English edition, a retranslation of this French edition, was published in London in 1793. Franklin’s autobiography still is considered one of the most influential memoirs in American literature.
  • Amelia Simmons, "American Cookery" (1796)
    This cornerstone in American cookery is the first cookbook of American authorship to be printed in the United States. Numerous recipes adapting traditional dishes by substituting native American ingredients, such as corn, squash and pumpkin, are printed here for the first time. Simmons’ "Pompkin Pudding," baked in a crust, is the basis for the classic American pumpkin pie. Recipes for cake-like gingerbread are the first known to recommend the use of pearl ash, the forerunner of baking powder.
  • "New England Primer" (1803)
    Learning the alphabet went hand in hand with learning Calvinist principles in early America. The phrase "in Adam’s fall, we sinned all," taught children the first letter of the alphabet and the concept of original sin at the same time. More than 6 million copies in 450 editions of the "New England Primer" were printed between 1681 and 1830 and were a part of nearly every child’s life.
  • Meriwether Lewis, "History of the Expedition Under the Command of the Captains Lewis and Clark" (1814)
    After Meriwether Lewis’s death in September 1809, William Clark engaged Nicholas Biddle to edit the expedition papers. Using the captains’ original journals and those of Sergeants Gass and Ordway, Biddle completed a narrative by July 1811. After delays with the publisher, a two-volume edition of the Corps of Discovery’s travels across the continent was finally available to the public in 1814. More than 20 editions appeared during the 19th century, including German, Dutch and several British editions.
  • Washington Irving, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820)
    One of the first works of fiction by an American author to become popular outside the United States, Washington Irving’s "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was first published as part of "The Sketchbook" in 1820. Irving’s vivid imagery involving the wild supernatural pursuit by the Headless Horseman has sustained interest in this popular folktale through many printed editions, as well as film, stage and musical adaptations.
  • William Holmes McGuffey, "McGuffey’s Newly Revised Eclectic Primer" (1836)
    William Holmes McGuffey was hired in the 1830s by Truman and Smith, a Cincinnati publishing firm, to write schoolbooks appropriate for children in the expanding nation. His eclectic readers were graded, meaning a student started with the primer and, as his reading abilities improved, moved from the first through the sixth reader. Religious instruction is not included, but a strong moral code is encouraged with stories in which hard work and virtue are rewarded and misdeeds and sloth are punished.
  • Samuel Goodrich, "Peter Parley’s Universal History" (1837)
    Samuel Goodrich, using the pseudonym Peter Parley, wrote children’s books with an informal and friendly style as he introduced his young readers to faraway people and places. Goodrich believed that fairy tales and fantasy were not useful and possibly dangerous to children. He entertained them instead with engaging tales from history and geography. His low regard for fiction is ironic in that his accounts of other places and cultures were often misleading and stereotypical, if not completely incorrect.
  • Frederick Douglass, "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" (1845)
    Frederick Douglass’s first autobiography is one of the best-written and most widely read slave narratives. It was boldly published less than seven years after Douglass had escaped and before his freedom was purchased. Prefaced by statements of support from his abolitionist friends, William Garrison and Wendell Phillips, Douglass’s book relates his experiences growing up a slave in Maryland and describes the strategies he used to learn to read and write. More than just a personal story of courage, Douglass’s account became a strong testament for the need to abolish slavery.
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Scarlet Letter" (1850)
    "The Scarlet Letter" was the first important novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the leading authors of 19th-century romanticism in American literature. Like many of his works, the novel is set in Puritan New England and examines guilt, sin and evil as inherent human traits. The main character, Hester Prynne, is condemned to wear a scarlet "A" (for adultery) on her chest because of an affair that resulted in an illegitimate child. Meanwhile, her child’s father, a Puritan pastor who has kept their affair secret, holds a high place in the community.
  • Herman Melville, "Moby-Dick"; or, "The Whale" (1851)
    Herman Melville’s tale of the Great White Whale and the crazed Captain Ahab who declares he will chase him "round perdition’s flames before I give him up" has become an American myth. Even people who have never read Moby-Dick know the basic plot, and references to it are common in other works of American literature and in popular culture, such as the Star Trek film "The Wrath of Khan" (1982).
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe, "Uncle Tom’s Cabin" (1852)
    With the intention of awakening sympathy for oppressed slaves and encouraging Northerners to disobey the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Harriet Beecher Stowe began writing her vivid sketches of slave sufferings and family separations. The first version of "Uncle Tom’s Cabin" appeared serially between June 1851 and April 1852 in the National Era, an antislavery paper published in Washington, D.C. The first book edition appeared in March 1852 and sold more than 300,000 copies in the first year. This novel was extremely influential in fueling antislavery sentiment during the decade preceding the Civil War.
  • Henry David Thoreau, "Walden;" or, "Life in the Woods" (1854)
    While living in solitude in a cabin on Walden Pond in Concord, Mass., Henry David Thoreau wrote his most famous work, "Walden," a paean to the idea that it is foolish to spend a lifetime seeking material wealth. In his words, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." Thoreau’s love of nature and his advocacy of a simple life have had a large influence on modern conservation and environmentalist movements.
  • Walt Whitman, "Leaves of Grass" (1855)
    The publication of the first slim edition of Walt Whitman’s "Leaves of Grass" in 1855 was the debut of a masterpiece that shifted the course of American literary history. Refreshing and bold in both theme and style, the book underwent many revisions during Whitman’s lifetime. Over almost 40 years Whitman produced multiple editions of "Leaves of Grass," shaping the book into an ever-transforming kaleidoscope of poems. By his death in 1892, "Leaves" was a thick compendium that represented Whitman’s vision of America over nearly the entire last half of the 19th century. Among the collection’s best-known poems are "I Sing the Body Electric," "Song of Myself," and "O Captain! My Captain!," a metaphorical tribute to the slain Abraham Lincoln.
  • Louisa May Alcott, "Little Women," or, "Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy" (1868)
    This first edition of Louisa May Alcott’s "Little Women" was published in 1868 when Louisa was 35 years old. Based on her own experiences growing up as a young woman with three sisters, and illustrated by her youngest sister, May, the novel was an instant success, selling more than 2,000 copies immediately. Several sequels were published, including "Little Men" (1871) and "Jo’s Boys" (1886). Although "Little Women" is set in a very particular place and time in American history, the characters and their relationships have touched generations of readers and still are beloved.
  • Horatio Alger Jr., "Mark, the Match Boy" (1869)
    The formulaic juvenile novels of Horatio Alger Jr., are best remembered for the "rags-to-riches" theme they championed. In these stories, poor city boys rose in social status by working hard and being honest. Alger preached respectability and integrity, while disdaining the idle rich and the growing chasm between the poor and the affluent. In fact, the villains in Alger’s stories were almost always rich bankers, lawyers or country squires.
  • Catharine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, "The American Woman’s Home" (1869)
    This classic domestic guide by sisters Catharine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe is dedicated to "the women of America, in whose hands rest the real destinies of the Republic." It includes chapters on healthful cookery, home decoration, exercise, cleanliness, good air ventilation and heat, etiquette, sewing, gardening and care of children, the sick, the aged and domestic animals. Intended to elevate the "woman’s sphere" of household management to a respectable profession based on scientific principles, it became the standard domestic handbook.
  • Mark Twain, "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1884)
    Novelist Ernest Hemingway famously said, "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called ‘Huckleberry Finn.’ ... All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since." During their trip down the Mississippi on a raft, Twain depicts in a satirical and humorous way Huck and Jim’s encounters with hypocrisy, racism, violence and other evils of American society. His use in serious literature of a lively, simple American language full of dialect and colloquial expressions paved the way for many later writers, including Hemingway and William Faulkner.
  • Emily Dickinson, "Poems" (1890)
    Very few of the nearly 1,800 poems that Emily Dickinson wrote were published during her lifetime and, even then, they were heavily edited to conform to the poetic conventions of their time. A complete edition of her unedited work was not published until 1955. Her idiosyncratic structure and rhyming schemes have inspired later poets.
  • Jacob Riis, "How the Other Half Lives" (1890)
    An early example of photojournalism as vehicle for social change, Riis’s book demonstrated to the middle and upper classes of New York City the slum-like conditions of the tenements of the Lower East Side. Following the book’s publication (and the resulting public uproar), proper sewers, plumbing and trash collection eventually came to the Lower East Side.
  • Stephen Crane, "The Red Badge of Courage" (1895)
    One of the most influential works in American literature, Stephen Crane’s "The Red Badge of Courage" has been called the greatest novel about the American Civil War. The tale of a young recruit in the Civil War who learns the cruelty of war made Crane an international success. The work is notable for its vivid depiction of the internal conflict of its main character – most war novels until that time focused more on the battles than on their characters.
  • L. Frank Baum, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (1900)
    "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," published in 1900, is the first fantasy written by an American to enjoy an immediate success upon publication. So powerful was its effect on the American imagination, so evocative its use of the forces of nature in its plots, so charming its invitation to children of all ages to look for the element of wonder in the world around them that author L. Frank Baum was forced by demand to create book after book about Dorothy and her friends – including the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion and Glinda the Good Witch.
  • Sarah H. Bradford, "Harriet, the Moses of Her People" (1901)
    Harriet Tubman is celebrated for her courage and skill in guiding many escaping slave parties northward along the Underground Railroad to freedom. She also served as a scout and a nurse during the Civil War. In order to raise funds for Tubman’s support in 1869 and again in 1886, Sarah Hopkins Bradford published accounts of Tubman’s experiences as a young slave and her daring efforts to rescue family and friends from slavery.
  • Jack London, "The Call of the Wild" (1903)
    Jack London’s experiences during the Klondike gold rush in the Yukon were the inspiration for "The Call of the Wild." He saw the way dogsled teams behaved and how their owners treated (and mistreated) them. In the book, the dog Buck’s comfortable life is upended when gold is discovered in the Klondike. From then on, survival of the fittest becomes Buck’s mantra as he learns to confront and survive the harsh realities of his new life as a sled dog.
  • W.E.B. Du Bois, "The Souls of Black Folk" (1903)
    "Few books make history and fewer still become foundational texts for the movements and struggles of an entire people. The ‘Souls of Black Folk’ occupies this rare position," said Du Bois biographer Manning Marable. Du Bois’s work was so influential that it is impossible to consider the civil rights movement’s roots without first looking to this groundbreaking work.
  • Ida Tarbell, "The History of Standard Oil" (1904)
    Journalist Ida Tarbell wrote her exposé of the monopolistic practices of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company as a serialized work in McClure’s Magazine. The breakup of Standard Oil in 1911 into 34 "baby Standards" can be attributed in large part to Tarbell’s masterly muckraking.
  • Upton Sinclair, "The Jungle" (1906)
    An early example of investigative journalism, this graphic exposé of the Chicago meat-packing industry presented as a novel was one of the first works of fiction to lead directly to national legislation. The federal meat-inspection law and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 established the agency that eventually became the Food and Drug Administration in 1930.
  • Henry Adams, "The Education of Henry Adams" (1907)
    The dawn of the 20th century and the changes it brought are the subjects of Henry Adams’ "education." Adams lived through the Civil War and died just before World War I. During that time, he witnessed cataclysmic transformations in technology, society and politics. Adams believed that his traditional education left him ill-prepared for these changes and that his life experiences provided a better education. One survey called it the greatest nonfiction English-language book of the last century.
  • William James, "Pragmatism" (1907)
    "Pragmatism" was America’s first major contribution to philosophy, and it is an ideal rooted in the American ethos of no-nonsense solutions to real problems. Although James did not originate the idea, he popularized the philosophy through his voluminous writings.
  • Zane Grey, "Riders of the Purple Sage" (1912)
    "Riders of the Purple Sage," Zane Grey’s best-known novel, was originally published in 1912. The Western genre had just evolved from the popular dime novels and penny dreadfuls of the late 19th century. This story of a gun-slinging avenger who saves a young and beautiful woman from marrying against her will played a significant role in shaping the formula of the popular Western genre begun by Owen Wister in "The Virginian" (1904).
  • Edgar Rice Burroughs, "Tarzan of the Apes" (1914)
    "Tarzan of the Apes" is the first in a series of books about the popular man who was raised by and lived among the apes. With its universal themes of honesty, heroism and bravery, the series has never lost popularity. Countless Tarzan adaptations have been filmed for television and the silver screen, including an animated version currently in production.
  • Margaret Sanger, "Family Limitation" (1914)
    While working as a nurse in the New York slums, Margaret Sanger witnessed the plight of poor women suffering from frequent pregnancies and self-induced abortion. Believing that these women had the right to control their reproductive health, Sanger published this pamphlet that simply explained how to prevent pregnancy. Distribution through the mails was blocked by enforcement of the Comstock Law, which banned mailing of materials judged to be obscene. However, several hundred thousand copies were distributed through the first family-planning and birth control clinic Sanger established in Brooklyn in 1916 and by networks of active women at rallies and political meetings.
  • William Carlos Williams, "Spring and All" (1923)
    A practicing physician for more than 40 years, William Carlos Williams became an experimenter, innovator and revolutionary figure in American poetry. In reaction against the rigid, rhyming format of 19th-century poets, Williams, his friend Ezra Pound and other early-20th-century poets formed the core of what became known as the "Imagist" movement. Their poetry focused on verbal pictures and moments of revealed truth, rather than a structure of consecutive events or thoughts and was expressed in free verse rather than rhyme.
  • Robert Frost, "New Hampshire" (1923)
    Frost received his first of four Pulitzer Prizes for this anthology, which contains some of his most famous poems, including "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and "Fire and Ice." One of the best-known American poets of his time, Frost became principally associated with the life and landscape of New England. Although he employed traditional verse forms and metrics and remained aloof from the poetic movements and fashions of his day, poems featured language as it is actually spoken as well as psychological complexity and layers of ambiguity and irony.
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Great Gatsby" (1925)
    F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the major American writers of the 20th century, is a figure whose life and works embody powerful myths about the American Dream of success. "The Great Gatsby," considered by many to be Fitzgerald’s finest work and the book for which he is best known, is a portrait of the Jazz Age (1920s) in all its decadence and excess. Exploring the themes of class, wealth and social status, Fitzgerald takes a cynical look at the pursuit of wealth among a group of people for whom pleasure is the chief goal. "The Great Gatsby" captured the spirit of the author’s generation and earned a permanent place in American mythology.
  • Langston Hughes, "The Weary Blues" (1925)
    Langston Hughes was one of the greatest poets of the Harlem Renaissance, a literary and intellectual flowering that fostered a new black cultural identity in the 1920s and 1930s. His poem "The Weary Blues," also the title of this poetry collection, won first prize in a contest held by Opportunity magazine. After the awards ceremony, the writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten approached Hughes about putting together a book of verse and got him a contract with his own publisher, Alfred A. Knopf. Van Vechten contributed an essay, "Introducing Langston Hughes," to the volume. The book laid the foundation for Hughes’s literary career, and several poems remain popular with his admirers.
  • William Faulkner, "The Sound and the Fury" (1929)
    "The Sound and the Fury," William Faulkner’s fourth novel, was his own favorite, and many critics believe it is his masterpiece. Set in the fictional county of Yoknapatawpha, Miss., as are most of Faulkner’s novels, "The Sound and the Fury" uses the American South as a metaphor for a civilization in decline. Depicting the post-Civil War decline of the once-aristocratic Compson family, the novel is divided into four parts, each told by a different narrator. Much of the novel is told in a stream-of-consciousness style, in which a character’s thoughts are conveyed in a manner roughly equivalent to the way human minds actually work. Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1950 and France’s Legion of Honor in 1951.
  • Dashiell Hammett, "Red Harvest" (1929)
    Dashiell Hammett’s first novel introduced a wide audience to the so-called "hard-boiled" detective thriller with its depiction of crime and violence without any hint of sentimentality. The creator of classics such as "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Thin Man," shocked readers with such dialogue as "We bumped over dead Hank O’Meara’s legs and headed for home."
  • Irma Rombauer, "Joy of Cooking" (1931)
    Until Irma Rombauer published "Joy of Cooking," most American cookbooks were little more than a series of paragraphs that incorporated ingredient amounts (if they were provided at all) with some vague advice about how to put them all together to achieve the desired results. Rombauer changed all that by beginning her recipes with ingredient lists and offering precise directions along with her own personal and friendly anecdotes. A modest success initially, the book went on to sell nearly 18 million copies in its various editions.
  • Margaret Mitchell, "Gone With the Wind" (1936)
    The most popular romance novel of all time was the basis for the most popular movie of all time (in today’s dollars). Margaret Mitchell’s book, set in the South during the Civil War, won both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, and it remains popular, despite charges that its author had a blind eye regarding the horrors of slavery.
  • Dale Carnegie, "How to Win Friends and Influence People" (1936)
    The progenitor of all self-help books, Dale Carnegie’s volume has sold 15 million copies and been translated into more than 30 languages. "How to Win Friends and Influence People" has also spawned hundreds of other books, many of them imitators, written to advise on everything from improving one’s relationships to beefing up one’s bank account. Carnegie acknowledged that he was inspired by Benjamin Franklin, a young man who proclaimed that "God helps them that helped themselves" as a way to get ahead in life.
  • Zora Neale Hurston, "Their Eyes Were Watching God" (1937)
    Although it was published in 1937, it was not until the 1970s that "Their Eyes Were Watching God" became regarded as a masterwork. It had initially been rejected by African American critics as facile and simplistic, in part because its characters spoke in dialect. Alice Walker’s 1975 Ms. magazine essay, "Looking for Zora," led to a critical reevaluation of the book, which is now considered to have paved the way for younger black writers such as Alice Walker and Toni Morrison.
  • Federal Writers’ Project, "Idaho: A Guide in Word and Pictures" (1937)
    "Idaho" was the first in the popular American Guide Series of the Federal Writers’ Project, which ended in 1943. The project employed more than 6,000 writers and was one of the many programs of the Works Progress Administration, a Depression-era federal government employment program. These travel guides cover the lower 48 states plus the Alaska Territory, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Each volume details a state’s history, geography and culture and includes photographs, maps and drawings.
  • Thornton Wilder, "Our Town: A Play" (1938)
    Winner of the 1938 Pulitzer Prize, "Our Town" is among the most-performed plays of the 20th century. Those who see it relate immediately to its universal themes of the importance of everyday occurrences, relationships among friends and family and an appreciation of the brevity of life.
  • "Alcoholics Anonymous" (1939)
    The famous 12-step program for stopping an addiction has sold more than 30 million copies. Millions of men and women worldwide have turned to the program co-founded by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith to recover from alcoholism. The "Big Book," as it is known, spawned similar programs for other forms of addiction.
  • John Steinbeck, "The Grapes of Wrath" (1939)
    Few novels can claim that their message led to actual legislation, but "The Grapes of Wrath" did just that. Its story of the travails of Oklahoma migrants during the Great Depression ignited a movement in Congress to pass laws benefiting farmworkers. When Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in 1962, the committee specifically cited this novel as one of the main reasons for the award.
  • Ernest Hemingway, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1940)
    Ernest Hemingway’s novel about the horrors of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) depicts war not as glorious but disillusioning. Hemingway used his experiences as a reporter during the war as the background for his best-selling novel, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and became a literary triumph. Based on his achievement in this and other noted works, he received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.
  • Richard Wright, "Native Son" (1940)
    Among the first widely successful novels by an African American, "Native Son" boldly described a racist society that was unfamiliar to most Americans. As literary critic Irving Howe said in his 1963 essay "Black Boys and Native Sons," "The day ‘Native Son’ appeared, American culture was changed forever. No matter how much qualifying the book might later need, it made impossible a repetition of the old lies."
  • Betty Smith, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1943)
    "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is the account of a girl growing up in the tenements of turn-of-the-20th-century Brooklyn. An early socially conscious novel, the book examines poverty, alcoholism, gender roles, loss of innocence and the struggle to live the American Dream in an inner city neighborhood of Irish American immigrants. The book was enormously popular and became a film directed by Elia Kazan.
  • Benjamin A. Botkin, "A Treasury of American Folklore" (1944)
    Benjamin Botkin headed the Library of Congress’s Archive of American Folksong (now the American Folklife Center) between 1943 and 1945 and previously served as national folklore editor of the Federal Writers’ Project (1938–39), a program of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal during the Depression. Botkin was one of the New Deal folklorists who persuasively argued that folklore was relevant in the present and that it was not something that should be studied merely for its historical value. This book features illustrations by Andrew Wyeth, one of America’s foremost realist painters.
  • Gwendolyn Brooks, "A Street in Bronzeville" (1945)
    "A Street in Bronzeville" was Brooks’s first book of poetry. It details, in stark terms, the oppression of blacks in a Chicago neighborhood. Critics hailed the book, and in 1950 Brooks became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. She was also appointed as U.S. Poet Laureate by the Librarian of Congress in 1985.
  • Benjamin Spock, "The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care" (1946)
    Dr. Spock’s guidebook turned common wisdom about child-rearing on its head. Spock argued that babies did not have to be on a rigid schedule, that children should be treated with a great deal of affection, and that parents should use their own common sense when making child-rearing decisions. Millions of parents worldwide have followed his advice.
  • Eugene O’Neill, "The Iceman Cometh" (1946)
    Nobel Prize winner Eugene O’Neill’s play about anarchism, socialism and pipe dreams is one of his most-admired but least-performed works, probably because of its more than four-and-a-half-hour running time. Set in 1912 in the seedy Last Chance Saloon in New York City, the play depicts the bar’s drunk and delusional patrons bickering while awaiting the arrival of Hickey, a traveling salesman whose visits are the highlight of their hopeless lives. However, Hickey’s arrival throws them into turmoil when he arrives sober, wanting them to face their delusions.
  • Margaret Wise Brown, "Goodnight Moon" (1947)
    This bedtime story has been a favorite of young people for generations, beloved as much for its rhyming story as for its carefully detailed illustrations by Clement Hurd. Millions have read it (and had it read to them). "Goodnight Moon" has been referred to as the perfect bedtime book.
  • Tennessee Williams, "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1947)
    A landmark work, which won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, "A Streetcar Named Desire" thrilled and shocked audiences with its melodramatic look at a clash of cultures. These cultures are embodied in the two main characters – Blanche DuBois, a fading Southern belle whose genteel pretensions thinly mask alcoholism and delusions of grandeur, and Stanley Kowalski, a representative of the industrial, urban working class. Marlon Brando’s portrayal of the brutish and sensual Stanley in both the original stage production and the film adaptation has become an icon of American culture.
  • Alfred C. Kinsey, "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" (1948)
    Alfred Kinsey created a firestorm when he published this volume on men in 1948 and a companion on women five years later. No one had ever reported on such taboo subjects before and no one had used scientific data in such detail to challenge the prevailing notions of sexual behavior. Kinsey’s openness regarding human sexuality was a harbinger of the 1960s sexual revolution in America.
  • J.D. Salinger, "The Catcher in the Rye" (1951)
    Since his debut in 1951 as the narrator of "The Catcher in the Rye," 16-year-old Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with adolescent alienation and angst. The influential story concerns three days after Holden has been expelled from prep school. Confused and disillusioned, he wanders New York City searching for truth and rails against the phoniness of the adult world. Holden is the first great American antihero, and his attitudes influenced the Beat generation of the 1950s as well as the hippies of the 1960s. "The Catcher in the Rye" is one of the most translated, taught and reprinted books and has sold some 65 million copies.
  • Ralph Ellison, "Invisible Man" (1952)
    Ralph Ellison’s "Invisible Man" is told by an unnamed narrator who views himself as someone many in society do not see, much less pay attention to. Ellison addresses what it means to be an African-American in a world hostile to the rights of a minority, on the cusp of the emerging civil rights movement that was to change society irrevocably.
  • E.B. White, "Charlotte’s Web" (1952)
    According to Publishers Weekly, "Charlotte’s Web" is the best-selling paperback for children of all time. One reason may be that, although it was written for children, reading it is just as enjoyable for adults. The book is especially notable for the way it treats death as a natural and inevitable part of life in a way that is palatable for young people.
  • Ray Bradbury, "Fahrenheit 451" (1953)
    "Fahrenheit 451" is Ray Bradbury’s disturbing vision of a future United States in which books are outlawed and burned. Even though interpretations of the novel have primarily focused on the historical role of book-burning as a means of censorship, Bradbury has said that the novel is about how television reduces knowledge to factoids and destroys interest in reading. The book inspired a 1966 film by Francois Truffaut and a subsequent BBC symphony. Its name comes from the minimum temperature at which paper catches fire by spontaneous combustion.
  • Allen Ginsberg, "Howl" (1956)
    Allen Ginsberg’s poem "Howl" (first published as the title poem of a collection) established him as an important poet and the voice of the Beat Generation of the 1950s. Because of the boldness of the poem’s language and subject matter, it became the subject of an obscenity trial in San Francisco in which it was exonerated after witnesses testified to its redeeming social value. Ginsberg’s work had great influence on later generations of poets and on the youth culture of the 1960s.
  • Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged" (1957)
    Although mainstream critics reacted poorly to "Atlas Shrugged," it was a popular success. Set in what novelist and philosopher Rand called "the day after tomorrow," the book depicts a United States caught up in a crisis caused by a corrupt establishment of government regulators and business interests. The book’s negative view of government and its support of unimpeded capitalism as the highest moral objective have influenced libertarians and those who advocate a smaller government.
  • Dr. Seuss, "The Cat in the Hat" (1957)
    Theodore Seuss Geisel was removed as editor of the campus humor magazine while a student at Dartmouth College after too much reveling with fellow students. In spite of this Prohibition-era setback to his writing career, he continued to contribute to the magazine pseudonymously, signing his work "Seuss." This is the first known use of his pseudonym, which became famous in children’s literature when it evolved into "Dr. Seuss." "The Cat in the Hat" is considered the most important book of his career. More than 200 million Dr. Seuss books have been sold around the world.
  • Jack Kerouac, "On the Road" (1957)
    The defining novel of the 1950s Beat Generation (which Kerouac named), "On the Road" is a semiautobiographical tale of a bohemian cross-country adventure, narrated by character Sal Paradise. Kerouac’s odyssey has influenced artists such as Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Hunter S. Thompson and films such as "Easy Rider." "On the Road" has achieved a mythic status in part because it portrays the restless energy and desire for freedom that makes people take off to see the world.
  • Harper Lee, "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1960)
    This 1960 Pulitzer Prize winner was an immediate critical and financial success for its author, with more than 30 million copies in print to date. Harper Lee created one of the most enduring and heroic characters in all of American literature in Atticus Finch, the small-town lawyer who defended a wrongly accused black man. The book’s importance was recognized by the 1961 Washington Post reviewer: "A hundred pounds of sermons on tolerance, or an equal measure of invective deploring the lack of it, will weigh far less in the scale of enlightenment than a mere 18 ounces of new fiction bearing the title ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’"
  • Joseph Heller, "Catch-22" (1961)
    Joseph’s Heller’s "Catch-22," an irreverent World War II novel and a satiric treatment of military bureaucracy, has had such a penetrating effect that its title has become synonymous with "no-win situation." Heller’s novel is a black comedy, filled with orders from above that make no sense and a main character, Yossarian, who just wants to stay alive. He pleads insanity but is caught in the famous catch: "Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy." The novel became a cult classic for its biting indictment of war.
  • Robert A. Heinlein, "Stranger in a Strange Land" (1961)
    The first science fiction novel to become a bestseller, "Stranger in a Strange Land" is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human raised on Mars by Martians (his parents were on the first expedition to Mars and he was orphaned when the crew perished) who returns to Earth about 20 years later. Smith has psychic powers but complete ignorance of human mores. The book is considered a classic in its genre.
  • Ezra Jack Keats, "The Snowy Day" (1962)
    Ezra Jack Keats’s "The Snowy Day" was the first full-color picture book with an African-American as the main character. The book changed the field of children’s literature forever, and Keats was recognized by winning the 1963 Caldecott Medal (the most prestigious American award for children’s books) for his landmark effort.
  • Maurice Sendak, "Where the Wild Things Are" (1963)
    "It is my involvement with this inescapable fact of childhood – the awful vulnerability of children and their struggle to make themselves King of All Wild Things – that gives my work whatever truth and passion it may have," Maurice Sendak said in his Caldecott Medal acceptance speech on June 30, 1964. Sendak called Max, the hero of "Where the Wild Things Are," his "bravest and therefore my dearest creation." Max, who is sent to his room with nothing to eat, sails to where the wild things are and becomes their king.
  • James Baldwin, "The Fire Next Time" (1963)
    One of the most important books ever published on race relations, Baldwin’s two-essay work comprises a letter written to his nephew on the role of race in United States history and a discussion of how religion and race influence each other. Baldwin’s angry prose is balanced by his overall belief that love and understanding can overcome strife.
  • Betty Friedan, "The Feminine Mystique" (1963)
    By debunking the "feminine mystique" that middle-class women were happy and fulfilled as housewives and mothers, Betty Friedan inspired the second-wave feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Friedan advocates that women need meaningful work and encourages them to avoid the trap of the "feminine mystique" by pursuing education and careers. By 2000 this touchstone of the women’s movement had sold 3 million copies and was translated into several languages.
  • Malcolm X and Alex Haley, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" (1965)
    When "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" (born Malcolm Little) was published, The New York Times called it a "brilliant, painful, important book," and it has become a classic American autobiography. Written in collaboration with Alex Haley (author of "Roots"), the book expressed for many African-Americans what the mainstream civil rights movement did not: their anger and frustration with the intractability of racial injustice.
  • Ralph Nader, "Unsafe at Any Speed" (1965)
    Nader’s book was a landmark in the field of auto safety and made him a household name. It detailed how automakers resisted putting safety features, such as seat belts, in their cars and resulted in the federal government’s taking a lead role in the area of auto safety.
  • Rachel Carson, "Silent Spring" (1962)
    A marine biologist and writer, Rachel Carson is considered a founder of the contemporary environmental protection movement. She drew attention to the adverse effects of pesticides, especially that of DDT on bird populations, in her book "Silent Spring," a 1963 National Book Association Nonfiction Finalist. At a time when technological solutions were the norm, she pointed out that man-made poisons introduced into natural systems can harm not only nature, but also humans. Her book met with great success and because of heightened public awareness, DDT was banned.
  • Truman Capote, "In Cold Blood" (1966)
    A 300-word article in The New York Times about a murder led Truman Capote to travel with his childhood friend Harper Lee to Holcomb, Kan., to research his nonfiction novel, which is considered one of the greatest true-crime books ever written. Capote said the novel was an attempt to establish a serious new literary form, the "nonfiction novel," a narrative form that employed all the techniques of fictional art but was nevertheless entirely factual. The book was an instant success and was made into a film.
  • James D. Watson, "The Double Helix" (1968)
    James D. Watson’s personal account of the discovery of DNA changed the way Americans regarded the genre of the scientific memoir and set a new standard for first-person accounts. Dealing with personalities, controversies and conflicts, the book also changed the way the public thought about how science and scientists work, showing that scientific enterprise can at times be a messy and cutthroat business.
  • Dee Brown, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" (1970)
    Until librarian Dee Brown wrote his history of Native Americans in the West, few Americans knew the details of the unjust treatment of Indians. Brown scoured both well-known and little-known sources for his documentary on the massacres, broken promises and other atrocities suffered by Indians. The book has never gone out of print and has sold more than 4 million copies.
  • Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, "Our Bodies, Ourselves" (1971)
    In the early 1970s a dozen Boston feminists collaborated in this groundbreaking publication that presented accurate information on women’s health and sexuality based on their own experiences. Advocating improved doctor-patient communication and shared decision-making, "Our Bodies, Ourselves" explored ways for women to take charge of their own health issues and to work for political and cultural change that would ameliorate women’s lives.
  • Carl Sagan, "Cosmos" (1980)
    Carl Sagan’s classic, bestselling science book accompanied his avidly followed television series, "Cosmos." In an accessible way, Sagan covered a broad range of scientific topics and made the history and excitement of science understandable and enjoyable for Americans and then for an international audience. The book offers a glimpse of Sagan’s personal vision of what it means to be human.
  • Toni Morrison, "Beloved" (1987)
    Toni Morrison won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her post-Civil War novel based on the true story of an escaped slave and the tragic consequences when a posse comes to reclaim her. The author won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993, and in 2006 The New York Times named "Beloved" "the best work of American fiction of the past 25 years."
  • Randy Shilts, "And the Band Played On" (1987)
    "And the Band Played On" is the story of how the AIDS epidemic spread and how the government’s initial indifference to the disease allowed its spread and gave urgency to devoting government resources to fighting the virus. Shilts’s investigation has been compared to other works that led to increased efforts toward public safety, such as Upton Sinclair’s "The Jungle."
  • César Chávez, "The Words of César Chávez" (2002)
    César Chávez, founder of the United Farm Workers, was as impassioned as he was undeterred in his quest for better working conditions for farm workers. He was a natural communicator whose speeches and writings led to many improvements in wages and working conditions.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Republicans, Democrats, Populists, Progressives and a one party state. The evolution of parties in Wyoming

I'll start off here by noting that this isn't a commentary on any political party, or any candidate, but rather an observation on an item of history, and a trend.

On Monday the local newspaper, The Casper Star Tribune, runs articles from its predecessor papers which look back on the news of former eras.  This past Monday, this being the political season, the paper ran a couple of old articles noting the fortunes of the Socialist Party and the Progressive Part, in the second decade of the 20th Century.  In both instances the newspaper heartily endorsed what it thought was the growing popularity of those parties.  While not adopting the platform of either, it noted with approval some of the concerns that those parties featured in their platforms, and noted with approval that the parties were growing in size.

On the same day, in the editorial section, the paper joined in with Chris Henrichsen in criticizing the current leadership of the present Wyoming Democratic Party.  Henrichsen, who is competing with Cynthia Lummis in what is for him a doomed effort to obtain the position of Congressman from Wyoming, complained recently, in a Tweet (and as I don't Tweet, or even look at Tweets, people who are interested in that Tweet will have to look for it elsewhere) that the local Democratic Party needed new leadership.  The reason for his complaint was that he recently was present at a Democratic fundraiser in Jackson Wyoming, which was apparently held to raise money for Montana Democratic Senator John Testor.  Testor is apparently in a tight race this year, and so the Wyoming Democrats determined to help him out with a fundraiser in Teton County, which of course is not only near Montana, but which is likely to draw more Democrats, and more importantly more Democrats with more surplus money, than other Wyoming counties.  The basis of Henrichsen's complaining Tweet was that he wasn't allowed to speak at the fundraiser even though he was there and he's actually a Wyoming candidate.  The Tribune agreed with him.  I have to say, that I agree with him and the Tribune.

The Tribune, and Henrichsen, went on to complain that the Democratic leadership in the state was anemic and effectively doing nothing for local candidates.  I'll leave that issue to the Democrats, but in keeping with the theme of this blog noting long-term changes, here's a truly remarkable one here in the state.  Wyoming effectively is a one party state at present.  But it hasn't always been by any means.  That would likely be a huge surprise to most Wyomingites who were born post 1980 or so.

Prior to 1980, more or less, Wyoming had a fairly active, if in the minority, Democratic Party.  And of course the party was significant enough recently that it was still able to elect a Governor, that being Dave Freudenthal.  Freudenthal, however, was an exception even in his own time in being alone in the Executive branch as a Democrat and he fairly frequently made it known that he was independent of the national party.  The last Wyoming Governor who could count on there being a few other Democrats around was Mike Sullivan, who is now several governors back.  Sullivan went on to serve in the Clinton Administration as the US Ambassador to Ireland.  Within the last 15 years or so the party has all but died in terms of a legislative presence. This year there are quite a few seats they are not even running a candidate for and the primary election is the real race for many seats, as there are multiple Republicans running for the same seat in the primary but the winner will face no real opposition in the general election, if any opposition at all.

But this wasn't always the case.

The Republican Party has always been the majority party in Wyoming. This is true going all the way back to statehood.  In part, that's true due a historical accident.  Wyoming became a state in 1890, and given that it was on the northern plains, and given that the Civil War had occurred only 25 years prior to that, it would have been almost impossible for the state to have started off with a Democratic majority.  Outside of the South, the Republican Party dominated in most regions following the Civil War, and that continued on for several decades.  The party, however, was not a completely unified party, and it had not been anywhere in the US since about 1864.  From about 1864 up through 1919, the party was divided internally between a "liberal" wing (in modern parlance) and a more "conservative" wing.  This reflected itself in different ways over time, but the point is that the GOP wasn't really a conservative party so in some ways looking back to that era isn't particularly instructive. The Democratic Party, from some point way before the Civil War, up until the election of Woodrow Wilson, was a "conservative" party, however.  So there to, a person cannot look at the Democrats of 1890, or 1900, and really compare them to the Democrats of 1990, or 2000.  It just wouldn't make sense.  And it is not the point of this post to actually discuss modern politics anyway.
 Republican Francis E. Warren, Wyoming's first state Governor.

What is revealing, however, is that the state had a real Democratic party in 1890, and thereafter for many, many decades.  Staring in the 1890s, moreover, the State actually had a Populist Party.  The Populist were a serious third party that reflected the values of the Progressive Movement, a major "liberal" movement of the era which had an enormous impact on 20th Century politics after it evolved into the Progressives.

 John E. Osborne, Wyoming's first Democratic Governor, who served from 1893 to 1895. The scandal of Republican Governor Amos Barber's association with the Johnson County Invasion was a factor in his election.

Populism was relatively small here, but the Progressive movement was not.  The Progressive Party took the values of Populism, as well as a host of other well developed "liberal" concepts, some of which would be quite radical even today, and succeeded from the Republican Party, where they were struggling from control. The motivating factor in that, and the creation of the party, was Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 decision to run for President against William Howard Taft, the incumbent.  Taft took the GOP nomination, and the Progressives bolted, forming their own party.  That rift really gave rise to the the proto-Republican Party we have today, although not really in a purely recognizable form. Oddly enough, it also gave rise to the modern Democratic Party we can recognize somewhat, as the Democratic Party, sensing an opportunity, also adopted Progressive values that year.  Outside the South, that converted the Democrats into a "liberal" party.

In Wyoming the Progressive Party, lead as it was by Theodore Roosevelt, was a popular party, and at that time left leaning parties were gaining some significant Wyoming interest in any event.  Joseph M. Carey, a very significant Wyoming politician who was serving as Governor at the time was one of the founding figures of the Progressive Party, so, while Theodore Roosevelt never became the Progressive Party President, Joseph M. Carey was a Progressive Party Governor.  It would surprise most Wyomingites today that Wyoming actually had a third party Governor at one time.  It might be even more surprising for some to learn that when Carey went out, in 1915, a Democrat, John B. Kendrick came in.
 John M. Carey, left, 1912.

As surprising as those things might be, the articles noted by the Tribune on Monday, falling in around 1912, would be even more surprising.  As noted, the Socialist were gaining adherents. They'd remain on some Wyoming ballots until at least World War Two. During one Presidential election of the 1930s the Socialist candidate would actually outpoll the Republican and the Democratic candidates in Sweetwater County, reflecting the views of the heavily unionized mine workers there at that time.

 John B. Kendrick, Wyoming's second Democratic Governor, following Republican, then Progressive, Joseph M. Carey.  He resigned when he was elected to the United State Senate in 1916. 

Since World War Two this has all changed, of course, as it has in most of the country for that matter. The Democrats remained a serious contender for decades after the war, and the state sent some Democrats to Washington, such as Lester Hunt, Gale McGee and Teno Roncolio.  Those days, however appear to be all but over, at least in the current era, reflecting a serious decline in Democratic fortunes in the state in the 1990s.  The Star Tribunes article urging a change in the leadership of the Democratic Party has some good points, but at present Democratic fortunes here are so low that perhaps it matters very little what the Democrats currently do.  Indeed, perhaps reflecting their lack of ability to field candidates, the are some small local third parties for the first time in eons and, more significantly, there appear to be some internal rifts in the Republican Party.

At any rate, the point of all of this is not to endorse one party over another, or to even analyze their current fortunes in the state. I'm not even suggesting anything regarding the current election, or any of the candidates running from any party.  Rather, in keeping with the focus of the blog, the point is to look at the state in the past and track some changes.  Here is an enormous one.  Wyoming today is effectively a one party state, with the real contest in many elections being the primary election.  This wasn't always the case.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Today In Wyoming's History: August 9

A fashion trend noted on today's Today in Wyoming's History site:

Today In Wyoming's History: August 9: 1895  According to my Wyoming History Calendar, "New Woman" appeared on the streets of Thermopolis wearing "bifurcated skirts".  Bifurcated skirts were suitable for riding, and  seem to have made their appearance about this time.  I'm not really sure from this entry, however, if a Thermopolis newspaper was noting the arrival of the "New Woman" as a type in Thermopolis, or if they were actually noting a singular new woman.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

For whatever reason, women seem to have been plagued for much of history with impractical clothing to some degree.  Because of that, there's always also been a counter trend trying to address it, or in some instances women have just resorted to men's clothing.  This item addresses skirts, which were closely associated, in this instance, with riding styles. That is, a bifurcated skirt was suitable for riding a man's saddle.

Post World War One, it seems, women's clothing has evolved, generally, towards being more practical, and today it's generally equally practical as men's, if there's any difference at all.  On the flipside, as fewer and fewer men have had job's requiring practical clothing, men's clothing has evolved into being more "fashion" than at least in other recent eras.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Holscher's Hub: Lost Cabin, Wyoming

Yesterday, we were wondering around and took some photographs of: Lost Cabin

I'd never been to Lost Cabin before, even though I've lived in the county  my whole life for the most part.  Very interesting little town, pretty much abandoned now.

I guess this fits into the theme of this page in a fairly significant way.  J. B. Okie, the founder of the town, wasn't a poor man to start with, but he became a very rich man due to sheep and businesses that he created that were in some ways connected with agriculture.  There are several instances I'm aware of where young men from wealthy families (or poor ones) came West, worked as cowhands initially, and then went on to build huge economic enterprises out of it, becoming very wealthy in the process.  Even starting with similar financial advantages today, a person could simply not do this now.

And this certainly shows the the economic importance of sheep in the pre synthetic era.  Okie converted an initial investment from his mother, which allowed him to buy a band of sheep, into a fortune, building this town, and the mansion depicted below.  And he wasn't unique in this fashion, although this story isn't common either.  One very large house in Casper was built in a similar fashion by an Irish immigrant who rose from sheepherder to Governor.

Big Horn Sheep Company bunk house.
One of the nicest bunkhouses I've ever seen.

 Big Horn Sheep Company headquarters.

 I can't imagine a modern ranch company having a headquarters anything like this.  Most ranch headquarters now are simply the ranchers house.

 J. B. Okie mansion.

This was Okie's private residence.  This is the only example of an out in the prairie ranch house of this type I've ever actually seen.  There were a few more in the region, I know, but in reality ranching mansions are exceedingly rare.  It's telling, fwiw, that the two significant examples of early 20th Century mansions, in Natrona County, which are attributable to ranchers are both attributable to sheepmen, not cattlemen, contrary to the widespread view of how things worked.

 Big Horn Sheep Company headquarters.










As noted in the original blog entry, all of these photographs are from the town of Lost Cabin.  Lost Cabin was a company town, with that company being the enormous Big Horn Sheep Company.  The company, founded by J. B. Okie, the son of a prominent Washington D. C. physician, owned vast numbers of sheep as well as a small chain of stores located in small Wyoming towns.

Okie was a financial wizard, making and losing fortunes over time but generally coming out ahead, but perhaps his life is a cautionary tale as his personal life was turbulent.  He was sued by his mother over her being bought out of this company. She was a Washington D. C. real estate businesswoman who, as noted had provided the seed money for the company and who had an ownership interest in it for many years.  The fact that Okie was funded is not insignificant in and of itself, as the initial investment did allow Okie to get a running start, although the investment was a loan, not a gift.  And Okie was married three times.  He died rather tragically when he fell into a pond near Lost Cabin during the winter, while duck hunting.

Today the Okie mansion belongs to Phillips Conoco Petroleum, which has a major gas plant in the near vicinity.  The town, however, is a shadow of its original self.

Somewhat related to this story, is that of the railhead at Lysite, which is featured on our companion Railhad Blog here:  Railhead: Lysite Wyoming:

One additional item of interest here  is that the railhead photos show a structure built in 1919.  Okie's sheep and store empire rose with the fortunes of the sheep industry, and were always based on it, but his era included the early petroleum era in the region. The 1919 structure was undoubtedly devoted to his sheep enterprise, but today Lysite is thought of as the location of a gas plant.  Sort of interesting example of change over time.  Sheep are now much less common than they once were in Wyoming, with natural gas being more present than ever.  Even perhaps the common associations with the Okie name show this.  Okie Draw is a major older oil field in the area.

Friday, August 3, 2012

What is this airplane?


A photo of my mother mysteriously posing with an airplane.  No idea why, and no idea what the airplane is.

Anyone know what this airplane is?

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Today In Wyoming's History: August 1

Today In Wyoming's History: August 1: 941  Parade magazine devotes three full pages to a feature article describing the U.S. Army's new vehicle, the Jeep.  In some ways, the Jeep really was a revolution in military transportation, but not so much as the much less heralded 6x6.  The extent to which all wheel drives would revolutionize travel in Wyoming can hardly be overstated.  Prior to World War Two, 4x4 trucks almost didn't exist in civilian hands, and those that did were not suitable for general use.  After the war, they rapidly entered into all types of backcountry use.  In terms of agriculture, this meant ground that was formerly completely inaccessible in winter before the war, was now accessible in many instances year around, eliminating the need for cowhands to be stationed in remote areas during the winter, and also just flatly eliminating the need for the same number of hands as previously employed.  For those in cities and towns, particularly sportsmen, the country was also suddenly opened up during the winter, when previously it simply had not been.

Jeep as lead vehicle in convoy, Iran, World War Two.

The New Army Reading and Viewing List

The New Army Reading and Viewing List: The latest list of books, and now films, that the Army feels that officers ought to see: Military themed literature: The Killer Angels by...

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Queen Elizabeth II in Canada


This is a young Queen Elizabeth II in Canada, but what else does it depict?  I frankly don't know.  Its a photo from my mother's collection, and unfortunately, I no longer know the story behind it.

Does anyone stopping in here know?

Monday, July 30, 2012

The Wyoming Wave


As an initial disclaimer, let me note that I'm a Wyoming native, and that I started driving at a young age.  I owned my first care when I was 15 years old, before I actually had a driver's license.

Now, with that out of the way, I'm going to criticize the driving I've been seeing around here recently.

For some reason, a fairly high percentage of Wyoming drivers, in spite of having presumably passed the driving test and thereby being allowed to be the holder of a driver's license, are ignorant of the rules of the road. And by that, I mean they're unaware of the laws that pertain to driving.  Not just the speed limit, which people are aware of, of course, but often ignore, but the simple rules of driving.

Let me provide this example.

Almost ever day I have to come to an intersection where I turn on to a state highway.  When I do that, I enter the intersection from the west and turn north, so that I'm crossing against an oncoming lane of travel.

About 40% of the time, there will be another vehicle arrive, from the opposite direction, that also needs to turn north.  As traffic has not allowed me to turn on, both I, and the other driver, will be waiting at the intersection for traffic to clear.

Under this scenario, the vehicle that does not have to turn into traffic, and which does not have to turn across the other stopped vehicle,  has the right of way.  No matter, by my observation at least 60% of local drivers, if not more, believe that the first driver to arrive at the road has the right of way.  If that's the vehicle crossing the other stopped river, that driver will charge out and take the right of way.  Very frequently, moreover, the vehicle that does not have to cross against the other driver, but which arrived second, will sit there, refusing to move.

That takes me to the topic of this entry, the  Wyoming Wave.  In addition to not knowing the rules of the road, a large percentage of Wyoming drivers believe that the rules can be completely suspended by simply waiving to the other driver.  That is, the driver with the right of way will waive to the other driver, and believe that solves it all.  Sort of a "come on, . . . cross my lane of travel. . . I won't use my right of way. . ."

This practice is amazingly common, and doesn't apply simply to stops (although it is very common there).  I've seen it extremely frequently at four way stops, where a lack of knowledge on what to do is very common, and nervous drivers try to address more than one vehicle at an intersection at a time by doing it.  I've also seen the drivers of slow moving vehicles do it in no passing zones, which certainly doesn't make passing any safer.

Indeed, I've experienced it twice today. The first time in the first scenario I presented today.  I came up to the state highway and had to wait for traffic. A vehicle coming from the other direction did as I was waiting. We both were turning to the north, with my turn in front of him.  No matter, he sat there and then gave me the waive.  Ultimately he went when I didn't.  And then it happened when I arrived at work.  I was set to jaywalk across the street, which I shouldn't be doing, but as I was waiting there a car simply stopped in the street, as if there was a crossing, which encourages me to go into traffic, when nobody else will necessarily stop.

I thought perhaps my observations here were somewhat unique, but just the other day a client came in who lives in a smaller town in this county and commented, without prompting, that the driving in this city was "terrible".  It's funny, in a way, to note that, as at one time it was very common here to criticize Colorado's drivers, although I rarely hear that done anymore.  Given the widespread disregard for the traffic rules here, we'd be on thin ice now if we did.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Smoke in the Air

This has been a summer of constant fires here. Grass fires and forest fires.  I've never seen another summer like it, and I've seen some bad ones.

As part of this, there's been smoke in the air here for so long, it's now part of the regular background smell.  Normally, most years, that'd alarm me, but this year its normal.  This morning, for example, there's a fairly prominent "camp fire" small, of the type that'd alarm me usually.  Not this year.

That caused me to ponder, in keeping with the theme of this blog, if things like this were the norm in prior decades.  In the mid 20th Century the US began a dedicated effort to fight all forest fires, but prior to that, it didn't do that, and nobody could have. For that matter, as late as the late 19th Century some Indian tribes still set fire to remote forests in order drive game out of them. A good account of one such event is given in Theodore Roosevelt's account of hunting in the Rocky Mountain West, and this would have been in the 1880s or 1890s.  As late as the 1940s and 1950s here, sheepmen set fire to the high mountain sagebrush grounds on their way out, knowing that they'd scorch and green grass would come up the next spring, which they were more interested in than sagebrush.  Now, of course, that'd be a crime.

Anyhow, I wonder to what extent summers were simply smokey in the past?

Downward Mobility A Modern Economic Reality : NPR

I suppose this is related to the recent series of posts I have put up on economic issues, but recently NPR ran this interesting interview on Downward Mobility:

Downward Mobility A Modern Economic Reality : NPR

This is, undoubtedly, both real, and scary. But what struck me to some degree, and the reason I'm posting it here, is that it somewhat taps into the phenomenon of rising economic expectations  of the last 30 or so years.  I don't know if this is good or bad, but it simply is the case.

By this, one of the things I noted on this interview is that part of the "downward mobility" adjustments some of these people expressed is that they'll not be able to roll their houses over as soon as they like, and buy bigger ones.  There's simply a built in expectation that they'd do that, and frankly a lot of people do have that built in expectation.

People have been doing that for decades, so that's nothing new, but there was up until relatively recently much less of an expectation that a person could do that.  My parents never did.  They bought their house in 1958, after they'd been married a short while, and my mother still owns the same house.  Plenty of families of that generation moved once, as their family's grew, but they moved because their families grew, more often than not.  Some people did buy a different house in later years, but many did not.  A person I worked with for many years related to me that when first married he lived in his parents house, which he shortly thereafter inherited, and would have lived at that location thereafter, but his wife did not want to. They had a house built, where both of them lived until they passed on.  The idea of buying another house just because seems much more common now.  Or perhaps the ability to do that is much more common.

Another thing I noted is that there's a certain level of economic expectation that would seem to be unrealistic with some of the occupations noted in the interview. This is scary, as its becoming increasingly common all over, but its a bit surprising that some people had high economic expectations associated with certain occupations to start with .  I recently noted the same last year during the Occupy Wall Street protests when one protester was holding up something with noting a high student loan debt, with the caption noting that the person was an art major.  Majoring in art is fine, but expecting to be able to pay off a student loan of any substantial size with that degree is nearly delusional.

Of course, there was a time when nearly any college degree did in fact mean that a person was guaranteed business employment, if they wanted it, but that day is long over.  College degrees are much more common now, and while they're not worthless by any means, they do not have the automatic value they once did.  Some of course retain real clout, in terms of economic expectations, but many do not.  Even traditional standbys in these regards, like the JD, no longer is a guarantee of that at all, as many recent law school grads in many parts of the country haven't been able to find work at all.  All part of the same story, I suppose.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

When Only a Human Will Do by Froma Harrop on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

I posted an item on this on Holscher's Hub as well, and I've written on communications here before, but this is an item worth noting again, in terms of treands:

When Only a Human Will Do by Froma Harrop on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

We're all used now to listening to, and responding to, the  commands of a telephonic machine. That is, we call places, and go through the routine.  Perhaps we're not thrilled with it, but we do it.  You know the drill: "If you have a question about X, press 4, and state your name". . . and so on.

What an enormous change in expectations.

In some parts of the country people still spoke with telephone operators at the telephone exchange simply to place a call in to the 1950s.  You could always get an operator by dialing 0, and sometimes ask questions about the call you just  had.  I haven't tried to get an operator for years, but I suspect it'd be automated now.  And nobody calls an operator to place a long distance call.  Shoot, I wonder how difficult it would be to even fine an operator if you wanted to.

And I don't know that many of our predecessors of a few decades back would have tolerated a call that only involved responding to machines, which is just what I did this morning in order to determine the answer to a government payment question on a mater I was working on.

Most folks don't like this change much, and I don't frankly either.  It's always a relief when you get to speak to an actual human being.

The high tech alternative to horses. . . . the bicycle

It's strange to think of it now, but at the turn of the prior century it wasn't the automobile that was seen as the modern alternative to the horse, but the bicycle.

Bicycles were all the rage.  They took cities by storm as average people saw them as a cheap to buy, cheap to maintain, alternative to walking, or in some cases riding, that didn't require any feed.  Their advance was so extensive that they were even adopted by Armies, with even the U.S. Army trying them out in the West.  Indeed, probably to the surprise of most modern Americans, some European armies, including the German Army, continued to use bicycles for some troops up to and through World War Two.  The Swiss Army still has bicycle using units, and the U.S. Army has very recently experimented with a bike that can fold up into a small portable size.

The early bikes compared very favorably with the automobile too. They were not a great deal slower and they were much, much, cheaper to own.  And they were much quicker than walking, which is actually how most town and city people got around.  Contrary to the popular imagination, while there were thousands of horses in the cities, most average city and town dwellers did not ride, and did not own a horse. They walked.  Bikes, therefore, looked pretty good.

All things being equal, a visionary of 1900 would have had every reason to look forward and see a future with lots of bicycles, a few automobiles, and fewer horses.

We've linked in a couple of interesting blog sites this morning dealing with the U.S. Army and bicycles.  The Army's experimentation with bikes didn't last long, that go around, but it shows how in vogue they were.

The Bicycle Corps in Yellowstone Park

The Bicycle Corps in Yellowstone Park

And another item on the 25th.

The Bicycle Corps in Yellowstone Park

Really neat blog on the U.S. Army's bike corps of the late 19th Century, in Wyoming:

The Bicycle Corps in Yellowstone Park

Serious bicyclist, way ahead of their time.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Civility


One of the major things this blog tries to track is cultural changes, or trends.  Here's one that I've been able to notice a great deal in my own lifetime.  A decline in civility.

Others have noted this, but I think I'm likely defining this a bit more broadly than it usually is.  I'd define civility as a conduct not only limited to actions, but also to manners of speech.  If that is done, the decline in civility has been enormous.

When I was younger, people were generally fairly careful with their speech.  We were taught not to use coarse language of any kind.  This included not only swearing, and language which would have been regarded as subject to religious concerns, but simply course language.  You did hear it, of course, but not terribly frequently.  If you heard it from adults, it was usually because they were in a situation that was extremely stressed.  From some adults you never heard course language.  I do not recall  hearing such language from my mother on more than a single occasion, by which time her mind was failing.  If my father ever used such language, it was a sign that he was extremely upset, which was very rare.  During my father's entire lifetime, I probably heard such language used less than I hear it from some individuals in a single day, in some circumstances.

There were, of course, people who routinely used very course language, but that tended to be regarded as a sign of a certain character defect in the individual or, in some cases, indicative of a certain employment or cast.  That is, you might expect it from soldiers.  You didn't expect it from just about anyone else.  If you heard it from a manual laborer they were regarded as a person who was unaware of the appropriate standards of conduct.  If you heard it from a professional, you placed them in a poor light.

You did tend to hear language of this type from boys in their late teens, which was at a point where they were experimenting with speech. But that was expected to clear up.

Now I'll hear speech of this type all the time.  Even professionals can be found using language that was formerly the province of Marine Corps Drill Sergeants.  It hasn't been a good trend.  For one thing, it seems to have reduced the meaning of such language entirely.  For another, it seems to have been part of, even an engine of, a general decline in standards.   As civil language had declined, civil conduct has also.

Part of that decline has been reflected in the expansion of suggestive everything.  Even 15 years ago a person wouldn't have decorated their vehicles with suggestive or crude stickers.  Now I seem them everywhere.  Rude t-shirts have also been common, challenging the viewer with provocative or combative suggestions.  This just wouldn't have occurred up until about 15 years ago, and certainly not 20 or more years ago.  For one thing, chances are high that a young male wouldn't have been able to find a young female would would have been willing to be seen with him if he had a suggestive sticker on his vehicle, or if he wore a t-shirt with a suggestive slogan.  Now, however, young women wear t-shirts themselves with suggestive slogans on them.

It'd be easy to blow this off as really meaning nothing, but it does.  A culture that loses a sense of propriety on certain conduct will tend to lose a sense of appropriateness as to any behavior at all.  That is, if a person doesn't know what language is and is not appropriate, at some point he'll also not know what standards are.  And as what was intended to be provocative becomes common, it has the effect of making the behavior common.  One of the odd facts of modern life is that there's almost no language left that actually has the ability to shock, so part of speech itself is thereby reduced.  This isn't to say that I'm advocating the use of such language in certain situations, but I'm noting that the treat nature of something like Baklava doesn't exist if all you ever get to eat is Baklava.

Expanding this out a bit further, this seems to have infected our political speech to an increasing degree.  Not that this is unusual, however.  There were once, of course, fist fights on the floors of Congress, and even a caning many decades ago. And some political speech of the 19th Century and early 20th Century is shockingly violent, racist, or just flat out goofy. So, here, we can't really say that this is wholly novel.

None the less, there seems to have been a shift in the last several decade ago where some political speech could be quite extreme and has become very common, and it recently has become very noticeable.  I don't mean to suggest, by the way, that one party of the other is to blame here, and I'm not pointing towards any one person. Rather, it just concerns me when debates became sloganeering based on accusations.  Having said that, as noted, there's always been some degree of this.  Still, when the extreme is used so commonly, as it is here to, at some point people quit listening.

I suppose the point of this entry is mostly to note this trend. But also to note that more restraint in language doesn't hinder speech, it actually enhances it.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Going To The Dance

The other day, I was at an event which included a dance.  The dance was well attended, but a friend of mine mentioned that he'd heard that the dance was once the central event, and no longer was.  He further observed that it seemed to him that dances had once been a central event for people, but that era had passed.



I've never thought of that, but I think there's something to it.  Not that dances don't occur, I just don't think that dancing is as big of a deal to people now as it once was.

In making this observation, I have to note that I can't dance. But then maybe that forms part of my observation.  I never learned how.  When I was of that age, it seemed that traditional dancing was not in vogue.  There were high school dances, but swing dancing, etc., didn't occur at them. This was also true of the very few dances I attended while in college.  The Rock and; Roll era of the 1960s had impacted dancing to the point of almost destroying it, to some degree, so that by the late 1970s and 1980s, my high school and college years, dancing was sort of a free style type of deal.  You'd see it, to be sure, at school dances or college bars, but nothing like that depicted above.

And it wasn't as if people said "let's go out dancing" either, or even "let's go to the dance".  While at the University of Wyoming I think I went to one actual "dance", a dance at a dormitory that the foreign students association hosted.  All the other dancing I saw during the 80s in Laramie was at parties, concerts or bars, and all of it was the descendant of the rock type that became predominant in the 1960s.

But this wasn't always so.  As noted above, a friend of mine noted how dancing was once a much more common event, and further commented how, in Western Nebraska, where he was from, people in small towns had frequently "gone to the dance" on weekend evenings, or at least young people do. And I've heard many recollections of that type as well.  Indeed, just last night, at a 50th wedding anniversary party I heard a recollection about the "dances in Powder River". Powder River is a small town in western Natrona County, and I bet that there hasn't been a dance held there in decades.  Apparently there used to be one darned near every weekend, and I don't doubt that something like that was close to correct.

I will note, on that, that once I started to date my wife, who in fact is from Powder River, that I encountered real dancing for the first time.  Rural people in Wyoming all know how to dance, so it's pretty evident that dancing as a social event has hung on in the rural west. And they dance well too.  Even today, at wedding receptions of rural couples, real swing dancing is very common, to all types of music.  Perhaps, of course, it's coming back in, in general, but I'd be surprised.

I'm not sure what sparked this change, but whatever it is, is part of a bigger trend.  A book sometime ago entitled "Bowling Alone" advanced the thesis that Americans more and more engage in solitary activities, rather than getting out with people.  While to anyone generation that's hard to perceive, I think it evident that this is true.  Probably our hectic lives, and television, and now the computer, all contribute to that.  At one time people had to get out, basically, or the only other option was staying at home reading or listening to the radio (after there were radios).  Therefore, group activities of any kind, were much more significant than they are now for many, indeed most, people.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Architectural Artifacts of the Equine Era

This recent thread on the Society of the Military Horse forum, entitled: Architectural Artifacts of the Equine Era brings up some interesting items relevant to this site. Artifacts in architecture, etc. that are related to the horse powered era, which in many instances is the recent horse powered era.

Particularly interesting, at the time of the posting of this item here, is the discussion on city and town fountains for horses, an item that never would have occurred to me.  Most particularly, it wouldn't have occurred to me that this was sponsored as a charitable effort, but when you think of all the horses in towns and cities (a huge number prior to World War One), it makes senses.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

History, Jobs, Politics, Exaggeration and Gross Simplification

Normally I wouldn't post an item on modern politics on any of my blogs, but here I'm making an exception.  This is probably even more exceptional as I'm posting that item here, on Lex Anteinternet, which is supposed to have a historical focus.  Be that as it may, there's some connection with the focus of the blog here, so its not completely off topic, if darned near so.

Recently, while travelling about, I was listening to podcasts of the Sunday morning talk shows.  The focus on both Meet The Press and This Week was the economy, with Republican and Democratic spokesmen taking shots at each other about that topic, and more specifically, going after each other on job loss.  If you were to listen to the Democrats you'd hear that Mitt Romney is a poor choice for president as, they claim, he's a "corporate raider" whose business practices resulted in jobs being exported overseas.  If, on the other hand, you were to listen to the Republicans you'd hear that President Obama is directly responsible for tax policies that are causing jobs to go overseas.

Well, what this really demonstrates is either the poor state of the American public's understanding of long term economics or, perhaps more optimistically, an insulting level of the assumption of the misunderstanding of that topic by both political parties.  At any rate, almost nothing about the topic of job flight to other nations is correctly stated, and the vague solutions proposed by both parties operate with a deficit of understanding on that topic.

So, what is the truth of the topic?  And what are the solutions, if any?  And do we even really want solutions?

Well, to start off with, lets put this in a historical framework. The often repeated claims that the sitting President is wholly responsible for job flight fails to acknowledge that this trend isn't recent, and isn't even close to being recent.  It basically started in the 1950s, and in a way that's significant to the current debate.

Prior to the 1950s, the United States was a rising manufacturing power, even in spite of the Great Depression which put a damper on it.  By World War One US manufacturing capacity was so vast that the United States could legitimately make the claim of being the Arsenal of Democracy.  Starting off with an arms deficit, which it really never made up during the war, the US was nonetheless exporting arms to the Allied Powers during the war. During World War Two this became so much the case that the US manufacturing capacity dwarfed that of any other belligerent.  The war itself left the United States the only really intact manufacturing power, which was responsible in large part for the happy times of American manufacturing of the 1950s and 1960s.
World War One vintage poster.

Missed in all that, however, is that the US made a lot of cheap junk up into the 1940s. Sure, we made piles of great stuff, but we made piles of cheap junk too. We made it all.  But after the war, the cheap junk manufacturing sector moved overseas.  More specifically, it moved to Japan.

From the late 1940s through the mid 1960s, Japan was associated with bad junk.  "Made In Japan" was a joke for really lousy trinket material, but in fairness this was stuff that we'd once made here in the United States.  How did that occur?

Well, after Europe was bombed into rubble during World War Two, it really had a diminished manufacturing capacity. We had a vast one, as our factories had expanded during the war.  That left us making most of the nifty stuff that we had formerly competed with Europe to make.  Not all, of course, but most.  In turn, we no longer needed or wanted the really poor paying cheap manufacturing jobs we once did.  And, Americans coming out of the war no longer wanted to work those jobs anyhow.  So they went to the more desperate, the Japanese, who had a much more primitive economy going into the war, and whose economy had been destroyed by the war. They need the jobs and were happy to take them.
 Rural poor in post war Japan, photograph by my father, circa 1954.

Of course, the Japanese were not ignorant as to much more advanced manufacturing, as World War Two had proven, and in the natural order of things, they began to rebuild the economy of Japan and its manufacturing abilities.  By the 1960s they were making automobiles, motorcycles, camera equipment, and airplanes that rivaled any we were making. We didn't notice this, however, until the 1970s, when our own economy began to really suffer.

The news and commentary from the 1970s sounded a lot like that now, except that Japan filled in for China in these regards.  With the gas crisis of the 1970s coming in, Americans began to turn towards Japanese cars which were well made and fuel efficient.  Soon thereafter, it seemed everything was made in Japan.  We began to loose sections of the global economy we'd once dominated, and we've never regained our prior footing. We never will either.

But, things being what they are, the predictions that the Japanese would dominate the global economy, and even re-militarize, turned out to be completely false.  By the 1980s  the Japanese had shot their economic bolt.  Basically regaining 40 lost years of economic advancement, they caught up with us, and then joined in with our problems.  The Japanese no longer manufactured cheap junk, but quality items.  The cheap junk section of the economy had moved to the Asian mainland.  It's still there. But. . . a lot of good stuff is coming out of Asia also, which probably means. . . .

Anyhow, what this meant is that a lot of our good manufacturing jobs were competing by the 1970s with the same sectors in Japan. And both the Japanese and the American companies that occupied these positions were not shy about moving manufacturing around to attempt to compete.  This began to accelerate in the 1980s.

Added to that, in the 1980s the United States, Canada and Mexico entered into the North American Free Trade treaty, which operated to cause all three North American nations to be one big free trade zone.  The reasons for entering into this are varied, but frankly some of them were never really well publicized in the first place.  As to Canada and the United States, the union made a great deal of sense, as Canada and the US were one single market anyway. But in the case of Mexico this was simply not true.  Mexico still had a lot of state control over sections of its economy, and a large section of the Mexican population was desperately poor.  It was this last item that formed part of the unspoken American basis for entering into the treaty.

By the 1970s the US was experiencing a major influx of illegal immigration from Mexico.  Illegal entrants came up seeking work that paid better than the very low wages they received in Mexico, or in some cases just to find work at all.  NAFTA had the unspoken hope that it would cause the lower paid manufacturing jobs of the US and Canada to emigrate to Mexico and provide some work for Mexicans, which, it was hoped, would in turn result in a boosted Mexican economy long term, as with the earlier example of Japan.  This meant, frankly, that US jobs would go to Mexico, which we knew, but we were okay with at the time.  Or, rather, the policy makers were okay with it.  And indeed, it might have worked.  For the first time in its history the majority of Mexicans are in the middle class now, a real achievement.  And illegal immigration is slowing down.

All that (i.e., NAFTA) may be fine, but it also is based on a set of fairly false assumptions, in so far as it pertains to the workforce in the United States.  The first of those is that these jobs are ones we either do not want, or that Americans will not do.  There's ample evidence that Americans will do about any job, and indeed just as these types of jobs are entry level jobs for entire economies, they also may remain entry level jobs for many Americans in depressed areas.  Rather, what the truth of the matter is that Americans either will not, or economically cannot, do many of these jobs for the wages employers are willing to pay.

That Americans will work some fairly rough jobs, and low paying jobs, is more than amply demonstrated. There are entire classes of employment which pay relatively low, but for which a person can still get by, and which are sought after.  Being in agriculture, I've noted that cowboy is one such job.  I've seen quite a few city kids become so enamored with it that they make it a career, even though it pays very little, and there's almost now way to become the owner of the agricultural unit yourself. After a few years you'd think these kids were born on ranches, but they were not, and had no exposure to it at all until they were in their teens.  Many other outdoor jobs, such as Park Ranger, Game Warden, Forest Ranger, fit into the same category, as they pay very little, but those who work the jobs love them.  Some other jobs, such as teacher, and writer, are similar in these regards.

And Americans will definitely do very hard work if it pays.  In this region, hundreds of men are employed on drilling rigs in conditions that involve long hours and dirty hard work.  It pays very well, however, so they do it.

What this means is that Americans will do almost any job, either out of love for the job, or money, but they frankly can't work for the very low levels that the exported jobs entail.  That brings us back to the main topic.

Contrary to what the Republicans claim, American corporate tax policy is not going to have any effect on the exportation of American jobs overseas.  None.;  And, contrary to what the Democrats seem to think, businesses do not export jobs overseas for jollies or because they're unpatriotic.  It's completely caused by another topic.

Wages and benefits.  That's what causes it.

All manufacturing today is in a global economy, and therefore every worker everywhere is competing against every other one. And every business is competing against every other business.  A shop making t-shirts in Bangor Maine is competing against those in Bangladesh.  That's the reality of it.  Tax rates are drop in the bucket in this context.  And business often have very little option other than to go overseas or die.

So, that being the case, what can we really do to keep jobs here?  And do we really want to.

Answering the second question first, I'd say yes, but we must first concede that many economist argue the opposite.  That is, certain economist have argued that a country shouldn't strive to keep the really low level manufacturing jobs (or agricultural jobs for that matter), and that an advanced economy cannot.

I don't agree with that, but beyond simply not agreeing with it, I'd note that the American economy is not as advanced as we like to think. Entire demographic sectors of the American population have never participated in the greater economy, and these are effectively our own third work pockets, I'm sorry to say.  Until these sections of the nation have actually risen out of poverty, we remain in the situation of needing the same type of jobs that are going to China presently.  So, at least from my point of view, such jobs are necessary.

And, in our modern age, such jobs have proven to be an amazingly rapid path to technological innovation. As things become more and more technological, anything now made has the ability to create a leap of some sort.  In some ways, there is no more cheap junk.  The trinket maker of today is working in advanced manufacturing tomorrow.  Lose any job, and you lose the ability to innovate.

So what can we do. Are the Republicans correct that adjusting the corporate tax rates will bring jobs back home?  No.  Are the Democrats correct that business men are just big meanies?  No.  What would have to be done is to basically level the playing field as to wages paid to the employees of our primary global competitors.  And that can't be done in a punitive way, which would do little other than to spark some sort of tariff war (which would be a risk of my suggestion below in any event), a move which has always proven to be destructive to the global economy in the past.

Basically, therefore, what you have to do is look at the wage rates and benefits paid to foreign workers, and see what they are and why.  If the minimum wage in the United States is $7.25/hour, and it is, and foreign competitors are paying their employees $1.00 day, that's an advantage that foreign workplace has against the American workplace that has to be taken into account.  Likewise, if a certain type of job in the US, due to unions or custom, comes with certain benefits that effectively boost what the employee makes in real terms, on an hourly basis, that has to be taken into account.  And if there are laws that really impact the cost of an item, such as workplace safety or environmental laws, that should be taken into account. And that can be taken into account in the form of a tariff seeking to simply level the playing field.

So, by way of an example, if a U.S. manufacture finds that raw price of a widget's materials is $5.00, but the cost of labor and law compliance adds $10.00 to it in the US, but only $1.00 to it in China, what we have is a $9.00 difference based solely on external fictional factors. So, taxing the widget $9.00 levels the playing field.  If there are other advantages to manufacturing in China after that, whatever they would be, they still will.  If they will not, they won't.  And if there is an advantage to manufacturing in China, the tariff rate would mean that the Chinese might as well pay their workers a decent rate by Western standards or be taxed, and that they might as well have environmental and labor provisions that are the equivalent of ours, as they'd be paying for them anyhow.

That's the solution as I see it.  Of course, the problem with this solution is that it would take an enormous bureaucracy to puzzle the tax rates out.  I suppose that could be funded by the tariff itself, but that wouldn't be easy. Still, maybe it would be a better solution that claiming that the corporate tax rate or mean businessmen are to blame.  It wouldn't be perfect, and it would have the unfortunate result of perhaps punishing poor foreign workers who need their jobs, but might lose them.  However, at least discussing it in this context might be productive in and of itself, so that the real cause and effect of things is looked at, rather than simple reductions that don't really reflect the realities of the situation.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Some Gave All: Bighorn Mountain Sheep Trailing, Wyoming

Some Gave All: Bighorn Mountain Sheep Trailing, Wyoming:





This may seem like an odd one to add here, but it does commemorate, in part, the dead  of a war, albeit a private war. This Federal monument commemorates the Wyoming sheep industry, now a mere shadow of its former self.  In its early days, the hill behind what is displayed here was the "Deadline", literally the line which sheepmen were not to cross, according to cattlemen, lest they end up dead.

The monument itself recalls a "Sheepherders Monument", a type of rock cairn that sheepherders once used to mark trails, and which are still very common in Wyoming.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Today In Wyoming's History: June 21. Wyoming in Advertising.

Today In Wyoming's History: June 21: Today is the Summer Solstice and the first day of Summer, except in leap years, when it occurs the day prior. 1834     Cyrus Hall McCormic...

1923   This advertisement first ran in the Saturday Evening Post:


The advertisement is the most famous car ad of all time and the ad itself revolutionized advertising.  Based on the recollection of the Jordan Motor Car Company's founder in seeing a striking mounted girl outside of Laramie, while he was traveling by train, the advertisement is all image, revealing next to nothing about the actual product.  While the Jordan Motor Car Company did not survive the Great Depression, the revolution in advertising was permanent.