Reading Notes A Week 6

Reading A, Week 6

Josiah Royce

• 1855-1916
• Received PhD from Johns Hopkins University at 23 
• taught at UC Berkeley 1879-1882
• Among the first historians in California to examine both national and state history from 1846-1856 
• exposed deceit and betrayal in the founding of California
• controversial a he suggested the betrayal of Californians revealed cultural weaknesses and threatened future development

From California: A Study of American Character

• "In the strict sense, we Americans have seldom been conquerors; and early California shows us our nation in this somewhat rare character (279)."
• "The prejudices, the enmities, and the mistakes of that unhappy time bore rich fruit in the sequel, determining to a great extent the future relations of the new comers and the natives; and these relations in their turn determined, in no small degree, both the happiness and the moral welfare of the new comers themselves (280)."
• real motives and methods of an undertaking hidden from the public
• "the slow and steady growth of the American settlements in California was not the result of any definite plot a\on the part of our government (281)."
• The struggle for order: self-government, good humor and violence in the mines:
• proclamation of sovereign state the beginning of real social battle
• struggle for order
• The Philosophy of California History during the Golden Days
• two misconceptions of 1848-1856 that there was no struggle and there was no order
• two extreme views:"the pioneer can remember little but the ardor, the high aims, the generosity, the honor, and the food order of the Californian community...On the other hand, however, another equally boastful memory revels in scenes of sanguinary freedom, of lawless popular frenzy, of fraud, of drunkenness, of gaming, and of ardor(293)." -nothing pure
• "...for every man without exception is born to the illusion that the moral world is his oyster (283)."
• men looking for freedom, ended up in poverty, disappointment or death
• New comers were homeless, looking for wealth not orders.  Second tendency blamed people who were foreign because they would not conform to American customs

William Naun Ricks 1876-?

• born in Virginia, great grandfather Indian and African heritage
• 1898 enlisted in 24th infantry held United States medal for service in Philippines
• Founded Men's Forum Club in LA
• 1906 Oakland served on the executive board for NAACP
• "the coming night" written in 1913

Edwin Markham 1852-1940

• "The Man with the Hoe" made him famous and secured his place in literary history
• 1899, published poem gained support and controversy for pitting farmers against greedy corporations
• Condemned for socialist views and praised for idealistic view of workers
• Known as "the Placerville Schoolmaster"
• poems had been published in over 40 languages and thousands of magazines and newspapers worldwide before his death

"The Man with the Hoe"

• "bowed by the weight of centuries he leans...the emptiness of ages in his face, and on his back, the burden of the world (294). "

The Sower 

• written after seeing Millet's painting with this title
• "the grief of the ground is in him, yet the power of Earth to hide the furrow with flower."