UNIT ONE - Personalities - Mrs. Astor

Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor was born on September 22, 1830 in New York City. She was born into the city's Dutch aristocracy, related to the city's original settlers. She was raised in lower Manhattan until she was ten years old when her family moved to the then-fashionable Lafayette Place which was developed by her future father-in-law, William Backhouse Astor Sr. She married his son, William Backhouse Astor Jr. in 1854.

Although she was seen as a being preoccupied by the high society for her whole life, Mrs. Astor was busy raising her children and keeping house for the first few decades of her life. The family moved into a four-bay townhouse built by her husband in 1862 at 350 Fifth Avenue, the present location of the Empire State building, right beside her husband's brother even though the brothers never got along.

After the Civil War, New York seen a very large population growth and the immigrants and people moving from the Midwest challenged Mrs. Astor's "grand dame" of New York's high society. This sparked "Lina" to set and maintain the rule of social behaviour and etiquette. This outline was once used by the city to determine who from the Midwest were acceptable. It was said that among the rich families of New York there were only 400 people who could be counted as members of Fashionable Society. This was set by the limitations of Lina's New York City ballroom.

Mrs. Astor died on October 30, 1908 at the age of 78. During the last years of her life she suffered from periodic dementia. She was buried in the Trinity Church Cemetery in upper Manhattan. Her 39 foot tall cenotaph dominates the churchyard where many of the prominent early Americans are buried.

I think Mrs. Astor was an important person just not as important as everyone makes her out to be. I don't think that if I married a rich man in real estate I would be put in charge of the high society. She did shape what is expected of the rich and set the standard for "keeping up with the Joneses". But this can also be taken in a negative way and led to the conspicuous consumption and the unnecessary lifestyles of today's rich. It all depends on the way you look at things.

Reflection of Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times"

How does Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times" satirize life at the turn of century?

In the beginning of the movie "Modern Times" people are portrayed as sheep. It's just to show how we are treated like a herd of animals when it comes to the work world. Then it starts up and mocks the assembly line. Everything is put into high speed and making people work quicker. It is related to the idea of Taylorism because the whole idea is to get things done quicker and more efficiently. It also makes fun of the fact that in Taylorism everything is monitored closely by the boss and in the movie the boss has cameras everywhere including the bathroom. The cameras in the bathroom play with the fact that the assembly lines and work places were very dehumanizing at the turn of the century. There was a lack of privacy and no time for a short break. Charlie Chaplin's character worked tightening bolts in the assembly line. When he would walk away he would have the twiches and continued doing the tightening motions. The work was machine like in the fact that it was repeative and you did noting else. Workers also had very little rights and to push those rights was wrong even if you didn't realize you were pushing them like in the strike scene in the movie.

Overall the movie is highly dramaticized but true in my mind. I think workers were treated unfairly and somethings were just unrelevant to what needed to be done like the automatic feeding machines even though we all know those weren't real and the lack of break times.

UNIT ONE - Ideas - Taylorism

Taylorism is a method of work management used to improve productivity. It is also known as scientific management or the classical perspective. This idea was first coined by Frederick Winslow Taylor in his "The Principles of Scientific Management". He believed that decisions based on rules of thumb and tradition should be replaced by procedures developed after studying an individual.

Taylorism used a standard method to preforming each task at hand and select workers were chosen based on their abilities to preform each job after training. Work was planned and therefore eliminated interruptions. This style of work management allowed improvement. Everything was recorded and by doing this the employer could fine a more efficient way of work. Employers followed rules and procedures to enable predictable and reliable behaviour. It also started the importance of selection and training for individual jobs. The selection of employees were based on the individuals competence, training and/or experience. Taylorism helped define authority officially and hierarchy under a higher authority began.

I think Taylorism is good idea. It helped the progress in the workplace and lead to a more official and formal way of doing things. Without Taylorism things would take longer and employers would lose money paying people for wasted time.

UNIT ONE - Inventions - Windshield Wipers

The windshield wiper is an invention that you don't normally think about. Think about if your car didn't have windshield wipers. That wouldn't be too great, now would it?

In November of 1903 Mary Anderson patent the first windshield wiper. Her invention was able to clean snow, rain or sleet from the windshield using a handle inside your car. She thought up this invention when she visited New York City and noticed that the street car drivers had to open the windows to see. The first windshield wiper was a swinging arm with a rubber blade that could be operated from the inside. It became standard on all American cars by 1916. The first automatic windshield wiper was patented in 1917 by Charlotte Bridgewood as the "Storm Windshield Cleaner" but the product was not successful.

Now that people can see out of the window of their car will driving in the rain or snow we are able to travel whenever we wish. Travelling was important around the time of it's patent due to the progress and development of North America. With out out this, travel was a hassle.

I think the windshield wiper was an amazing invention. It may not have to been as a big a deal as the car itself but without them the car wouldn't be as convenient. Opening windows while driving down the highway so I could see out is not something that appeals to me, personally. Can you picture the inside of your car after going out to the other side of the city in the rain? This means the invention also saved us money on car repairs due to water damage.

What wonderful invention, the windshield wiper!

Why is studying the 20th century important?

History is an important part of human life because of the experience we gain by studying and learning from our mistakes. We can better ourselves by observing what worked in the past. We are able to take the ideas and run with them, changing ideas to make them suit our fast paced life and fix the mistakes made originally. We learn about our heritage and our own culture. It is important so that we don't allow ourselves to become Americanized or dominated by other countries. We are able to become our own individuals with a sense of our background.