Final Post

Hello Everyone,

As the semester winds down and everyone treks to the library or coffee shop to partake in the harsh reality that finals are approaching I am going to consider this my final blog.  The main focus of this final post is to take time and reflect on this semester.

To start, I would like to thank everyone in the class for their words of encouragement as we worked on our papers.  I would also like to thank Micalee for dedicating this class to the study of labor history, a subject I knew very little about before entering this class.  After several months of research I am excited to finish my paper that culminates all of my research and ideas.  This class not only taught me labor history, but how to study history through various perspectives.  This class will help me as I pursue my history degree in a way that no other history class has.

Thank you to everyone and good luck on finishing your papers!

Luke

Themes in Labor History

Now that I have outlined a thesis that I think will be more useful to my argument I am trying to fit the books that we read in class into my paper.  The one book that is easiest to incorporate is Lisa Fine's The Story of Reo Joe.  I referenced Ransom Olds in my rough draft but would like to go more in depth in my final paper.  The theme that resonates throughout the book was Olds wish to create a white, male, protestant workforce.  He used the notion of welfare capitalism or corporate paternalism to create this workforce.  Though my research focuses on corporate paternalism the corporation's I focus on did not want the end to result in a specific workforce.  Rather, it was used to combat the radical tendencies of its employees, especially the Finnish community. The other two books are going to be a little more difficult to incorporate but I think as I will look more into it I will be able to fit it in somewhere.

See everyone tomorrow and I look forward to listening to every one's presentations.

Continue Writing

So...I am now starting to go over my paper in detail and make some changes.  Although I did pretty well on my rough draft, there are still a few area's that I need to pay more attention.  One area is the thesis.  My thesis, just as everyone else, is the focal point of the paper.  The problem with mine is that I have to make it a little more direct because right now I don't have a strong argument. This should be a fun night of writing!

Miike Coal Strike

This week I came upon the Miike Coal Strike in my East Asian history class.  This seemed very interesting while reading it in the textbook so I decided to do further research on it.  This was a strike that took place in Japan after the country decided to switch from coal energy to oil.  This particular strike garnered the attention of the whole country as thousands took place in support of the miners.  The theme of this strike also relates quite closely to the themes discussed in our class throughout this semester.

I also wanted to state that everyone who gave their presentations on Thursday did a great job!

See everyone on Tuesday!

Presentation

Along with everyone else I am working on my presentation.  For this I will be using a PowerPoint slide as a visual aid.  I like using a PowerPoint but don't want the presentation to result in me simply reading off of the projector so I will only be putting pictures and simple quotes on each slide.  This, I hope, will be more enjoyable for everyone to listen to and for me to give.

For the structure of my presentation I will present the information that I have researched along with my overall argument. I also want to devote a portion of it to the readings we did in class and how they are related to my specific topic.  This is something that I didn't go into great detail in my paper so hopefully what I come up with for my presentation will prove useful in my paper as well.

See everyone tomorrow!