Most Significant Groups in US History

[Gabe S.]

Perhaps many of you missed my posts, perhaps you didnt, but here they are again just in case.

My group is the modernists. Their movement, modernism, can be defined as a trend which affirms the power of human beings to make, improve and reshape their surrounding environment with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology, practical experimentation, and self-driven innovation. Theoretically, the modernist movement strives to continually better the world and its inhabitants. This is the concept side of it. The actual movement that gave the concept a name and foundation probably originated in the late 19th century in Europe through the writings of some famous French people like Baudelaire and some new ideas by a guy named Karl Marx. These progressive thinkers and writers helped catalyze the spread of this movement, which eventually ingrained itself deep in the history of the US during the 20th century.
Modernism flourished under America's free, fast-paced and growing society manifesting itself in up-and-coming writers, musicians, and scientists. Modernism's new political thinkers and contention with religion also spurred its growth as an overlying concept.

[Gabe S.]

I would like to tell a little about the various areas in which modernism played a role.

In terms of American literature and poetry, the modernist movement produced names like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ezra Pound. If you've never read any of these mens' books or poetry, thats alright. I guarantee that in the next few years, you will. These men have produced classics that broke with the traditional 19th century way of writing, and that will last forever.

In the subject of art, names like Georgia O'Keeffe and Jackson Pollack were created because of the modernist style that they used in their artwork. They fused together intense emotion with a new expressive style of painting that is not limited to its interpretation, just like the movement it is derived from. Today, these artists' paintings sell for millions and are priceless to many.

Musically, modernism produced jazz because it melds together the intricacies of classical music and West African beats with a pure self-interpretation of the song, known as improvisation. Some of the most famous names in the 20the century that were a result of jazz were Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. These men were some of the first to shake the traditional American culture, which would eventually be swept away by further musical reforms such as rock n' roll. These were all byproducts the overlying modernist aura in the US.
But modernism's effects do not stop at the arts. The aspect of it that continually pushes for a higher level of achievement led to breakthroughs in the sciences. Albert Einstein's theory of relativity and the most known equation in the US, E=mc^2, pushed the imagination of Americans far into space, while back on earth, The Wright Brothers and Henry Ford presented the airplane and Model T. Inventions like the plane and car were the beginnings of a social, policial, and economic stride that eventually landed Neil Armstrong on the moon. This is all part of the concept of modernism that always pushes for our expansion in science, in society, in the arts and eventually to the corners of the universe.

[Gabe S.]

In this last post I wish to talk about modernism's effect on other movements.
As it might seem, the modernist movement was more of a concept that reflects a period of time starting in late 19th century through today. Because it is more of a concept, it works its way into many other groups like musicians, writers, communists, and industrialists. It even confronts religion through its promotion of science and reason, and so in all, it simply reaches into many other subjects and groups.
But it is important to understand that this is exactly what modernism is about. It is a social concept that as a result of creating a progressive attitude within a people or nation, it has stretched into every aspect of life that the people work with and deal with in life. One should not think that there were only modernists in the world in the past century, but rather that all groups that encompassed progressive measures, mainly in the 20th century, were embracing modernist ideas.
Either way, the modernists have brought the United States through one of the toughest centuries in history and have led the US to become the current supreme power in the world.

I hope I've made my group as clear as possibe. Please ask any questions you have, and I'll try my best to answer them.

[Samuel C.]

So I haven't completely formulated what i wish to write about and i haven't had the chance to read what everyone wrote, but i have formulated some things i believe will help shape my outpaper

A Top Ten Group Should Include:
Impact in proportion to size (we’ve only had 43 presidents, but they play a huge part)
Active to make an impact (suffragists were active, cowboys were passive about being remembered)
Clear agenda (either an agenda as a group such as party platforms or each individual president standing for something)
Impact not necessarily felt today, but continued after movement (nullifiers on the civil war)

[grandpoobah]

Thread closed. No further discussion will be counted toward grading. Over 1100 posts on fifty eight pages viewed nearly ten thousand times. Not bad. I dunno. Maybe next time I micromanage a bit more for the sake of organization. Monday is for info posts, Tuesday is for questions, Wednesday is for responses. Not sure. While challenging and hectic, you can't argue with results. There's a lot of good work here. To the extent people felt lost it was generally because they didn't participate regularly. I came here for about 40 minutes a day for five days and I've read all your posts multiple times. You get lost when you show up for the first time on Thursday and have fifty pages of catching up to do. In the end, that's life...you want to do things at the last minute you pay for it. That said, anyone with a concrete suggestion for changing this, you have my ear.

One thing I read was perhaps switching to threads. I thought about that and I'll tell you why I stayed away from it. It was too easy to not read what anyone wrote. This way, you had to be sure to answer questions asked by others and the only way you knew when they asked you a question was by reading. I thought that was key.

The things that I was especially pleased with were the quality of some of your arguments, the depth of the questions and in some cases the answers, the fact that you for the most part policed yourselves on matters of accuracy and etiquette and most of all the participation. I don't have final numbers yet, but a minimum of fifty of the 78 students in the course posted more than the required number of times. Only a handful of people will not receive A's for this assignment. Think about it, if as a group you guys had mailed it in, there would have only been 702 posts on this thread. That's a far cry from the eleven hundred plus we ended up with. Nice work.

[Caitlin W.]

i think next year....this should be done as "least significant groups" or "most useless groups" or "biggest failure groups"justcuz that's a lil more fun

[Jason Y]

I also think posting should be limited so they don't experience the anger from their peers that I did for posting so many times. hehe

[grandpoobah]

Caitlin,

You want to freak out? I could use the same exact list and people would be able to argue for and against each one just as easily. History is spooky.

[Michel'le F.]

can we pick a group for our outpaper if it wasnt posted about.. like the person who it was assigned to didnt do it.. but they were still significant???

[grandpoobah]

Sure

[michaelg]

I am posting because I want to have the final word and therefore, win any debate I had with anyone here.

[Robbie U.]

Well, then it sucks you don't have the final word, doesn't it?

[Alex G.]

really does.

[williama]

WOw

[williama]

This thread is sinister

[michaelg]

I can go all weekend. I get the final word.

[grandpoobah]

nyet