Learning something new...from Doctor Who?

[acroyear]

In high school American History, even for an AP class, a LOT was left out.  I knew about the depression, I thought.

I knew about the crash.

I knew about the general starvation.

I knew about the 1-2 punch of the dustbowl in Kansas compounding things.

I knew about the election of FDR, the New Deal, the alphabet soup of acronyms that hadn't been topped 'til Reagan.

I knew about how the "9 old men" of the Supreme Court (then all appointed by Republicans) had shot down half the new deal as unconstitutional (and rightly so in a number of cases).

I knew about how the road to recovery faltered in '38 with the loss of some of those programs and the coming tensions in the European market.

I knew about how the war led to the recovery.

But I didn't know and had never heard of Hooverville before, especially not one in the middle of Central Park.

Doctor Who taught me something this week.  Shame the Brits know more about our own history than we teach our own kids...

Comments

[eac.livejournal.com]

Shame the Brits know more about our own history than we teach our own kids...

Oh, c'mon. All you know from this is that the writer who wrote the ep knew about Hooverville.

I didn't know the shantytowns were called Hoovervilles, but I knew they were there.

[thatwasjen]

You mean you've never seen Annie? The characters who sing "We'd Like To Thank You Herbert Hoover" are called the Hooverville-ites.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

That's what I was thinking - the minute we saw that sign my mental soundtrack started "We'd like to thank you, Herbert..."

I must admit, I knew about Hoovervilles in general, but I didn't know that there was one in Central Park, although reason suggests that it would be the best place for one.

What I found educational was the bitching about the lack of racism in that episode on someone's journal and in the comments someone else linked to historical records of a mixed-race Hooverville that did have a black sheriff.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

although reason suggests that it would be the best place for one.

Actually, to me, reason suggests it would be the first place they'd start looking to kick homeless people out, as they do today.

But i didn't really dig that deep into Annie. To be perfectly frank, I couldn't stand it and still can't. Just not my kind of thing.

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

Considering the size of Central Park and the amount of people involved, that's just asking for trouble.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

of course it is, but so were many of the other (non-)worker vs police incidents over the entire 50-70 years leading up to the depression. why would this have been any different?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but it's hard to kick someone out of so much space; the determined could turn it into a long-running game of tag.

I don't know how hard anyone tried to break up the Hoovervilles, though.

[wench18.livejournal.com]

My History (Social Studies) teacher in High School went over Hoovervilles. I had barely remembered it ... but now I have a vivid recollection of Mr. McDonald going on about them ... and begging us to be adults that pay attention to ALL ramifications of government measures.

I wonder what he's thinking about our current issues?

[greendalek.livejournal.com]

I had studied about the Hooverville in Wash., DC during the summer of the Bonus Marchers (now THAT was truly a disgrace), but I too had not known of the big one in Central Park. Unsurprised to learn of it, though.

Reminds me of a French family that stayed with us for a couple of weeks --we conducted them on a tour of Boston and environs, and I remember being stunned that they all --even the nine year-old-- knew MANY more details about the American Revolution than I or anyone in my family did.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

well, the revolution and colonial times isn't a problem for me - my mother and grandmother are DAR and on their side we can trace completely to the Mayflower. Summers of '80 and '83 we drove up and down the coastline, hitting Williamsburg/Jamestown/Yorktown, Philly, Boston, etc. We avoided DC so really the first I got to see of here was when we moved here in '84. Go fig.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

my mother and grandmother are DAR

Did they enjoy it? I mean, did they find membership worthwhile? I qualify, but have never made up my mind if it was worth the effort of applying.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

back in the 60s and 70s more than today. now, grandma's been gone for 9 years and mom's got other things to do.

[sestree.livejournal.com]

I had to learn about most of that in Economic History in college - including Hooverville and I'm from Kansas.

I'll say it again - our education system is woefully lacking. Please never ask me about The War of 1812 because apparently I missed that in high school.

[rsteachout.livejournal.com]

Wait....we had a war in 1812???

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

yeah, we lost, only nobody noticed that and gave us credit for the win anyways. pretty crazy, 'eh?

later on we decided not to stop fighting and win the damn thing anyways.

wars are weird that way.

[sestree.livejournal.com]

Well since it didn't have a direct economic impact on the 20th century my econ history class didn't cover it.

See - Economics is good for something LOL

[mandrakan.livejournal.com]

Call it a draw, eh?

It's not like Canada ever tried that again.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Revolt from England, Part Deux. The English set the White House on fire (rumor has it that a later President sent the bill for repairs to the king).

Ever hear the song "The Battle of New Orleans"? That's about our one big "victory," which took place after the peace talks.

[thatwasjen]

Thanks, I'll have that silly song stuck in my head all day. ("Mississip." Feh.)

[rsteachout.livejournal.com]

[headdesk] *sigh*
It was a joke. Really. I was a kid when the song was new ("We fired our guns, the British kept a-comin', there wasn't nie as many as there was a while before...")

[queenmaggie.livejournal.com]

Dangit, now it's in my head too.

And I remember studying hoovervilles... and seeing a recreation of one during a protest in Harvard Yard, as I passed through...

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Sorry, hard to tell online. There are a heck of a lot of people who seriously don't know about the war; I think they think that song is about the Revolution.

[mandrakan.livejournal.com]

Sure we did. They wrote an overture about it.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

uh-huh. I'm actually pretty sure Tchaikovsky is extremely ticked off at how we coopted that one away from Napoleon.

[scaleslea.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was your school? My Social Studies classes covered Hoovervilles.

Doc

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

maybe it wasn't necessary to pass an AP History test, where-as actually knowing what FDR did about the depression was.

AP history classes tend to give rats asses about cultural factors like that.

[blueeowyn.livejournal.com]

Next year, offer to judge a History Fair. While some projects are a bit light (and too many of them use too many websites that are hard for judges to evaluate the validity of); it gives you a new insight into history and its human ramifications and gives me hope for todays kids.

Heck, come to nationals. I post about it every now and again. Free (except for parking), open to the public (docs & perf) and fascinating.