Hello yet again, fellow people of WIHI. I have come up with a name for us. What do you guys think of "WIHIians?" Its the best I can think of. WIHIaganders? Maybe just WIHIins? WIHIs? I'm kind of bad at making names. By the way, if this does not make sense to you, just read the beginning of my last post. Much like last time I am getting very off topic. I think its because of Billy Budd, as Melville often went off topic. Luckily we have finished reading Billy Budd and as I have finished with my paper, I no longer have to think about it. Instead we have started to read the Great Gatsby, which takes place during the nineteen twenties. This also happens to be a time period very close to the one which we are studding in American Studies. Personally, I really enjoy it when this kind of a thing happens as it gives me even more of a chance to apply my knowledge across many different subjects. This helps me remember things and learn.
        The way in which the subjects connect relates to the differences in what we learned. In American Studies, we learn history from a broader perspective as we have a larger time period to cover. In American Literature, we have the ability to focus on a small group of people, in a specific class, in a specific area. This allows us to use the broader historical data, and find its effect on that certain group of people.
       Unfortunately, we are not quite at that point in either class right now as we only just started to read the Great Gatsby, and we have not manged to reach the twenties in American Studies, this only means that when we do reach that point, we will have more data to work with. A am very excited to reach this point.
       As we have not yet reached the twenties, we have spent a lot of time talking about monopolies and large businesses. One of these businesses is Standard Oil, which caused a lot of controversy as it used its vast power to get the government to do what it wanted. It is amazing how long the Oil industry seems to have caused disagreement in politics. The railroad company is another company that caused a lot of controversy as it assisted Standard Oil. They even caused controversy in the nineteen twenties as they had to shut down almost all the travel and shipping across the United States when their workers went on strike. The strike interfered with so many other businesses that the United States government had to send a militia to break it up. This ended in bloodshed and sent both the company and its workers scrambling for a compromise. I believe that there have been bad strikes since then, but I do not think that any were quite as bad. I hope not. Hopefully there is never a strike that ends with so much bloodshed ever again.