I, like most high school students, have been taking a U.S. history class for numerous semesters this year. I, also like most high school students, must research a topic that interests me, at least in an academic context. I find that one of the central themes of this class is to establish connections between central themes of events during the history of your relatively new nation. I will investigate central themes such as the development of society and culture as relates to the ideas of our founding fathers, as well as the effects of industrialization and urbanization. I will, to my best ability, attempt to make this topic interesting, through both visual aids and dry humor scattered throughout my amateurish interpretations of the texts and given materials of study.
Numerous topics had called for my attention while I gave a cursory glance over the topic list. Namely among them was that of Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance. I dare claim to be an avid connoisseur of literature, especially that which relates to an important historical event. The Harlem Renaissance describes a time that begun in the 1910s, in which African Americans underwent an important cultural revolution in cities such as Chicago, New York, and Cleveland. They composed important works of music and theater, such as Torrence's Three Plays for a Negro Theater attempted to produce awareness of racism and prevent segregative ideals that were prevalent in society between the 1910 and 1920 era. The writer Langston Hughes was a revolutionary of the Harlem Renaissance, producing novels, poems, and plays during his lifetime. He utilized the new technique of "jazz poetry" to add a modern and innovative style to his works. "Jazz poetry" describes a style of prose that not only references jazz musicians and compositions, but also is written with a rhythm similar to that heard in the aforementioned music. I am interested in researching both the Harlem Renaissance and the works of Langston Hughes because not only am I interested in the music and liberal arts revolution in America, but also I find the advancement and development of black rights an engaging and pertinent topic, due to cultural situations such as terrorism and segregation that are still prevalent today.
Many Jews immigrated in the early 1900s to places such as New York, where they gained jobs in business and banking, earning stereotypes as money lenders among other Americans. There were 270 synagogues in the USA by 1880, due to the mass movement of Jewish people from pogroms in Eastern Europe. A particular aspect of this topic that interested me was that of literature among Jewish communities in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Most of these books and literary works were written in Yiddish, the language that is an amalgamation of Hebrew and German, used colloquially among Jewish communities. Chaim Potok was a renowned author who I will be interested in further researching. Early Jewish culture is also an intriguing aspect of this historical era.
Though I am still undecided about which topic I will choose, I will continue to research each of them until I have come to a decision about which interests me more. I am exceedingly inspired to continue this project, and am looking forward to furthering my knowledge on the topic I choose for this assignment.
