History of American Capitalisms

This week we have focused on the materiality of historical change; i.e., how American life changed.  In any given historical moment, various kinds of people can notice some of the changes occurring around them, yet also not notice many.  They might think of themselves as agents or as victims of the historical change that they do manage to notice and at least strive to understand, within their limited horizons, and within their limited perceptiveness.

“They” are your people — the people you wrote about in your research projects.  They all sought to change something in the world around them, which you carefully focused on, but at the same time they were also surrounded by many changes embedded in the swirl of everyday life.

The Wylie House Museum will put us in the material swirl of everyday household life for a relatively comfortable family in the year 1835.  That will hopefully help you appreciate at least one part of the complexity of everyday life, so that you can think of “your” people as real people in real lives, alongside whatever conscious efforts they made to change something in the world.  They were not single-minded machines; they were complex people leading everyday lives, in families, in households, in communities.

You too are not a machine.  Whatever you are striving to do and whatever you will strive to do in the world, you too are always at the same time embedded in the swirl of everyday life.

That is the human dimension of the past and of the present.  So, when you write about history, remember that you are writing about human beings:  about flesh and blood; about blood, sweat, and tears.

1.  Does visiting an empty historic house on display as a museum help you imagine life in the past?

2.  What surprised you about Bloomington life of a very comfortable family in 1835?

3.  What struck you as very different from your life in the present?

4.  What struck you as not so different?

5.  What if, let’s say 100 years now, your family home was lovingly reconstructed and renovated to appear just as it is now, and displayed as a historic home for people in the future?  What do you think tourists would notice, and be surprised by?  How would it matter that your home was empty of people, except tourists gawking at each room?....