Mary Rowley

History 1700
Mark R Welsh
3/28/2016

Critique on the Article The Black Experience in the Union Army By Richard M. Reid
In the article The Black Experience in the Union Army By Richard M. Reid, the author
attempts to discuss how black soldiers were treated when joining the union army in the American
civil war.
In the beginning he discusses how bloody the war was for all soldiers before going into a
history of how blacks came to be in the Union army. He then mentions some of the ways the
black soldiers were treated unfairly, touching on subjects of payments, the ability to move up in
rank, and forcible enlistment. Then he moves on to give specific examples of their mistreatment
by both the Union and the Confederates.
My first impression of this article was that, although it seems to have some interesting
information, it doesnt move very smoothly from one thing to the next. The transition from one
subject to the next is confusing and in some cases it is hard to distinguish who is doing what.
There is also a lot of misplaced punctuation and capitalization that adds to the confusion,
although it is possible that this is because of the online database it was retrieved from and not the
article itself.
One of the things I found interesting in this article was that, although the federal
government initially treated the black soldiers and their families unfairly, in many of the
examples given they later made some attempt, although usually quite small, at correcting the

unfairness. One example given was that the government started to provide survivor benefits to
black families when they previously had not. I also thought it was interesting that the
government started a policy that stated that for every black prisoner of war that were killed, a
confederate prisoner of war would be killed. The idea behind this seemed to be a good one,
however it sounds like this backfired since the confederates began killing black soldiers rather
than taking them as prisoners of war.
Overall I dont think this article was very good or reliable. This is mostly because of
presentation of the information. It was confusing and hard to keep up with. In many instances I
had to read through paragraphs a couple of times to understand who they were talking about and
what they had done.

Citing:
Reid, Richard M. "Black Experience In The Union Army: The Other Civil War."
Canadian Review Of American Studies 21.2 (1990): 145. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 28 Mar.
2016.
Link:
https://libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=f6h&AN=1028812&site=eds-live

Mary Rowley
History 1700
Mark R Welsh
3/28/2016

Critique on "PIONEERS OF PRODUCTION Women Industrial Workers in World War

II" by Elizabeth Mandel and Beryl Sinclair
The article "PIONEERS OF PRODUCTION Women Industrial Workers in World War II"
by Elizabeth Mandel and Beryl Sinclair initially drew me in because of the title. I was hoping to
find an article full of information about this topic, and as I started reading they started off by
explaining some of the places they looked for information and they said they had found many
sources. I was excited to read what they had found from these sources but unfortunately as I read
it became clear that they werent going to give much of that information in the article
One of the sources that peaked my interest was that they interviewed a few women who
had worked in industrial jobs at the General Electric plant in the 1940's during World War II. I
would have loved to read what these women had to say about their employment during the war
and what their thoughts were about how it impacted women in the workplace, but aside from
bringing up that they had interviewed these ladies, they never mentioned what was said.
Something I did learn from the article is that nearly all of the women working these
industrial jobs at the places they looked into, lost their jobs almost immediately after the wars
end. I wish they had expended on this topic a little more. It would have been interesting to learn
what the two women they interviewed thought about this.

The authors of this article mentioned quite a few sources, from books, to transcripts of
interviews, to actual interview they conducted. It was disappointing that they shared little
information about what they actually found about women working during the war. Overall I felt
let down by the lack of information and I feel that the title was very misleading. I dont think this
was a very good article on what could have been a very interesting subject.
Citation:
Mandel, Elizabeth, and Beryl Sinclair. "PIONEERS OF PRODUCTION Women
Industrial Workers In World War II." Journal Of Women's History 14.2 (2002): 2. America:
History & Life. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.
Link: http://search.ebscohost.com.libprox1.slcc.edu/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=ahl&AN=6969323&site=ehost-live

Mary Rowley
History 1700
Mark R Welsh
3/28/2016
Critique on Written in Red, White, and Blue: A Comparison of Comic Book Propaganda
from World War II and September 11" by Cord Scott
The article " Written in Red, White, and Blue: A Comparison of Comic Book Propaganda
from World War II and September 11" by Cord Scott compares comic books from the World War
II era, around the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, with those of 2001 after nine-eleven.
It starts out describing someone of the stereotypes that could be seen in comic books of
the 1930's and 40's. Especially those of Germans and Asians who are made out to be the villains
in various issues of Captain America and the Marvel comics. It then goes over a brief history of
comic book propaganda ending at the events of Nine-eleven and comic books produced
afterward. The comics in 2001, especially those after nine-eleven focused more on emotions,
personal experiences, and tolerance towards different ethnic groups. Very different from those of
the WWII era.
This article spoke a lot about Captain America, as he is looked at in the US as one of the
most patriotic characters in the comic world. One thing that I learned was that Captain America
was not the first superhero of is kind. The first patriotic superhero was the Shield.
This article was packed with information on the topic of comic books in propaganda.
There were a ton of examples given and the point of the article, that comic books are an effective
source of propaganda directed at youth, was very evident. Most of all I was impressed with the
authors ability to explain the stories and parts each superhero played in different parts of history.

This article was very informative as well as entertaining as well as easy to understand. It
easily explains how comics truly did play a part in American history.

Citation:
SCOTT, CORD. "Written In Red, White, And Blue: A Comparison Of Comic Book
Propaganda From World War II And September 11." Journal Of Popular Culture 40.2 (2007):
325-343. America: History & Life. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.
Link:
http://search.ebscohost.com.libprox1.slcc.edu/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=ahl&AN=24195724&site=ehost-live

Mary Rowley
History 1700
Mark R Welsh
3/28/2016
Critique on "The Economics of Middle-Income Family Life: Working Women During the
Great Depression" by Winifred D. Wandersee Bolin
In the article "The Economics of Middle-Income Family Life: Working Women During
the Great Depression" by Winifred D. Wandersee Bolin, the author discusses trends in the
number of women in the work force between the 1920's and 40's as well as some of the reasons
that may have caused a higher number of women to be in the workforce.
Some of the reasons brought up were financial need, to maintain a certain standard of
living, to pay for schooling, etc. It is also brought up that there was a decline in child labor as
well as birth rates and since many families has more than one person bringing in money, usually
the father and sons, with less child labor more adult women were needed.
Something that caught my eye in this article was that the number of married women
working was one in four. Also, according to studies and some of the charts provided in the article
the more a wife made the less she seemed to need it because her husband usually made more as
well. I wouldnt be surprised if trends like this were still common today in families where both
husband and wife work.
This article was very informative and had many charts backing up the points the author
was making as well as studies on the information being presented. The information all tied
together well and rounded out into a clear conclusion which was that the author thought more

women should have been working than were at the time. Although the statistics and numbers
could be a little confusing, I think overall the article was pretty well written.
Citation:
Bolin, Winifred D. Wandersee. "The Economics Of Middle-Income Family Life:
Working Women During The Great Depression." Journal Of American History 65.1 (1978): 6074. America: History & Life. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.
Link:
http://search.ebscohost.com.libprox1.slcc.edu/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=ahl&AN=45954910&site=ehost-live

Mary Rowley
History 1700

Mark R Welsh
3/28/2016
Critique on The Fiasco of Prohibition by Douglas Rogers
In the article The Fiasco of Prohibition by Douglas Rogers the author talks about
prohibition in America between 1920 and 1933. The article talks about some of the good and bad
aspects and about how ultimately it failed to accomplish what it was meant to due.
According to the article, although it failed the prohibition did actually decrease the
amount of drinking and drinking related accidents and issues for a time due to the rise in price of
buying it illegally. It also mentioned that the levels of drinking pre-prohibition were higher than
they are even today.
The author touches quite a bit on the part organized crime played in the prohibition and
how bootleggers closely resemble modern drug related criminals. I thought it was interesting that
bootleggers sided with those who wanted to keep the country dry because if prohibition ended
then they would no longer have control over the alcohol distribution as legitimate business would
then open up again. Essentially they wanted to keep prohibition so they could continue to make
money off of it.
This article was fun to read as it was entertaining as well as informative. The arguments
made by the author are very convincing and his points are well formed. This was a good article
that was definitely worth reading.

Citation:

Rogers, Douglas. "The Fiasco Of Prohibition." Freeman: Ideas On Liberty 61.1 (2011): 25.
MasterFILE Complete. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.
Link:
https://libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=f6h&AN=57206324&site=eds-live