StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Popular Culture in The Nineteenth- And Early-Twentieth-Centuries - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
This paper 'Popular Culture in The Nineteenth- And Early-Twentieth-Centuries ' analyzes the popular Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, world fairs, the memory of the Civil War and Reconstruction, and other popular representations of the west in the 19th century…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER93.4% of users find it useful
Popular Culture in The Nineteenth- And Early-Twentieth-Centuries
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Popular Culture in The Nineteenth- And Early-Twentieth-Centuries"

Popular Culture In The Nineteenth- And Early-Twentieth-Centuries Analysis This essay presents an analysis of the Americanpopular culture in the 19th century with a particular focus on how Native Americans and the African Americans were represented in the popular culture and the American mainstream at the time. The essay looks at various writings, movies, television shows, and events that were popular in the 19th century in order to determine the role of Native Americans and African Americans in reinforcing American beliefs, values and narratives that have hither to shaped how people perceive America and its culture as well as reinforcing the American identity to the world. The essay analyzes the popular Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, world fairs, the memory of the Civil War and Reconstruction, and other popular representations of the west in the 19th century. Popular or pop culture in America plays big role in shaping values and beliefs of Americans and the whole world to some extent. A majority of the players in American popular culture are men of the White race. This fact is important in understanding trends in popular culture since the 19th century. This is because most of these trends seem to reinforce stereotypes that reinforce superiority of white males over other people. Native Americans and African Americans have either been left out or played a minimal role in contributing to some of the popular narratives and values that help to define America’s greatness and the country’s promises to the world. America is portrayed through pop culture as a perfect place full of promises and prosperity to the American people and visitors. Pop culture, therefore, is important to development of American values and ideals to the entire world. In the 19th century as well as during the first part of the20th century, pop culture played a very significant role in representing Native Americans and African Americans as either heroes or villains and as threatening figures, or nonthreatening, depending on the circumstances. Most of the elements of popular culture such as music, movies, and magazines for the greater part of the 19th century presented minority groups like African Americans and Native Americans as objects of derision and sympathy. These minority groups have, therefore, for the large part been exiled from some of the popular narratives that have shaped the perception of American and the American culture to the world. a) Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show The Wild Wide West show was a popular traveling theatre performance led by Buffalo Bill. The show, which ran between 1833 and 1913, was very influential at the time, both in the US and in the East in terms of shaping the perception of America and the American culture (Blackstone, 41). Buffalo Bill was an influential in American pop culture in the 19th century. The main objective of the Wild West Show was to promote the American culture as the ideal culture and the best lifestyle. The show introduced many different American performers to a global audience through tours across Europe into the East, where the show has a large following. The show is engraved in American history for the role it played in enforcing a positive image of America and the West to the world (Blackstone, 63). The content of the show portrayed life in the West as exciting, outright wild and adventuresome. In fact, the image of the West as it is known today owes a lot to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Basically, the show ran for about 3-4 hours and consisted of various parts that focused on reenactment of history, as well as displaying showmanship (Karson, 21). The show included common elements of the American lifestyle and culture during the 19th century such as racing, sharp shooting, hunting, and racing. The performers acted various historical scenes such as early settlers defending their homesteads, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Most of the performers were cowboys, Indians, scouts, Mexicans, and a few other men from other backgrounds (Karson, 38). Buffalo Bill’s show is very notable for its incorporation of Native Americans, African Americans, Mexicans and people from other heritages. The show gave a platform to people all races to play a role and display the way they lived in the US. However, the role played by Native Americans and African Americans as well as that of other races was mostly that of villains (Karson, 71). Buffalo Bill glorified himself and the white race through the performances while presenting other minority races as villains, losers, and the bad guys. When performing some of the historical events such as wars between settlers and natives, Buffalo Bill used his poetic license to portray himself as the hero while the other acts were villains. African Americans and Native Americans often took roles of outlaws or the bad guys. This helped to promote the belief that Indians and African Americans were bad people; villains while the whites were righteous, powerful and superior (Karson, 116). These race representations in Buffalo Bill’s shows became an integral element of the popular culture in many other forms of art and has continued until today. b) Popular memory of the Civil War and Reconstruction The American Civil War was a very divisive conflict that resulted in over 750,000 casualties in the US and altered the country’s destiny. The civil war greatly affected social, economic and cultural structures in the US and remains the country’s most devastating and largest internal conflict. Memories of the war remain fresh in popular culture through songs, books, movies, and other cultural elements in the US. The war rose from growing differences between the cultural aspects in the North and the South America during the mid 19th century. While the Northern part of the US had rapidly industrialized, the Southern part was still reliant on Agriculture. The differences in political opinion in relation to the abolition of slave trade also became the center of the conflict. The North was more inclined towards abolishing slave trade while the South wanted to maintain the status quo. After four years of the civil war, Americans embarked on reconstruction to restore peace and economic and political stability in the country. Events of the civil war and reconstruction as well as eventual assassination of President Abraham Lincoln were captured in the Birth of a Nation, a 1915 movie directed by D. W. Griffith. The Birth of a Nation became a very successful film with unprecedented commercial success. The movie was intended to detail the events of the civil war as well as the subsequent reconstruction. However, the film was very controversial for its portrayal of African Americans. In the film roles for African Americans are played by White people, who propagate stereotypes against African Americans. The film portrays African Americans as sexually aggressive especially towards white women and also shows African American as less intelligent beings. Race representation in the movie drew public outrage in various parts of the country. The stereotypes about African Americans that are shown in the Birth of a Nation created a foundation for a similar trend ion subsequent films in popular culture. This movie was instrumental min propagating stereotypes as well as evoking racial memories of the civil war era. c) World’s Fairs World’s fairs or expositions emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century to exhibit different elements of trade and culture in the world. During this initial phase of these expositions, the focus was mostly on trade, science and technological developments in the wake of the industrialization period. Land mark expositions took place in various pars of the world including London (1851), New York (1853), Paris (1889), and Chicago (1893, and 1933-34), among others. Significant inventions like the telephone were first presented at these global conventions. The events were officially opened by a public address which welcomed the visitors to view the different things that were on display. The visitors often wrote letters to their friends informing them of the events explaining how they felt about the trade fair. Some of these letters found their way in the public after being published in various books and contributed towards shaping American culture. One such letter is a letter from an altrurian traveler addressed to Cyril, her dear friend. In the letter, the writer explains to the recipient how she was perplexed to find Chicago more interesting than what she thought before. Having stayed in New York, she regarded New York as the epitome of human civilization, but a visit to the World Fair City in Chicago changed all that. To her, Chicago is the new version of New York, which she referred to as the Newer York. The author of the letter was astonished at the inventions and the culture present at the exhibition. Given that most of these inventions were made by Whites, the author felt like the experiences in at the Chicago World’s fair would result in the whites exerting their influence in other major cities around the world. She refers to foreigners and their cultures as ills that would be washed away through the influence of the west. She asserts that” I feel as though I had caught a glimpse of the glorious capitals, which will whiten the ills and shores of the East and the borderless plains of the West” (William, 20) This reference indicates the significance that the author of the letter attributed to the Western culture over the culture of the East. Such sentiments only help to promote the view that American, and indeed, Western culture is superior and that other races are inferior. References Blackstone, Sarah J., "Review of Buffalo Bills Wild West: Celebrity, Memory, and Popular History By Joy S. Kasson". Great Plains. Quarterly, 2002. Print. Karson, S, Joy. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West: Celebrity, Memory, and Popular History. Hill and Wang, 2001. Print. The Birth of a Nation. Directed and produced by D. W. Griffith, 1915. Film. William Deans Howells, “Letters from an altrurian traveler,” 82nd September, 1893, reprinted from Clara, M. Kirk and Rudolf Kirk, eds. Letters from an altrurian traveler. (Gainesville, FL: Scholars Facsimiles and Reprints, 1961), 20, 24. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(Popular Culture in The Nineteenth- And Early-Twentieth-Centuries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words, n.d.)
Popular Culture in The Nineteenth- And Early-Twentieth-Centuries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words. https://studentshare.org/history/1830674-popular-culture-in-the-nineteenth-and-early-twentieth-centuries-analysis
(Popular Culture in The Nineteenth- And Early-Twentieth-Centuries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words)
Popular Culture in The Nineteenth- And Early-Twentieth-Centuries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words. https://studentshare.org/history/1830674-popular-culture-in-the-nineteenth-and-early-twentieth-centuries-analysis.
“Popular Culture in The Nineteenth- And Early-Twentieth-Centuries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words”. https://studentshare.org/history/1830674-popular-culture-in-the-nineteenth-and-early-twentieth-centuries-analysis.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Popular Culture in The Nineteenth- And Early-Twentieth-Centuries

Evolution from vintage to contemporary haute couture based on a social and cultural context

Thus, in studying the evolution of haute couture during the twentieth century, it is essential to understand the dynamics between commerce and culture, technology and aesthetics, popular culture and pastische, and fashion and anti-fashion at different stages.... Later developments in high fashion integrated elite class and taste with street style, derived from tribalism, popular culture and rebellion against formal modes.... Haute Couture in the Production of culture and its Similarity to Art ……19 3....
30 Pages (7500 words) Essay

The Effect Of Advertising On Men As Consumers From 1880-1930 And Its Impact On American Culture

The purpose of this research study is to investigate the history of American consumer culture in relation to the impact of advertising on men and their consumption from 1880 to 1930.... “Consumption has long been central to American identity, culture, economic development and politics” (Glickman 1), and it has been termed as the national pastime of the United States.... This economic transformation was supported by the integration of numerous phenomena, including the “growth of the popular press and advertising....
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Paper

Miles Davis and Kind of Blue

This essay describes the influential jazz artist Miles Dewey Davis.... Davis played an important role in re-conceptualizing jazz and its multifarious forms during the latter half of the twentieth century.... The emphasis shall be on Davis' best-known album Kind of Blue.... ... ... ... At 1944 he began school at the Julliard School of Music in New York....
10 Pages (2500 words) Essay

The Changes to Music Performance Throughout Historical Periods

This idea of enlightenment had many impacts on culture, politics, and the western government.... The objective of the present assignment "The Changes to Music Performance Throughout Historical Periods" is to describe the development in music around the world during the Classical and Romantic periods....
8 Pages (2000 words) Assignment

The History of Anthropology

The paper "The History of Anthropology" states that Many of us are now comfortable elaborating upon the principle that the ethnographic text is as full of rhetorical devices, sweeps of imagination, blindnesses and insights as an interesting work of, say, prose fiction.... ... ... ... Though Boas and his students would, retrospectively, insist that they too had long been engaged in participant observation in the field, it was nevertheless Malinowski who produced the textual concretization of the experience and who first came to represent the very idea of the ethnographer in the field....
14 Pages (3500 words) Essay

Melodrama and Victorian Music Hall: Connection to the Audience

While much of the work would be done with past historical eras as the time periods, according to Booth, the themes had a nineteenth-century contemporary feel and resonance.... This paper "Melodrama and Victorian Music Hall: Connection to the Audience" discusses the innovation of experience created by the Victorian music hall and the melodramas of the 19 century that represent a turn in the culture.... Booth, in his book Theatre in the Victorian Age, says that 'Melodrama contains every possible ingredient of popular appeal: strong emotion, both pathetic and potentially tragic, low comedy, romantic coloring, remarkable events in an exciting and suspenseful plot,'....
9 Pages (2250 words) Literature review

Humanities : Writings of Charles Darwin

Moreover, the communist manifesto was also a materialistic conception introduced by the three evolutionist to corrupt the existence of the order which had long prevailed in politics, culture and economics.... Marx and Engel worked together to produce the communist manifesto which claimed that wealth, families and nations-states where the hindrance to real economic This challenged popular beliefs; as with regards to family, nations-states and property as they were campaigning for ideologies which were completely opposite to the ones believed and practiced at the moment....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

The Role of Religion in History of the Holocaust

The paper "The Role of Religion in History of the Holocaust" states that economic disparity in times of social reform and progress when the Jews used the opportunities to their advantage, while some sections of the population suffered a decline was also an important reason for targetting the Jews....
20 Pages (5000 words) Coursework
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us