JSTOR with Shawn

  I feel like I learned a lot from reading JSTOR article and doing this blog. For one, I learned that reading and reflecting on articles is a very time-intensive process, as I was only able to read two throughout the course of this blog project. Still, I felt they were very rich with ideas, and it was interesting seeing topic I'd attained a cursory knowledge of on Wikipedia being discussed in a more critical and detailed manner. I also discovered some interesting journal that I will continue to follow, such as International Labor History and Past and Present . After doing this blog, I'd encourage people to use JSTOR and other academic databases as sources for their own learning in addition to school projects.

For this sixth blog post, I’ve decided to reflect on the significance of the claims made in the JSTOR two articles I read. The first advocated the methodology of global labor history, considering a variety of arrangements across the globe where one’s labor power is exploited as work and highlighting the exploitation of workers on the periphery who produce raw materials that are refined in the industrial core. The second argued that the French peasants who regained control of their land were soon transformed into entrepreneurial farmers. I think the significant difference between the claims of the two articles is that the former considers some of those who own the means of production as work while the latter documents that the French peasant’s status as cultivators of their land gave them the goal of becoming private landowners instead of the social ownership desired by industrial workers. In addition, coercion and state power is a factor. The French peasants could easily escape their f...

 Hello all, I unfortunately did not have the time to read a JSTOR article this week, so instead I will be discussing my planning for my Agora Days class, which is on labor and social history. Initially, I was planning for the class to mainly consist of lectures but soon realized that an hour-long presentation is a little less than 8,000 words. Thus, I have chosen to incorporate more discussion and videos (and possibly pre-work!). The class will mostly be about how the lived experience of everyday people impacted broader historical events, so if you're interested in that, be sure to check it out!