From The Jungle

1) What qualities did Sinclair believe a person must have to succeed in Packingtown?
   "Nobody rose in Packingtown by doing work."  The worker needed to be motivated by fear to finish the job, as if someone was breathing down their shoulder the entire time.
2)According to the passage, what is the plant owner's main goal.
   The factory owners main goal was to simply make money, the owner did not care about the workers or the conditions they were working in as long as they were bringing in money.
3) What does Sinclair mean when he says, "...there was no place in it where a man counted for anything against a dollar....?"
   Sinclair is trying to express how the workers did not care for each other and were not even honest or decent to each other.  The workers would do anything to make money.

USDA ERS-Market incentives and Government Regulations
Firms nowadays invest money and human resources to prevent things like microbes, pathogens and carcinogenic chemicals from getting into our meats and poultry.  Some invest in just enough to get by USDA standards, while many others invest extra to make sure that the meat is safe from anything that might cause problems.  They do this to exceed standards and also ensure customer satisfaction.  Food safety technology is a key component of the meat and poultry industry to prevent foodborne contamination.

Source: http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-safety/market-incentives-government-regulation/meat-poultry.aspx#.Up0ImKX6bjQ

Imperialism in The United States

Imperialism is an economic policy that extends a country's power through military force by conquering and taking control of smaller countries.  I no longer think that the United States should be imperialist.  This is due to the fact that several countries nowadays are allied together.  If the United States were to attempt to be an imperialist power we would struggle severely because of the protection from allied countries. The United States does have the strongest military power, but against multiple countries we would be vastly overwhelmed by the immense power of combined teamwork of other countries.  "I preach to you…that our country calls not for the life of ease, but for the life of strenuous endeavors."

Maxim Gun

The Maxim gun was the first recoil powered gun invented by Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim.  In 1884 Maxim created a weapon that was soon to change the way weapons worked and specifically took over the use of Gatling, Gardner and Nordenfelt guns.  Before the Maxim, machine guns were fired using mechanical cranking.  The problem with these old fashioned machine guns was that they overheated quite easily and required the user to cool and and clean the gas out of the chamber fairly often.  However the new Maxim only required water cooling much less often.  This made the Maxim able to shoot 600 rounds per minute, equivalent to that of 30 bolt-action rifles at the time.  Although the Maxim was heavy, awkward and especially bulky, it was able to put out more firepower than anything else ever before.  Due to its problems it was normally operated by a small team of men but it was possible to be used by one single person.  Overall the Maxim changed the way of warfare, especially within the British.

Impact of the Transcontinental Railroad

Impact of the Transcontinental Railroad

The railroad started in California and slowly made its way all the way to the east coast.  In a sense the world "grew smaller", everything seemed much closer and much more accessible.  People were able to make the trip from San Francisco to New York in a week or less.  Travelers were no longer worried of having to go across an ocean or through the Panama Canal. 

The Native Americans hated the Transcontinental Railroad.  It tore apart their land and forced them to move off of their own space.  By 1890 the majority of fertile Native American land would be lost for forever.   Trade boomed after the transcontinental railroad among the nation.  All the resources mined on the west coast were now able to spread across the country and create an even better economy which resulted in more and more trade within countries and states.

Life in camp; www.burbidgehistory.blogspot.com
Dealing with workers; www.jocelyntrejoushistory.blogspot.com 

Hiring the Workers; www.hendrickvvushistory.blogspot.com

Gettysburg

The Battle of Gettysburg

The Battle of Gettysburg was fought on July first and ended on the third in 1863.  This battle had the largest number of casualties in the entire war and is sometimes referred to as the turning point of the Civil War.  This war ended the invasion of the north by Robert E. Lee and his army of northern Virginia.  Lee concentrated all of his troops at Gettysburg to attack the union forces and hopefully destroy them.  However, the union forces were well prepared and were able to successfully defeat Lee and his forces on the third day of battle.

By the second day of the battle the armies were completely assembled.  The second day had the most deaths of any day of the entire war.  Since the armies were complete, both sides were equally strong.  Lee attempted several heavy assaults on the union army, while the union attempted small formations and a heavy defense.  One last push was made by the confederates on the last day of the battle.  This was known as Pickett’s Charge.  12,500 Confederate troops lined up on the centerline and charged towards the Union troops.  The union was able to hold them off with their heavy artillery and long distance rifles causing the loss of the battle.

Shout Out

Shout out to my homie Dirty Murph