On Saturday, September 17th, the AHTC gathered at the Hilton Garden Inn in Champaign to spend some time with the history of American capitalism. H.W. Brands started the day with an amazing keynote about Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, and Ford and had wonderful discussions in both of his breakout sessions. He was also extremely gracious to sign everyone’s copy of American Colossus. Not only is Dr. Brands an incredibly intelligent and engaging speaker, but he is also one of the kindest & down-to-earth person I have ever met. Everyone had nothing but nice and positive words to say about him. In fact, one of my favorite expressions was, “He’s like a Rock Star for teachers!"
Dr. Mark Leff from the University of Illlinois, and Dr. Andrew Hartman from Illinois State University, ended the day sharing ways to incorporate classic films such as The Wizard of Oz and Modern Times into our instruction of this topic.
For more information on Dr. Leff’s presentation of The Wizard of Oz as an allegory for the political and economic events of the Gilded Age, please check out the following links:
http://www.usagold.com/gildedopinion/oz.html, http://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Political_interpretations_of_The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz
To view the factory scene from Modern Times that Dr. Hartman shared with us, check out this YouTube clip.
Overall, the day was a great success!
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