DOCSLIB.ORG

More Than a River – Using Nature for Reform in the Progressive

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
More Than a River – Using Nature for Reform in the Progressive MORE THAN A RIVER: USING NATURE FOR REFORM IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA A DISSERTATION IN History and English Presented to the Faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by PATRICK D. DOBSON M.A., University of Wyoming, 1993 B.A. History and B.A. English-Creative Writing and Journalism, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1991 Kansas City, Missouri 2013 ©2013 Patrick Dobson All Rights Reserved MORE THAN A RIVER: USING NATURE FOR REFORM IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA Patrick Dobson, Candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2013 ABSTRACT The decades around the turn of the twentieth century were a time of vast social and economic change. Industrialization altered the ways people related to each other and to their social, political, and cultural institutions. Some perceived that the rise of cities, changing middle- class values, and changing work patterns created vexing social convulsions—disorder, inefficiency, and class struggle. The work of John Gneisenau Neihardt, William Ellsworth Smythe, and Francis Griffith Newlands revealed how progressives looked to nature as a tool of social reform. Each of these men understood the American environment in multiple contexts. Nostalgia and romanticized Missouri River history activated themes of empire, race, and manhood in Neihardt’s work. He also voiced the concerns of river improvement advocates, who wanted more federal support for their cause. William Smythe became the chief propagandist for the western irrigation cause. He formulated resilient and emotionally powerful rhetoric that motivated irrigationists. Both the river improvement and irrigation causes, however, proved fractious and parochial. Newlands was a practical politician. In reclamation, he found a mechanism to bring irrigation and river control under coordinated government management for social order, business expansion, and reliable systems of investment and return. These social reform efforts, however, faltered and created new kinds of conflicts that justified and necessitated continued government intervention in society and business in the name of progress. iii APPROVAL PAGE The faculty listed below, appointed by the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, have examined a dissertation titled “More than a River: Using Nature for Reform in the Progressive Era,” presented by Patrick Dismas Dobson, candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, and certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance. Supervisory Committee John Herron, Ph.D., Committee Chair Department of History Stephen Dilks, Ph.D. Department of English Daniel Mahala, Ph.D. Department of English Dennis Merrill, Ph.D. Department of History James Sheppard, Ph.D. Department of Philosophy iv CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................ iii INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. vi CHAPTER 1. John Gneisenau Neihardt and the Missouri River ........................................................1 2. Neihardt and Missouri River Improvement ................................................................37 3. William Elsworth Smythe and the Irrigated Paradise .................................................71 4. Francis Griffith Newlands and the West ...................................................................114 5. Newlands: from Irrigation to Rivers .........................................................................159 6. Working Together and Not Working Together ........................................................194 AFTERWORD ...........................................................................................................240 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................242 VITA .....................................................................................................................................295 v INTRODUCTION “Others may praise what they like; But I, from the banks of the running Missouri, praise nothing in art or aught else, Till it has well inhaled the atmosphere of this river, also the western prairie scent, And exudes it all again.” –Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass In 1908, writer John Neihardt embarked on a journey down the Missouri River. A year later, he published a series of travel stories about his journey in Putnam’s. In the articles, he portrayed himself as a modern American man who set out on the river to find more of himself. These stories appeared in his 1910 book, The River and I. The book helped the young writer as he pursued his career. But the book was much more than a recounting of a personal journey. The River and I delivered a full-throated articulation of Progressive perceptions of the river, history, and nature’s utility for individual and social improvement. In the book’s pages, Neihardt demonstrated his belief that contact with the river gave men new energy and renewed faith in the American experiment. He promoted river development while also venerating the river and its environs. Neihardt believed contact with nature served racial and social hierarchies. The river also provided a mechanism for national economic and vi imperial expansion.1 Americans hewed the nation from wilderness, he believed, and shaped social priorities in the West that influenced all of American life. As Americans faced the closing of the frontier, progressives and writers, such as Neihardt, Caspar Whitney, and Theodore Roosevelt, actively sought new ways to continue individual and national development. For them, contact with nature, competitive sports, and adventurism at home and abroad tested men’s mettle. These activities remade men into good Americans who possessed good character and nationalistic vigor.2 Neihardt’s The River and I reflected Americans’ changing and multi-faceted attitudes toward the natural environment. In the decades around the turn of the twentieth century, American confidence in progress and faith in technology fueled a constellation of progressive ideas regarding nature and its uses. Activists, writers, and politicians advocated the benefits of human contact with and new uses of the natural environment. Agrarianist Liberty Hyde Bailey and educator Anna Botsford Comstock endorsed nature-study and back-to-nature movements for Americans mental, physical, and moral health. Progressive conservationist George Bird Grinnell helped establish and later headed the Audubon Society, which advocated nature education as a means of building good citizenship. From 1880 to 1911, Grinnell also edited the influential Forest and Stream magazine, an influential publication that promoted contact with nature and wildlife conservation. Writing stories for Grinnell’s Forest and Stream in 1901, ethnologist and historian James Willard Schultz utilized the Missouri River in tales that bolstered ideas of nature as central to American history and 1 John G. Neihardt, Patterns and Coincidences: A Sequel to All is But a Beginning (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1979), 53-64; William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness,” in Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, Cronon, ed., (New York: W.W. Norton, 1996), 77-9. 2 Julianne Lutz Warren, “Alienation or Intimacy?: The Roles of Science in the Cultural Narratives of Gifford Pinchot and John Burroughs,” American Transcendental Quarterly 21 (December 2007): 254. vii culture. Schultz’ stories later appeared in book form. In Floating on the Missouri, he combined history, landscape, and Native American culture in framing his ideas of the physical environment’s importance to modern cultural life. 3 At the time, conservationists, social activists, and preservationists responded in different ways to a growing anxiety Americans felt as they watched bulldozer, shovel, and saw consume their natural resources and wild spaces.4 Conservationists such as head of the Forest Service Gifford Pinchot and Theodore Roosevelt believed the survival of American business and democracy depended on stopping the rampant exploitation of natural resources. Scientific management, bureaucratic organization, and expert planning, they believed, replaced old, wasteful practices with new economic and social efficiencies. With confidence in their technological prowess, conservationists set about restructuring the environment for economic benefit.5 Around the same time, the development of the industrial city and the closing of the frontier moved people such as John Muir to promote new appreciation of the nation’s seemingly pristine spaces. With aesthetics and belief in succor and escape from the rigors of modern life that natural spaces gave people, Muir supported saving some resources and landscapes un- or only lightly touched, particularly in the West. The efforts on the part of 3 Kevin C. Armitage, The Nature-Study Movement: The Forgotten Popularizer of America’s Conservation Ethic (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009), 2, 21, 26-7; Mona Domosh, “Selling Civilization: Toward a Cultural Analysis of America's Economic Empire in the Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Centuries,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 29 (December 2004): 453-67, esp. 455; John Rieger, “Pathbreaking Conservationist: George Bird Grinnell (1849-1938),” Forest History Today (Spring/Fall 2005): 16-9; James Willard Schultz,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Article Title: Soldiers As Farmers: Army Agriculture in the Missouri Valley, 1818-1827
    Nebraska History posts materials online for your personal use. Please remember that the contents of Nebraska History are copyrighted by the Nebraska State Historical Society (except for materials credited to other institutions). The NSHS retains its copyrights even to materials it posts on the web. For permission to re-use materials or for photo ordering information, please see: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/magazine/permission.htm Nebraska State Historical Society members receive four issues of Nebraska History and four issues of Nebraska History News annually. For membership information, see: http://nebraskahistory.org/admin/members/index.htm Article Title: Soldiers as Farmers: Army Agriculture in the Missouri Valley, 1818-1827 Full Citation: Roger L Nichols, “Soldiers as Farmers: Army Agriculture in the Missouri Valley, 1818-1827,” Nebraska History 52 (1971): 239-254. URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NH1971Soldier_Farmers.pdf Date: 3/16/2011 Article Summary: During the decade following the War of 1812, the military frontier preceded the settlers’ frontier in the Missouri Valley and soldiers became pioneer farmers. The soldiers of Fort Atkinson in Eastern Nebraska engaged in the first extensive American agricultural activity west of the Missouri River. Cataloging Information: Names: Talbot Chambers, Henry Atkinson, Benjamin O’Fallon, Henry Leavenworth, Ashael Savery, Edmund P Gaines, Lord Selkirk, John Gale, De Witt Clinton, George Croghan Place Names: Fort Atkinson, Nebraska; Fort Osage,
    [Show full text]
  • Missouri River Infolink 1999 Report
    Missouri River InfoLINK 1999 Report In cooperation with the US Environmental Protection Agency and the National Biological Information Infrastructure Missouri River InfoLINK 1999 Report US Department of the Interior US Geological Survey Missouri River InfoLINK 1999 Report Missouri River InfoLINK 1999 Report The InfoLINK enhances understanding of the Missouri River through information, partnerships, maps, and science The Missouri River flows 2,341 miles from the Rocky Mountains through the Great Plains to its confluence with the Mississippi River at St! Louis! CONTENTS Its watershed drains one-sixth of the United States! One-third of the meandering river has been channelized! 2The Big Muddy Another third has been impounded by six dams that 3 Beginnings allow the U!S! Army Corps of Engineers to regulate the water flow through the river system! The Missouri 4 Information River system is managed for multiple uses! 6 Partnerships Decisions related to river management affect the lifestyles of Americans from Montana to Missouri! 10 Maps The Missouri River InfoLINK was created for these 12Science stakeholders who represent diverse river interests and need to make informed decisions about its future 16 Bridging the Gap use and management! It is for people who want to understand how the river functions! The InfoLINK seeks to be a center point for common ground, uniting interests through sharing information that facilitates communication among all of the basins citizens! Missouri River InfoLINK 1999 Report Green areas: Native American Tribes Red
    [Show full text]
  • El Paso and the Twelve Travelers
    Monumental Discourses: Sculpting Juan de Oñate from the Collected Memories of the American Southwest Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Philosophischen Fakultät IV – Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften – der Universität Regensburg wieder vorgelegt von Juliane Schwarz-Bierschenk aus Freudenstadt Freiburg, Juni 2014 Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Udo Hebel Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Volker Depkat CONTENTS PROLOGUE I PROSPECT 2 II CONCEPTS FOR READING THE SOUTHWEST: MEMORY, SPATIALITY, SIGNIFICATION 7 II.1 CULTURE: TIME (MEMORY) 8 II.1.1 MEMORY IN AMERICAN STUDIES 9 II.2 CULTURE: SPATIALITY (LANDSCAPE) 13 II.2.1 SPATIALITY IN AMERICAN STUDIES 14 II.3 CULTURE: SIGNIFICATION (LANDSCAPE AS TEXT) 16 II.4 CONCEPTUAL CONVERGENCE: THE SPATIAL TURN 18 III.1 UNITS OF INVESTIGATION: PLACE – SPACE – LANDSCAPE III.1.1 PLACE 21 III.1.2 SPACE 22 III.1.3 LANDSCAPE 23 III.2 EMPLACEMENT AND EMPLOTMENT 25 III.3 UNITS OF INVESTIGATION: SITE – MONUMENT – LANDSCAPE III.3.1 SITES OF MEMORY 27 III.3.2 MONUMENTS 30 III.3.3 LANDSCAPES OF MEMORY 32 IV SPATIALIZING AMERICAN MEMORIES: FRONTIERS, BORDERS, BORDERLANDS 34 IV.1 LANDSCAPES OF MEMORY I: THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT 39 IV.1.1 THE TRI-ETHNIC MYTH 41 IV.2 LANDSCAPES OF MEMORY II: HOMELANDS 43 IV.2.1 HISPANO HOMELAND 44 IV.2.2 CHICANO AZTLÁN 46 IV.3 LANDSCAPES OF MEMORY III: BORDER-LANDS 48 V FROM THE SOUTHWEST TO THE BORDERLANDS: LANDSCAPES OF AMERICAN MEMORIES 52 MONOLOGUE: EL PASO AND THE TWELVE TRAVELERS 57 I COMING TO TERMS WITH EL PASO 60 I.1 PLANNING ‘THE CITY OF THE NEW OLD WEST’ 61 I.2 FOUNDATIONAL
    [Show full text]
  • The Missouri Is America's Longest River
    The Missouri is America’s Longest River This is Shirley Griffith. And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about another important American river, the Missouri. It is the longest river in the United States. The first American Indians to live along the Missouri River called the river the Mine Sose. It means the muddy river. Even today, the Missouri is called "the Big Muddy" by many people. This is because it carries huge amounts of dirt from the land through which it flows. The dirt makes the river a brown color for much of its length. The Missouri begins in the Rocky Mountains of North America. It is formed by three rivers that come together in what is the north central state of Montana. The three rivers are the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers. They become the Missouri River in the southwestern part of Montana, more than one thousand two hundred meters above sea level. The river is clear and flows rapidly as it begins its travels east and south. It moves more slowly as it flows down to the waters of the Mississippi River, about ten kilometers north of the modern-day city of Saint Louis. The Missouri travels four-thousand kilometers from the high mountains in the north to the low lands of the south. It flows along the borders of seven states: Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and finally Missouri. The first Europeans who reported seeing the river were at the mouth of the Missouri where it empties into the Mississippi.
    [Show full text]
  • The Crusader Monthll,J Nelijsletter
    THE CRUSADER MONTHLL,J NELIJSLETTER ROBERT F. WILLIAMS, EDITOR -IN EXILE- VoL . ~ - No. 9 MAY 1968 Afro-Americans & Slick John Kennedy Government of the United States is no government T~E of the Afro-Americans at all. The slick John Ken- nedy gang is operating one of the greatest sham govern- ment in the entire world. Afro-Americans and fair minded Od > ~- O THE wN«< /l~USL . lF Yov~Re EyER IN NE60, CALL ME AT whites must be gullible indeed to believe that the racist, KKK dominated so-called U.S. Government is concerned with the welfare and human rights of colored people. The colored people of the USA must bring themselves to realize that taken integration is a slick manuever to check the restlessness of an oppressed people fast becoming infect ed with the germ of total resistance policy developing among all of the oppressed peoples of the world. Token integration means nothing to the masses. Even an idiot should be able to see that so-called Token integration is no more than window dressing designed to lull the poor downtrodden Afro-American to sleep and to make the out side world think that the racist, savage USA is a fountainhead of social justice and democracy. The Afro-American in the USA is facing his greatest crisis since chattel slavery. All forms of violence and underhanded methods o.f extermination are being stepped up against our people. Contrary to what the "big daddies" and their "good nigras" would have us believe about all of the phoney progress they claim the race is making, the True status of the Afro-Ameri- can is s#eadily on the down turn.
    [Show full text]
  • The Crusader Coalition
    The Crusader Coalition Crusading Rhetoric in the Islamic State's Magazines Dabiq and Rumiyah 31 July 2018 R. de Jager 411588 MA Global History and International Relations Erasmus University Rotterdam Supervisor: Prof. Dr. D. Douwes Second reader: Dr. R.J. Adriaansen The Crusader Coalition De Jager 411588 Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................. 3 A Note on Transliteration ........................................................................................................ 4 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 5 Chapter I: The Rise of the Islamic State ................................................................................ 16 Chapter II: The Terminology of the Radical Islamic Discourse ............................................. 22 Chapter III: The Crusades ..................................................................................................... 32 Chapter IV: The Crusades in Dabiq and Rumiyah ................................................................. 42 Chapter V: Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 72 Glossary ................................................................................................................................ 76 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Early Childhood Memory and Attention As Predictors of Academic Growth Trajectories
    Running head: MEMORY, ATTENTION AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT 1 Early Childhood Memory and Attention as Predictors of Academic Growth Trajectories Deborah Stipek and Rachel Valentino Stanford University Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Deborah Stipek, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford CA 94305. Email: [email protected] Running head: MEMORY, ATTENTION AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT 2 Abstract Longitudinal data from the children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) were used to assess how well measures of short-term and working memory and attention in early childhood predicted longitudinal growth trajectories in mathematics and reading comprehension. Analyses also examined whether changes in memory and attention were more strongly predictive of changes in academic skills in early childhood than in later childhood. All predictors were significantly associated with academic achievement and years of schooling attained, although the latter was at least partially mediated by predictors’ effect on academic achievement in adolescence. The relationship of working memory and attention with academic outcomes was also found to be strong and positive in early childhood, but non-significant or small and negative in later years. The study results provide support for a “fade-out” hypothesis, which suggests that underlying cognitive capacities predict learning in the early elementary grades, but the relationship fades by late elementary school. These findings suggest that whereas efforts to develop attention and memory may improve academic achievement in the early grades, in the later grades interventions that focus directly on subject matter learning are more likely to improve achievement. Running head: MEMORY, ATTENTION AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT 3 Early Childhood Memory and Attention as Predictors of Academic Growth Trajectories Success in school requires many skills.
    [Show full text]
  • A Political History of the Kingdom of Jerusalem 1099 to 1187 C.E
    Western Washington University Western CEDAR WWU Honors Program Senior Projects WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship Spring 2014 A Political History of the Kingdom of Jerusalem 1099 to 1187 C.E. Tobias Osterhaug Western Washington University Follow this and additional works at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwu_honors Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the History Commons Recommended Citation Osterhaug, Tobias, "A Political History of the Kingdom of Jerusalem 1099 to 1187 C.E." (2014). WWU Honors Program Senior Projects. 25. https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwu_honors/25 This Project is brought to you for free and open access by the WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship at Western CEDAR. It has been accepted for inclusion in WWU Honors Program Senior Projects by an authorized administrator of Western CEDAR. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 Tobias Osterhaug History 499/Honors 402 A Political History of the Kingdom of Jerusalem 1099 to 1187 C.E. Introduction: The first Crusade, a massive and unprecedented undertaking in the western world, differed from the majority of subsequent crusades into the Holy Land in an important way: it contained no royalty and was undertaken with very little direct support from the ruling families of Western Europe. This aspect of the crusade led to the development of sophisticated hierarchies and vassalages among the knights who led the crusade. These relationships culminated in the formation of the Crusader States, Latin outposts in the Levant surrounded by Muslim states, and populated primarily by non-Catholic or non-Christian peoples. Despite the difficulties engendered by this situation, the Crusader States managed to maintain control over the Holy Land for much of the twelfth century, and, to a lesser degree, for several decades after the Fall of Jerusalem in 1187 to Saladin.
    [Show full text]
  • Narratives of Interiority: Black Lives in the U.S. Capital, 1919 - 1942
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2015 Narratives of Interiority: Black Lives in the U.S. Capital, 1919 - 1942 Paula C. Austin Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/843 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] NARRATIVES OF INTERIORITY: BLACK LIVES IN THE U.S. CAPITAL, 1919 – 1942 by PAULA C. AUSTIN A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2015 ©2015 Paula C. Austin All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in History in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________ ____________________________ Date Herman L. Bennett, Chair of Examining Committee ________________ _____________________________ Date Helena Rosenblatt, Executive Office Gunja SenGupta Clarence Taylor Robert Reid Pharr Michele Mitchell Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract NARRATIVES OF INTERIORITY: BLACK LIVES IN THE U.S. CAPITAL, 1919 – 1942 by PAULA C. AUSTIN Advisor: Professor Herman L. Bennett This dissertation constructs a social and intellectual history of poor and working class African Americans in the interwar period in Washington, D.C. Although the advent of social history shifted scholarly emphasis onto the “ninety-nine percent,” many scholars have framed black history as the story of either the educated, uplifted and accomplished elite, or of a culturally depressed monolithic urban mass in need of the alleviation of structural obstacles to advancement.
    [Show full text]
  • Time Line of the Progressive Era from the Idea of America™
    Time Line of The Progressive Era From The Idea of America™ Date Event Description March 3, Pennsylvania Mine Following an 1869 fire in an Avondale mine that kills 110 1870 Safety Act of 1870 workers, Pennsylvania passes the country's first coal mine safety passed law, mandating that mines have an emergency exit and ventilation. November Woman’s Christian Barred from traditional politics, groups such as the Woman’s 1874 Temperance Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) allow women a public Union founded platform to participate in issues of the day. Under the leadership of Frances Willard, the WCTU supports a national Prohibition political party and, by 1890, counts 150,000 members. February 4, Interstate The Interstate Commerce Act creates the Interstate Commerce 1887 Commerce act Commission to address price-fixing in the railroad industry. The passed Act is amended over the years to monitor new forms of interstate transportation, such as buses and trucks. September Hull House opens Jane Addams establishes Hull House in Chicago as a 1889 in Chicago “settlement house” for the needy. Addams and her colleagues, such as Florence Kelley, dedicate themselves to safe housing in the inner city, and call on lawmakers to bring about reforms: ending child labor, instituting better factory working conditions, and compulsory education. In 1931, Addams is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. November “White Caps” Led by Juan Jose Herrerra, the “White Caps” (Las Gorras 1889 released from Blancas) protest big business’s monopolization of land and prison resources in the New Mexico territory by destroying cattlemen’s fences. The group’s leaders gain popular support upon their release from prison in 1889.
    [Show full text]
  • Emotionally Charged Autobiographical Memories Across the Life Span: the Recall of Happy, Sad, Traumatic, and Involuntary Memories
    Psychology and Aging Copyright 2002 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 2002, Vol. 17, No. 4, 636–652 0882-7974/02/$5.00 DOI: 10.1037//0882-7974.17.4.636 Emotionally Charged Autobiographical Memories Across the Life Span: The Recall of Happy, Sad, Traumatic, and Involuntary Memories Dorthe Berntsen David C. Rubin University of Aarhus Duke University A sample of 1,241 respondents between 20 and 93 years old were asked their age in their happiest, saddest, most traumatic, most important memory, and most recent involuntary memory. For older respondents, there was a clear bump in the 20s for the most important and happiest memories. In contrast, saddest and most traumatic memories showed a monotonically decreasing retention function. Happy involuntary memories were over twice as common as unhappy ones, and only happy involuntary memories showed a bump in the 20s. Life scripts favoring positive events in young adulthood can account for the findings. Standard accounts of the bump need to be modified, for example, by repression or reduced rehearsal of negative events due to life change or social censure. Many studies have examined the distribution of autobiographi- (1885/1964) drew attention to conscious memories that arise un- cal memories across the life span. No studies have examined intendedly and treated them as one of three distinct classes of whether this distribution is different for different classes of emo- memory, but did not study them himself. In his well-known tional memories. Here, we compare the event ages of people’s textbook, Miller (1962/1974) opened his chapter on memory by most important, happiest, saddest, and most traumatic memories quoting Marcel Proust’s description of how the taste of a Made- and most recent involuntary memory to explore whether different leine cookie unintendedly brought to his mind a long-forgotten kinds of emotional memories follow similar patterns of retention.
    [Show full text]
  • Culture Effects on Adults' Earliest Childhood Recollection and Self-Description: Implications for the Relation Between Memory and the Self
    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Copyright 2001 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 2001, Vol. 81, No. 2, 220-233 0022-3514/01/S5.00 DOI: 10.1037//OO22-3514.81.2.220 Culture Effects on Adults' Earliest Childhood Recollection and Self-Description: Implications for the Relation Between Memory and the Self Qi Wang Cornell University American and Chinese college students (N = 256) reported their earliest childhood memory on a memory questionnaire and provided self-descriptions on a shortened 20 Statements Test (M. H. Kuhn & T. S. McPartland, 1954). The average age at earliest memory of Americans was almost 6 months earlier than that of Chinese. Americans reported lengthy, specific, self-focused, and emotionally elaborate memories; they also placed emphasis on individual attributes in describing themselves. Chinese provided brief accounts of childhood memories centering on collective activities, general routines, and emotionally neutral events; they also included a great number of social roles in their self-descriptions. Across the entire sample, individuals who described themselves in more self-focused and positive terms provided more specific and self-focused memories. Findings are discussed in light of the interactive relation between autobiographical memory and cultural self-construal. When asked to think of her earliest childhood memory, a Har- The work of early theorists (e.g., Greenwald, 1980; Kelly, 1955; vard undergraduate wrote down the following episode that hap- Markus, 1977; Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977; Schachtel, 1947) pened when she was about 3 years old: foreshadowed the interface between the self and autobiographical memory. For example, George Kelly (1955) proposed that a per- I remember standing in my aunt's spacious blue bedroom and looking sonal experience must be supported within an existing self- up at the ceiling.
    [Show full text]