Railroads and the American Expansion into the West Essay Example for Free

Railroads and the American Expansion into the West Essay The transcontinental railroad construction began on the West Coast in 1863. The Chinese comprised a major part of the work force that built the Central Pacific railroad eastward, over the high Sierras, and across the deserts of the West — to Promontory, Utah, where on May 1869, it linked up with the Union Pacific whose workers, of Irish, Scottish, German and Italian descent, started in Omaha, Nebraska. The railroad reduced the cross-country trip, from Boston to San Francisco, from six months to one week. When the rails from the opposite sides were almost a the point of meeting, the whole country listened in for news of Promontory. And then a cannon faced over the Pacific and one over the Atlantic went off simultaneously flashing a signal across the United States. Crowds cheered. There was a frenzy of celebration. It was an enormous event for the country. The famous Golden Spike ceremony on May 10, 1869 at Promontory, Utah, commemorated the completion of Americas first transcontinental railroad. The event marked the uniting of the country that had only recently fought the Civil War, and therefore had most special significance. The transcontinental nation became a reality (Williams 4) During the nineteenth century in America, the railroad represented civilization moving into the wilderness. As early as 1835 the U. S Senate discussed surveying the west to build a Transcontinental railroad. However, railroad technology had not yet developed strong enough motive power to cross the mountainous west. That great feat was left to the next generation of railroaders. During the 1840’s the phrase â€Å"Manifest Destiny† was coined to explain the growth of the United States. It was argued that the country had a right, a God-given destiny, to expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans and to govern all the land in between. However, the nation’s fulfillment of its Manifest Destiny or expansion had to wait until after the Civil War. In the meantime, the railroads increased the population of the United States east of the Mississippi and created a bustling economy with its rapid transporting of goods to and from the larger east-coast cities. Following the Civil War, the railroads made it possible for expansion into the Trans-Mississippi West to the Pacific Ocean. People in the area were assured there was a way to get their products to market, and to receive information and manufactured goods to make their work and lives easier. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the railroads merged vast territories into one nation by creating dependable economic, social and communications unity. The railroads linked California with states in the east, even as they helped the interior regions become quickly populated. Towns sprang up along the track around water and coaling stations for the locomotives. Many times, the men who laid the tracks purchased property and settled down on farms. Prospectors for gold, silver, iron and oil continued to push west to dig mines, pan streams and drill fields in Colorado, Montana, Nevada, and California. At the same time, growing cities back in the east needed more workers for heavy industries, textile mills, machine shops and garment factories and the need was met by migrating Blacks, French Canadians, and a new surge of immigrants from throughout Europe. The first Transcontinental Railroad has been called the engineering marvel of the 19th century, it opened new economies in the American west, while consuming vast quantities of its natural resources; it birthed one way of life on the Great Plains, and destroyed another. In the process of relentless American expansion into the West, the Indian tribes were largely seen as obstacles. For their part, the Indians regarded the white settlers began streaming across the plains toward gold in California and then nearby Colorado, Indians as a new force of nature — mostly a dangerous one. The white travelers spread smallpox and typhoid. The Indians faced it increasingly difficult to find game. Elk and buffalo, antelope was becoming more difficult to pursue because the people who came on the trains were also after them, either for food or sport. Even by the time Pacific Railroad construction began, starvation and disease had already wracked the Cheyenne, the Sioux and the Arapaho. Over the decades, the Indian tribes was severely affected by the encroachment of white settlers and the imposition of federal policies. The United States adopted a policy of relocating tribes farther west or isolating them on reservations. As many see it now, the federal Indian policy was characterized by one primary goal: pushing aside Indian tribes to facilitate the exploitation of the Wests bountiful natural resources. The U. S. Government began to make treaties with the Plains Indians during the 1850s to 1871. Treaties remained as the legal means to snatch Indian homelands away from them, though they created Indian reservations throughout the West. However, federal Indian policy during the period from 1870 through 1900 shifted the focus from creating reservations to gradually assimilating the Indians into the regular population. While the railroads were a symbol of the relentless march of progress, this progress exacted a heavy toll on many traditional peoples and their centuries-old cultures which were alien to its ways. Reference: Williams, John Hoyt. A Great Shining Road: The Epic Story of the Transcontinental Railroad. Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press. 1988.

The Book of the Duchess, the Parliament of Fowls, and the House of Fame

The Book of the Duchess, the Parliament of Fowls, and the House of Fame The Parliament of Fowls and the House of Fame are closely related to each other and to the Book of the Duchess, as all three of the poetry share several similar themes. Written between 1368 and 1380 they are some of Chaucer’s earliest works in which aspects of some of the great writers of his time are evident. There are three major themes intertwined within the three works, which Chaucer has added to the Dream Vision genre. The first work, possibly written from 1368-1372, the Book of the Duchess begins with the love-sick narrator finally falling asleep as he reads the sad love story of Seys and Alcyone (originally written by Ovid). He dreams that he is in bed early in the morning, then out hunting in the forest. He follows a dog down a path and finds a knight dressed in black who laments the loss of his lady. The narrator forces the knight to tell him about her, eventually learning that she is dead. The other hunters reappear, a bell strikes, and the narrator awakes. Written in the late 1370’s, the House of Fame consists of three books, and unfortunately is incomplete. A short prologue on dreams and an invocation to sleep precedes book one, which tells of the narrator’s visit to the Temple of Glass where he finds images, suggested by book four and other parts of Virgil’s Aeneid. Seized by a chatty golden eagle at the start of book two, he is carried up into the House of Fame, which is located in the heavens. There he sees, during book three, images of famous writers; in particular he sees how arbitrary Fame is. Beside the House of Fame he sees the Labyrinth, representing all the complexity of human existence. â€Å"A man of gret auctorite† (H... ...ay. Through the use of several references to famous texts, Chaucer helped explain his poetry to his audience at the time and to us now. Sources Cited Anthony. â€Å"http://www.sogang.ac.kr/~anthony/books/Med4.htm†http://www.sogang.ac.kr/~anthony/books/Med4.htm (3 May, 2003) Boitani, Piero. The Cambridge Chaucer Companion. ed. Boitani, Piero & Mann, Jill. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Psonak, Kevin. â€Å"The Geoffrey Chaucer Website Homepage† Mar 5, 2003. http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/ (3 May, 2003) Robinson, F.N., ed. The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1961. Stanbury, Sarah. â€Å"Prior† http://www.holycross.edu/departments/english/sstanbur/Prior.htm (3 May, 2003) Thundy, Zacharias P.. â€Å"THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESS: AN ELEGY OR ATEDEUM?† http://www.nd.edu/~zthundy/BD.html (3 May, 2003) Lohr 1 The Book of the Duchess, the Parliament of Fowls, and the House of Fame The Book of the Duchess, the Parliament of Fowls, and the House of Fame The Parliament of Fowls and the House of Fame are closely related to each other and to the Book of the Duchess, as all three of the poetry share several similar themes. Written between 1368 and 1380 they are some of Chaucer’s earliest works in which aspects of some of the great writers of his time are evident. There are three major themes intertwined within the three works, which Chaucer has added to the Dream Vision genre. The first work, possibly written from 1368-1372, the Book of the Duchess begins with the love-sick narrator finally falling asleep as he reads the sad love story of Seys and Alcyone (originally written by Ovid). He dreams that he is in bed early in the morning, then out hunting in the forest. He follows a dog down a path and finds a knight dressed in black who laments the loss of his lady. The narrator forces the knight to tell him about her, eventually learning that she is dead. The other hunters reappear, a bell strikes, and the narrator awakes. Written in the late 1370’s, the House of Fame consists of three books, and unfortunately is incomplete. A short prologue on dreams and an invocation to sleep precedes book one, which tells of the narrator’s visit to the Temple of Glass where he finds images, suggested by book four and other parts of Virgil’s Aeneid. Seized by a chatty golden eagle at the start of book two, he is carried up into the House of Fame, which is located in the heavens. There he sees, during book three, images of famous writers; in particular he sees how arbitrary Fame is. Beside the House of Fame he sees the Labyrinth, representing all the complexity of human existence. â€Å"A man of gret auctorite† (H... ...ay. Through the use of several references to famous texts, Chaucer helped explain his poetry to his audience at the time and to us now. Sources Cited Anthony. â€Å"http://www.sogang.ac.kr/~anthony/books/Med4.htm†http://www.sogang.ac.kr/~anthony/books/Med4.htm (3 May, 2003) Boitani, Piero. The Cambridge Chaucer Companion. ed. Boitani, Piero & Mann, Jill. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Psonak, Kevin. â€Å"The Geoffrey Chaucer Website Homepage† Mar 5, 2003. http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/ (3 May, 2003) Robinson, F.N., ed. The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1961. Stanbury, Sarah. â€Å"Prior† http://www.holycross.edu/departments/english/sstanbur/Prior.htm (3 May, 2003) Thundy, Zacharias P.. â€Å"THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESS: AN ELEGY OR ATEDEUM?† http://www.nd.edu/~zthundy/BD.html (3 May, 2003) Lohr 1

Relationship between Emotional Intelligence Abilities and Team Processes Essay

Clarke’s article seeks to use the emotional intelligence ability model to establish emotional intelligence’s significance as part of individual difference among team members and if it can affect team effectiveness. It is a report on a research conducted using the ability model of emotional intelligence to identify the relationship between EI and the transitional, action-based and inter-personal team processes aspects of team-work behaviours. The article also considers the base set by other researchers’ findings and theories concerning EI and its relationship to team-work behaviours. In this research paper, Clarke discusses several previous researches done, on this topic, using different models and then conducts his own research using the emotional intelligence ability model. The reason for this research conducted by Clarke was to have better knowledge of the nature of teamwork and also the factors contributing or underpinning team effectiveness, in order to help organisations the expected gains brought by understanding emotional intelligence abilities. This study also sought to establish the significance of perceiving emotion, understanding emotions and using them to facilitate thinking, and managing one’s own emotions as well as those of others. The Main Theoretical Predictions of This Study Clarke looks at previously conducted studies by other researchers. One of the things is that when the ability based measure is used there is positive relationship between the ability of a team leader to have an understanding of emotion and the team’s customer-service team-rating based performance. Another thing is that there is a negative correlation between a team leader’s EI and a managers’ ranking of a team’s overall performance. Another thing is that aggregated measures of team-members ability emotional intelligence show positive correlations with a team’s ability emotional intelligence and a team’s performance. Also, there is no significant relationships between the level measures of individuals, but rather noteworthy positive relationships between a team’s civic virtue ratings by the participants’ and about all the individual emotional ability scores. The other part of the previous studies is where researchers used the Workgroup Emotional Intelligence Profile, the WEIP. This measure assesses emotional intelligence using self/peer-report responses instead of tests based on performance. Some of these tests show a significant correlation between the average emotional intelligence of a team and goal focus. In other words, team members who showed they had higher skills and more familiarity caused a team’s effectiveness to improve. The studies also showed positive relationships between a team’s emotional intelligence and the use of differing collaborative and competing approaches to conflict resolution. One prediction is that EI will be found to be positively related to transition team processes. Clarke predicts that if relationships are examined a more direct way between EI abilities and the differing transition, action as well as inter-personal team processes already pointed out as important to team effectiveness then the potential role of EI ability in team effectiveness would be become clearer. In this case, EI abilities are predicted as directly affecting some of these specific team-work processes and interaction. Another prediction is that there is a stronger correlation between EI and actions, transitions and inter-personal team processes than between EI and individuals who are more oriented towards higher collectivism. Recognising the potential influence of emotion on decision making, problem solving, and creativity is a clear indication that EI plays an important part in team processes associated with formulation of strategies like the planning of tasks and allocation of roles and those related to goal specification. The relationship between EI and team-work behaviours which are associated with team processes can be moderated by a person’s motivational nature towards team-work. Collectivist orientation is related to team behaviours like individual input to a team, and a group’s cooperative team behaviour and negotiation behaviours. Higher efficacy for team-work as well as positive past experiences in a team are related to individuals’ self-report collectivism. Therefore, individuals’ collectivist orientations may show their degree of motivation for team-work. Consequently, there are interaction effects between EI abilities and individuals’ collectivist orientations. The Findings of Clarke’s Study Clarke’s study established that EI explained direct, unique variance in transition and inter-personal team processes as the two team process sets regarded as important role-players in team-effectiveness. But only three EI individual branches were of any importance, and they still were different in each case. Concerning transition processes, there was found a positive connection for the emotional ability only: perceiving emotions in oneself and in others. This was a confirmation of previous research that showed a positive significant connection between goal focus and team-level EI ability measures. Also Clarke did not discover any significant connections between transition processes and the rest of the emotional intelligence abilities, suggesting that the transition processes is the most significant emotional ability when it comes to contributing to team behaviour associated with this particular team activity phase. The ability of an individual to perceive and appraise emotions accurately is the most important when it comes to using and acting on the emotional knowledge. This suggests that team members who have greater sensory awareness levels can engage to a great deal of effectiveness in team behaviours like setting tasks and time-scales associated with means of achieving the team tasks. It was found that general mental ability is important at this team activity phase, but the ability of perceiving emotions accounted for 3% more variance to team members’ engagement in necessary team behaviour linked to this team effectiveness aspect. These two emotional abilities were the most important in helping team members to take part in inter-personal team processes, when they use emotions to facilitate thinking and managing one’s emotions or those of others. The relationship between EI and team-work behaviours which are associated with team processes can be moderated by a person’s motivational nature towards team-work. Collectivist orientation is related to team behaviours like individual input to a team, and a group’s cooperative team behaviour and negotiation behaviours. Together, the two emotions accounted for 8% variance, while general mental ability was insignificant. Surprisingly, no significant correlations were found between any of the EI abilities and team processes. These findings also suggest that where individuals in a team have a bigger share of outcomes in a team, or where are much longer team durations or work cycles, emotional intelligence abilities can affect team action processes more significantly. 7 specific context variables were found to influence team type. These included the temporal duration, basic work cycle and teams’ task structures. Another finding is that there is a stronger connection between emotional intelligence and actions, transitions and interpersonal team processes than between EI and individuals who are more oriented towards higher collectivism. The potential influence of emotion on decision making, problem solving, and creativity clearly shows that emotional intelligence plays an important part in team processes associated with formulation of strategies like the planning tasks and role allocation and those related to goal design. This research paper shows how simplistic the obscure assertions on emotional intelligence’s importance to team effectiveness are. Differing emotional intelligence abilities are related to specific teamwork behaviour, which become significant during the stages of team activity. The findings also show that there is need for much more complex structures on the relationship between emotional intelligence and particular cognitive, verbal, and behavioural activities in a team. The findings can therefore be concluded thus: EI explains direct, unique variance in transition and inter-personal team processes; only three individual EI branches, however, have any significance, and still, they were different in each case. How Organisations Can Make Use of These Findings These findings show that emotional intelligence is a significant part of individual differences among team members contributing to the effectiveness of a team. A team’s effectiveness depends on its team members’ abilities to perform behaviours that are related with specific processes at different stages of team activity. Individuals who have more developed emotional abilities in these circles will most likely make more significant contributions during such times. This may make team leaders’ role of allocating roles and responsibilities in a team less complicated. The instruments used to make assessments regarding these emotional abilities can help organisations to identify team members demonstrating strengths in particular emotional abilities. Organisations can be able to call upon those individuals who show high levels of sensory awareness that is related to perceiving emotions to play more important roles during transition stages while focussing on setting of goals and planning of tasks. On the other hand, those individuals with better developed emotion management abilities may be called upon to play the more important part of supporting the teams’ inter-personal team processes. Team can also be able to focus on particular emotional abilities, by considering more focussed developmental activities. Learning interventions that are team-based and undertaken in a place of work can help individuals in an organisation to use their emotions more efficiently to enlighten their thinking. If understood better, the differential roles of emotional abilities in the performance of necessary team processes can bring about development of more effective, focussed interventions. By identifying how EI is related to particular team processes linked with differing stages of team activity, organizations can be able to identify operational conditions of emotional intelligence. Emotional abilities were found to be directly related to transition as well as interpersonal team processes, although EI abilities were not related to action team processes. The crucial finding that EI abilities’ variation in inter-personal team processes are greater than for any other team process suggests that EI could be of far greater importance in teams where interpersonal team processes are by far more dominant. Therefore, selecting team members on the basis of their strengths in particular emotional abilities can help organizations develop more focussed ways of attaining more effectiveness in their teams at differing stages of team activity. These findings can also help organisations have a clearer picture when it comes to conducting future research. References Clarke, N. (2009). Emotional Intelligence Abilities and Their Relationships with Team Processes. Team Performance Management, 16:1/2, 1352-7592.

Humans do not seem to be comfortable with someone who has...

Humans do not seem to be comfortable with someone who has a different opinion and different views from them. Throughout the history of the word discrimination has been seen everywhere. Barbara Jordan says that â€Å"we as humans must be willing to accept and tolerate people who are different from ourselves. â€Å" We must tolerate everyone because they have the right to express their opinion. Intolerance has happened all across the globe, it has happened in the past and it is still an ongoing problem many people face. Palestine is a historic and diverse land it is the home of both Jews and Palestinians. Their different ideals have resulted in a conflict that has been going on for hundreds of years. After the end of WWII the government of England†¦show more content†¦He says that â€Å"I’ve been to many veteran hospitals and seen too many broken bodies of guys who have tried to protect it.† The act of burning the flag is an insult to the soldiers who have mutilated themselves while trying to protect their country. In 1961 a group of people known as the freedom riders set out to the Deep South in order to defy the Jim Crow laws that made segregation legal and prohibited white and colored people from being together in the same restaurant. Train stations had white waiting areas and colored waiting areas. The freedom riders were calling for change; they were often imprisoned for disturbing the peace. The freedom riders movement was spreading across the country. The freedom riders were attacked many times but what occurred on May 14 is one of the most notorious times. â€Å"On May 14 an angry mob of Ku Klux Klansmen attacked a bus full of people As the crowd of about fifty surrounded the bus, an eighteen-year-old Klansman and ex-convict named Roger Couch stretched out on the pavement in front of the bus to block any attempt to leave, while the rest — carrying metal pipes, clubs, and chains — milled around menacingly, some screaming, Dirty Communists and Sieg heil! There was no sign of any police, even though Herman Glass, the manager of the Anniston Greyhound station, had warned local officials earlier in the day that a potentially violent mobShow MoreRelatedLetter Concerning Toleration Essay1055 Words   |  5 Pagesof Government, and Letter Concerning Toleration (AR). In his treatises he proclaimed that absolute monarchy was not the proper way to govern. These beliefs about a monarchy started in him at a very young age. 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