Practically Finished. Pretty Sure I Actually have a Thesis Now

I am almost done tweaking my paper.  It's looking a lot better than it did.  Finally... The presentations really helped me develop my thesis seeing as I wasn't the only one dealing with immigrants.  Thanks everybody!!! I hope everyone's papers are turning out well!! Good luck as crunch time comes!

Finally Done...

Whew...  That was quite the experience.  Working and attempting to practically re-do an entire paper before it's due... Pretty much worked for 9 hours straight to get this paper finished.  I'm not quite sure I like the way some parts of it turned out... I'm going to be changing and adding a lot of things in this paper.  Especially the core part of it.  I had a lot of background information which I put into it and because of that I feel like I didn't focus enough on the Lithuanians in the Meat Packing Industry enough.  That's what I'm going to focus on next... After a break of about two days from any homework and such lol.

Ok. Well now I'm off to study for an exam I have tomorrow... Hooray...

Almost done...

Well thankfully I remembered most of my information so these 9 pages that I lost have quickly been made up.  But I'm not quite done yet...  AWESOME.   I am not very happy with the way this rough draft is turning out, but thank the lord that it's only a rough draft and not the final paper.  I am going to change a lot in my paper, especially the section on Lithuanians in the Meat Packing Industry.  That's the worst looking section I've ever seen...  Maybe because it's 2 o'clock in the A.M. and I was already running on practically 0 hours of sleep... Well, back to work after this short five minute break.  Gotta love college and the problems it brings you.

Soooooo...

So it's the night before the rough draft of the paper is due, and wouldn't you know it, all I had left to write was the conclusion and intro paragraphs.  But guess what?  My computer decided to die on me while I was writing the intro... So I lost virtually ALL of my paper that I hadn't saved...  I now have to rewrite 9 pages of my paper... WONDERFUL.......  Looks like I'm gonna be up all night...

First Draft.....

Wow.  That's all I can really say.  This is a little tougher than I thought it would be, but I'm trucking along.  So far I've written about Life in Lithuania before immigration, life in America, specifically Chicago, after immigration, and what was involved in the meat packing industry.  I'm hoping that once I finish writing about all of my different topics, which include those three, and specifically Lithuanians in the meat packing industry, that I will be able to write my intro, which is bugging the crap out of me.  That's where I'm having the most trouble writing.  Even though I know my thesis is kind of like the main theme in The Maya of Morganton which shows the difference in life of the Maya from their homeland and that of their life in America, I can't seem to form any words around it to write my intro... :(

O well, we'll see as time goes on if I have an epiphany.  Best of luck on everyone else's papers!

Back from Chicago!

I just got back from Chicago yesterday.  I ended up going to the Museum of Lithuanian Culture, where they did not have any information on my topic, BUT they helped point me in the right direction.  I called a few libraries moments after leaving the museum, and I ended up getting in contact with a professor at Columbia College who specializes in the Chicago Stockyards.  I emailed him and he put me in contact with a Lithuanian professor at UIC who specializes in Lithuanians AND the Chicago Stockyards!!! How much luckier could I get?!?!  That was Friday.  Then on Saturday I went to downtown Chicago with my friend to the Chicago Public Library.  There I went straight to the archives and started looking for some primary sources.  They didn't have too many in the actual archives, but i was able to access the Historic Chicago Tribune there (I can't do it here for some stupid reason), and I found a good number of articles relating to Lithuanians and the meat packing industry.  So that was a plus.  I then went down a few floors to look for some books that I found on their online catalog.  I found those, but couldn't check them out because I don't have a Chicago Public Library card... :(  The next thing I'm going to do is try to get an inter-library loan for those books.  Hopefully I'll be able to do that.

Relatively successful weekend I think.  YES.

It's Been a While... (Pictures)

It's been a while since my last post seeing as I had a really busy week last week with my exams and what not.  But at this moment I'm doing my preliminary background research on my topic and will hopefully be posting some information on the blog later tonight.  But for right now, I'm just posting some pictures so that hopefully not only I will get a better idea of what my topic involves, but what everyone else will think.

This is a photo of the actual stockyards in Chicago.  It shows the magnitude of the meat packing industry in Chicago.

This photo shows an inspector going through the meat.

This photo shows men actually working and splitting the backbone.  

This photo shows an inspection area.

This painting shows the gruesome reality of working in the stockyards.

This photo shows men and women working together packing the different meats into sausages.

This photo shows Lithuanians in St. Michael's Parish.  This photo was taken sometime in the 1900s.  The sign translates to, "Our homeland has been destroyed, but we can still revive Lithuania.  Those who are alive, LET US HELP LITHUANIA!"

This sign is referring to when Russia invaded Lithuania from 1795 to 1918 and a community of Lithuanians got together and protested the fact that Russia took over Lithuania for no reason besides personal gain.

Lithuania gained its independence from Russia on February 16, 1918 when Lithuanian leaders signed the Act of Independence.

At the Library

So I am at the library right now doing some homework (a.k.a. reading The Craft of Research) when I realized that I could find some books to gain some background knowledge on my possible topic, Lithuanians working in the stockyards of Chicago in the early 1900s.  I found Lithuanian Emigration to the United States: 1868-1950, by Alfonsas Eidintas, where I saw a specific section of the book devoted to "Difficult Beginnings Overseas and Getting Established."  I also found a more specific book called Lithuanians in Multi-Ethnic Chicago Until World War II, by David Fainhauz, where I also found a specific sections on "Lithuanian Immigrants in Chicago," and "Lithuanians and the Development of Urban-Industrial Society."  Hopefully these two books will help me gain some background knowledge on my possible topic.

Since I had already done a research paper/interview on Lithuanians immigrating to the United States, and the first book mentioned, Lithuanian Emigration to the United States:1868-1950, wasn't that much of a surprise to me, I WAS surprised to find such a specific book relating to Lithuanians in Chicago before WWII.

After reading some of the materials from the books I will post what was included in these books for future reference.

Possible Research Topic

Being Lithuanian, as you can see by the wonderful flag that is on my page, I wanted to try to find a Lithuanian labor community where I didn't need to fly to my homeland to find some information on the topic.  After a long weekend of thinking, and nothing else, I realized that there was a Lithuanian community in Chicago in the early 1900's that was related to labor.  If you have ever read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, you will know what I am talking about.

Here's the general idea of the topic.  Lithuanian immigrants in the late 1800's and early 1900's moved to major cities like New York, Detroit, and mainly in Chicago.  There they were trying to find any sort of job that they could find.  At that time in Chicago, the meat packing industry was booming and the owners of those companies were looking for cheap immigrant labor.  This is where most Lithuanians went to work despite horrible wages and working conditions.  This brought the community together in a way, but I would need to do more research to try to find out more on the topic to see if it could even pass as a reasonable research topic.  That's pretty much it.

Beef Industry, Chicago, 1900

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beef_industry_panorama_1900_loc.jpg

Videos and Articles compared to In-class Movie

I saw a lot of similarities in the videos and articles compared to the movie.  What seems to be the general consensus between mine workers and their families in their small communities is that mining is just a job, and they need the money, because in most cases the families and their surrounding communities are surrounded by poverty.  The mine workers don't necessarily enjoy their jobs, but it's money in their pocket.  It also seems that whenever there is a bad occurrence in a specific community, for example the local mine explodes, the families gather together and pray and help the families who are directly affected by the explosion.  The families that I believe are directly connected are the ones who have had a grandfather, father, or brother lost in the disaster.  These families not only lost their loved ones, but also lost a great source of income.  The surrounding families would do anything to help the families that have lost a family member.  In the example of a strike or some other union related problem, the entire community gathers together to attempt to get what they want or even need the power company to give them.  A perfect example is that of Harlan County.  The people of this community all came together when the local mine was attempting to stop the local UMW's strike.  Everyone, even more so the women, were organizing ways to win the strike.

In regards to Blankenship's speech, he mentioned that American workers have the right to keep their jobs instead of having companies get cheaper labor in other countries.  Whenever he mentioned this, the crowd, especially the men cheered.  In one case, I heard a man scream "I love you!"

First Blog Post

My name is Julius Lietuvninkas.  I am a sophomore History/Secondary Ed major.  My experience with history is slightly limited.  I took a WRA class that was centered around history and we were required to write an extensive research paper where we had to interview someone who was affected by WWII.  This is where my interest in history is.  I enjoy studying Pre-, During-, and Post-WWII European and American History.  This time period is most interesting for me because I am Lithuanian and my family was directly affected by this major time in history.  If it weren't for the war, I would not be here sitting and typing this blog.  My grandparents had to flee Lithuania to escape the terrible power of the Russian and German armies.  That's pretty much it.