Continuing on the narrative from my last two blog posts, this comic features many of the old traditional stories from early American history. The real challenge was narrative arrangement. I wasn't sure if I juggled too many threads. I gave myself a stopping time on the process and this was a far as I got. As always, there's a lot more one could add to all of this.
After a long break on this blog I thought I would post a comic/book report on the Late Elizabethan Age 1585 - 1603. The Original idea was to cover the major historical developments that would lead to American colonization. The following pages provide details of many of the major players in the colonial project during the period as well as combining some different demographic and statistical information about the place and period. The pages detail a world perhaps more complex and unexpected than most American school children would recall for the lesson that period.
References:
I am not going to talk about every single reference I used to make the comic, but while try to get to the other ones by in a future blog post. I meant to keep things as is, as much as possible, and below is a little bit of commentary or interpretation from different sources.
The British Industrial Revolution from a Global Perspective, considers important elements that contributed to 18th industrial revolution. The book points to a high wage economy, emerging in London by 1600 and the availability of cheap energy (coal) by the 18th century as two key factors in promoting industrial innovation. Apparently it was the quirky fact that the English heated their homes with coal that led to other inventions that could also use coal as an energy source.
The impression this book gave was that the key unique quality was the availability of coal in the English midlands that, when matched with a high wage economy where there is an incentive to create labor saving innovation was the key to the Industrial Revolution. An example in today's terms is that there are two factory bosses: one pays her workers $15 an hour, another produces the same product but pays her workers $25 an hour. A new expensive technology comes on the market that will save on labor costs. The model would suggest that the factory boss paying $25 an hour would have more of an incentive to invest in the new labor saving (job cutting) technology. The $15 an hour paying boss might actually find more of an incentive to hire more workers instead of investing in the new technology to increase profits.
The Long Process of Development another fascinating book that I've been using as a resource is The Long Process of Development: Building Markets and States in Pre-industrial England, Spain and Their Colonies, this book investigates the very long process of state building in light of the US's endeavors in Iraq and Afghanistan and considers the theories of Douglas North and other thinkers on state craft issues by investigating England, Spain and their colonial histories. Like any state craft book it has a real-politic lens of history and the terminology used to describe state prerequisites are helpful.
The main point the book bring up during the Anglo-Spanish war is the contrast of operations. Elizabeth, in today's terms is somewhat of a mob-boss who makes deals with pirates. That was the name of the game. The book reveals some of limits of institutions in those bygone ages. The book highlights some of the assurances the public might benefit from that took a very long time establish, certain benefits we could be taking for granted. Commentry
I felt that around the year 1600 is a good comparison point for the two books as they don't exactly match up chronologically or on topic. One is focused on state craft, perhaps more the perspective the tax collector or those that have to ensure safe trade networks. The other is more about the immediate economic actors and entrepreneurs and concerns itself more with economic development. The comic to me at least throws out some historical projections on what are worthy indicators for a developing societies. My research, or the game I play when I put together the information, limits me to the information available. One interesting track of mind was how literacy relates to human capital development and trying to understand what that means in long term economic change from generation to generation.
I took a long break from posting on this blog to think long and hard about telling a history story. Inspired by cable tv, I saw a lot of coverage of presidents and commercials for checking credit scores.
As they say, What happens in Harrisburg ... no one gives a shit.
This comic was inspired by the recent Pennsylvania budget: Article here.
I am currently wrapping up what I hope to the first in a series of historical graphic novels. Having never taken upper level history courses when I was in college, all information was pulled together from my own research of going to the library. The process of research and illustration I fell into is not something I would recommend to anyone who wants to quickly complete a comic project.
The idea was to try an put together information and images from a more interdisciplinary or sociological point of view during a time period, this project follows the lives of the first generation of English colonists to New England in the 17th century, beginning at 1588, this being the first page.
Aside from drawing and gathering information I was left with having to decide how to arrange the information through page design. This may sound strange, but selecting the text and the images left me with my philosophical questions about what is the meaning behind pages, which can take a long time. Needless to say, contemplating relativism (that is how does this history relate today) drives me a bit nuts. My goal was not to say something about today, simply make an artistic interpretation based on what I read and learned about the period. But of course me, living today, is very much part of the process, and I needed some time to figure out my own footing on this historical perspective.
Aside from lining up different sources on the same time period, I had to choose what were going to be some of the relevant themes. From my own, very American perspective, I thought that economic history needed to be one of the important drivers of the narrative. The economy matters to most people. The difficulty in talking about economic history is that I sense many people are unaccustomed to talking about it. From my understanding, economic history is a history of complicated trade offs that create a variety of changes. It involves a discussion of wealth and class, which can be difficult for people to have unemotional conversations, especially if you're talking about fairness. Also most economic actions range from practical to shrewd to down right unfair. I've always said that money isn't everything, it's what helps me get through all of this stark economic information that involves the struggles of common people.
Little Ice Age - The early to mid 17th century includes The Little Ice Age, from what I understand, the jury is still out on how exactly global temperatures can affect a society. I'm not sure, but right now I'm considering the changes of a society internally instead of externally. Learning about different histories, there is a long history of aggression/war on other groups. Internal conflict is a different matter and I contemplate the internal stresses within a society or community when resources become more scarce.
Everything all at once - Going through the process I was able to find a lot of different perspectives on the same period and consider all of their relationships, but it is a lot, over all I wonder if I'm emphasizing the right things, or giving a clear enough indication that the finished book is more about giving people context, not a definitive last word, history never had a last word.
As bold and fearless executive director of The Development Committee, I have to say, sometimes drawing and learning about the colonial affairs of the 17th century depresses me a little. To cheer myself up, I went 200 years back, when all that violence and other human atrocities doesn't mean as much (right?).
I have been following David Crowther's History of England podcast for several years now. The illustrations above is my tribute to a particular episode. There are some other illustrations inspired by his podcast I have been trying to put together in an illuminated manuscript but not quite there yet.
I have been hesitant to post too much of my historical illustrations lately. It's not like people really view my blog, which is exactly why I work through it and share from time to time. Other wise I can just post dumb political cartoons. Learning history is learning a story from many different perspectives. There is a bit of anthropology to help give some humanizing perspectives, rather than just cold long-range facts. I forget who said it but some smart person said "Anthropology is studying two cultures, your own and the one that you're studying." Meaning that we compare and contrast our selves and our own culture to the one we are studying (consciously or not) a lot when we look at Anthropology - or so she says.
I like learning about African history and current event, but I understand that it can be a very emotionally charged thing for other people and that is why I want to be careful of what I say about the whole matter. It's still important to me though. As much as I would like to see the Kings and Queens of Medieval Africa as I would those in Europe, I know I am aware of the limitations of that. At least learning a name with a big personality attached to it is a beginning to understanding the diversity of culture throughout the the continent of Africa. I can at least know that I did not make up any convenient theories without acknowledging that sometimes that there are a limited number of perspectives on those topics.
I wanted to share some illustrations I based on that Tim Hashaw book I read over my birthday this year. In many ways, I liked the book so much that I had to question for myself if it is true or not. I would like to incorporate these illustrations into a broader historical narrative at some point, but I feel like I need a little bit more research before I go off publishing something I didn't put enough thought into. I might have to put my energy toward putting together an early history of Virginia after the one on New England that I am working on.
Also, when doing image searches on the Internet for references to illustrate, well ... I didn't like most of them. A couple that I drew just felt too much like stereo types of Africans and the others just showed the horrors of slavery. It's not that I want to acknowledge those things, but the questions important to me are not about that.
Hashaw's book is about the first generation of African Americans. After reading his book, I realized that my own Thanks Giving myth has gun toting Angolan-Catholic John Pedro at the dinner table. Pilgrims might know a thing or two about cattle husbandry but Pedro also has some tricks up his sleeve. I know, it's santa-clausie, but I'm sure it's not the first time approached history like that and I don't mind leaving it there for now.
I've been working on a history comic, it should be done soon. I made the mistake of listening to the news and wanted to make a comic about the importance of keeping guns away from myself, knowing me, I would trip on a pancake and the whole thing would be over. I know people say that a study would be just one more study, but the only thing we have to lose is money.
To be serious for a moment - If the United States wants to have a safer society with less gun lobbies, responsible gun owners need to be a part of the conversation. The NRA (in Washington) has shot down any kind of bipartisan study to even understand the relationship of gun sales and violence and how gun violence could be reduced, I guess that just have too much money to lose in the matter, and from an outsider perspective, tell common NRA members that big government that wants to take away all of their guns.
I have heard a bit of chatter also that the gun debate/gun control should include conditions on mental health in terms of gun ownership. There of course are no easy answer, hence why a study with broad support is needed toward creating reasonable gun ownership laws.
Like all creatures, I can error toward my extremes. One of my extremes is following the news. I am just one of those creatures that enjoys hearing debate and different opinions. Government, in concept, is meant to be the realm of mediating disputes. As a media consumer, sure I develop opinions, but seeing everything in terms of "yes or no" "right or wrong", "innocent or guilty" can only take someone so far in understanding situations.
Let's talk history. Historians sometimes (or always) look back at the past and days of old, historical understanding was relayed heros and villains. The Great-Man who shaped with your national history and the Great-Men who shaped your enemies, or other groups histories. The more I read about history, the more the concept of agency comes up. Now I don't know watch a lot of television, because I'm boring, but if you are familiar with television, you can understand the concept of agency in shows like Games of Thrones or The Wire or something like that. The story is less reliant on protagonists and villains in conflicts and resolutions, and more about see different groups with varying relationships and how those relationships change.
As a media consumer, I think it's helpful to have this understanding of agency. If there is one book I would recommend that really puts the idea of agency into perspective, it's Getting to Yes. As a media consumer and a voter, I want to try to understand the ecosystem of government more than place value judgements. The above chart is meant to symbolize the five stances one can taking when having to negotiate. I think it is important for media consumers to understand this concept, to understand the process and the dynamics if one wishes to imagine optimal solutions. I know it's just Animal Farm all over again, but I am not an economist, I want to make cents.
Explaining the chart - First of all, the point is not to pick a spirit animal and just act like that. The animals are simply metaphors and if inclined, you could make your own chart with your own animal metaphors that is much better than the above one. The point is to know thy self within the context of other people who have different interests than your own and how one can seriously consider trade offs.
The dark horizontal line at the bottom represents an agents self interest when it comes to making an agreement. At the bottom left of the chart (by avoidance and the donkey) the agreement between you (the agent) and your negotiated counter part has an out come with with a low value. The Donkey is good at saying no and the donkey is stubborn in my metaphor, the donkey can pass up a good deal because they had their mind made up before anything was even said. But the donkey is also prudent, cautious and know when to quit. The ostrich is an extreme donkey.
Running horizontally from Donkey we can pass by the lone wolf to the fox. The cunning fox loves to play the game. Foxes loves reading Machiavelli and the Art of War. The fox always thinks, what am I getting out of it. The fox understands the importance of knowing your (interests, rights and powers) and tries to ensure that they know much more than anyone else. There is no need fox bash, foxes are a part of the ecosystem too. What may be much harder to accept than the fox is the crab and the octopus.
Crabs are complainers who have no real plan for making deals, they only see in two dimensions and like everyone to be just as miserable as them. Octopus are conspiracy theories. New Books in History, recently did an interview with an author that discusses the history of conspiracy theories in America. Conspiracy theories are a very difficult topic and I thought the interview was helpful in understanding how an individual might think about it.
The vertical bold line on the left represents how much the needs of the agents counter part in the negotiation. The sheep is the ultimate accommodator. In a political sense, of course there are plenty of sheep parables one can draw on on how sheep are gullible victims of foxes and other predators. But let's not forget they're still part of the ecosystem. Sheep cultivate patience and trust as fragile as they may be. They need sheep dogs around.
The beaver is the compromiser. I had trouble picking out an animal for compromise, but we'll say that beavers are builders but they can see over the horizon very well. Democratic government requires that its agents know how to make agreements and compromises.
I originally put the owl at the collaborating agent in our ecosystem, but they are birds of pray, I suppose they error more competitively but also look far into the horizon.
I decided to have a tree of knowledge be the unobtainable win-win deal one would hope people are reaching for. The tree to me has more to do with knowledge than interest. Robert Wright's book Non Zero take a look at the history of non-zero sum gains. Collaborate is the best, but collaboration also takes a lot of work an investment. Collaboration requires mutual respect, intelligence to make the best strategic decisions and a shit load of struggle to make it grow.
Well, that is my political rant, an illustrative inquiry into understanding relationships on a high-stakes level.
A little sketch I did while listening to an interview with Edmund Russell on Evolutionary History.
This is a sequential illustrated tribute for Tim Hashaw's book The Birth of Black America. This book was an enjoyable read, I read it over my birthday, and I am blessed to have my birthday during Black History Month. I do have to say that some of the book has a bit of embellishment, or at least I wonder how Hashaw drew some of his conclusions about the personality of the first Malungu generation's different personalities through dingy court records. But a lot of what is treasure about the past is really just a myth we hold in our hearts. A strong recommendation for this book if you want to you know a bit about Black or Colonial American history and would like another unique perspective. So much of African American history is about slavery, or starts with slavery, that's undeniable. But can one have a conversation about these people beyond property and torment. The book doesn't ignore these things but certainly adds from a lot of dimensions around it, in terms to the economic and political structure that surrounded these people. The information about cattle raising and economic contributions toward Jamestown were the most interesting to me. I think they should make it into a movie by 2019, when it will be the 400th anniversary.
Shout out to the one person who reads my blog, you know who you are.
I have been reading and learning a lot, especially history, and generating picture-paper-idea-things. The above image where some illustrations I did a while ago, that I arranged as a little cartoon about the conversation James Whitman had on the New Books in History Podcast. I think it's a worthy listen for anyone interested in trying to understand global conflict.
Some of what he talked about with the ancient history of declaring war reminded me of Herodotus, of course.
Anyway, maybe a bit of a rusty and arcane blog post but I just wanted to stretch the mussels.
The Link to the Episode
