Response to week 4 posts

I was really pleased to read all of your blog posts this week. You've all clearly narrowed down your topics considerably within your larger fields of interest. As you know, tomorrow Ben Stone will be in class and will help all of you individually in locating primary sources based on these posts. Hopefully, this will solve some of the problems cited in the "troubleshooting" portion of the assignment.

In the meantime, a few comments:

Matt--I think that the idea of comparing the rhetoric of people writing in different colonies is a good one though access to sources may be a limiting factor to how extensively this can be done. I'd also caution that you see to be suggesting in your post that the rhetoric of slavery differs from the "true feelings" of revolutionary era writers. This may be so, but don't assume that rhetoric is divorced from private beliefs. Make sure to take the published writing that you read seriously, even where you believe that authors are exaggerating or stretching a metaphor to make a greater impact.
Andrea--It will probably be possible to find some media that contains comedy routines. Audience reaction may be more difficult, but I would worry less about being able to find at least some comedy routines. It will probably be necessary though for you to limit yourself to fewer comedians in order to make the source load more manageable. You might even just pick one or two comedians to work on. Since you mentioned separating male and female comedy, you might think about picking one female comedian or a couple of female comedians and thinking about how gender informs their views on the black family and marriage.
Chris--Since you are focusing at least in part of the earthquake and on cultural matters, you'll probably find a wealth of sources. I don't think it will be much of a hindrance for you to not read Chinese, but as always it entails reading sources carefully and understanding that many of the sources will be not so much about Chinese American culture but about how white people encounter and interpret this culture. Now, part of the question then becomes how this interpretation changes (or doesn't) in response to the dislocations caused by the earthquake. I'll be interested to see in particular what sources you can find at special collections at Stanford given that you've already worked through many of the resources on campus. It could really illustrate what kind of information a new angle or question can reveal even when it seems that you've found almost everything.
Sylvie--It occurred to me while reading your post that the Hoover also has papers of some prominent Jewish conservatives active in the 1960s and 1970s. Although this clearly isn't exactly where you're going, perhaps it would interest you to look through some of these papers to see how they encounter conservativism through the lens of their religious beliefs. Perhaps some of them also published articles in the National Review? Also, both you and Tom should read the book A Time for Choosing by Jonathan Schoenwald.
Tom--See the above book recommendation in Jenni's comments. Focusing on women is a great idea. Though you might not be able to find specific information about the migrations of many of these women, you probably will be able to find organizations or campaigns that were run predominantly by women or that concerned "women's issues." In addition to the above book recommendation, I'd also see Thomas Edsall and Mary Edsall, Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights and Taxes on American Politics. It has more information on busing and other issues that conservative women took up in large numbers.
Jenni--I won't say much since we spoke about this to some degree already. I'll just reiterate that images of the "new woman" may be both illustrative about what she is and what she is not. Images directed towards older women, who presumably are not "new women," can tell just as much about womanhood and contradictions that resulted from the cultural shift.
Alice--The story of how the Pinkertons became a large private police force in the late 19th century is one that I suspect has a great deal of regional variation. In other words, the history of the Pinkertons in the Bay Area will probably look very different from the history of the Pinkertons on the east coast. That said, I think even looking at once piece of the larger Pinkerton machine tie in to the narrative that you've laid out of the growth of private police action and violence for profit. I believe this has been said already, but I'd also point out that you're right to point out that the ethnicity of the Pinkertons and of the people who were the victims of their attention will be a factor in your analysis given that there may be conflicts between more newly arrived Irish, Italian, Eastern/Southern European and more established whites.