Research Log #1

Schrag, Peter. “The Old History and the New California.” Rethinking History 11.1 (2007).  

Summary:

In Peter Schrag’s scholarly article “The Old History and the New California,” he goes on to explain how California has improved, changed, and maybe even became a disappointment for some. He points out that during the post-Second World War period California had become a model for efficient public service, an inspiring government, and an opportunity for the good life. Schrag states that in the 1960’s when California outgrew New York in population an outburst of television specials and magazines were capitalizing on the fact that California was now the ideal embodiment for optimism and glowing futures. However, it is pointed out that the not so perfect side of California was always there. Racism, political corruption, labor violence, crowding, poverty, pollution, regulation, complexity, ethnic riots and competition from abroad are unfortunately all part of the ideal California. While generations and generations flew by, California has worked ever since to restore perfection. Tax limitations, spending limits, tough criminal sentencing laws, denial of services to illegal immigrants, funding for stem-cell research, minimum wage increases, and medical marijuana laws are proof that California is still trying. Whether we are digging ourselves a deeper hole is the question. Schrag focuses on the discussion on immigration. He states that “much of the spike of the past two decades in the number of illegal aliens in the United States, estimated at 11 million in 2006, has been driven by the increased efforts to toughen border enforcement” (Schrag 35). This is a main claim used by Schrag and he goes more into detail about how we can learn from previous eras to perfect the future. He also reminds us that we could be turning in circles while trying to make everything too ‘perfect’.

Response:

Some of the key phrases throughout the article are California; Population; Economy; New Society; Old Institutions. One of the claims I found most interesting was the first sentence of the article that stated, “In the past forty years, a radically New California has grown under, around and often over the old one” (Schrag 31). Making the distinction that California has changed is obvious but not many take the time to look at how generations are repeating the same common themes. It shocked me as I read further into the article about how he believes we are striving for this perfect and ideal state and while doing so we could be potentially ruining what we already have.

Next Steps:

I think Schrag’s overall look at how things have changed and progressed is extremely interesting. He does focus more on immigration and population than I would like to but I think a lot of his main points are directed towards my research question. I choose this source mainly because it takes a very general outlook on how things have changed specifically in California. Now that I have researched this source I would like to get more in depth about how the certain generations actually affect the next. We know that history has affected the present but I want to understand exactly how and possibly focus more on education.