Technology

On Shaky Ground

The Precarious Arguments of Thomas Prince and John Winthrop Over Earthquakes, Lightning Rods, and God

By Gwen Hochman | comments |

In the aftermath of the 1755 New England earthquake, preacher Thomas Prince and professor John Winthrop engaged in a four-month public dispute about the causes of earthquakes and the effectiveness of lightening rods.  Historians have traditionally characterized their disagreement as battle between science and religion, but this paper traces the conflict instead to a fundamental difference in the two men’s personal theologies.  Prince’s conception of a wrathful god and Winthrop’s belief in a more benevolent deity generated the contrasting visions for public welfare evident in their sermons, lectures, and newspaper submissions.

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Constructing the “People’s Music”:

The Federal Music Project, Nationalism and the New Deal, 1935-1939

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In this paper John Gronbeck-Tedesco evaluates the role of the Federal Music Project in promoting Depression-era nationalism during the New Deal’s program of recovery and relief. Drawing upon arguments by Eric Hobsbawm and Benedict Anderson regarding the nature of nationalism, this discussion posits that the U.S. government’s state-sponsored music project was infused with a nationalist discourse that promoted the creation of American folk and American classical music and was tied to notions of democracy, economic prosperity, and multiracial solidarity. Thus, while scholars often distance the U.S. government from the field of American cultural production, Gronbeck-Tedesco argues that the Federal Music Project offers one instance when engineering of the state was directly involved in America’s cultural industries.

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