The Genius of Thomas Edison

The Genius of Thomas Edison: For many historians, Edison's greatest invention was himself. Andre Millard was one such historian who concluded that Edison was just as much a marketing guru as inventor. In fact, Edison's career signified the paradigm shift in American business history from machine-shop craftsmanship to large-scale industrial research. Since Edison was one of America's first superstar inventors, a cult of personality developed around him, which helped foster a kind of Edisonian mythology. He became known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park" after establishing his laboratory in New Jersey following the sale of his quadruplex telegraph to Western Union in 1874. Essentially, Edison's laboratory became an idea factory where trial and error reigned supreme over any systematic methodology. His famous statement that "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration" not only diminished the role of genius in the innovation process, but also captured two basic values cherished by most Americans: hard work and self-determination. Even after securing around 1,100 patents during his career, Edison always emphasized the notion of making life more livable. An example of this idea was evident in his 1879 remark that "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles."

D O U B T

D O U B T: When French philosopher René Descartes published Meditations on First Philosophy in 1641, he helped establish the rationalist ideology of foundationalism. As a distinct school of thought in Western metaphysics, foundationalism purported that all beliefs must be justified in order to be considered valid. And justification of a belief only occurred in two ways: first, by existing independently of other beliefs, i.e., a belief that falls outside the realm of existence, and second, by being derived from other preexisting basic beliefs. Perhaps the most famous basic belief that Descartes derived from his methodology of doubt was Cogito ergo sum or "I think, therefore, I am." As a self-evident axiom, this phrase effectively captured the true essence of Cartesian doubt, which by definition, meant ridding oneself of all the opinions that one had acquired over time and starting anew with a basic (foundational) belief system. Like Immanuel Kant, who came about 150 years later, Descartes primarily concerned himself with how human beings acquired knowledge (epistemology). Was it merely through sensory perception (sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch)? Or was there something more empirical to the knowledge acquisition process? In his Philosophical Fragmendts (1844), Kierkegaard criticized Descartes' Cogito as presupposing the logical idea of existence. In short, he believed the phrase should be reversed: "I am, therefore, I think."

Rachel Carson: Reacting to Experts

Rachel Carson: Reacting to Experts: Much to the American chemical industry's dismay, Carson published Silent Spring in 1962. Trained as a marine biologist, she voiced concern about the effects of DDT (and Dieldrin) on birds and fish (anything that laid eggs). Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, DDT and Dieldrin were widely used by American farmers as insecticides. They especially killed fire ants, gypsy moths, lice and mosquitoes (which carried diseases like typhus and malaria). In fact, these insecticides proved so effective that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) ("the experts") began large-scale aerial spraying programs over American farmlands. Carson believed the potential downsides (long-term consequences) of these insecticides had not been properly studied. Having worked for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, she witnessed the negative impact of DDT firsthand. And because birds and fish were turning up dead in areas that received aerial spraying, the Kennedy administration's Interior Secretary Stewart Udall began to pay serious attention to the controversy that Silent Spring had caused. But the mammalian toxicity of DDT was actually quite low, as its effects on humans were not overly noxious. The primary problem with DDT was its bio-accumulation, which meant it remained in the soil (and sat on crops as a residue). Therefore, Congress banned DDT in 1972, yet other insecticides with lower bio-accumulations simply replaced it.

On James Baldwin's Artistic Confessions

On James Baldwin's Artistic Confessions: When Baldwin wrote "All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique" in Esquire magazine in April 1960, he captured the essence of the artist's soul. But being black in mid-twentieth-century America certainly challenged Baldwin's artistic intellect. First, how was he to be taken seriously as an African-American writer? And second, did the United States even have a future purpose for African Americans? The last question, in particular, haunted Baldwin, as he could not envision an America where blacks achieved full democratic equality in the midst of a modern industrial society, i.e., affordable (suburban) homes, good (integrated) schools, middle-class jobs with fringe benefits, and access to public accommodations. In his 1963 essay collection The Fire Next Time, Baldwin offered his diagnosis of American race relations, which contained many elements of Du Boisian integrationism. He stated, "And if the word integration means anything, this is what it means: that we, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it." And although the prospects for racial integration were slim under Jim Crow, a black acceptance of whites (and their history) seemed the only plausible path toward equality. For most middle-class whites were still trapped in a history that they did not yet understand.

On the Early Black Church

On the Early Black Church: In April 1787, Rev. Richard Allen and Rev. Absalom Jones co-founded the Free African Society (FAS) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As two of the earliest African Americans to become ordained Christian priests, Allen and Jones used the FAS as a community outreach organization to help black Philadelphians satisfy some of their basic needs with education and employment opportunities. But after the turn of the nineteenth century, the FAS grew into separate African-American church groups. Jones and many FAS members joined the Episcopal Church, while Allen considered starting an independent Protestant denomination of his own. In 1816, Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Pictured above is the Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia, which served as the first black church in the United States. It specifically appealed to Afro-Christian free men and women who understood Allen's theology as a force of liberation. In other words, Allen saw his purpose in the pulpit as two-fold. First, he advocated abolition in his weekly sermons, and second, he spoke against the vitriol in antebellum race relations, especially in cities such as Philadelphia. Across town at the African Church of St. Thomas, Jones too condemned the evils of slavery in his sermons. In fact, Jones' congregation even petitioned Congress about the 1793 Fugitive Slave Law, which kept runaway slaves living in constant fear of being re-enslaved.