Rouleau Take-home Writing Assignment Template

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Old Dominion University *

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History

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Apr 3, 2024

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NAME: Josh Flood HIST 353 Short Take-Home Writing Assignment Brian Rouleau, “Childhood’s Imperial Imagination: Edward Stratemeyer’s Fiction Factory and the Valorization of American Empire,” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 7, no. 4 (Oct. 2008): 479-512. DUE : Tuesday, Jan. 30 by the beginning of class. INSTRUCTIONS : Save this Microsoft Word document template to your computer and type your response below the reading question, under “Your Response.” Your answer should be just about 300 words, which is not a lot, so choose your words carefully by being concise and precise. Express your thoughts in your own words and write in complete sentences. No citations are necessary. Your goal is to demonstrate that you have actively read the text, understand the reading, and thought critically about the author’s main arguments and questions. Use specific examples from the reading to consider or answer the reading question. Once you complete your response, upload your response as a Microsoft Word document (.dox or docx) and submit it to Canvas under the Week 4 Module. Reading Question : How did juvenile books, such as the series produced by Statemeyer, portray American youth and people in Asia and Latin America, and what lessons about U.S. imperialism did these representations impart to their young readers? Provide concrete examples of the way Americans, Cubans, and Filipinos were represented in these books. Your Response : In Stratemeyer’s writings, the American youth, Asians, and Latin Americans were highlighted. However, there would be stereotypes present in their depictions. Through his characters, Stratemeyer promoted an expansionist stance throughout the Philippine-American War and the War of 1898. In Stratemeyer’s imperialist childhood fantasies, Filipinos or Cubans are nearly invariably viewed through the eyes of American boy heroes. They seldom speak for themselves. Native Americans are portrayed in these tales as little more than natural features in supposedly adventurous tales of journey to far-off places. Given that these tropical inferiors are frequently mistaken for wild creatures, it should come as no surprise that they blend in with the backdrop so effortlessly. Native American women were also degendered and objectified similarly to males. They lacked femininity. They are referred to as “fat, grim-looking wrenches” or simply, “women…” because they cannot call such immodest creatures ladies. The books made fun of Cuban or Filipino women because they are perceived as being unclean on the inside and incapable of maintaining a tidy home or cooking good meals. It was clear how the Filipino and American cultures differed from one another: “In the one was an almost animal lust for combat, in the other equal courage perfectly controlled.” The Americans acknowledged their superiority over the indigenous on the battlefield and in terms of race, saying that they “need taming badly.” The disgruntled Cuban and Filipino nationalists had not yet realized that only the equally, if not more, skilled forces of the United States could defeat the highly skilled soldiers of Spain. But as Stratemeyer depicts it, unless they are devilishly cunning, native peoples accept their servitude to the valiant Americans.
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