Posts Tagged ‘sfern299’


Thursday, November 1st, 2012

So far over the past couple of weeks I have made progress in my research. After looking into my primary sources more closely, I realize that my documentaries and interviews are even more valuable sources that I originally gave them credit for. One interview Fonda did with Phil Donahue has become my main primary source in understanding reactions to Fonda and her visit to Hanoi. I have found a new issue that my secondary sources do not address, and that is how uninformed the citizens of the U.S. were of what was happening in Vietnam. Some wanted to believe in their government and went against Fonda, and even some of the citizens who supported her really did not know what was going on. Few only knew the basics of what was happening in Vietnam.

Reintroducing my Primary Source

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012

For my project my primary source is Jane Fonda’s Words of Politics and Passion by Mary Herschberger. Working with this book as my primary source is very useful because it has all the broadcasts Fonda made during her trip to Hanoi. The challenge with this source is the fact that it only gives me Fonda’s perspective and Fonda’s words of what happened it Vietnam. The book itself does not give me the reactions people had to her during the time. But it does cite other sources that are helpful and they show where Herschberger recieved her information to collect the speeches Fonda made. My research has become more focused with this source because it helps me focus only on the week in Vietnam and how people responded to Fonda. I can read her speeches and see how they are worded and how she expresses herself and then I try to put myself into the shoes of an American citizen who would be hearing her words at the time.

Primary and Secondary Sources

Thursday, October 18th, 2012

When looking at the primary sources for my project I can see how they are connected to the secondary sources and also how the secondary sources may not always utilize every aspect of the primary sources. Each secondary source takes certain aspects of primary sources to argue their points. The primary sources offer a wide range of reasons why Fonda was singled out as a traitor. These reasons range from gender, to film, and to culture. The problem with many of these primary sources is that many are opinions of what happened and even Fonda’s own account of her trip to Hanoi may be somewhat biased. This is also influenced the secondary sources because they do not look at all the aspects of why Fonda was a traitor, they just chose one to look at. Looking at the primary sources and secondary sources together has helped me to focus my own research to expand the literature. By looking at everything that could have caused these emtions to happen, then the Hanoi myth may be able to have an origin.

Secondary Sources

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

For my project I could not pick just one valueable secondary source. I have a couple that are all equal in importance to my research. The list includes Aid and Comfort by Henry Mark Holzer and Ericka Holzer, Camp All-American, Hanoi Jane, and the High-and-Tight: Gender, Folklore, and Changing Military Culture by Carol Burke, A Political Biography of an Antiwar Icon: Jane Fonda’s War by Mary Hershberger, and Nixonland by Rick Perlstein. These books are all very useful because they address what happened while Jane Fonda visited Hanoi and the responses that came because of the trip.

In Burke’s book, she addresses the reason why people hated Jane was because she was a woman that voiced a different opinion. She was too outspoken for her time. The Holzer’s book takes a legal standpoint on what happened in Hanoi and why there was enough evidence to take her to trial. Hershberger’s book, Jane Fonda’s War, looks at what happened in Hanoi and how people responded to it in a negative way. And Nixonland, looks at the Nixon Administration and how it handled anti-war protestors and Jane Fonda’s activism.

All of these sources are very useful to my research because they allow me to have more than one view on my topic. They discuss why Fonda is believed to be a traitor and why people have responded to her the way they have. They either feel threatned because she is a woman or they feel a deep sense of betrayal coming from America

Note Taking

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

When it comes to taking notes for a research project like this, I have always been very bad at it. It is not something I find enjoyable to do and in high school I normally could avoid taking any notes. But for this project I will have to take notes if I want it to be successful. So far I have managed to skim many of the books for my project and mark them with small sticky notes to remember the places that seemed important. After this I plan on writing the important information down in my notebook. Each list of notes will be separated by which book they came from.

Many people have tried to tell me that taking notes would be easier if I would type them out on the computer, but to me that just seems like a bigger hassle. When I am reading something, I do not want to be distracted and with internet right beside me it would be easy to become so. Hopefully during class, I will learn some better ways to take notes.

Good and Bad websites

Wednesday, September 12th, 2012

This was a website that looked like it be good when I first found it. Yet, when I looked closer I realized it had nothing to offer. The author did not cite any sources for the statements she was making and had no credibility. She even stated in her bio that she was blogging on a whim.

The uncyclopedia website is great to read but not good for research. I came across it a couple of days ago and one of my friends told me to copy the page before wikipedia corrected itself.

This website is a good source for my topic because the man wrote the essay because the Vietnam war was something he was very interested in. He cited all of his sources. Brush is a reference librarian at Vanderbilt University.

Choosing a Topic

Thursday, September 6th, 2012

The topic that I am researching is Jane Fonda, how she protested the Vietnam War, and the reaction that came from the people about her. Why do so many people consider her a traitor to the United States? And did she really betray her country by protesting a war that was possibly hurting both Vietnam and the U.S.? My primary source is Jane Fonda’s Words of Politics and Passion, a collection of Fonda’s speeches put together by Mary Hershberger. As of now I am working on finding news articles about responses to Fonda’s protest, negative and positive responses. It should not be a challenge to find these articles because many people had negative responses to Fonda. Even now people still refer to her as Traitor Jane and Hanoi Jane.

I have also found many interviews of Jane Fonda about why she protested the war and why she decided to be an activist. The biggest challenge of this project will be finding enough reliable sources of why people did not like Fonda during this time period.

I have always been very interested in this subject and I feel as if it is my job and a beginning history major to find out why Fonda’s visit to Hanoi caused so much problems.

Why am I a History Major?

Thursday, August 30th, 2012

For the longest time I thought that when I came to college I would want to major in English, and I guess, become an English teacher. Then I realized that English, though I enjoyed it, was not something that I loved enough to spend the rest of my life doing. Then I was stuck, I did not know what I wanted to be. At the very last moment before spring semester began I entered a History class, American History since 1865, and I fell in love. I realized what I wanted to be was a History major. Soon after this I told my mom and she told me that she had always wondered why I had not wanted to be one from the beginning. And then she pointed something out that I had never realized…that I had always loved History and liked learning about it.

I have always been interested in learning about things that have happened in the past and how they relate to today. Now I want to become more well rounded as a history student and hopefully teach others why history is such an important subject to learn. Eventually with a history degree I want to work in a museum or library. This way I will have access to people who I can help teach about the wonders of history.