Today I will be demonstrating my full understanding of historical events through the six lenses of historical thinking. My task was to pick a specific historical event that occurred in the 20th century. I chose the Valentine’s Day massacre as it has been featured in a few movies which caught my attention. After I demonstrated my understanding I created a visual representation of the lenses to further my understanding. Hope you enjoy!

 

   (The holy movie, The Godfather)

Backstory:

As the 1920’s emerged over the horizon, gang warfare ruled Chicago. The rise of the infamous gangster, Al Capone, was due to the newly placed 18th amendment prohibiting alcohol. The 18 amendment, aka, the prohibition, lead to extreme gang warfare over the control of illegal trade of alcohol, “bootlegging”. The climax in the gang violence was reach on February 14, 1929, where Al Capone order the deaths of seven men whom were associated with Capone’s rival gang. This man slaughter is formally known as the Valentine’s Day massacre.

(Picture of the Valentine’s Day massacre)

Historical significance:

Historical significance is used when to study events from the past to determine how significant and whether it should be recorded in history. When trying to fully understand the significance of a historical events we ask our selfs three main questions; 1) How notable was the event? 2) What were the consequences and were they widespread/lasting? 3) Has the events become a key symbolic trend or issues? The Valentine’s Day massacre was notable due to its impact on the city of Chicago. Gang warfare was at an all time high and controlled all importation and dealing of alcohol during the prohibition. Millions of dollars were profited and many gangsters and innocent humans died. Multiple consequence occurred after the Massacre, as stated above many people died. Also the downfall of gang warfare in Chicago started to decline after the dominance of Al Capone’s gang diminished, due to Capone’s jailing in 1931. The Valentine’s massacre has been a reoccurring trend in history as gangs still fight over control of cities and drug trafficking, and have led to many mass shootings. This rivalry can be seen in modern gangs such as the bloods and crips.

(Al Capone’s jail cell)

Evidence and interpretation:

Evidence and interpretation is used to determine an adequate conclusion to the event that occurred. When interpreting an event through evidence we ask our selfs three main questions; 1) Can we trust the source of information? 2) Does the source of information provide relevant evidence to the event? 3) Does the evidence support the interpreted event? When understanding the evidence, the source of information has to trustworthy otherwise the final interpretation will be inaccurate. The primary source that is trust worthy towards this event is credited to the The New York Times. The Times has been a reliable source of information for decades, so yes the source of information is trustworthy. The information provided towards the event is relevant as is summarizes the event, by explaining who was there, what happened and where it was. Finally the evidence supporting the event helps interpret and comes to an accurate conclusion to what happened as it is an unbiased source.

(Article of the massacre, one of many headlines)

 

Continuity and change:

When studying a historical event it is important to realize the changes that have occurred, if any. And whether any part of the event is continuous, as in did some parts never change. To understand continuity and change we ask ourselves 4 questions; 1) Have things stayed the same or have they changed? 2) Was the continuity and changes positive or negative? 3) How rapid or slow were the changes? 4) Did any of the changes mark turning points in history?
To answer the first question it would required a lot of investigation in gangs and would require more specifics to come to a adequate conclusion. To answer the question in a general view, no gang warfare has not changed, the only thing changed about it, is what their purpose is and what they do. The continuity changes are mainly negative as it gave prior gangs something to idolize about or strive to be. As there is no real change to gangs in modern day, they changes are non existent. As the change in gang warfare is not truly significant there was no turning point in history.

( A damaged brick from the massacre (looks like a big brownie))

Cause and Consequence:

To understand what the reasonings for an event is we look at the causes that may have provoked the outcome. And to understand the impact it had on history we look at the consequences that occurred. To come to a full understanding of the causes and consequences we ask the three questions; 1) What were the factors contributing to the event? 2) Would this event still have happened if the factors did not occur? 3) What were the intended and unintended consequences? The main contributors to the Valentine’s Day massacre were the rivalry gang that opposed Al Capone’s gang. This event would not have occurred if the rival gang did not exist, as nothing would have provoked Al Capone to order the murders. The intended factors of the event conceited of the murders of the rival gang. The unintended factors were not to get caught, although it happened a couple years later.

(From Scarface)

Historical Perspective:

Historical perspective is used to understand peoples opinions and beliefs towards the event in time. It is important to realize that a modern view and affect the importance of the event. To utilize historical perspective we must ask ourselves three questions; 1) Do you consider the event from a modern perspective? 2) What were the values and beliefs of those who experienced the event? 3) Did your modern view effect the way you looked at the event? Looking back at this event it is hard not to perceive the event through the current age values and beliefs. The values and beliefs of those who experienced the event are different to a modern perspective, due to the lack of comprehension to the circumstance. To those experienced the event may not of seen it as important as it is today because it is a reoccurring event for them. We can interpret this from the lack of importance as it didn’t make the headline on the newspaper. The modern view effected the way we look at this because we know the impact this event had, while those who experienced it were still figuring out what would happen next.

(The massacre was so famous that a movie was made about it)

 

Ethical Judgment:

Ethical judgment is considering whether what was done was right and fair, or wrong and unjustified. When understanding ethical judgment we must ask ourselves these two questions; 1) Are you using a bias ethical judgement while studying the event? 2) Are the ethical judgments reasonable or justifiable? When looking at the past event it is almost every time you will have a pre-existing ethical judgment. The pre-existing judgment could be bias depending on the outcome of the event. When looking at the Valentine’s massacre most if not all will disagree with what occurred. Justifying the pre-existing ethical judgment is near impossible as it will always be bias towards one outcome. When looking at the massacre it is best to have a non bias judgment and look at the perspectives of those who experienced the event.

(I made a mindmap demonstrating my understanding of historical thinking, click on it a couple of times to make it bigger.)

Conclusion:

Historians look at past historical events with these six different lenses, Historical Significance, Evidence and Interpretation, Continuity and Change, Cause and Consequence, historical Perspective and finally Ethical Judgment. These lenses help historians fully understand past events. This post is used as a demonstration of my understanding of the lenses and whether i could apply them to a historical event. I had fun writing this post as I was influenced by many movies that feature Al Capone, and found it interesting fully understanding what occurred on Valentine’s Day in 1929.