Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Isabella Bird

The book that Isabella Bird wrote Six Months in the Sandwich Islands, this book gave readers vivid pictures of the geology and also it introduced them to a new culture. This book talked about Isabella's journey in Hawaii, she climbed to the tops of volcanoes and visited the rain forests. The book gave a deeper understanding to the cultural which is essential. I mentioned in my last blog that the idea of Europeans being superior than other races was an idea that was held very highly in the Western. However Isabella was able to go against this idea because she had the experiance. She traveled to these places like Hawaii and learned about the people and their culture. There was more to them than Europeans saw and she was able to see it. Isabella didn't start the idea of all humans from different races are equal but she was one of many who set this idea in motion. Along with this her books uncovered places and "worlds" that they didn't know of. In Africa the Westerners colonized them but here she saw them in their natural life styles, she allowed the people to be themselves which uncovered these "barbarians" for what they really were.

Levin, Ruth. "Splendid Possibilities: Isabella Bird Visits Hawai'i in 1874." OAH Magazine of History. JSTOR. < search="yes&term=" term="Isabella&list=" searchuri="%2Faction%2FdoAdvancedSearch%3Fq0%3DIsabella%2BBird%26f0%3Dall%26c0%3DAND%26q1%3D%26f1%3Dall%26c1%3DAND%26q2%3D%26f2%3Dall%26c2%3DAND%26q3%3D%26f3%3Dall%26wc%3Don%26Search%3DSearch%26ar%3Don%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26la%3D%26jo%3D%26dc.History%3DHistory&item=" ttl="264&returnArticleService="> (Dec 2, 2009).

1 comment:

  1. Its amazing that at the time period a woman was able to travel halfway around the world to conduct research and be an actual world documenter. WHat was the public's response to Isabella's book? It seems as though there were two controversial things about it. The first being that it was written by a woman and women at the time did not hold as much respect being researchers as men. Also her idea of races being equal strongly condraticted the current belief that Europeans were the superior race. HOw did Europe respond to such a remarkable woman?

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