Summary Of A Nation Forged In War By Thomas Bruscino

Improved Essays
Derek Catsman and Thomas Bruscino are distinguished and reliable authors who in two of their recent works- addressed the past intolerance white americans showed towards a different race(s) in the nineteenth century. Thomas Bruscino wrote, A Nation Forged in War, to tell the tale of how an awful situation led America to gradually accept and appreciate ALL americans. Bruscino next applies this knowledge and analyzes how this unification happened. Next, Derek Catsman expresses his views about one of the most famous protests of the civil rights movements; the freedom rides. In this he reveals the shocking mistreatment african americans faced during the reconstruction era. Prior to this, not only african americans faced discrimination, this hateful feeling was toward every other immigrant with different skin colors and religions. …show more content…
Prior to 1935 due to the rapid influx of immigrants, america was large assortment of different racial and ethnic communities living alongside each other. During this divided time, that many americans were not accepting of those of other religions, races, and ethnicities. It was this diverse nation that many saw their young men off to the military. At one point there was some 16 million american men were in the military- the modern equivalent would be 38 million more than 10x its current size. Many of these young men who were put into a uniform and forced to depend on fellow soldiers from very different backgrounds not only for daily companionship but also for protection in

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    In his essay, “The Case for Reparations,” Ta-Nehisi Coates confronts the permeation of racial discrimination throughout American history and examines its lasting legacy in modern times. Using primary accounts and historical examples, Coates traces the influence of racism from the foundation of American democracy, through the Civil War era, the inception of Jim Crow laws, the Great Migration, and continuing to modern times despite continued U.S. governmental efforts to create policy that promotes equality and eradicates racial discrimination. Coates emphasizes the discrimination, racism, and hatred African Americans have faced throughout the various periods in American history, eventually concluding that the social, economic, and political…

    • 1382 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Contradictions In America

    • 2012 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Simultaneously domestically in the United States, from around 1860-1865, The Civil War was fought, largely due to the slavery problem (SOURCE). The aftermath of The Civil War created severe racial tensions in The United States which lead to an abundance of discrimination and hate crimes directed at African-American people. Both of these events occurring concurrently demonstrated certain contradictions within the mentality of American Society. As a society America was attempting to convert another civilization to be just like their own but in actuality, America was rancid with many issues, specifically those regarding race. This idea is presented in three paragraphs from an essay written by American author Mark Twain named, “The United States of Lyncherdom.”…

    • 2012 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Since the beginning of the Civil War and the 1920’s, African American leaders and writers have shown the different perspective of what is to be Black in a society that neglected African-Americans. African-Americans have been in the middle of a battlefield of discrimination, success, and opportunity among whites. Demonstrated in Literature African-Americans have used the idea of blackness and whiteness to show that African American still suffered racial discrimination after the Civil War. Exclusively, in authors who have suffered discrimination skin deep the idea of black over white is remarkable shown. These authors have made a significant impact even among themselves, resulting in big debates toward the definition of Blacks in the United States.…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    INTRODUCTION Even though World War II is seen, from an American perspective, as a heroic war in which the United States fought against fascism and for freedom and equality, the race relations in the United States did not reflect these noble goals. In this essay I aim to deconstruct the ways in which race relations in the United States perpetuated systemic racism and the unequal power systems that had been in place for many years. To discuss these points I specifically highlight the cases of Japanese Internment, Native American relations, and Jewish American relations with the United States government.…

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the 1950’s the idea of “separate but equal” continued to be a prominent ideology in the United States, particularly in the Southern states. It was not until after World War II and the Cold War that international concerns provoked Americans to rethink about the domestic issues about human rights within the country. The United States had became the leader in preventing the spread of communism to parts of the world, but refused to realize that segregation and the denial of human rights made the United States existed. The United States was in a way hyprocrite to the causes it was fighting for. In Robert F. Williams’ book, Negroes with Guns, he addresses the international concerns that influenced the strategies pursued by Williams and other civil rights activists.…

    • 1054 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Redemption, The Last Battle of the Civil War Slavery, suffering, suffocation… three words that will surely make emotions rise. It is with these words that I will begin to describe the eloquent writings of this book. Throughout the span of the book, there are two themes presented: the amount of devastation survived by the Negroes and the long sought after balance of politics between Negroes and Whites. It is upon this foundation that the author, Nicholas Lemann had such courage and intelligence to write of such great happenings that caused our mother country to become of what it is today.…

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As black suffrage lost political support, it seemed many individuals began to notice how difficult it would truly be to integrate the estimated four million freed slaves into society as an American citizen. In a lecture of Slavery by Another Name: The Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, Douglas Blackmon, explains how growing up he remembered being told about the infamous 13,14,15 amendments and how Lincoln freed all the slaves with passing of the Emancipation Proclamation. However, this is far from the end of slavery he goes further to claim this simplified version of the history regarding slavery is the same history people are taught and never question. This book focuses primarily on exposing the truth behind the true end to slavery marked as December 11th 1941 in the author’s opinion because, it is when finally anti-lynching laws took into effect and it became possible to investigate allegations of slavery and involuntary…

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Equality has always been a serious issue regards racial segregation in the South of the United States, especially in the Jim Crow Era. African-Americans were dehumanized and considered inferior compared to White Americans. They were treated unfairly and restricted in public places for their rights and resources were stripped. Based on the two autobiographical memoirs, Black boy and Separate Pasts, the authors have expressed their own opposite respective experiences of Blacks and Whites to show how the Constitution rights were overturned.…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Building Freedom: The Freedmen and Their Quest for Egalitarianism The foundation of the United States of America was constructed upon the corpses of Native Americans. Cemented by institutionalized white superiority and racism, African American slaves were the bricks by which were used to erect this great nation.…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Throughout time minorities in war have been a taboo for white soldiers. Ever since the revolutionary war, Black soldiers were deemed not good enough and cannot be in the same line as white soldiers. The fear of the black man all started when African American men tried to join the military and was faced with resistance due to the fear it would lead to the freedom of slaves. Black units were formed and segregation was prevalent throughout most of American history. These soldiers returned home and were able to show civilian life what they saw, and this pushed for a greater change in the military.…

    • 1246 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    African Americans have had a long and burdened history in the United States, beginning with the institution of slavery and continuing on to the widespread racial injustice that they persevered and still endure today. As we look deep into the historical backdrop of America we cannot deny that African Americans have had a profound effect on the character of the United States of America. They helped to change the face of not just America, but of themselves. They called out for liberty and equality wherever the opportunity had arisen; battling ardently for the proclaimed equality that the Declaration of Independence decreed. This fight has been going on even before the U.S. was formed, through violent and bloody slave revolts to passionate and…

    • 1303 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the articles in question, Barbara Fields examines the origins of racial ideology in America. She sets out to debunk the idea that “race is an observable physical fact, a thing, rather than a notion that is profoundly, and in its very essence, ideological”. Many Americans, including historians, ascribe to race “a transhistorical, almost metaphysical status that removes it from all possibility of analysis and understanding”. She challenges the notion that racialism was a natural, reflexive, response of Americans to physical differences (in this case, skin colour); and argues that these ideas derived their importance from the context surrounding them. Race as a concept has a very specific historical lineage- “Contact alone was not sufficient to call [race] into being, nor was the enslavement of Africans by Europeans, which lasted for some time before race became its prominent justification”.…

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Black Radicalism

    • 1529 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The course revolves around the various themes existing within African American history, focused on the emergent ideal of Black Radicalism. It travels through the various Black movements in history converging them and allowing students to recognize their relationship to the larger and debatably unresolved picture. Stemming from rise of racial segregation in the early post-slavery nineteenth-century, and driving up to the apparent triumph of the race in the in the early days of Obama’s presidency whilst still developing the question posed by the present status of African Americans because of the recent American elections. In the duration of the semester we have examined topics such as the “Jim Crow policy”, the historiography of modern Civil…

    • 1529 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    History: Research Paper Freedom boundaries had created extremities that lead to disadvantages: the elimination of black voting, the law of segregation and the rise of lynching throughout the many battles the United States had seen. With extraordinary demands and debates over freedom, industrial liberty held onto its greatest place for the freedom we stand. Where African Americans alone to succeed and are they alone now and have various times eras altered now? While the west and the east were doing well with campaigns, money and jobs, the South had its hardships to raise families. A current racial order had taken place after 1877 calling themselves Redeemers.…

    • 220 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    American Crucible Analysis

    • 1671 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Gary Gerstle’s “American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century” thrive upon the ideals of race and civic nationalism definitively shaping the American twentieth century (Gerstle 5). Racial divides impacted most conceivable aspects of daily life: economic status, social divides, laws, and even military practices. Civic nationalism is synonymous with patriotism, and a loyalty to one’s country of citizenship, an aspect constantly under question with an unsure government. Along-side race and nation-key American figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, and the prominent Roosevelt cousins, Franklin and Theodore shaped America’s policies and cultural attitudes for over half a century.…

    • 1671 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays