Going Beyond Normal Means

Improved Essays
As a Student I am enamored with the idea that my work should reflect both sides of the story as well as be fair and impartial to both of those sides in order to find the truth via my analysis. This drive for my work to be correct is the reason why I go beyond normal means in order for it to be as correct as can make it with the tools at my disposable. From this this drive I have developed a talent for finding key sources and information pertaining to my studies outside the normal means . In part I believe this stems from my unique experience of trying to study modern day military history while at a Quaker institution as well as that fact trying to study modern US military history brings its own set of challenges relating to accessing

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    A primary source is a document that was created at the time of a historical event. Some examples include: the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta, and the Mayflower Compact. All of these are documents written by an individual who was personally involved in a historical event. They are not telling us what other people witnessed; they are telling us what they witnessed. The primary source that I want to look at is a first-hand account of the battle of Lexington and Concord during the Revolutionary War, which was written by Lieutenant John Barker.…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Past Imperfect Book Review

    • 1504 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In Past Imperfect: Facts, Fictions, Fraud—American History from Bancroft and Parkman to Ambrose, Bellesiles, Ellis, and Goodwin, Peter Charles Hoffer, a professor of history at the University of Georgia and former member of the American Historical Association 's Professional Division, discusses the issue of professional and ethical misconduct in the field of history. Hoffer analyzes the four cases of Ambrose, Bellesiles, Ellis, and Goodwin, and notes that developments within the field of history have affected historians. Such cases of falsification and plagiarism were not surprising, but, in fact, “predictable, perhaps even inevitable,” influenced by the “always contested evolution of historical writing in America” (ix). Therefore, Hoffer has two goals in the writing of this text. The…

    • 1504 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    A Respectable Army: The Military Origins of the Republic, 1763-1789 is the third edition of A Respectable Army written by James Kirby Martin and Mark Edward Lender. The historical text depicts the America Revolution in a new light, while maintaining a central focus on the military, social, and political aspects. James Kirby Martin is a history professor at the University of Houston and has authored over a dozen history based books. Mark Edwards Lender is a retired history professor at Kean University and has authored several history based books, as well. Martin and Lender have co-authored two other books (name them here).…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    John Fea attempts to answer the question posed in the title of his book, “Why Study History?” He answers this question in eight chapters that talk about the different aspects of history. In chapter one, Fea talks about the role of historians as “revisionists.” Though history can be revealed through simple facts, it is meaningless without a story. Historians try to identify the story behind the facts by following the five C’s: change, context, causality, contingency, and complexity.…

    • 374 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Secret Six Essay In the book George Washington’s Secret Six the authors Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger make the argument that the Culper Ring greatly influenced the outcome of the American Revolution. After reading the book, one could easily conclude that the Culper Ring was a needed organization. At the end of certain chapters, the author often makes remarks on the actions of the spies for example, “The quality of their information and the prudence they exercised in delivering it had enabled him [Washington] to both understand the plans for the British and take decisive action by not to risk an attack on New York.”…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    “Serving Time in Virginia” endeavors seeks to explainshow the importance of perspective and point of view in the reading and writing of history. A historian has to determine ask the question of whether a source’s claims and explanations are biased by the author, even if not done so on purpose. The author explains, through an investigation into the downfall of Virginia Colony, how a historian must remove this layer of perspective from the information to discover history’s secrets. First, the author critiques the commonly known story of John Smith, a man supposedly saved by Pocahontas from execution.…

    • 1575 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The essay The Better For My Foes written by Elouise Bell. Bell emphasizes the importance of opposition. Relaying common mistakes Americans and Mormons participate in deeming all opposition as pure evil. Bell draws a light on personal and intellectual growth that can be erected from opposition, but demonstrates the consequences of asserting it. Agonism In The Academy by Deborah Tannen reveals the weak link in the educational system.…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Chapter 7, Land of Opportunity, Loewen discusses social class throughout US History. For the most part, people will stay in the same social class for their whole life. If you were born in the lower class, you will most likely die in the lower class. Same for middle and upper classes. This is because of opportunity.…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Winston Churchill’s “History is written by the victors”, was accepted as truism. Anything that happened in the past, history, can be distorted, changed, and even disappear. This may happen by the writers (in charge) writing what they want to hear, rather than what has actually been said; this can be done for many reasons, including propaganda, or covering up the ugly truth. Howard Zinn, an American historian, for the allegations stated above, wanted to review history from the other side, from the viewpoint of the oppressors. It might be a valid idea, using a slave narrative as a method of gathering information to study history when discussing the Slave Era.…

    • 1267 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Freedom Riders is one example where the truth was either hidden or revealed through the news. Bias where strong in the south where people were segregated meaning that African Americans were usually passed off as troublemakers compared to others who saw the acts of segregation an act of cruelty. The trick to get pass bias is to interpreting the document to discover what is fact and what is fiction. It would deem best for one to gather multiple primary source documents such as first hand accounts. The civil rights movement known as the Freedom Riders was portrayed in both poor and elaborate ways in the news making it a prime case to be interpreted and to find the truth.…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    His materials and his process and all his apparatus exist to enable him to show how a given event came to take place.” In other words, Butterfield writes with the purpose that historians should explain with historical facts rather than to prove who is right and try to push their own personal agenda to interpreting historical…

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Next To Normal

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I would love to direct is Next to Normal, a musical by Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt. It follows a family as they navigate through the mother’s struggle with bipolar disorder and depicts the various ways mental health affects us all, directly or indirectly. I am attracted to this piece for several reasons, the main one being how each character reacts and approaches their mental health. If I were to direct this piece I would use Gabe as a manifestation of mental illness and use his interactions with the other characters to illustrate some of the ways people address, coop, and struggle with their mental health.…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Normal Life Summary

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In Dean Spade’s book Normal Life, healthcare justice and systemic issues regarding gendered treatment and access to healthcare are discussed in depth, with a focus specifically on the effects of injustice and inaccessibility to transgender and intersex individuals. Normal Life was extremely personal in terms of the subject matter, which made it difficult to read through; however, I found myself nodding along as he outlined and went into detail on the various mechanisms surrounding the discrimination of people like me. The actions being made currently by neoliberal social and political movements are not enough to achieve the goals that trans political activists strive for, nor do they make much progress in doing so. However, they are much more…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Reflection Essay Taking English 105 has made me grow as a writer. I have learned an extensive amount of information about writing papers, critiquing papers, and editing papers. I have gained new writing skills on top improving my basic writing skills. Working with people and having my paper critiqued by classmates has also impacted my writing.…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I was always told that an essay is developed around a thesis statement and resources that support my opinions about a prompt. I realized that there was more to an essay when I came across scholarly writing, which is writing on a higher level, usually one which we come across during college. It meets high standards of communication with outlines, tone, deductive reasoning, format, and way of analytical approach. It has a consistent way of delivering thoughts, shaping arguments, and narrowing down the subject to explain the main idea. With scholarly writing, students must express their thoughts through thesis statements, and develop an argument with their own thinking, not minding to be objective to clear any chance of bias.…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays