The vivid accounts reveal astonishing racial discrimination in America’s journey to justice and liberty for all. The massacre of Wilmington was just one of the numerous historic events that Tyson mentioned in his book. In 1894 the Republicans and Populist merged political…
However, Dew’s audience is likely not the general American public, for that is too vague of an audience and it would be nearly impossible for his book to have that wide a reach. It is more likely that Dew wrote this book for historical scholars, teachers of American history, and students, like me, who are all much more likely to read this book. The proof of his audience is evident in how he discusses and describes the events in the South leading to the Civil War. He does not inject his own opinion into his book, but instead takes an impartial stance letting the quotes and the historical evidence speak for itself. All of this points back to an informed and educated audience, caught up in a heated debate over our nation’s…
Professor Alan Taylor’s topic in the first page of the essay is how the founding fathers, like many Americans at the time, clashed on many issues. He uses combative diction to not only suggest, but to force readers to understand that the parties clashed. He denounced the “mythic” misconception of the unity of the founding fathers to “violent” “enemies” in order to show his readers how cutthroat politics were back then. The way he would quote people would only include their party affiliation, which further deepens the gorge that divides the parties at the time.…
The 5000 Year Leap by Cleon Skousen analyzes the 28 principles that the Founding Fathers believed to be necessary for peace and prosperity in America and illustrates how those beliefs perpetuated greater progress in 200 years than was previosly made in 5000. To America by Stephen E. Ambrose is a historian’s personal reflections on America’s history and the people who contributed to making it into the country it is today. By analyzing both books, one can observe where America upheld and fell short in meeting the principles that the Founding Fathers viewed as essential to the country’s success. One can also view where America has fallen short in observing these principles and the effect left on the American people as a result. Certain principles were more significant to the founding and guiding of our country and had a more considerable effect on America.…
Robert H Clancy spoke on April 4th of 1924 about the Johnson-Reed act to mainly the people of congress, while everyone in America who was being treated unfairly listened to what he had to say. He spoke about how this was turning America into a rubbish country that was going against it’s personal unique structure. He was questioning if America was becoming less American in a Robert H. Clancy supports his argument of racial discrimination in the Johnson-Reed act of 1924 by appealing to anecdotes, ethos, logos, and pathos. Clancy’s ability to incorporate his own experiences into his story is remarkable, mentioning multiple times of how he recalls this and what he went through. He vocalizes, “My family put 11 men and boys into the…
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.…
The United States of America was a nation built upon the notion of freedom and equal opportunity- in which all peoples have impartial opportunities and rights. However, these principles did not always have their right of way. From the first ship of enslaved African Americans to arrive in the early seventeenth century to modern times, discrimination and racial segregation has always been an issue. In both “Sympathy”-- a poem about a caged bird’s fight for freedom after being liberated from slavery-- by Paul Laurence Dunbar and A Voice That Challenged a Nation --a biography which spoke about Marian’s struggle for equal rights after she had experienced the harshness of the South --by Russell Freedman, the two parties faced the challenges of…
Prejudice and Personal Loss Prejudice is a preconception that is not based on reason and personal loss can cause an individual to lose hope of their dreams ever coming true due to adversities. Although prejudice and focusing on personal loss are avoidable, individuals tend to shy away from moral reasoning during difficult times. As a result, society can become selfish and divided. An author who shows this problem, is Judith Ortiz Cofer.…
Mason Owens Essay 1 The argument in the book American Crucible Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century by Gary Gerstle is conveyed in the introduction to his book. Gerstle writes about three different but interrelated ideas of America. The first part of his argument is the idea of Racial Nationalism and its importance in American Nationalism “Just as other scholars have insisted on the centrality of race…I argue for its importance in regards to American Nationalism” (12).…
When the Founding Fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, they did not know the period of great transformation their beloved country would go through in the next 80 years. The economy would flourish and then fall into a panic, only to be revived again. Battles would be fought over land, freedom, and money. Presidents would cause the United States to spiral downward and other presidents had to save the country from dying before it ever really lived. These were the years of several reform movements like the Second Great Awakening and education reform.…
If it is true that tragedies come in threes, then the death of American democracy is surely inevitable. The trio is affecting this nation is evangelical, paternalistic and sentimental nihilism; a toxic combination of institutionalized practices and behaviors that perpetuate systemic racism and imperialism. The threads of nihilism were woven into the fabric of America since the values of the nation were conceived in the Constitution. The architects of this paramount document set a precedence for faulty democratic tradition as they struggled to consolidate the assertion that “all men are created equal” while simultaneously deeming slaves to be worth three-fifths of a person. Much like the slaveholding land capitalists, America’s contemporary…
Since the beginning of American history power relations have played a very important aspect within the country’s development. From initial English settler colonialism spanning towards the American Revolution, a so called “multi-perspectival” approach must be taken when dealing with the complicated and intertwining stories each group of people represents. Various African Americans, Native Americans, and European Americans all conflicted, and aided, each other within the ebb and flow these power relations instigated. From these groups, several ultimately reaped major benefits while the remainders were simply cast aside. However, each of these groups played independent and important roles within the overall development and outcome of the war.…
American History: Through the Eyes of the People and the Land The 21st century has arrived, and yet our fellow citizens continue to debate among the premises that we should take on a multicultural society. Though, there are those who believe multiculturalism seems to have muddled the U.S. into a moment of mistrust and agitation, it is important to remember that our country was built upon the stories of those whom we now call minorities. Accordingly, scholars, activists and historians have eagerly persuaded educators to include a more complete and precise history of American culture.…
What is freedom? Is it the right to vote, the right to express your own opinions, the right to live your live as you please? In American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom written by Hanes Walton Jr., and Robert C. Smith, they answer and discuss these questions as they pertain to African Americans today. They explain how challenging the journey of freedom was and still is, “given their status first as slaves and then as an oppressed racial minority,” (Walton, 92). The book not only highlights African Americans usage of coalitions, interest groups and the media throughout the centuries to support their natural right of freedom, sometimes without prevail.…
A new exhibit in the National Museum of American History, in Washington D.C., called “Defining America: Five Critical Debates” has been created. This exhibit aims to show museum visitors what it means to be an American as well as how progress has been a reoccurring idea that developed the United States since the end of the Civil War. There are many different movements that define America; however, there are a few that show just what it meant to be an American and how the idea of progress has helped America develop into the country it is now. The Black Civil Rights Movement as well as the Women’s Suffrage Movement show how far the United States has progressed in equal treatment. Just as there is equal treatment, there is also inequality, the…