Brandt, Anthony. "An Unholy Mess." American History 49.5 (2014): 34. Middle Search Plus. Web. 9 Oct. 2015.
This magazine article goes into detail about what caused the Salem Witch Trials that started in the 1690s and how it impacted the lives of the people living in Salem, Oregon. It also includes the perspectives of those accused, in addition to reasons why the accusers thought a specific person or group was guilty of practicing witchcraft. It’s an excellent source for gathering background information about the play The Crucible, as it mentions all of the characters in the play and how they impacted the Salem Witch Trials. Intended for history enthusiasts and the curious, this article from notable magazine American History is well-researched, …show more content…
The author explains how the people of Salem, Oregon accused each other of practicing witchcraft in order to give investigators the impression that they were innocent. Witchcraft was highly punishable back in the 1600s because at the time, everyone were heavily religious Puritans. Those accused faced severe punishment. Many were hung. Because this is an article for elementary children, I would only use this source as a last resort if I had absolutely no idea what the Salem Witch Trials were and was extremely confused about it. The wording of the article was childlike and mainly consisted of simple, choppy sentences. Although it would be easy to understand for elementary schoolers, it would be slightly hard for older audiences because of its constant explaining of basic vocabulary that we already know such as “jail”, and its simplistic style. However, it is a credible source because it came from Salem Press, a publisher of reference works, and it was also recently updated February 2015. Despite this, I wouldn’t use it because it wasn’t easy to read and did not provide sufficient …show more content…
It explains how post-war America had been plagued with a hysterical aversion for communism, stemming from underlying fears following World War II, the Soviet Union testing an atomic bomb, Mao Zedong’s founding of the Chinese Communist Party, and eventually the Cold War. Joseph McCarthy took advantage of the hysteria and blindly blamed people being communists and spies for the Soviet Union, blacklisting them. Republicans supported him until the 1960s, when McCarthy began investigating if army soldiers were communists. It was then they had decided it had gone too far, ending the Red Scare shortly after. The author of this essay shows the tension of the Red Scare and how complicated it was, as well as providing great, solid facts and figures about it. It is published under the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, which is a non-profit organization with intentions to improve history education. It is a dependable source and tells me everything I need to know about the time period Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in and how it has influenced the creation of the play. This would be my top source for finding prior knowledge about The Crucible before reading
This magazine article goes into detail about what caused the Salem Witch Trials that started in the 1690s and how it impacted the lives of the people living in Salem, Oregon. It also includes the perspectives of those accused, in addition to reasons why the accusers thought a specific person or group was guilty of practicing witchcraft. It’s an excellent source for gathering background information about the play The Crucible, as it mentions all of the characters in the play and how they impacted the Salem Witch Trials. Intended for history enthusiasts and the curious, this article from notable magazine American History is well-researched, …show more content…
The author explains how the people of Salem, Oregon accused each other of practicing witchcraft in order to give investigators the impression that they were innocent. Witchcraft was highly punishable back in the 1600s because at the time, everyone were heavily religious Puritans. Those accused faced severe punishment. Many were hung. Because this is an article for elementary children, I would only use this source as a last resort if I had absolutely no idea what the Salem Witch Trials were and was extremely confused about it. The wording of the article was childlike and mainly consisted of simple, choppy sentences. Although it would be easy to understand for elementary schoolers, it would be slightly hard for older audiences because of its constant explaining of basic vocabulary that we already know such as “jail”, and its simplistic style. However, it is a credible source because it came from Salem Press, a publisher of reference works, and it was also recently updated February 2015. Despite this, I wouldn’t use it because it wasn’t easy to read and did not provide sufficient …show more content…
It explains how post-war America had been plagued with a hysterical aversion for communism, stemming from underlying fears following World War II, the Soviet Union testing an atomic bomb, Mao Zedong’s founding of the Chinese Communist Party, and eventually the Cold War. Joseph McCarthy took advantage of the hysteria and blindly blamed people being communists and spies for the Soviet Union, blacklisting them. Republicans supported him until the 1960s, when McCarthy began investigating if army soldiers were communists. It was then they had decided it had gone too far, ending the Red Scare shortly after. The author of this essay shows the tension of the Red Scare and how complicated it was, as well as providing great, solid facts and figures about it. It is published under the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, which is a non-profit organization with intentions to improve history education. It is a dependable source and tells me everything I need to know about the time period Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in and how it has influenced the creation of the play. This would be my top source for finding prior knowledge about The Crucible before reading