American Character by Colin Woodard, is a book about America’s history and the upcoming of how the United States has become. Woodard starts off first explaining what it was like when America was colonized by the New England colonists and goes onward to present-day America. A book like this should be deemed great for a political history class because of the vast amount of information it has. Although, this book is exceptionally very small for a book of such kind, Woodard loves jumping around from era to era and can leave his readers at a disarray. Claiming so, a strong and prior knowledge of the American history and its government is strongly encouraged. Historical and economic terms are also used immensely in this book, so a thesaurus and dictionary would be of great use. If those two resources aren’t of much help, a recommendation of facts found upon the Internet regarding an era of which Woodard is explaining would be helpful. An example of how Woodard’s writing can become sloppy or leave his newer audience …show more content…
While Woodard states a lot of facts and has a lot of support, he has the power to capture the attention of his audience. That is, whenever he wants too. The first couple sentences and paragraphs were about the Pilgrims leaving “a war-torn continent” to find a new home and were used to grab the many minds of his readers. It would make them want to learn more about the American history by giving his readers a feel of the environment that the colonists had felt while being on board to reach a new refuge. The very first sentence goes, “It was cold, much colder than the passengers crowded aboard the Mayflower had expected,” Woodard uses adjectives and sets a mood already starting off and quickly explains the thoughts of the colonists as a whole,
Morison, Samuel E. The Oxford History of the American People, vol 1. New York: Penguin Books USA, Inc. 1994.
Tindall, George, and David Shi. America: A Narrative History. Ed. 9, Vol. 1. New York: WW. Norton & Company, 2013. 185,193. Print.
Each section describes the lives of the Founding Fathers, the events that took place after the American Revolution, and how they affected our American history. The preface is called “The Generation”; it is an introduction from the author. It is ultimately about his intentions and him explaining how to interpret and understand the events that happened. Each event needs to be understood exactly how he articulates it, along with the acknowledgement of how it affected our history and is interpreted today. He also reveals to the readers who the eight most important people are of the early American republic, they are: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Adams, and Aaron Burr. Ellis states that all of these characters knew each other on a personal level, and that they knew what they were doing for this country would be scrutinized and very critical. They were the generation in which precedents would be set and future generations would later rely on. Within each chapter Ellis shows the fragility of this country when we first gained our true
During the process of reading this compilation of works, Portrait of America, many different point of views were aired. The opinion or attitude on the subject was too tainted. The authors were very biased to their perception of the "story". This book could have been much more beneficial if the facts would have stayed to the straight and narrow. Only the detrimental facts needed to be applied to these chapters. For a history class, as broad as this, this book opened too many doors that could not be explained in as much detail as would be liked. Many of the authors enjoyed mentioning the most scandalous moments of the people's lives then dropped the fact without much support or follow through as to what happened to cause or end these events. Brief summaries only tease the mind, and with the course load of most students, there is hardly extra time to investigate the matter further in detail. For a class such as History 152, biographies and/or documentary style books are more worth the while of the student. For instance make a list of a selection of novels that could be read for the class, so that every student can then explore in depth what that student thinks is interesting. Although the book was teasing in nature the chapters did flow well and were easy to read. The procession of the chapters had wonderful transition as to not loose the student. While proceeding through this book there were several different reoccurring topics that appeared. This paper will discuss these two reoccurring topics: the civil rights movement and former presidents.
Henretta, James A., Rebecca Edwards, and Robert Self. America: A Concise History.( Boston: Bedford, St. Martin's, 2006),
Divine, Robert A. America past and Present. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education/Longman, 2013. 245. Print.
The next character I will mention is Honorable Gilbert MacWhite, who replaced Ambassador Sears in Sarkhan. This character functioned in complete contrast to Sears. He understood the sensitivity of the US mission in Sarkhan and how vulnerable the Sarkhanese government was to potential communist influences. He also understood the communist threat and did not underestimate it. MacWhite’s understanding of the operational environment was clear from the beginning and made constant efforts in understanding the people of Sarkhan.
Davidson, James West, et al. The American Nation. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003
Before going to Alaska, Chris McCandless had failed to communicate with his family while on his journey; I believe this was Chris’s biggest mistake. Chris spent time with people in different parts of the nation while hitchhiking, most of them whom figured out that McCandless kept a part of him “hidden”. In chapter three, it was stated that Chris stayed with a man named Wayne Westerberg in South Dakota. Although Westerberg was not seen too often throughout the story, nevertheless he was an important character. Introducing himself as Alex, McCandless was in Westerberg’s company for quite some time: sometimes for a few days, other times for several weeks. Westerberg first realized the truth about Chris when he discovered his tax papers, which stated that “McCandless’s real name was Chris, not Alex.” Wayne further on claims that it was obvious that “something wasn’t right between him and his family” (Krakauer 18). Further in the book, Westerberg concluded with the fact that Chris had not spoken to his family “for all that time, treating them like dirt” (Krakauer 64). Westerberg concluded with the fact that during the time he spent with Chris, McCandless neither mentioned his
Tindall, George B., and David E. Shi. America: A Narrative History. 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2007.
3. Divine, Breen, Fredrickson, Williams, eds., America Past and Present Volume II: since 1865 sixth edition (New York: Longman 2002).
Many people see history as a set of facts, or as a collection of stories. The reality, however, is that history is a fluid timeline. Each act of an individual or a group has an effect on others. Each moment in history is a building block that, good or bad, contributes to the stability of the next. This can be seen clearly in American history, as there have been several developments since the 1800’s that have played major roles on the growth of the nation.
Christopher Johnson McCandless, a.k.a Alexander Supertramp, “Master of his Own Destiny.” He was an intelligent young man who presented himself as alone but really he was never lonely. However, he believed that life was better lived alone, with nature, so he ventured off throughout western United States before setting off into Alaska’s wild unprepared where he died. Some may say he was naive to go off on such a mission without the proper food and equipment but he was living life the way he wanted to and during his travels he came across three people: Jan Burres, Ronald Franz, and Wayne Westerberg. McCandless befriended these people, it is believed that he made such a strong impression on them that their connection left them with strange feelings after finding out about McCandless’ death.
...nary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 6. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 135. Student Resources in Context. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Johnson, Michael P. Reading the American Past. Bedford Books, Boston MA 1998. This material may be legally cited or reproduced as long as the author's name is not removed from the publication and full and proper credit is given in the citation.