We need both Circles and Lines
In "Circles and Lines: the shape of life in early America", historian John Demos has compiled a collection of three lectures which are part of the William E. Massey Sr. Lectures located in the History of American Civilization series at Harvard University.
In the lectures, which Demos has transcribed into three chapters, Demos observed closely the " shape of life " across three centuries 17th, 18th and 19th. Distinctly, Demos traces change from a traditional understanding of time and space through a time of transition and onward toward a more modern interpretation.
Demos starts out by establishing what he calls the " traditional world " which he defined as recurring cycles. Daily activities were tied closely to sunrise and sunset, which became markers in the overall scheme of the day. For example, in Massachusetts mealtime was reserved for daylight hours, while sleeping was tightly linked to after dark.
The devil was described as "the Prince of Darkness", often found in witchcraft records.
Annual activities such as planting, harvesting, births and even weddings followed a seasonal calendar. The seventeenth century life was rugged and early settlers were reassured by the familiar routine of recurring cyclic patterns.
In the eighteen-century, Demos describes the "transitional world and power of novelty." He covers attitudes towards novelty--from the age of discovery up through the early nineteenth century. The first settlers resisted seeing immensity; the strangeness, the novelty of what they were doing. Those that followed observed the success of their founders and forefathers who created communities from nothing. People of this period no longer took comfort in the familia...
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.... A good example during colonial America would be ...the main thing about daytime and nighttime was discontinuity ...boundaries of experience. The daytime routine was considered more open, while one might turn in during the nighttime. Prior to this reading I completely overlook the impact of daylight and nighttime and all the implications based on the resources available during the time period. I understand circle rhythms to be cycles people are born into and they did what they were taught by their families, mostly concerned with everyday life. In comparison linear rhythms are ways of acting, thinking, being in every direction. Linear people want more out of life, advancement in all areas of their lives. We clearly need both circles and lines depending on our life circumstances, it would be much better to have both tools to draw from as apposed to just one.
This chapter, “Three Old Worlds Create a New, 1492 – 1600,” covers the social, political and economic events that occurred in the worlds that made up America between 1492 and 1600. This chapter explores the history of the small societies that became the United States in broad contest of European exploration and exploitation. There existed conflicts between European kingdoms and this led to interest in colonies that strengthened the emerging nations. The curiosity of Europeans helped introduce them to African and American societies that had evolved over the centuries. The social and cultural collisions of these worlds changed and profoundly influenced Western history.
Morison, Samuel E. The Oxford History of the American People, vol 1. New York: Penguin Books USA, Inc. 1994.
Written sometime after A People’s History of the United States, the play on words might indicate the authors’ intent to refute the biased nature of the older book, and redeem the major players. Chapter one begins covering the year 1492-1707 with the age of European discovery. Schweikart and Allen focus of the catchy phrase “God, glory, and gold” as the central motives for exploration, emphasizing the desire to bring the Gospel to the New World. They paint native settlers as “thieves” and “bloodthirsty killers who pillage for pleasure” (Allen 1). The narrative continues, discussing the explorers from Portugal and Spain and their contact with the Arabs and Africans. The authors quote Columbus as saying “[he] hoped to convert them ‘to our Holy Faith by love rather than by force’” (4) a contrary portrayal to that in A People’s History of the United States. The authors continue on to discuss the French and English and the foundations for success in the New World; how people lived in the Colonial South. They write about the physical labor, the natural resources, and the food. Schweikart and Allen enlighten the readers about early slavery, the start of the House of Burgesses, the founding of Plymouth, Massachusetts, the Pequot Indian War, the English Civil War, Bacon’s Rebellion, Pennsylvania’s settlement, and the
Lefler, Hugh T., and William S. Powell. Colonial North America. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973.
Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States: 1492-present. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Print.
Henretta, James A. and David Brody. America: A Concise History, Volume I: To 1877. 4th ed. Boston:
Richter, Daniel K. Facing East from Indian Country: A Naïve History of Early America. Cambridge Massachusetts and London, England: Harvard, 2001.
Henretta, James A., Robert O. Self, and Rebecca Edwards. America a Concise History. Vol. 1: To 1877. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin's, 2013. N. pag. Print. Pages 195, 196, 198-199
3. Divine, Breen, Fredrickson, Williams, eds., America Past and Present Volume II: since 1865 sixth edition (New York: Longman 2002).
In early America, socio-economic class, agriculture, religion and gender played four very important roles in regional distinctions of this newly developing country. Even though agriculture, religion, and gender were extremely important, the biggest factor was socio-economic life. A person’s socio economic class was what determined their life style from a wealth, treatment, and dress style and home, which are major aspects of human life. In Everyday Life in Early America, David Freeman Hawke explains how each of these four factors determined the life style of each early resident of America as well as the overall development of the country in its beginning years to emerge into a growing and improving nation (continue)
Divine, Robert A. America past and Present. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education/Longman, 2013. 245. Print.
There are three parts in West’s book; the first part focuses on the sociological, ecological and economic relationships of the plains Indians, starting with the first establish culture of North America, the Clovis peoples. Going into extensive detail pertaining to early geology and ecology, West gives us a glimpse into what life on the early plains must have looked to early peoples. With vastly differing flora and fauna to what we know today, the early plains at the end of the first ice age, were a different place and lent itself to a diverse way of life. The Clovis peoples were accomplished hunters, focusing on the abundance of Pleistocene megafauna such as earlier, larger forms of bison. Though, little human remains were found, evidence of their s...
Eibling, Harold H., et al., eds. History of Our United States. 2nd edition. River Forest, Ill: Laidlaw Brothers, 1968.
Dixon, E. James. Quest for the origins of the First Americans. University of New Mexico Press. 1993.
William Bradford and John Smith’s two pieces both convey America as a place to escape the European world but completely fail to contain congruency on what early America was like in this time period.