Daniel J. Boorstin’s The Americans: The Colonial Experience was a broad history of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century in the American Colonies. Within this broad history, Boorstin focused on specific aspects of society as well as specific colonies. Boorstin was very detailed in some aspects of his research while other areas are left more or less to the reader’s imagination. Other reviewers viewed the book as having missed an opportunity to speak of American political and economic ingenuity. Interestingly enough, Boorstin did not include an introduction or a conclusion in The Americans. Instead, he began each of the four books with a brief summary and a quote. Not only was this unusual and bold, but it instantly immersed the reader …show more content…
These were not the people that Boorstin spends the majority of his work on but are arguably the largest section of society during this time. Instead, he focused on the positions men of influence hold. These include plantation owners, wealthy merchants, and men within gentlemanly professions, such as lawyers or clergymen. Boorstin did speak briefly of the lower class colonists in his section on the early colony of Georgia. Poor and relocated families from England provided the labor for the enthusiastically designed colony and benefited from the support of philanthropists in London that supported the trustees’ of the colony’s endeavors. However, Boorstin’s real concern with the history of the colony of Georgia was to prove how a welfare and arguably utopic colony does not survive in America. This connected directly to his opening lines of the work, “The colonies were a disapproving ground for utopias”. With Boorstin’s focus on the framework and success of this colonial structure, he failed to humanize the experience and explain to the reader what life was like for the individuals that were unable to make a living for themselves in the failed colony. In his narrative on the Puritan New England colonies as well as the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania, Boorstin again focused on the structure and establishment of law in these colonies and little on the struggle …show more content…
When speaking of the Virginia colony, Boorstin mentioned that the “spirit of business enterprise was kept alive in Virgina even among the congealing aristocracy”. Virginians almost immediately recognized the monetary success of growing tobacco and, therefore, developed a society that supported the industry and created the basis of American capitalism and wealth, even in this one area. Earlier in the text, Boorstin mentioned the ease former indentured servants could acquire land upon finishing their contract. Even if there are not multiple mentions of the ease as to which property could be obtained, it does not mean Boorstin overlooked this concept. Hacker’s argument that Boorstin lacked the understanding that the lack of a feudal system allowed for the tinkering of political systems is misguided. Not only did Boorstin mention that Puritans constantly adjusted their laws, but that “from the beginning, Americans formed a habit of accepting for the most part only those ideas which seemed already to have proved themselves in experience”. Although these ideas might not link directly to Hacker’s idea about the non-existent feudal system, it does show that the colonists were constantly adjusting not only the way they governed but many other aspects of life as well. Boorstin’s The Americans: The Colonial Experience did many
Smith, Carter. Daily Life, A Sourcebook on Colonial America: The Millbrook Press, Brookfield, Connecticut 1991
In “Becoming America: The Revolution Before 1776”, Jon Butler argues that there was massive economic and a political transformation occurred in the era of 1680 and 1770 which had been less examined to the American colonial history. In this book, Butler makes a strong argument for the early modernism of American society which helps to define the growth of American identity. The transformation improved the American socioeconomic character and demonstrated itself almost in every aspect of colonial life. I totally agree with the Jon Butler’s argument that the victories and defeats of the revolutionary war would not define America; it was the middle years of the colonial period that would. And his arguments in this book also challenge the existing history. Butler supports his argument from his own note which he collected from by researching huge amount of specialized history books.
The Jamestown Project discusses the monumental landmark, the colony of Jamestown, was in Atlantic History. The story of Jamestown is told in a much more authentic, elaborate style than our textbooks has presented. As Kupperman points out, Jamestown was not only important to United State’s history but also to British history. From the motivations to the lasting effects, she gives an accurate account of all components involved in Jamestown. Also, there is a chapter devoted to the Native American experience, which shows a non-Western view of events. The book is written in a format that is easily read but also compacted with information. More importantly she puts Jamestown in its right place in United State’s and British history, as the foundation of colonial United States and the British Empire.
Edward, Rebecca and Henretta, James and Self, Robert. America A Concise History. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2012.
TA: Muiris MacGiollabhu Section: Tuesday: 8:30 AM Ugly Americans At the height of the Cold War two super powers, the Soviet Union and America, were competing for natural resources in third world countries, Southeast Asia. As a result, political power and diplomacy with the locals was very important. The Ugly American by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick depicts interrelated stories in Southeast Asia and mainly in a fictional place called Sarkhan. The novel is based around the conflict that the United States is failing to turn communism into a reality in Southeast Asia, because the diplomats sent are not willing to learn to speak Sarkhanese, to learn their culture, and connect with the locals. Throughout the chapters in the novel, the reader encounters good and bad things about the way America dealt with the negotiations and turning the local public to the good America ideals instead of the bad communism.
Henretta, James A., Rebecca Edwards, and Robert Self. America: A Concise History.( Boston: Bedford, St. Martin's, 2006),
Davidson, James West, et al. The American Nation. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003
American school and culture ingrains U.S. history into children’s mind from an early age. They tell heroic, brave accounts of pilgrims fleeing England for religious freedom and working peacefully with Natives to cultivate a difficult land, culminating in the first thanksgiving. However, these neat, tidy stories are far from the truth. Edmund Morgan and Karen Kupperman attempt to clear these historic myths, by narrating the many hardships and fewer successes of Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent colonial settlement. However, Morgan achieves this goal more effectively than Kupperman because he portrays the founding of Jamestown in a more realistic, impartial view, fighting his American biases, to reveal that the English colonists were at
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
Taylor, Alan American Colonies: The Settling of North America, New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2001. pg. 1685-1730
The newly settled western colony, affectionately named Georgia after His Majesty of England, was the hopes and dreams of many noble Englishman. It was to be flawless, the shimmering jewel upon the king’s crown, a carefully cultivated utopia which would protect the colony of South Carolina from the scheming Spaniards in La Florida, and provide a way to easily receive natural resources to manufacture goods efficiently, and keep the overall economy of this country healthy. To sugar the deal, General James Oglethorpe contributed to the colony a more philanthropic cause; allow imprisoned debtors to begin an improved life in Georgia, as independent colonists of Great Britain. And so, Oglethorpe landed his ship on the coast of wilderness, untamed land which matched the people who resided there. A royal document, named the Charter of 1732,
Not knowing all of the details of the speech “What is an American” by Harold Ickes, it was hard to understand what was going on. To fully comprehend the speech more information would be needed. Only knowing the general time period tells the reader that it was during World War II but that is it. If an exact date was given then I could have been able to figure out what else was going on and connected the speech with that.
The thirteen colonies of North America were the first to emancipate themselves from the metropolitan trial in the eighteenth century, a period also that we can evidence a crisis in several structures of absolutist power. The economic, social and cultural elances themselves evidenced in the colonial environment and a form of the heterogeneous
In “What is an American” by Hector St John de Crevecoeur, the writer described many notable differences that he discovered when he first arrived in America. He marveled at the many differences in structure, diversity, and the overall equality of this new land. Crevecoeur’s early America was much different than the land that he once knew. America gave him a sense of freedom, hope, and possibility. He wrote letters in hope to inspire all who were looking for a change in their lives, and who would be ready to contribute to the advancement of such a great land. America was more united, with every man working for themselves. There were no monarchies with Kings and Lords who contained all wealth while others suffered. Every
There are more than 200 million people in the U.S.A, and every one of them lives an individual life. When people see that their life is starting to be too redundant, they try and make a liberating change that will help others and themselves recognize their identity. In “The Vanishing American” by Charles Beaumont, Mr. Mitchell and his interactions with the “King Richard” lion statue reflect the theme of people’s lives being so redundant that they disappear out of the existence of everyday life, unless they step off of their regular road of life and perform more liberating actions.