Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America looks at the way that railroad owners found a way to turn that business into a big business and earn millions upon millions for themselves. A majority of the book shows how the railroad owners received lots of money for the corruption and other behind the scenes deals that went on. The railroad for how corrupt it was, unfortunately shaped the way America was built and became the superior power that it is in the present day.…
Chapter 5 continues to cover the American Revolution, illustrates different views on the war, the American’s expansion into the West, and the continued inequalities of the poor and rich in the United States.…
To most Americans especially schoolchildren, the term "colonist" stimulates images of strong Pilgrims setting sail on the Mayflower or Arbella to land in the America’s—an impressive legend of hard-work and purpose. The records of John Smith, William Bradford, and John Winthrop, testify that in most cases the images evoked are true.…
Our history books continue to present our country's story in conventional patriotic terms. America being settled by courageous, white colonists who tamed a wilderness and the savages in it. With very few exceptions our society depicts these people who actually first discovered America and without whose help the colonists would not have survived, as immoral, despicable savages who needed to be removed by killing and shipping out of the country into slavery. In her book, The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity, Jill Lepore tells us there was another side to the story of King Philip's War. She goes beyond the actual effects…
Christopher Columbus is one of the most well known names in the western world because of what he accomplished during his lifetime. He was an explorer, a navigator, and a colonizer and, with his unrelenting determination, he would be the man to “discover” the New World. Although he thought that he found India and a better route to Asia rather than sailing around the southern tip of Africa, he had really stumbled upon the Americas. While he may have had the actual location wrong, his accidental discovery has effectively changed the timeline of human existence greatly, and has helped shape the world as we know it into what it is today.…
In this document author Louis Adamic depicts the psychological view of America for Europeans in the mid twentieth century. The Slovene-American author Louis Adamic portrays America through the eyes of a boy, who lives on a little Croatian island and gets to a great degree entranced by American method for living. The author portrays how the economic franticness that Europe was experiencing in the mid twentieth century constrained numerous individuals to relocate. The Slovenian boy expresses that in America everything was conceivable. Although our nation was experiencing significant trials and blunders, America's economic security was appealing to other individuals. Pioneers from remote nations were not treated similarly contrasted with local conceived Americans. They would live in dwellings, and work for to a great degree high hazard, yet low paying occupations. From an American's perspective, an immigrant had no esteem, yet from the immigrant's eyes, opportunity was overpowering. Despite the fact that the document was written in 1932, it for the most part spotlights on the social insurgencies that were spreading in Europe around 1909, the same time when America was experiencing the fallout of industrial human progress and common war. In any case, the noteworthiness of the document lies on the part, when the author depicts that even in such extreme times, individuals couldn't think about any preferable place to move over America. Through this article, the author has depicted the incongruity of immigrants in the mid twentieth century who dream of coming to America without knowing the genuine hardships in the nation, on the grounds that the economic solidness, social correspondence, and autonomy that were available in American societies changed individuals' method for living. In conclusion this document is representing the view of a European who wants to go American for better future…
There was a combining of culture in America that was unique and this mixing that occurred throughout the colonies made it so that the majority could not identify, fully, with the term "Englishmen" but identified themselves as Americans. In Europe most would call themselves French, Dutch, Irish, ect., but in the colonies there were so many people immigrating from not only England, but most other European countries and in America they were marrying and reproducing in a way that did not happen as often in Europe so they identified with the term "American" because they no longer could identify with only one European country. The descendents of an Irish woman and a French man born in America could not identify solely with the term Irish or French, and they were not born in Europe so the term European could not apply to them, but the word American described these unique people perfectly. The American was a mixture of many cultures and could identify with living in America and being a part of large web of different backgrounds. Hector St. John Crèvecoer explained this concept of an American in his "Letters from an American Farmer," composed in the 1770's. Here he explains that the descendent of many different cultures "is an American, who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced." Crèvecoer goes on to say that America is a place that people of many different races are combined and "melted into a new race of man," a race of man that will cause many changes…
People claimed that the only reason that colonies were connected were because of one common factor: Britain. He uses this idea in turn to shame Britain for her conduct, even to the point of comparing her to being worst then a brute. He continues on to say that the convoluted way Britain is treating America deserves no loyalty but instead the fleeing of America from its “parent country”. He refers back to the primary reason of leaving Britain, evaluating that the “same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still.”…
America has a rich history that dates back to the beginning of the 16th century when the name was first applied to the territory now referred to as South America. The period between 1600 and1877 represents a significant milestone in the American history. Therefore, the period is characterized by slavery, industrialization, and the rise of the American colonies, Civil War, and attainment of independence. Although some people enjoyed the freedom in this period, it marked a terrible time for the Africans and Indians who were captured as slaves to provide labor for the colonies. The report explores the America history between the year 1600 and 1877 and the effects it has on the modern families and the American nation in general.…
When Salutary Neglect happened, America’s markets became strong on its own by having sections of its colonies specialize in certain areas such as agriculture or fishing, and through smuggling, which is the action of trading illegally in unauthorized ports. America’s corn, according to Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense,” can “fetch its price in any market in Europe, and or imported goods must be paid for, buy them where we will” (Paine, document 1). This demonstrates that America can survive on its own and can find a way other trading partners other than England. This is another reason for the colonists to want to gain their independence as they felt that they could thrive and that a small island could not control the trading of a whole continent.…
How have Americans struggled to redefine the American identity during the time period of 1820-1850, especially considering the ideals of Democracy, Freedom, and Individuality?…
A great deal of the colonists’ identity is ascribed to the environmental factors which shaped their attitudes and beliefs. The egalitarian and self-reliant characteristics of the colonists were long instilled into American culture. Egalitarianism was due to the abundance of land that provided anybody with a chance of land ownership. Ordinary people could now vote in the colonies, a privilege most didn’t bear in England, and because of the large amount of people with land ownership, the colonists formed less distinctive social classes among themselves. Also, not being given many supplies to start off with the colonists had to create their communities mostly from scratch, which in return created very self-reliant and self-sufficient communities that played a key role in their freedom from Great Britain. Moreover, the expansive environment inspired many people to start fresh in their lives. The opportunity that America possessed led not only Englishmen to settle but varying cultures from all around. St. John Crevecoeur Hector says in Letter from an American Farmer, “What then is the American, this new man? He is either an European, or the descendant of an European, hence that strange mixture of blood which you will find in no other country…He is an American, who leaving behind him all his…
American colonists were going through daily struggles and government oppression, and we, as modern Americans, can sympathize with them. They strived for justice and freedom in a time where they were not respected by their own higher government. Although by eighteenth century the colonies were already off the ground, so to speak, they still struggled deeply with wars, trade restrictions, nutritional issues and hunger, taxation, and crime which ...…
Hinschelwood, Archibald. “The Stamp Act Crisis.” Digital History. (1765): n. Web. 15 Mar. 2013. <http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=115>.…
Part one: The author imagines himself an Englishman who has come to settle in America (in 1783). Through the eyes of this English settler, the author describes what he would see upon coming to America and how different it would be from Europe. Unlike in Europe, America has a far smaller gap between rich and poor and titles, based on class and honor, (such as prince, duke or lord) are non-existent. For the most part the people living in America are farmers and live in comfortable but modest houses. It is clear from the author’s words that he thinks America is great place to live.…