Being Inspired By Calvin Reid

“For the Common Defense, a military history of the United States from 1607-2012” is a military historic book written by Allan R. Millet, Peter Maslowski, and William B. Feis. Millet is a historian and a retired colonel of the Marine Corps. Maslowski is a professor at the University of Nebraska. Feis is a professor at Buena Vista University. This book was published in September 2012. It focuses on chronologically describing the changes of the United States military for over 400 years. Even though that is the main purpose, it does include political information. Although this book does not have an exact thesis, its purpose is to inform readers of the creation and enhancements of the US military. At almost 700 pages, this book educates about

     The book, John Adams, by David McCullough, is a powerfully written biography of one of our nation’s greatest heroes. This biography explores Adams’ life in great depth, unveiling a side to his life unbeknownst to those who have never studied his life in great detail. Through diary entries, letters, and various other documents, the reader grasps a sense of what Adams’ day to day life was like, and is also able to grasp the enormity of his lifetime accomplishments.

The world is full of rich culture, diversity and experiences unique to each individual. When determining the validity of historic accounts we must factor in that particular historian’s point of view, which should be characterized by ethnicity, idealogy, theoretical or methodological preference. With these factors views of the past often vary from person to person. In this essay I will be discussing the four different stages that shaped the writing of American history over the last 400 years.

Throughout An American Childhood, Dillard expresses how significant history of various subjects are. “We children lived and breathed our history-our Pittsburgh history, so crucial to the country’s story and so typical of it as well-without knowing for believing any of it.”

In Revolutionary Summer, Joseph Ellis attempts to display the importance of the summer of 1776 in a narrative form. In doing this, Ellis must balance his knowledge as a modern-day historian with his desire to ensure that the reader sees the narrative as it was in that time period. In his presentation of facts throughout Revolutionary Summer, Ellis recognizes that hindsight can be both a powerful historian tool to provide context as well as a negative mindset that can skew the true facts of the time. Therefore, he uses hindsight only in order to provide context and importance for certain actions, and, similarly to a textbook, strives to present the facts as they were at the time, without any modern perspective. However, Ellis’s writing

George C. Daughan’s studied at Harvard University where he received a Ph.D. in American History and Government. After graduating Harvard he went on to spend multiple years in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. After honorably serving his country, Mr.Daughan’s went on to teach at many universities across the United

“I had an instinct that I’d have a place in the art world,” he said. “Artists seemed to have a higher purpose. It wasn’t about the ego.

"My own personal story can't be told, even in this abbreviated version, without going back long before my own birth on September 12, 1944, back to 1890 and to 1876 and to 1851 and, yes, all the way back through all the other calamitous dates in the relations between the red men and white, back to that darkest day of all in human history: October 12, 1492, when our Great Sorrow began" (Peltier, 50).

“[A] recent author and public figure…[Colin Powell, wrote a] book, My American Journey, [that] helped me harmonize my understanding of America’s history and my aspiration to serve her in uniform…Powell gave me another way to think about the American dilemma and, more than that, another way to think about my own life” (Moore 131-2). Author Wes Moore wrote the book The Other Wes Moore, both an autobiography and a biography about a man who shares his name and has a similar backstory, to demonstrate how people’s destinies are primarily influenced by the environment into which they are born. Examining stories including and similar to those of both Wes Moores, as well as reflecting on one’s own personal experience, can provide insight into

Michael Mazza –“This book is a remarkable piece of early United States literature. It should be read by current military personnel, veterans ' advocates, students of history, and students of U.S. literature.”

When most people are taught about U.S. history, we think of mostly the bad times like the wars, the civil rights movements, President Kennedy’s and M. L. King Jr’s associations, just to name a few. In this paper I will discuss those and more going into the start of the 21st century. The previous five decades consisting of the 1950s into the millennium happened during the U.S. History equally turbulent, but exciting. There also were numerous transformations within social, governmental, plus technological sections, but the WWII era currently seems rather prehistoric. Since the 1950s America has experienced major cultural transformations, starting with four main

Creativity and art have been a significant parts of my life for as long as I can remember. When I was little and we visited my Grandma Carol in the summers, my favorite thing to do with her was make art. She taught me about so many different media, such as: acrylics, oil pastels, and the ink press. Sometimes, I would bring my sketchbook from home and she would help me set up art shows around her house. I would sell my art for a few dollars each, and then use the little bit of money I earned to buy more art supplies. As she introduced me to more artistic styles and mediums in the

As an historian and prolific writer, Maier dedicated her professional life to the study and teaching of late colonial and revolutionary America. She initially wanted to be a journalist but realized her life’s passion after taking a “Colonial and Revolutionary America” seminar as a doctoral student at Harvard University. Maier went on to teach at the University of Massachusetts, the University of Wisconsin, and finally as the William Kenan Jr., Professor of History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she taught for three decades. In the 1990’s, Maier was a charter member of “The

The topic of this research is about a man who has been mostly forgotten by most people in America today, but helped shaped the outcome of the American revolution and holds his own compared to those who are remembered. Even with a few such as James Graham to say that “After examining all the sources of information within my reach, I became convinced that few, if any, of the heroes of that day furnished larger contributions than he did to the glory of our arms, or surpassed him in the amount and value of their services.” This man he highly speaks of is Daniel Morgan, or know by his nickname of “Old Wagoneer” for his past work as a Teamster, which was a person who drove a wagon filled with goods and products from town to town, their version of truck drivers for that

The author of this book is a professor of history at Columbia University and is one of the country’s most noticeable historians. He graduated from Columbia with his doctoral degree under Richard Hofstadter. Foner is one of only two people to be president of three major professional organizations. They are the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the Society of American Historians.