The Story of Early America: An Examination of the Development and Transformation of USA

Charles Murray’s American Exceptionalism invokes ideas I had not considered before. The way he describes America in its early life is unrecognizable to me. Murray discusses the geographic setting, American ideology, the traits of the American people, and the operation of the American political system. Now, centuries later than the time he described, it is like America had gone on a rapidly fast down torrent. I agree with Murray’s ideas of the exceptional traits America exuded, however, the traits I observe now, and as Murray talks about later on in the book, have taken on a different meaning. It is almost as if the once amazing concepts have been reduced to nearly half their worth. I am in no way stating America is no longer exceptional, but

Over the past few weeks of class, we have covered the first five chapters of our textbook, written by George Brown Tindell and David Emory Shi called, “America, A Narrative History.” Each chapter told the reader a narration of the history of America, as opposed to an expository version of America’s history. Each chapter had its own main idea over a portion of history, along with many details that cover the importance of the main idea. As a reader, one may obtain a deeper appreciation for the country 's history, prior to entering the class on the first day. The most important aspect of history, besides the battles that are fought, is the different cultures that make up today’s modern America.

Today America is one of the wealthiest, strongest, and hardworking countries in the world. It has population of over three hundred million and growth rate of 0.97% annually. America as a nation is known to have done many great contributions to the world such as: the idea of presidency, inventing telephone, discovering electricity, inventing planes, the first nation to put a man on moon, and many more. America has grown and multiplied over time and it is still increasing. Even though today America stands out apart from other countries, it was built from nothing but scrap.

This week for our essay we had to watch a video titled America before Columbus. I enjoyed this video as it concentrated on the food aspect of the particular time from and before 1491. The introduction itself made it clear that the search for a short cut to India and the accidental 'run in' with the Americas was spearheaded and funded by the Queen of Spain. I believe this is an important fact to remember and to note that Columbus was not simply conquering inhabited lands willy-nilly but rather followed orders and working for the Queen of Spain. The area of the America's that Columbus landed on, and all of the America's, was inhabited by Natives that had infrastructures. In the North America's there was an entire civilization that stretched the

America by far is the most diverse country on the face of the earth. America today is known for freedom, equality, democracy, and a defender against tyranny. The foundation of American values lay in a belief of independence, nationalism, capitalism, and religion. However, many conflicts have arisen over these values in the past. Capitalism and other characteristics have made America great, but they have brought about their own set of inequalities. Those inequalities have deep roots in race, culture, gender, and wealth. In the 1800s two of the biggest conflict lies with the issue of slavery and women’s rights.

America is a country whose emergence is contributed to many sources. More specifically, the American form of Democracy stretch back beyond the formation of the United States, having origin in ancient Greek thinking, the Enlightenment, as well as the English and their injustice, The United States owes its birth as a country to many areas of influence.

Following the First World War, the United States went in search of a, “return to normalcy,” which many agreed was exactly what it needed. However, to the dismay of many, all the United States could find was a significant amount of tension that had developed between, “Old America,” and, “New America.” All in all, this tension that arose between old and new traditions and ideas did so in the form of religion, conflicts within society, and cultural values.

History is the framework of every nation. It describes what life was like in a nation, hundreds perhaps thousands of years previously. With history, many citizens are able to examine what lead to a crisis in a nation such as the Stock Market Crash of 1929 or the Civil War in the 1800s in the United States of America. Likewise, the moments of growth and economic success are looked at. From these past endeavors, the people can examine what went wrong and what went right and determine how they can stop themselves from making similar mistakes or act in a way that has been proven to work. In Eve Kornfeld’s “Creating an American Culture 1775-1800,” many different areas of national identity are discussed, including the beginnings of documenting the history of America as an independent nation. This was especially hard for Americans to create a singular national identity because there was bias in the early works, the different colonies or states were extremely diverse, and many intellectuals had different perspectives on the American identity.

AAmerica began as a small struggling nation, with each citizen desiring an opportunistic way of life. To achieve this way of life, many changes needed to be made. Different people with distinctive ideas came together, and although there was conflict, they made great changes politically, socially, and economically. Each aspect changed America tremendously in a variety of ways. Analyzing each specific change can determine the extent in which America has changed for better or for worse.

Thirteen colonies, united strong and firm to bring down the King of Great Britain, who had been controlling them for a period of time. In these colonies, various people gathered together and formed a document known as The Declaration of Independence, that broke them free from the king and made them a nation, America. But before becoming America, they were held captive by the King of Great Britain, who did no good for the people and brought them nothing but misery. America slowly, but eventually evolved itself since the mid 1700’s and has become one of the strongest nations even till this day. With all these changes and history this nation has become of, so has it’s actions changed and outgrown throughout these years. The nation created in 1776 can be represented in various characteristics, as when the Age of Reason occurred. The Age of Reason focused on reason, individualism, and skepticism, impacting the society in a variety of ways, creating the colonies to react and show several emotions. During this period of time, people were convinced the reason held by humans could make the discovery of natural laws of the universe and natural rights of mankind. And this conflicted with the religious beliefs because people based on their life from the word of God and didn’t believe a discovery like this would prove God wrong. Above all, the two most important characteristics that best represent America during the Age of Reason are inquisitive

There is a group of men of legendary status who are dubbed the “founding fathers,” often referred to as the creators of our nation. Their faces are dispersed all across America, ranging from coast to coast, with the obelisk of the Washington Monument on the east coast to Mount Rushmore on the north border of the United States to our everyday money; the founding fathers are quite prevalent in our society. Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and John Adams have influenced American society immediately at the start and still continue to do so today. The book in which I have chosen to research goes into great depth of the lives of the founding fathers and how their flaws and quirks as regular people shaped America into what it is today.

Prompt: Explain how Stephen Ambrose reveals his purpose in “Thomas Jefferson’s America, 1801.” Consider his language and his choices regarding individuals and events to reveal his purpose. Cite specific textual evidence to support your analysis. In “Thomas Jefferson’s America” by Stephen Ambrose, the author is writing about the time Thomas Jefferson took the Oath of Office as the 3rd president of America.

In the newfound land of America in the 1600’s, many people died of disease or hunger. In some cases, colonists worked and were rewarded for their service with money, crops, or even land. To achieve the America that we know and love today there are people who went through many hardships. Also, factors that let the land grow and prosper to where it is now. Some hardships that were faced were disease, bad climates, and a period known as “The Starving Time.” Without those hardships America could not grow, so some factors that helped the land grow was good leaders, organized governments, and work.

This essay will examine the rise of “modern America”, there were economic, religious, and aspect of life changes took place and it was greatly changed the Americans society’s perceptions, specifically, the north and the south. The rise of “modern America” was greatly motivated immigrants to come to the United States for economic opportunity, industrialization in the North after the civil war created new businesses and job regulations, and the demand for social changes; all of these factors shaped America socially, politically, and economically.

Since the day when the fleet of Columbus sailed into the waters of the New World, America has been another name for opportunity, and the people of the United States have taken their tone from the incessant expansion which has not only been open but has even been forced upon them. (100)