The West : A Narrative History

The West is the history of what humans did that made civilization evolve into our modern era. The West involves how social standards, morals, religions, political systems, culture, and technology developed over time. The West is where the origins of civilization started, and what humans did during their time period. The Western history biggest impact was by old ancient history, and how society got here today. The greatest philosophers, traditions, different ethnicities, and religion played an important part in the shaping of Western civilization. The origins began at the period of the Mesopotamian era, through the times of the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, and how each civilization affected today’s modern world.

Civilization: The West and the Rest, presented by Niall Ferguson, is a documentary in which Ferguson reveals what he calls the six killer applications which has helped Western civilization dominate over everyone else. These six applications are competition, science, property, medicine, consumerism, and work. Ferguson asks many questions over the course of the series as well as provides examples as to how Western civilization has surpassed other nations and empires. Ferguson’s main question in each episode is, “If we lose our monopoly over apps like these, could Western civilization be consigned to history.” This paper will analyze Ferguson’s questions and the examples he provides for the killer applications of competition, science, property, medicine, consumerism, and work, as well as his conclusions as to why the West has risen to the top, how the rest are passing up the West, as well as his conclusions to if the West can remain above the rest.

The painting that I chose to write my formal analysis on is called “The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, At Night”. This piece was created by Vincent Van Gogh in Arles, France and was completed sometime in September of 1888. This painting is oil on canvas, and it is currently housed in the Kroller-Muller Museum located in Otterlo, The Netherlands in Europe.

“New Western History” entails a fundamentally different approach to looking at the history of the American West. Whereas the old narrative deemphasized the contributions of others, the new interpretative paradigm is now more inclusive of the roles of women, minority groups, the Federal Government, corporate capitalism, urbanization, and Spain too. In addition, a new environmental narrative has emerged as well.

The first part of the book started talking about Pioneers and it said that “The American West was born in the European struggle for empire, its creation shaped especially by the conflict between England and France.” There were Indians, who controlled the Mohawk Valley and St. Lawrence River. Which of the one of the two major approaches to the introduction of the subcontinent. This followed in various wars, and shifting back and forth of each lands peace. They talked a lot, I mean a lot about Pioneers, it talked about Indians, and their effects on the people. This constant danger by the frontier, made it so that their greatest resources were endurance and prolific reproduction. Indians were capturing families, trying to preserve their century-old ways. They started to take over. There were many tribes, including the Sac, Fox, Shawnee, Kickapoo, Miami, Delaware, Wyandot, and Seneca tribes. The British made this worse by continuing to get deep into Indian affairs, even after the 1783 Treaty

Wyatt Earp, a legend of the West, almost synonymous like Bufflo Bill, had entrance the nation with tales of outlaws, cowboy, and prowling lawmen. This has led to many myths surrounding the famous gunfight at O.K. Corral, in which its popularity as led to many films. The films, My Darling Clementine, Tombstone, and Wyatt Earp, share a common subject and information, however, each provides is own perspective into the Earps and the cowboy conflict. The films offer different versions of the same events and people, however these versions have resulted from or has led to common myths about the Earps. Paula Marks, in her book And Die in the West provides accurate information about the events of the O.K. Corral, the Earp family, and the cowboys.

The Navajo Indians emulated the pueblo. The shed their animal skin clothing for cotton and learned quickly how to farm. These people settled in between the Rio Grande and the Grand Canyon. They herded sheep and grew corn in the valleys. They were a peaceful group of people, and were one with their surroundings.

During the Fifth century government and religious relied on one another to further their dominance on other culture and government, this occurred during the Frankish Gaul, who were the Merovingians, reign in forcefully bringing the Western empire one unifying country rather than having sectors of rulers. However, the unifying nations crumble after Clovis death, the separation of these nation was once again united with the help of the Carolingians, a family who are aristocrats, during the eight century. The Carolingians could not have united the crumble remnants of the Merovingians without the help of the church’s influence on the people; Charles Martel (ca. 714-741), leader of the Carolingians, increase his influence by defeating the attacking Muslims making Martel “the most powerful man in Frankland but also the leader of the most powerful force in Latin Christendom”(312). The successor of Charles Martel was his son Pepin III (ca. 751-768), he strengthen religious influence over the government by augmenting ties with the church in which open unnecessary doors. One of the doors vested the church to appoint kings as rulers by the grace of “god”, in the sense that god gave the pope the right to appoint rulers meaning the kings are under the control of the pope. Later, the struggle of dominance begins between government and religion. During the time of Charlemagne inherited the throne, his ambitions were to have fuse the Roman, Germanic, and Christian elements into a

Throughout the reading, Muller discusses the connection between the artist and the sociable scholars who collect artworks in the 1630s and 1640s. She states that the paintings created by Gerrit Dou and Adriaen van Gaesbeeck depict the young artist in his study as a learned and cultivated scholar that favors civil conversations. Also, she argues that their works reveal artists’ desire to elevate their professional status and to engage in sociable exchange with elites at that time. The article is organized in chronological order, from the early 1630s to the mid 1630s, and then to the 1640s. Furthermore, Muller starts the article with Dou’s artworks then discusses his pupil van Gaesbeeck’s.

In Samuel P. Huntington’s article “The West: Unique, Not Universal,” he addresses his audience with a very controversial question: Is Western Culture universal or unique? Huntington elaborately opens up this question with research and examples to explain and persuade readers that the West will never be a universal culture for all, but rather a unique culture that will be accepted by those who appreciate it. For decades now, historians and scholars have debated with one another to determine who is right and wrong. However, from a handful of articles from different scholars, Samuel Huntington’s statement that the West is unique rather than universal is supported and even further elaborated on by these particular sources. A common understanding between all the sources, that must be noted, is that a civilization’s culture is not comprised of material goods but rather their culmination of their religion(s), values, language(s) and traditions. While although there are scholars out their that negate the West is unique, a large amount of scholars still argue and strengthen Huntington’s argument that the West has unique and exclusive characteristics that make them distinctive and rare.

It is evident that the people in this painting are modern parisians that could be found walking down the street during this time period. Another thing that can be noted are the visual brush strokes all along the painting. During this time period it was a common practice to put in the extra time to make everything in the piece realistic and very detailed. This painting was meant to confuse the public. No one knew what it was actually about.

The opening sequence of Spaghetti Western film, Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968), showcases how director, Sergio Leone, utilises the formal properties of the medium of cinema to produce meaning for the audience and foreshadow later events and themes which arise throughout the development of the plot. The film opens with a single scene of a mysterious, harmonica-playing gunman (Charles Bronson), embroiled in a showdown with three men that have been drafted to kill him (Jack Elam, Woody Strode, Al Mulock). The sequence culminates with the gunman binding up his wounded arm and collecting his belongings, abandoning the other three men dead by a railway line. This essay will endeavour to explore how each creative and technical element of the production creates a sense of ambiguity and tension to the scene, grasping the audience’s engagement with the film. To do this, the mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, sound and performance of the text will each be subject to detailed analysis.

I chose to do my paper on a painting by René Magritte, The Treachery of Images. I found this painting when visiting LACMA and was both amused and challenged by this mundane piece of art. It was so simple in its depiction of a beautiful wood pipe yet the words denied the painting completely. It was almost funny in how controversial the painting was when simply pointing out the bleeding obvious to its viewers, it’s a painting. In this paper I will be discussing who René Magritte was as a painter, what influences he may have had, and what the meaning behind his artwork was.

A. J. Polyzoides, an honorary senior lecturer at Birmingham University, states: “The western world has adopted and developed their discoveries throughout the centuries.” (Polyzoides 1). As the Hellenistic society shifted away from the Classical ideals of perfectionism and idolization of the elites and gods in sculpture, artists began to be fixated on illustrating imperfection of a variety of individuals faced with the ruthless authenticity of their emotional struggles. Whereas, Classical architecture focused on dedicating massive structures to the gods to emphasize their divinity, but Hellenistic architecture used advanced technology to exemplify Alexander the Great’s magnificence. Thus, differences in the architecture can be seen in the sophisticated town of Alexandria with structures such as the lighthouse that show how Alexander the Great influenced town planning that was centralized on the creation of a superior city, likewise, The Altar at Pergamon expresses the loss of focus on the divine through unique sculptural techniques. Change can also be seen in the sculptures of The Boxer and The Old Market Woman as they are depicted to be imperfectly individualistic and in emotional distress.

I have often wondered about the early days of Jesus, what he did before he met John the Baptist, got baptized, and started his new life. Many people believe he went for a long walk, a journey to the East, like the one described by Hermann Hesse in the novel with that title, A Journey To The East, which goes to the same place as the Chinese story called Journey To The West. Some says Jesus went to India and some say he went to Tibet.