Why the Study of American History is Important America has a distinctive and abundant history that has molded this nation into what it currently is; but how is the past relevant to the future? As the philosopher George Santayana once stated; “'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Essentially, if Americans are ignorant of their past, how can they advance forward into the future? The key to a successful future is located within the past. In modern politics, a multitude of decisions and current issues can be compared to previous decisions Americans have made within the past. If Americans compare the results from the past, they can gain a general understanding of what the best course of action would be for
Ronald Takaki, in his book, “A Different Mirror,” tackles the traditional narrative of American History. His concern lies in the diversified structure and inclusion of parts of their world, and their relation with daily interaction between people. The problem lies, however, in that the structure of American History, is heavily dependent on a Eurocentric idea of conquering the weak. With Takaki’s narrative experience, from the beginning of Chapter 1, he reveals how through history education, ordinary Americans, generally, are subsequently narrow minded and are ill prepared to adjust to the change in demographics throughout next decades, and thereof.
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.
First is that we need to remember our history. If we forget our history we will be bound to repeat it. Our history is one of the most important things that we
The war of 1812 was significant to American history because it brought about a new sense of American pride and patriotism. After the war in accordance to the newly founded boost of pride and nationalism in the American people. The war also helped bring influential people together to create laws that filled the gaps in the structure of our political system. This war also showed that America will defend their beliefs against other nations which attempt to threaten their ways.
When George Washington was elected President in 1789 by members of the fledgling United States of America, he was setting into motion a tradition that has stood the test of over 225 years - the presidential election. Even as the United States has seen dozens of wars, made hundreds of scientific advances, and selected thousands of politicians to seats everywhere from small town councils to Congress, the principles of the election have remained the same; the people band together to determine who will best protect their interests at home and assure that the US will always remain on top in foreign policy. Oftentimes, this is found to be a difficult decision, as public opinion is constantly wavering. One sees this in action particularly during the 1992 election - a battle of wills between Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Ross Perot; complete with lead changes, major vote swings, and Perot’s unprecedented initial success - ultimately a false alarm to the bipartisan establishment.
Why are the following events so important to America’s history? The events that include Brown V. Board of education, Emmet Till, Little Rock Nine, Freedom Summer, Chicago in the 1950’s, were all very important events to occur before a movement that was not necessarily alive, yet. These events were all important because of how they would start the momentum of the Civil Rights movement that would give African Americans the simple rights that any white man has. These events shared things in common such as the simple fact that they all involved African Americans pressing for rights that they deserved. All of these events whether they be positive or negative would be beneficial to the Civil Rights movement.
The United States, a developing nation, remained under the influence of idealism and paradox for a period of time, and thus were incapable of being self-sufficient enough to run a country on their own. They relied on England to protect them and practically run the colonies from overseas. Subsequently, America joined the family of nations that preached men were created to be equal. This notion is expressed in Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. Though in the past Jefferson was seen as the greatest founder of the United States, today his more unknown attributes in the nation have come to be a topic of discussion, making a debatable conversation about the concept of presentism arise. Today, Thomas Jefferson is examined and evaluated from many different perspectives of his career in both adequate and deficient aspects, arousing the question if founding fathers, like Jefferson, should be remembered for their highest achievements, or for their individual failures, and how the concept of presentism disarrays these outlooks.
What historical events impacted American history and the lives of the American people living during a specific time period? The Great Depression, World War II and the Civil Rights Movement greatly impacted the lives of the American people and helped shaped the nation we live in today.
What hope is given to Americans from the history? In American history, there were conflicts such as wars, civil rights movement, and multiple attacks through these the hopeful spirit of America shines.
History most times is written by the victor’s, but only certain people are included in the books. The reason history is written by the victors is because their survivors where most times the losers aren’t. The victors overwhelmingly influence the history and what is written and therefore don’t tell the tales of people they fought, but rather themselves and how they won. When you read a history book it doesn’t tell you about the losers. For America most of its history was dominated by white men and was also written by them. Another example is the Civil war in which the north was victorious therefore they influenced America, and what people believe right. While the south didn’t think everyone was equal the north throughout otherwise, and since
The purpose of this paper is intended to summarize my views on what has influenced my understanding of politics and government prior to taking this class, and how my understanding is now since completing this course.
There are many events that occurred that became the foundation of present day America. The five most important historical events that occurred during American History were: the Renaissance; the European Reformation; the life of George Washington; concept of Manifest Destiny; and racism. These events each had a significant impact that formed the concepts that are used throughout America today; and, if they never happened or happened differently society would have been greatly affected.
History is something that we all have knowledge of. It may be family history, or even your own but we all know of an experience that happened in the past. These experiences make us who we are, and they determine how we think. Not only that but they determine our emotions towards certain topics. Through characters in the book, "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, " written by Jamie Ford, we learn that American identity is based on ones history and if we want America to become a stronger more united place everyone’s history must be accepted.
"History teaches, reinforces what we believe in, what we stand for, and what we ought to be willing to stand up for… But history shows that times of change are the times when we are most likely to learn. This nation was founded on change. We should embrace the possibilities in these exciting times and hold to a steady course, because we have a sense of navigation, a sense of what we've been through in times past and who we are.” McCullough believes that history repeats itself and that the past is not only a source of direction, but it is what shapes us. “There’s no such thing as a self-made man,” (290) he said. As we know, the revolutionary war allowed the creation of what we now know as the United States of America. “1776”, written by author David McCullough, invites us to be a part of America’s battle for
Americas history is what defines us and who we are as a country. We were built on hard work, sacrifice, wanting to be free and independent to be who we want to. Now a-days, we seem to have fallen away from this. Everything is given to us so easily on our computer and through technology that we have no need to work hard anymore. This is the downfall in humanity because as we keep going, life will continue to get easier and we won’t want to do anything. History is our hope so that we can learn from what we did in our past and how things were done then.For starters, we can see what mistakes we did and make sure we don’t do them again. If we continue to the same thing over and over again, there’s no way for our society to improve from this. Our