The best president in U.S history I believe is Abraham Lincoln. Abe Lincoln deserved to be the best president because he led his country through the civil war, abolished slavery by issuing the emancipation proclamation, and by issuing the emancipation proclamation the north gained British support. Abe created an economic development program, which began when the country was bankrupt and made the United States the world’s greatest industrial power. I believe that the 2nd best president is George Washington. Washington led the revolutionary war which began the birth of a new nation which goes under foreign policy, helped with the constitution that had much to do with equal rights, and dealt with the whiskey rebellion.
John Adams and Jonathan Sewall In the article, “The Price of Patriotism: Jonathan Sewall and John Adams” there are two men who have many similarities but are polar opposites when it came to their overall view point. Both the men, Sewall and Adams, were lawyers and very successful in their line of work, until relations with Britain and the colonies started to change for the worse (Hollitz 51). Sewall and Adams consider themselves best friends (Hollitz 51), but when it came down to the power and control the English government had over the colonies they were their own enemies. John Adams and Jonathan Sewall had many similarities, both men graduated from Harvard with degrees in law, were teachers, were very successful in their jobs and held very prestigious titles, and both were extremely devout to their country (Hollitz 52-53). It just happens to be that Adams was on the side of the colonist and Sewall on the side of the mother country.
Siddhartha as a Hero's Journey Herman Hesse's book, Siddhartha lends itself perfectly to a hero's journey. His journey is long, painful, and dangerous, but Siddhartha comes out better because of it. The book was written by Hesse in 1922 and based on a character set in the 500 BCs. It is odd that the book applies to modern India just as it applied to the India of 2 millennium ago (when Siddhartha supposedly lived). This, coupled with a captivating story line makes this a fun book to read, as well as an interesting point of view into early Indian culture.
The author believes that Napoleon won many battles because of his enemies’ mistakes and not because of what he actually was…the greatest military mind that ever lived. I did some research of my own and found out that he is also remembered for his Napoleonic Code and his military campaigns are still taught in some military academies. Owen Connelly wrote in his book that Napoleon insisted that he would be remembered for the Napoleonic Code. And, in fact, he is. Owen Connelly’s perspective on the way Napoleon won battles is his opinion and he tries to prove it in this book.
My reaction to this chapter is one that is mildly surprised. I found it interesting that “escape was easier than rebellion,” (Zinn 46). Apparently, the air was heavily charged with rumor of rebellion and revolt (something I think would work well for an espionage novel). I thought it was interesting how the white workers really put their heart and soul into getting a better life. This chapter made me start to see another side of the multifaceted history of the United States, one that wasn’t focused on equality for African Americans or women, but one that was focused on equality among common men.
Octavia E. Butler’s work Kindred is a profound novel that illustrates the destructive power of obessive love. Butler also does a remarkable job protraying the graphic nature of racial prejudice in the 1800s as opposed to how it’s viewed in modern times via time travels – which gives the reader the oppurtunity to compare and contrast the two distinct eras. Dana’s (the narrator and protagonist of Kindred) choice to continue saving Rufus’ life, regardless of his absurd behavior, causes her time travels to prolong – given that Rufus was the focus and cause of them – and Rufus eventually beomes obsessed with Dana. As Dana chooses to save Rufus’ life, she not only prolongs her time travels to the antebellum Maryland of the early 1800s but also saves her life and preserves the familail bond of the slaves. “Was that why I was here?
Modern readers of Patrick O’Brian get a sense of this intermingling of private and governmental concerns in the way Captain Aubrey and other Post Captains were expected to furnish their own ship-board larders, and how O’Brian’s hero even buys much of his own gun powder. Similarly, in Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe’s series, that author refers to the practice of buying officer commissions. These and other similar details make more sense after reading Wood’s book. Because of the sacrifices and patronage of the upper classes, the lower classes were expected to defer to their betters, and to know their
It would be reasonable to name John Steinbeck the author with best effect in modeling views of a particular era in American history. His piece of the puzzle in our nations history is the years included by the Great Depression. Stenibecks most highly regarded novel, The Grapes of Wrath, has been so dispersed throughout American society since being published in 1939 that it has influenced the perception of the times of the Great Depression and the following westward movement. The novel was successful in its symbolism, which may have been the intention. However, it is somewhat inaccurate in small areas historically.
Mark Twain was and still is a literary idol for writers to always look up to, and the way he wrote he even became a political figure in America. To change his work without his permission, legal or not, is morally and ethically inappropriate. Carol Lucas said, “I think that if one is to edit Twain and omit what one might think is unacceptable, then one has to start in Shakespeare, the Roman and Greek comedies, most French and British comedies of the 18th and 19th centuries, and so on. Might as well rewrite all of history” (). Through this quote one can easily see how editing Twain’s masterpiece would be a queue for editors around the world to go and edit every inappropriate word of a dead writer’s work.
Literature, just as Douglass’s, assists the people to see the most important action of the ancient times. Douglass talks about his conviction that America can be observed like a fraud, which celebrates in its own liberty while others are strained to reside as slaves. In his literature piece, he says the following, “Your high independence, only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.” By him saying this remark in this passage, he introduces the point that slaves were not recognized like “normal” human beings but were seen as human beings that were born to simply help people superior to them succeed in life.