Strange Death of Silas Deane

During the Revolutionary War while Bancroft and Deane lived together in France Edward Bancroft acted as a double agent (p. xxvi) for the United States and England. Deane, who was living with Bancroft at the time (p. xxv), could have easily known about Bancroft’s dealings. In order to clean his own reputation with the United States, Deane would have had to gain back their trust somehow. If he used his hypothetical knowledge of Bancroft’s double-crossing for his own purposes it would have surely put him back into the United States’ favor. If Deane went back to the United States, Bancroft would have a possibility of being publically ousted as a traitor. Killing Deane would have prevented any opportunity of the sort from arising. With the motive to kill Deane, Bancroft becomes a suspect for his possible

“The Strange Death of Silas Deane” shows us many different aspects of the so called American Dream. At the beginning of this story Silas was headed to a perfect life or what we would call an above-average led lifestyle in terms of wealth and such.

In the article Knowing History and Knowing Who We Are written by David McCullough, is an essay in which he informs how important it is to learn about our history and how it shapes who we are today. Throughout, he connects important events from American History and relates it to our lives and the world around us. The three main ideas; which are “Character and Destiny”, “Our failure, Our Duty”, and “Listening to the Past”. These ideas

Later, we found out that Silas Deane’s long time friend Edward Bancroft was double-dealing of sorts, Bancroft was a known spy to the Americas but no one knew that he was also a spy for the British as well until British documents from that time were released to the public library; we then learned that Edward Bancroft was on the payroll as a spy for the British. Then several wondered if Deane knew that his long time friend was a double spy, many believed so. After learning more into the friendship of these

In reading a Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich you realize that history seems so much less complicated when you are the one standing back and reflecting on the past. You realize how easy it is to often forget that every single new idea, religion and war was a struggle that lasted generations upon generations. History is more than just a page or a story, its our account of the world. That goes to show how short life and history is, you realize that history is always repeating, war after war, peace then war. There are good and bad periods in history and its up to us to learn from them. In a way history is much like a human being it goes through stages, learns about life, and has inner struggles or wars about their ideas and their beliefs.

Studying history can be an active, often arduous process, dependent on making assumptions with the evidence available and proving those assumptions to be correct or otherwise. But it can also be an easy task if done incorrectly, one of cutting corners and assuming falsehoods to be true for the sake of convenience. This is the way that many historians, amateur or professional, approach history. Not only does this approach exclude any possibility for well-constructed conclusions to be made, it can also leave the populace ignorant of the truth. In “The Strange Death of Silas Deane”, James West Davidson and Mark Hamilton Lytle argue that history is not merely the act of collecting data-rather of making assumptions about the data-through the use of countless rhetorical questions, paragraph organization, and a sardonic tone.

Most events and places of historical value nowadays holds little value in our lives. We confine ourselves to our interstates and highways, following the long line of motel chains stopping for maybe two minutes to take a picture just to say we were there. We take nothing away from these sites that is of real value. We barely scratch at the surface of information and true meaning of what happened at these historical sites. Rinker Buck explains his own experience with removing himself from this cultural norm

The idea of the exclusion of important narratives is a common theme amongst many of the historians involved in the discussion. The omission of such narratives would only stand to present an unfinished version of history from which one cannot grasp the lessons history intends to teach. Catherine Emerson would be the first to

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.

In Telling the Truth About History, three historians discuss how the expanded skepticism and the position that relativism has reduced our capacity to really know and to expound on the past. The book talks about the written work of history and how individuals are battling with the issues of what is “truth.” It likewise examines the post-modernist development and how future historians

Silas Deane, a second-rank diplomat for the United States during the American Revolution, had a very interesting and mysterious life. He went from rags-to-riches right back down to rags in a matter of years. His only “faithful’ friend was Edward Bancroft, a spy. They worked together for a long time, until in 1789 Deane finally decided to travel back to the states. While the ship was waiting out the storm, Deane reported symptoms of illness and suddenly fell dead only four hours after his symptoms. Although some historians believe that Silas Deane committed suicide, it is without a doubt that Edward Bancroft murdered Deane. Deane could not have not committed suicide, for he was not depressed, Bancroft was nervous that Deane would expose his

“One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over. The difficulty, of course, with this philosophy is that history loses its value as an incentive and example; it paints perfect men and noble nations, but it does not tell the truth.”

In literature, history is crucial. History is society’s choice of which truth to present to the public as a way of hiding shameful pasts and controlling civilization. The use of history in literature represents how deception of society becomes a cycle of ignorance. Often times in literature, the author alters history to present a new version of the story, regardless of the fact that altering history could change an entire society’s beliefs. Ignorance of personal history provides society the opportunity to live daily lives without the burden of past transgressions weighing them down, but the ignorance comes at a cost of moral destruction. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Natasha Tretheway’s Native Guard feature main characters who experience affects of the alteration of history, and in turn these adverse affects destroy their morals. Throughout history, soiled memories hide behind a more polished version of truth, which in turn creates a civilization bound to repeat the errors in ignorance. With the manipulation of history, distorted memories stem from warped versions of the past, which in turn creates a civilization bound to repeat the errors in ignorance.

The historical fiction genre is more popular than ever, with masses of television programmes, motion pictures and novels being written around the subject. This influx has brought a new reception to the many time periods of history that had otherwise been forgotten and abandoned, and also to many that are heavily documented but rarely looked upon. However, with the need for a fascinating story to sell to the audiences some of the historical fact is being obscured in the process, thus causing a lack of respect between authors and historians. In this essay, I will be exploring the relationship to literature from both historians and authors, also examining their own beliefs on what defines a historical novel and whether or not these authors

The definition of history, is a question which has sparked international debate for centuries between the writers, readers, and the makers of history. It is a vital topic which should be relevant in our lives because it?s important to acknowledge past events that have occurred in our world that deeply influences the present. This essay will discuss what history is, and why we study it.