Era Of The American West Essay

I leave my home and only able to pack what the army will allow, it is almost winter.

Response to Turner's Essay on The Significance of the Frontier in American History Turner's "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" essay presents the primary model for comprehending American history. Turner developed his notions on the uncovering of the 1890 census that the frontier was coming to an end, that the nation had occupied its continental borders. As Turner discusses in his essay, an extensive era of American development approached an ending, but left enduring marks on American society. A major notion within his claims of the American frontier is, "the existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, [that]

The first half of the nineteenth century was a time of emergence, change, and uncertainty in the American Southwest. Randolph B. Campbell celebrates this historical time period in his novel, Sam Houston and the American Southwest, as well as the life and times of the southwest’s hero himself, Sam Houston.

Lord Acton said, “The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by its minorities.” In the late 1800’s the security of the minorities in the southwest was in serious jeopardy. For the Apache’s the security was promised but rarely upheld by the American government. The minimal security the Navajo enjoyed vanished by 1846. Men like Kit Carson desired but often failed to maintain the peace and security for these Indian tribes.

For the critical analyses paper, I chose to read the book entitled as “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” by Dee Brown. This book is a non-fiction historical genre and was public in 1970 by New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. The Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is a sad story based on true events that portray the massacre of the first American Indians during the nineteenth century. This book details many battles and many conflicts that Indians had with American whites that resulted in the deaths of a bunch of important native chiefs. Even though, many of them did not die during the battle. This book gave us a better understanding of who really was the American Indian and how they were wronged by the white people because of their lands. This book is told chronologically by tribes, chief, and events. The first chapter is the only one that might have a little different from the others. It basically a reflection of how different groups of Europeans treated the American Indians that they encountered in America when they arrived. Columbus and his men were received with honor by the Indians and he used those kindnesses to take advantage of the Indians and kidnaped many men, women, and children to be a slave in Spain. In contrary to this, The English used “subtler methods” and were able to live in peace with Indians for several years. As a said previously, the story is told chronologically, so the following chapters are about the battles and the chiefs of the tribe. On those chapters

After the Civil War, a dynamic period in American history opened- the settlement of the West. The lives of Western miners, farmers, and ranchers were often filled with great hardships, but the wave of American settlers continued. railroads hastened this nation during this period, many Native Americans lost their homeland and their way of life.

The three most important causes in the closing of the frontier were the end of the Civil War, the mechanization of agriculture, and the Industrial Revolution. Leading up to the Civil War, the rise of industry began to challenge the notion that the small farmer was the backbone of America. The Jeffersonian belief in working and owning your own small plot of land gave way to the rising system of industry that was allowed to freely flourish once the Civil War ended. The end of the conflict freed up a large amount of resources that helped contribute to the Industrial Revolution and allowed America to become the largest industrial power the world had ever seen. Mechanization of agriculture reduced the amount of workers needed and thus helped fuel urbanization which contributed to the closing of the Western Frontier.

How does Turner explain the recurring need for communication and transportation along the American frontier?

Masculine’s definition is stereotypically twisted. The myth and reality of the cowboy shaped today’s definition of masculinity because they have this high and strong structure they need to uphold. Masculinity is having the traditional acts as a man, such as being strong and secure. In today’s world man and women have two different mindsets. Even though we are all humans, our gender defines the way we should act due to how society makes it. The myth has affected males physically, emotionally and mentally. The idea is that they are supposed to act accordingly. In reality, everyone wants to grow up differently, so why would they be forced to act/be a certain way?

Ragtime is full with a myriad number of characters, from Harry Houdini to Booker T Washington, but the pivotal characters in my eyes were Mother and Father. There’s something to be said when the main characters of a novel don’t even have names, unlike the many other minor characters, who were major players in history. What makes them stand out even more is the fact that Mother and Father weren’t the only fictional characters, however, they as long as all of the members of their family, including Little Girl who would join Mother’s family at the end of the tale, were the only ones who were not named. That’s because it’s an obvious way for Doctorow to use them as a symbol for the typical middle-class American family during the Progressive Era. However, this is not the only role they had. In addition, the death of the Frontier and the birth of the Progressive Era is shown in Ragtime through the developing relationship between Father and Mother who represent the Frontier and Progressive Era respectively.

Have you ever been in a place of green with forests and animals everywhere? Well, where some of the Native Americans lived, there were such things. Native American tribes such as the Crow lived in the Great Plains. The Crow tribe of the Great Plains were nomadic and followed the buffalo migrations which provided their food. This tribe spent a good part of the year living in camps that could easily be dismantled and moved to follow the buffalo migrations. Other tribes of the plains were more sedentary. These tribes lived in permanent villages year round.

What is the West? This is a loaded question with an array of answers. There are many aspects to the West that make it what it is today. The makeup of the West today is very different from what is has been in the past. There are numerous changes not just geographically, but in its values and practices as well.

In this essay I will be discussing four of the major themes in this course in terms of progress, they will be religion, humanism, individualism and secularism. I will discuss these concepts within the countries of England, France, and Russia, and show my point of view on each.

It is not so much that Philip Roth disagrees with the concept of the American dream; he simply does not wish to buy into the myth of it all. In American Pastoral Roth laments the loss of innocence, as exemplified by both Seymour Levov, the protagonist, and Nathan Zuckerman, the narrator. Both grew up in an idyllic Jewish Newark neighborhood, both being the sons of Jewish parents. The separation of their commonality came at a young age, when Zuckerman began to idolize the golden boy of the neighborhood – Seymour “Swede” Levov, born blond haired and blue eyed, and representing everything that a young, Jewish boy would want in a local hero. It is through the narrator’s eyes that we see both the rise and fall of a Jewish family in America,

United States, 2006: a nation with a history of a mere 230 years, yet it stands as one of the most powerful nations in the world. Yet many of us know little about the history and cultural changes that led to the birth of this nation. We only know the bits and pieces that are taught as we sit daydreaming in our fifth grade classroom. The Puritans, the Pilgrims, Christopher Columbus, the Mayflower, we know about these people and things, yet what aspects of their lives created the change in America? The answer to this question can be found by observing the changes in religion, women's role, and colonial law as it brought about the change in the Puritan's cultural values.