America's Past Marxism

Over the past few weeks of class, we have covered the first five chapters of our textbook, written by George Brown Tindell and David Emory Shi called, “America, A Narrative History.” Each chapter told the reader a narration of the history of America, as opposed to an expository version of America’s history. Each chapter had its own main idea over a portion of history, along with many details that cover the importance of the main idea. As a reader, one may obtain a deeper appreciation for the country 's history, prior to entering the class on the first day. The most important aspect of history, besides the battles that are fought, is the different cultures that make up today’s modern America.

At first, I expected non-federalist (that is, unitary) governments to be more ‘progressive’ on civil rights, earlier to adapt on such issues. Interestingly, I came to the opposite conclusion: Constitutional federalism is a brilliant mode of attaining equality through social progress and policy innovation. For example, while entire nations were deliberating whether to fully embrace same-sex marriage, in the the United States, early adapters like Vermont quelled critics’ concerns and provided their constituencies civil rights years before a national majority could have been reached. Federalism’s efficacy is also evident beyond the realm of civil rights. Some states act as policy ‘guinea pigs’, trying out experimental policy that will later be adopted on the national level (akin to Massachusetts’ role in developing the Affordable Care Act). In this way, the Constitution encourages policy innovation and provides civil rights earlier than would be achieved nationally. Yes, the march toward equality is a march. But it’s also a matter of pragmatic policy—the Constitution’s federalism provides key ingredients for

George Washington became President in 1789 and since then has been regarded as America’s “Founding Father”(10). This grand and hero-like status is said to have “began gravitating to Washington six months before the Declaration of Independence, when one Levi Allen addressed him in a letter as ‘our political Father.’”(10). The preservation of Washington’s role as a national hero has been allowed by authors and the media omitting his many flaws as if they had either been forgotten or were no longer important. Yet by excluding these human faults, they have projected an almost god-like hero and inflicted him upon the nation as their Father, somebody whose “life still has the power to inspire anyone”(10).

America: “The land of the free, and the home of the brave” (Key 7-8). When our forefathers overcame the colonial reign of the British Empire, they formed the United States of America based on the premise of enlightened ideals promoting life, ownership of land, and liberty. But after the revolution, the country’s problems were far from solved. The country’s post-revolution issues sparked a Civil War, which was followed by a reconstruction. In some ways, the Civil War and Reconstruction helped the United States accomplish its original goals, but in many ways, that was not the case.

America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the

The often told story of America’s founding begins the Founding fathers waged a revolution and created a unique place called the United States of America. This story may include the early Jamestown colony and puritan colonists, and at times deal with the depollution and dispossession of the America’s native inhabitants. However frequently the complex nature of America’s prerevolutionary era is left out. Daniel Richter offers a refreshing non-teleological revision by showing that the United States has a much deeper history. Richter presents America as a nation with multiple pasts that stretch back as far as the middle ages. These pasts, he argues, continue to be felt in the present. Richter’s history utilizes a vast array of primary sources and his cultural history spans more than seven centuries. Richter works to recover the histories of an intermingling sort of individuals from North America, Europe, and Africa. The struggle for control of land and resources of these individuals took place in a global context. This multilayer struggle gradually gave rise to a distinctive American culture. Richter argues that by dissecting and understanding this culture on its own—and not as a build-up to an inevitable revolution—reveals the origins of American history.

America is a nation that is often glorified in textbooks as a nation of freedom, yet history shows a different, more radical viewpoint. In Howard Zinn’s A People's History of the United States, we take a look at American history through a different lens, one that is not focused on over glorifying our history, but giving us history through the eyes of the people. “This is a nation of inconsistencies”, as so eloquently put by Mary Elizabeth Lease highlights a nation of people who exploited and sought to keep down those who they saw as inferior, reminding us of more than just one view on a nation’s history, especially from people and a gender who have not had an easy ride.

Even though America earned its Independence, there has been a lot of damaged and no victory on the long run. Washington DC has been burned and American failed on their hostage of Canada. Moreover, “The War of 1812 doesn’t get much respect in the United States. Most people don’t remember more than a few of the highlights that reflect favorably on the nation…” (Hickey, 2012).

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.

What sets America apart from any nation in the world is that it never settle. America, at times, has had the tenancy to spent too long in the darkness of satisfaction and despondency, but never has it settles in shadows. Every single time America has fallen or been knocked down, it has never failed to rise from defeat. It may take months, years and even decades, but America never stops pursuing the perfection of the unparalleled ideals it was founded on.

"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

This was great recognition that Washington had a false face that even his drinking from Morris had even know. I consider him as a National as well as the youngsters' hero, but now everything had

Often labeled the “odd couple of the Revolution,” they appear to emulate the polar opposite of each other because of their political party and foreign policy principles. Although Adams and Jefferson seem to have shared no common understanding, they shared something greater than political differences—the spirit of the American Revolution. They believed the spirit of the American Revolution was fighting for liberty in the hopes that the nation would withstand for posterity. This spirit fueled conflict between Jefferson and Adams because they possessed contrasting ideas on the best course to preserve the young nation. Despite their different approaches on promoting the durability of the United States, the two shared a compelling common understanding of the spirit of the American Revolution, which impacted every private and political decision in their

The premise for this book was enough to excite me to discover some hidden truth about America's past, yet I cannot begin to express the level of astonishment or shock that I experienced while I read this book. It opened my eyes to a number of different issues and topics I thought I already knew as well a great deal of new information I didn't.

We live in a world where modern states are the status quo. For the most part, no one questions who owns and rules a certain territory or population. This is because an all controlling and omnipresent “state” controls populations and sub-populations of people. This can be related to religious sects, hierarchies within communities, commonalities such as school and ethnicity, but most importantly – our allegiance to a country. January 2, 1997 at eleven twenty am, in a St. Louis hospital room, my first cries mimicked the star spangled banner, while my birth certificate became my first Pledge of Allegiance. Thus, The United States of America stole me from my mother’s bosom and has since spoon fed me patriotism and nationalism. While these extreme statements seem irrational, a nationalistic ideology forced upon citizens, has become the foundation to maintaining and developing the modern state. Although, this has not always been the case throughout history. Developed between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, the modern state changed the properties of an effective rule, and thus played challenging roles within “late” developed states such as in India and Nigeria.