History in the Making: An Absorbing Look at How American History Has Changed in the Telling over the Last 200 Years
403
History in the Making: An Absorbing Look at How American History Has Changed in the Telling over the Last 200 Years
403eBook
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Overview
Historian Kyle Ward, the acclaimed co-author of History Lessons, offers another fascinating look at the biases inherent in the way we think about, write about, and teach our own history. Juxtaposing passages from US history textbooks of different eras, History in the Making provides new perspectives on familiar historical events, and sheds light on the ways they have been represented over generations.
Covering subjects that span two hundred years, from Columbus’s arrival to the Boston Massacre, from women’s suffrage to Japanese internment, History in the Making exposes the changing values, priorities, and points of view that have framed—and reframed—our past.
“Interesting and useful . . . convincingly illustrates how texts change as social and political attitudes evolve.” —Booklist
“Students, teachers, and general readers will learn more about the past from these passages than from any single work, however current, that purports to monopolize the truth.” —Ray Raphael, author of Founding Myths
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781595585745 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | New Press, The |
| Publication date: | 08/13/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 403 |
| Sales rank: | 42,806 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Native American Relations with the New Settlers
Native Americans play an interesting role in most U.S. history textbooks written over the past two centuries. From the founding of the country until approximately the early 1900s, Native Americans were seen as opponents to U.S. progress. American students learned throughout the 1800s that these "savages" consistently fought white Americans and their desire to expand and improve this country.
Then, starting in the late 1800s to early 1900s, U.S. students began to learn about the concept of the "noble savage." This was the belief that although Native Americans could be barbaric in warfare and culture, they were also uncorrupted by civilization.
All of this changed in U.S. history textbooks by the 1960s and 1970s, when students were given both a more anthropological view of Native American society as well as a more balanced version of what life was like when the Native Americans first met their European counterparts.
1844
Place yourself in a school classroom in 1844, when a Native American tribe might well have been a neighbor, and one can only imagine the impact a history lesson such as this would have had on the young white students who read it, especially the "fact" that these new neighbors were all cannibals.
In the ancient world, tradition has preserved the memory of barbarous nations of cannibals, who fed on human flesh. But in every part of the New World there were people to whom this custom was familiar. It prevailed in the southern continent, in several of the islands, and in various districts of North America. Even in those parts, where circumstances, with which we are unacquainted, had in a great measure abolished this practice, it seems formerly to have been so well known, that it is incorporated into the idiom of their language. Among the Iroquois, the phrase by which they express their resolution of making war against an enemy is, 'Let us go and eat that nation.' If they solicit the aid of a neighboring tribe, they invite it to 'eat broth made of the flesh of their enemies.' Nor was the practice peculiar to rude unpolished tribes; the principle from which it took rise is so deeply rooted in the minds of the Americans, that it subsisted in Mexico, one of the civilized empires in the New World, and relics of it may be discovered among the more mild inhabitants of Peru. It was not scarcity of food, as some authors imagine, and the importunate cravings of hunger, which forced the Americans to those horrid repasts on their fellow creatures. The rancour [sic] of revenge first prompted men to this barbarous action. The fiercest tribes devoured none but prisoners taken in war, or such as they regarded as enemies. Women and children, who were not the objects of enmity, if not cut off in the fury of their first inroad into a hostile country, seldom suffered by the deliberate effects of their revenge.
1856
By 1856, most of the Native Americans who had previously lived east of the Mississippi River had either been forced off their land — such as the Cherokee (in the infamous Trail of Tears), Creek, Chickasaw, and Choctaw — or killed by disease and warfare. Therefore, for students living in the eastern part of the United States who had little contact with Native Americans, stories like the one below became interesting tidbits of historical knowledge, while for those white Americans who had traveled west to find land and gold, many of these stories served as an introduction to their new neighbors. Without a tinge of sorrow or regret, this passage informed students that in the future, Native Americans will not really be a concern because "they will entirely disappear."
The Indians were proud and happy when they were engaged in combat with the tribes around them. Next to these wars they were best pleased with hunting, for this was a species of fighting, the wild animals in the forest that they pursued being looked upon somewhat as foes. They, however, despised all labor. They sometimes possessed fields of corn, but they compelled the women to plant and hoe it, and to perform all other domestic labors. They would themselves do nothing when at home except make bows and arrows, or carve ornaments upon their clubs, or fashion other warlike weapons. To hunt and to fight was honorable, but labor in any branch of useful industry they considered beneath them.
When America was discovered and began to be settled by the whites, the Indians were gradually forced to retire from those parts of the country which the white men occupied.
Occasionally quarrels would arise, which would lead to wars between the Indian tribes and the white settlers. In these cases, the Indians would sometimes come rushing into the villages at midnight with dreadful yells and outcries, and massacre the inhabitants and burn the houses. At other times they would lurk in ambush among the tree near the fields where the white men were at work, and shoot them with the guns and gunpowder which they had bought of them before.
Not infrequently it happened that children from the families of some of the settlers were seized and carried off as captives, and kept in the wigwam for many years. Whenever the Indians succeeded in getting a white child in their possession in this way, they usually treated him kindly, and often made him a favorite and pet. They regarded him and treated him much as a boy would treat a young squirrel or young fox that he had succeeded in catching in the woods and bringing home. Still it was a dreadful calamity to the poor child to be taken thus away from his father and mother, and from the comforts and pleasures of his home, and compelled to dwell all his life with these rude and cruel savages.
The chief articles that they bought of the white men were gunpowder and rum, and the rum exerted an awful influence in demoralizing and destroying them. The effect of it upon them was to make them perfectly insane, and the imagination can scarcely conceive the horrors of the drunken orgies, which were sometimes witnessed around the midnight fires.
From these causes the Indians have been gradually melting away and disappearing, until now there are few left on this side of the Mississippi River. Beyond the Mississippi the country is still filled with them, but their numbers are gradually diminishing, and there is no doubt that in time they will entirely disappear.
1874
Written amid the Plains Indian Wars of the 1870s, this excerpt takes great pains to emphasize to students the "warlike" characteristics of Native Americans.
Aborigine
When our ancestors first landed upon the shores of the New World, they found it an almost unbroken wilderness, inhabited by numerous tribes or clans of Indians, each tribe under its own sachem, or chief. Of their number, when the English settled among them, we have no certain estimate. They probably did not exceed one hundred and fifty thousand within the limits of the thirteen original states.
The different tribes within the boundaries of the United States were nearly the same in their physical characteristics. In person the Indians were tall, straight, and well-proportioned. Their skins were red, or of a copper brown; their eyes black; their hair long, black and coarse. The same moral characteristics were common to the different tribes. They were quick of apprehension, and not wanting in genius. At times they were friendly, and even courteous. In council, they were distinguished for gravity and eloquence; in war, for bravery and address. They were taciturn and unsocial, except when roused by some strong excitement. When determined upon revenge, no danger would deter them — neither absence nor time could cool them.
Of their employments, war was the favorite. Their weapons were war-clubs, hatchets of stone called tomahawks, and bows and arrows. Their warlike expeditions usually consisted of small parties, and it was their glory to lie in wait for their enemy, or come upon him by surprise. They rushed to the attack with incredible fury, and at the same time uttered their appalling war-whoop. Their captives they often tortured with every variety of cruelty, and to their dying agonies added every species of insult. Next to war, hunting and fishing were esteemed honorable. In the former, the weapons of war became the implements of the chase; in the latter, they used nets made of thread twisted from bark or from the sinews of the moose and deer; for fish-hooks, they used crooked bones. Their arts and manufactures were, for the most part, confined to the construction of wigwams, bows and arrows, wampum, ornaments, stone hatchets, and mortars for pounding corn; to the dressing of skins, and the waving of mats from the bark of trees, or from a coarse sort of hemp. Their agriculture extended not much beyond the cultivation of corn, beans, peas, potatoes, and melons. Their skill in medicine was confined to a few simple prescriptions and operations. When they knew no remedy, they resorted to their powwow, or priest, who undertook a cure by means of sorcery. The Indians, however, were liable to few diseases compared with the number that prevails in civilized society. Their women, or squaws, tilled their scanty fields. And performed the drudgery connected with their household affairs.
They had no books, or written literature, except rude hieroglyphics; and education was confined to the arts of war, hunting, fishing, and the few manufactures which existed among them. Their language was rude, but sonorous, metaphorical, and energetic, and well suited to the purpose of public speaking.
1880
It is important to note that over the last two hundred years, U.S. history textbooks have loved the concept of "progress." A vast majority of the textbooks looked at for this study spend at least part of their time discussing America's newest technology and improvements in society. Within this context, this passage, found in the Barnes Historical Series, one of the more popular U.S. history textbook publishers in the 1800s, explains to students exactly what Native Americans are like and, in the end, offers the best solution as to how to save these people from utter destruction.
The Indians were the successors of the Mound Builders, and were by far their inferiors in civilization. We know not why the ancient race left, nor whence the Indians came. It is supposed that the former were driven southward by the savage tribes from the north.
INDIAN CHARACTERISTICS
Arts and Inventions — The Indian has been well termed the "Red Man of the Forest." He built no cities, no ships, no churches, no schoolhouses. He constructed only temporary bark wigwams and canoes. He made neither roads nor bridges, but followed foot-paths through the forest, and swam the streams. His highest art was expanded in a simple bow and arrow.
Progress and Education — He made no advancement, but each son emulated the prowess of his father in the hunt and the fight. The hunting-ground and the battlefield embraced every thing of real honor or value. So the son was educated to throw the tomahawk, shoot the arrow, and catch fish with the spear. He knew nothing of books, paper, writing, or history.
Domestic Life — The Indian had neither cow, nor beast of burden. He regarded all labor as degrading, and fit only for women. His squaw, therefore, built his wigwam, cut his wood, and carried his burdens when he journeyed. While he hunted or fished, she cleared the land for his corn by burning down the trees, scratched the ground with a crooked stick or dug it with a clam-shell, and dressed skins for his clothing. She cooked his food by dropping hot stones into a tight willow basket containing materials for soup. The leavings of her lord's feast sufficed for her, and the coldest place in the wigwam was for her.
Disposition — In war, the Indian was brave and alert, but cruel and revengeful, preferring treachery and cunning to open battle. At home, he was lazy, improvident, and an inveterate gambler. He delighted in finery and trinkets, and decked his unclean person with paint and feathers. His grave and haughty demeanor repelled the stranger; but he was grateful for favors, and his wigwam always stood hospitably open to the poorest and meanest of his tribe.
Endurance — He could endure great fatigue, and in his expeditions often lay without shelter in the severest weather. It was his glory to bear the most horrible tortures without a sign of suffering.
Religion — If he had any ideas of a Supreme Being they were vague and degraded. His dream of a Heaven was of happy hunting-grounds or of gay feast, where his dog should join in the dance. He worshiped no idols, but peopled all nature with spirits, which dwelt not only in birds, beasts, and reptiles, but also in lakes, rivers, and waterfalls. As he believed these had power to help or harm men, he lived in constant fear of offending them. He apologized therefore, to the animals he killed, and made solemn promises to fishes that their bones should be respected. He placed great stress on dreams, and his camp swarmed with sorcerers and fortune-tellers.
THE INDIAN OF THE PRESENT
Such was the Indian two hundred years ago, and such he is to-day. He opposes the encroachments of the settler, and the building of railroads. But he can not stop the tide of immigration. Unless he can be induced to give up his roving habits and cultivate the soil, he is doomed to destruction. It is to be earnestly hoped that the red man may yet be Christianized, and taught the arts of industry and peace.
1899
Nearly a decade after the Wounded Knee Massacre and with the Plains Indian Wars having come to an end, students still read about the savagery of Native Americans.
Accordingly, when Europeans began coming to America in 1492, they supposed it was Asia, and as they found the country peopled by red men, they called these red men "Indians." Europeans at that time knew very little about the inhabitants of Asia or India, else they would not have made such a mistake. The natives of America are not especially like Asiatics. They are a race by themselves. They have lived in America for many thousand years; just how long nobody knows. One thing is sure, however. Before ever white men came here, the red men had for long ages been spread all over North and South America, from Hudson Bay to Cape Horn, and differences of race had grown up among them. All alike had skins of a cinnamon color, high cheek bones, and intensely black eyes and hair, with little or no beard. But in respect of size, as of general appearance and manners, there were differences between different tribes as marked as the difference between an Englishman and an Arab.
THE SAVAGE INDIANS
Some of these Indians were much more savage than others. There were three principal divisions among them: (1) savage, (2) barbarous, and (3) half-civilized. In North America the savage Indians lived to the west of Hudson Bay, and southwardly between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coast, as far as the northern parts of Mexico. The Athabaskans, the Bannocks, and the Apaches were, and are, specimens of savage Indians. They had little or no agriculture, but lived by catching fish or shooting birds or such game as antelopes and buffaloes. They were not settled in villages, but moved about from place to place with very rude tent-like wigwams. They wove excellent baskets, but did not bake pottery.
MORE ABOUT THE BARBAROUS INDIANS
The religion of these Indians was the worship of their dead ancestors, curiously mingled with the worship of the Sun, the Winds, the Lightning, and other powers of nature, usually personified as animals. For example, lightning was regarded as a snake, and snakes were held more or less sacred. Religious rites were a kind of incantation performed by men especially instructed in such things, and called "medicine-men." In most religious ceremonies dancing played a great part.
The Indians had dogs (of a poor sort) which helped them in the chase and served also as food: but they had neither horses, asses, cows, goats, sheep, nor pigs — no domesticated farm animals of any sort. Without the help of such animals it is very difficult to rise out of barbarism into civilized life. The Indian's supply of food was too scanty to support a dense population. The people lived in scattered tribes, without any government higher than the tribe; and hence they were almost always at war. Fighting was the chief business of life, and a young man was not considered fit to be married until he had shown his prowess by killing enemies and bringing away their scalps. Such a kind of life tended to make men cruel and revengeful, and the Indians were unsurpassed for cruelty. It was their cherished custom to put captives to death with lingering tortures.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "History in the Making"
by .
Copyright © 2006 Kyle Ward.
Excerpted by permission of The New Press.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments,
Editor's Note,
Introduction,
PART I Exploration and Colonization,
1. Native American Relations with the New Settlers,
2. The Vikings,
3. Columbus's Landing in the New World,
4. St. Augustine: America's First City,
5. Captain John Smith and Pocahontas,
6. The Pilgrims Land in the New World,
7. New Sweden,
8. Anne Hutchinson,
9. Witchcraft in the Colonies,
PART II The American Revolution,
10. George Washington and Fort Duquesne,
11. The Boston Massacre,
12. Lexington and Concord,
13. Massacre at Wyoming,
14. Women in the Revolutionary War,
PART III The New Nation,
15. Andrew Jackson and the Battle of Horseshoe Bend,
16. The Monroe Doctrine,
17. The Caroline Affair,
18. The Trail of Tears,
19. The Mormons,
20. The Alamo,
21. The Start of the Mexican-American War,
PART IV The Civil War Era,
22. Slavery in America,
23. Abraham Lincoln's Character,
24. John Brown at Harpers Ferry,
25. The Dakota Conflict of 1862,
26. Sherman's March to the Sea,
27. African Americans and Reconstruction,
28. Birth of the Ku Klux Klan,
PART V Industrialization, Imperialism, and War,
29. Eugene V. Debs and the Pullman Strike,
30. Immigration,
31. Women's Suffrage,
32. The Sinking of the USS Maine,
33. The Philippine-American War,
34. The Espionage Act,
35. The League of Nations,
PART VI The Great Depression and World War II,
36. Causes of the Stock Market Crash,
37. Social Security Act,
38. The Bataan Death March,
39. Japanese Internment,
40. Rosie the Riveter,
41. The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
PART VII The Cold War and Postwar America,
42. The Marshall Plan,
43. Truman Fires MacArthur,
44. McCarthyism,
45. Desegregation and the Civil Rights Movement,
46. The Bay of Pigs,
47. The Laotian Crisis,
PART VIII The Vietnam Era,
48. The Gulf of Tonkin,
49. The Counterculture,
50. Nixon in China,
51. The Modern Feminist Movement,
52. The Camp David Accords,
53. The Reagan Revolution,
Notes,
Bibliography,
Index,