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Brief History Of Nature And The American Consciousness

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By the time the settlers first made it in America, the relationship between man and nature is the central part of being an American. In “A Brief History of Nature and the American Consciousness” by Joshua Johns, he speaks of the New World and how European settlers chose to ruin the wilderness in order to achieve a comfortable life. Utilizing the images “View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm” (normally referred to as “The Oxbow”), painted in eighteen thirty six by Thomas Cole; “American Progress”, composed in eighteen seventy two by John Gast. Lastly the picture that was taken in the year nineteen fifty by William Garrett. The Americans vision of the New World has changed over time. Going from fear of the barbaric wild, next optimism, then with the feeling of regret. …show more content…

When the settlers first arrived in America, Johns explains that they were scared of the wilderness surrounding them. However at the same time the Europeans felt a rush of hope to take this savage place, and transform it into a civilized home. Peering at the Oxbow for the first time, there is a storm cloud that starts as gray then gradually turning to black. This stands for the terror that was once felt when settlers first laid eyes upon America. Moving right, notice that the farther one goes the more brighter the canvas is; giving the thought of hope and happiness that is yet to come. An image that expresses the optimism is titled “The American Progress”. Attending at the painting straight on, the first object that is easily noticed would be the flying women that has significantly more detail than the rest of the picture. It will be seen that in one hand, she is holding a school

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In Part One of American Colonies, author Alan Taylor accentuates the natural disharmonies that transpired due to humanity, throughout the colonization of the New World. Taylor attributes humans as the most endangering species to the environment, both Native Americans and the settlers. Prior to and during the settlement of the North American colonies, all of humanity’s survival depended on the environment and how they used it. If the Natives or the settlers did not use their surrounding to the fullest advantage, themselves or others potentially could die. The first example of environmental demise that Taylor illustrated was the “…the extinction [of] two-thirds of all New World species…including the giant beaver, mammoth…” and others,” (Taylor 8).

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Facing East from Indian Country by Daniel Richter is--without question--one of the most effective studies of Native American history. Richter’s previous book, The Ordeal of the Longhouse, which viewed the European invasion of northeastern America from the perspective of the Iroquois peoples of modern New York a similar awareness of early American history. Facing East challenges the instilled perspective of westward expansion from the early sixteenth century well into the nineteenth. By viewing the early European-Indian encounter through the eyes of the Native Americans, this revolutionary examination intends to “turn familiar tales inside out, to show how old documents might be read in fresh ways...and to outline stories of North America”

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In the book, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England, author William Cronon address the permanent environmental changes and concerns that took place at the hands of Native Americans and colonists in New England. With references to Henry David Thoreau, the first part of the book lays the ground for the reader to feel nostalgic towards the original beauty of New England that was assumed to exist prior to when the Europeans arrived. Cronon expands upon this imagery of New England environmental beauty through an arrangement of sources by presenting the drastic landscape changes that happened after the interaction of two different civilizations. Extensive evidence from this book shows how Native Americans were slowly

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The migration of Americans to the west was a good thing for innovation and building up the United States as a country, but the Native Americans who lived in these lands were changed forever. Any Native Americans found in lands where United States citizens wanted land was immediately excavated from their land and brought to an Indian reservation of some kind. Overtime though, these Indian reservations began to limit due to the rising population in Americans during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. “They [Lewis and Clark] provided valuable information about the topography, the biological sciences, the ecology, and ethnic and linguistic studies of the American Indian. The mysteries of

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Feige's goal is not only to explain how exactly American History is rooted in nature, but also to stress the presence of nature in historical events that is often overlooked or entirely ignored by other historians. Throughout the book, the reader is made clear this is Feige’s primary goal of the text, demonstrating the importance of environmental history of the United States and prove that nature’s role in America’s past is more vast and influential than what is thought. Fiege continuously explains how historical events are sometimes entirely shaped by nature and proves so by exploring the geography, topography, weather, disease spread, and other features occurring in nature and how they

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Elaborating on concepts from the previous chapters, Cronon discusses how and why New England in the 1800s was ecologically different from New England in the 1600s. The author lists many relevant issues which influenced the ecological change: deforestation, dams, crop disease, European pests, and so forth. Cronon states that there is a clear difference between New England before and after European colonization, but stresses the dangers of analyzing ecological change simply by contrasting two landscapes (before and after European colonization). Cronon discusses how disease helped to promote European expansion, and how economic and ecological imperialisms reinforced each other. He also mentions that Indians continuously evolved, and an earlier

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The walk to the new land was very dangerous and many died. The main idea of the image is to show that the trail of tears was one of the most harsh decisions that really upset the native americans. This document helps support my idea that positive does not make up for the negative because even though the US benefited by getting more land in a more convenient location, a ton of Native Americans died which is very

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