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How Has The Mexican War Changed The Curse Of American History?

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American history is full of events that have changed the curse of its history, some more recent than others, an often overviewed war or conflict is the Mexican war, probably because it was only 13 years before of one of the most bloodshed periods and important periods of this country 's history, the Civil War; the Mexican War might have nit had as big as an impact as that of the Civil War, but nonetheless it was a period that is certainly important, we can also think that no war is ever unimportant (Shaara,10). Since the Louisiana purchase, there was a fervor for expansion among the American people, in 1845 the then independent nation of Texas was annexed by the United states (Shaara, 12). But there were several doubts about what was the real …show more content…

McClellan, Thomas W. Cutrer used the diary and letters of one who would "lead one of the most distinguished lives of his era" ( Cutrer, 12), George Brinton McClellan. In his letter and diary as newly second lieutenant during the Mexican War, we see many of the characteristics that would take him to become the general, and later on governor. In his introduction Curtrer describes McClallen as talented, ambitious, arrogant, snobby (Curtrer, 12), and throughout McClallen 's diary and letter we can see these and other characteristics that made the man. Curtrer 's book gives us not only an insight into what McClallen 's years during the civil war, into his personality, but it also is a historical narrative that includes other figures such as Joseph G. Totten, Robert E, Lee, Winfield Scott, Abraham Lincoln and James K. …show more content…

Over all the book is more than just a collection of the diary and letters mashed together into a book, the author talks about what is going on at the time McClellan is writing his letters before showing them to us, he also helps the reader a lot with footnotes of places, people and events throughput the redaction, also citing his own research within the book, it is easy to read since they are letters and a diary, they were more of a narrative than a regular history book which made it more interesting. The author mainly uses primary sources such as letters, something I found interesting was that the author also picked letters addressed to him. I felt like the author did a great job and made the book really easy to follow, but I felt like the book lacked that attention grasp, it was smooth read and in all honestly not hard, but I always look for a book that grasps my attention for a long time span. When reading this book, even thought the footnotes where at the end of each letter or diary entry it was tedious having to turn the page when I did not know about a concept. The Mexican War was a big moment for the United states. Manifest Destiny gave America a feeling of power over land and that hype for expansion, which happened to time with the conflict between Mexico and Texas, this gave path to the war that many people think we do not talk enough about. From the book I learned that it is always interesting to look for different point of views of an event, and also that we

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