The historical nonfiction book i read was titled “George Washington’s Secret Six” and it was written by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger. The book talks about a group of spies known as the culper spy ring. The members of the culper spy ring are an excellent example of the ordinary people that risked their lives to create the world’s greatest nation. The members of the culper ring were not well known nor were they ever rewarded for their extreme courage but they played as important of a role as anyone in the founding of our nation. Washington knew as well as anyone that in order to win the war they would need to control the city of New York.
In writing A Voyage Long and Strange, Tony Horwitz’s goal is clear, to educate others on early America and debunk ignorant myths. Horwitz’s reason for wanting to achieve this goal is because of his own ignorance that he sees while at Plymouth Rock. “Expensively educated at a private school and university- a history major, no less!-I’d matriculated to middle age with a third grader’s grasp of early America.” Horwitz is disappointed in his own lack of knowledge of his home country, especially with his background history and decides not only to research America’s true beginnings, but to also follow the path of those who originally yearned to discover America.
In The Divide, author Matt Taibbi conveys to the reader the inner workings of temporary assistance offices. Taibbi argues that in order to receive benefits, one must wait hours in line at the offices and hopefully be accepted to get benefits. Even after waiting, they may be rejected for discrepancies found in their homes, such as clothes not suiting for a single mother or a child at school when you are asking for food stamps for him. An example that Taibbi discussed was a couple working at a fast food restaurant that was expecting a child.
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is a biography that tells the tale of young Louis Zamperini, who became a prisoner of war during World War 2 and survived to tell his tale. As a prisoner of war, Louis was almost forced into doing propaganda for the Japanese, who were holding him captive. Propaganda is defined as the “information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etcetera (Dictionary.com).” Propaganda played a crucial role during World War 2, with many countries using them to display many different messages, sometimes using influential figures similar to Louis. Widely spread throughout the war, propaganda was used in many different ways and for many different reasons.
In Geoffrey Wolff’s The Duke of Deception, had characters that were full of lies. The Duke for example, reminded me of a snake. To put it differently, he was someone who constantly lied, and stole from others and never thought twice of denying it. His character ultimately became someone I couldn’t trust. On the one hand, he seemed to be a modeled citizen that attended an Ivy League school and became this rich snooty person.
Everyone has depression, but did you know on October 29, 1929 the whole US went into depression. People lost their jobs, people lost their homes and lot’s of other things. Every bits and piece was super valuable at that time. Some effects the Great Depression had on people at that time was people lost their money. In an article called Digging In by Robert Hastings a girl explains how importants every minute of light is.
In The Return of Martin Guerre, Natalie Zemon Davis uses her sources through Jean de Coras to recreate and analyze the trials of Arnaud du Tilh, Martin Guerre, and his wife, Bertrande as a microhistory to gain a perspective and a glimpse of life for the average peasant during this time period. Natalie Zemon Davis’ sources are of diverse bases. Her main source, however is from Jean de Coras. Coras was a judge in part of the case in Toulouse. He was present, and his credibility enables him.
It is sometimes difficult for individuals to settle the discrepancy between truth and illusion, and consequently they drive others away, by shutting down. Mrs. Ross, in The Wars by Timothy Findley, is seen as brittle while she is attending church, and cannot deal with the cruel reality of the war and therefore segregates herself from the truth by blacking it out. As a result, she loses her eyesight, and never gets to solve the clash between her awareness of reality and the actuality of the world. She hides behind a veil, and her glasses to distance herself from reality. Mrs. Davenport has to wheel her around in Rowena’s chair to keep her awake, so she doesn’t harbour up subconscious feeling within her dreams, which she is unable to deal with.
In this world, there’s learning things the hard way and the easy way; in Jeannette Wall’s world, there’s only learning things the hard way. The Glass Castle is an adventurous story that reveals the painfully miserable story of Jeannette Walls. A selfish mother, a careless father, and terrible social encounters- these are some of the elements of a harsh reality Rex and Rose Mary Walls failed to shield their children from. Growing up poor was already difficult, but growing up with a selfish parent, specifically an unfeeling mom, made life hell for the Walls children. The family barely had one source of income from Rex Walls, and instead of helping out with the family’s finance issues, Rose Mary spent her days at home painting.
In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell explains how seemingly unrelated details of a successful person’s life and surroundings are actually crucial causes of their success. This theory does not only apply to the rich and famous, but to regular people as well. My personal accomplishments are not wholly due to my own actions; instead, it is my parents’ hard work that contributed to my achievements. Compared to the rest of our family, and considering where they live, I am grateful and lucky to live in a place where opportunities are much more abundant. In other words, “my” greatest life achievement would be being born and raised in America.
When it comes to knowing and learning the religions of the world one must approach them with a critical mind. One cannot simply just believe every religion and know have their own view points. David Van Biema presents his ideas about Christianity and Jesus in “The Gospel Truth?”. Van Biema’s main point is about how “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John… is notoriously unreliable,” . Van Biema writes about how one cannot be completely sure about whether to believe if Jesus actually said what is written in the bible, he continues to say that Jesus may even be an “imaginative theological construct” .
The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South takes a profound look into slavery in America from the beginning. The author, Kenneth Stampp, tells the story after doing a lot of research of how the entire South operated with slavery and in the individual states. The author uses many examples from actual plantations and uses a lot of statistics to tell the story of the south. The author’s examples in his work explains what slavery was like, why it existed and what it done to the American people.
While reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the relationship between Rex and Rose Mary walls and their children became to be very intriguing. Specifically how they raised their kids without holding anything back, an idea reinforced by a famous Walt Disney quote This quote describes how “trying to shield” children ) from reality” wouldn’t “do them any favor.” This idea was enforced by multiple occasions from the book which include letting Jeannette cook by herself at the age of 3, even after getting serious burns from cooking, letting the kids do whatever they wanted as long as they “Used common sense”, and the incident where Rex let Jeannette go upstairs with a stranger because he knew she could defend herself. The first incident revolves around how Jeannette was allowed to cook, even after having serious burns from from cooking. ”She had to get right back on the saddle.”
“Radix malorum est cupiditas” translated from Latin into “Greed is the root of all evil.” (Chaucer 125) Throughout the Pardoner’s Tale, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, this is the story of three men that treat people lower than them and they end up finding a whole pile of gold, but they end up killing each other to get the gold to themselves. The entirety of the three men end up dead and not even one gets the gold. There are many topics involving greed, this essay will involve what it is about, the dangers, and the benefits of controlling the desire to gain.
In nearly all historical societies, sexism was prevalent. Power struggles between genders mostly ended in men being the dominant force in society, leaving women on a lower rung of the social ladder. However, this does not always mean that women have a harder existence in society. Scott Russell Sanders faces a moral dilemma in “The Men We Carry in Our Minds.” In the beginning, Sanders feels that women have a harder time in society today than men do.
