Reaction Paper

Reaction Paper

Part 1

Understanding the American Promise

The book “Understanding the American Promise” by authors James L. Roark, Michael P. Johnson, Patricia Cline Cohen, Sarah Stage, Alan Lawson and Susan M. Hartmann is a representation the two convictions: (1) coming across with an overwhelming amount of knowledge, students require help in deciding what is significant and (2) students will not get anything out of a schoolbook unless it is enjoyable and interesting. Thus, in my opinion, “The American Promise” accomplishes the 2nd conviction far better than the 1st one; this text is enjoyable and interesting, for sure. It is full of dozens upon dozens of attractive photographs, graphs, maps and images. It covers the history of America past the presidential election of 1996 plus the involvement of America in Bosnia, welfare reform, and appointment and confirmation of Madeleine Albright as the Secretary of State. I felt that the authors successfully blend the cultural and social history of the country with its politics and economics (Roark et al, 1865).

In the first chapter of the book, the authors firstly describe the encounter of Christopher Columbus with the native people on San Salvador Island called the Tainos, in October 1492. They portray how the landfall of Columbus in the Caribbean indicated the commencement of the transformative contact European civilizations would have on the New World and its people. However, that contact slash both ways i.e. the encounter altered the history of Europe as well as the rest of the world. Thus, the authors here portrays how the Europeans gradually began to realize that what Columbus had discovered was a Completely New World alienated from their own by huge oceans. Later than 1492, none of these worlds would again be the same. What students or other readers conclude from this chapter is that the organization of the Columbian exchange turned out to be the most significant legacy of the European existence in the New World. This exchange which was started off by the Spanish, witnessed the overture into the New World of European products and particularly the diseases and therefore after more or less a century of unchallenged command over the New World, the Spanish found themselves having to compete with other European intruders. Hence, in my opinion the authors beautifully sum up the chapter by describing that when the new rivals of Spain started to challenge its domination and build their own colonial forays they would have to learn how to vary from and get better on the example of Spain.

A People's History of the United States

The book “A People's History of The United States” is an intelligent piece of work especially for the students of History. In the first chapter "Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress", the author Howard Zinn exposes the early Native American culture in the Bahamas and North America, the slavery and genocide committed by Christopher Columbus's crew, and the sadistic migration by the colonizers. The author wisely initiates with a retelling of the early encounters of the native people of the ...