Division. The one theme that links the three readings together. In Skemp we see the division between William and Benjamin. In the "Concise History" reading we see the division between the colonies and the British Empire. In Henretta we get a lot of questions asking about this division, forcing us to wonder "why" and "how" it could have played out differently. It is important to note that history does indeed repeat itself in more than one form. If we look at the religious ideas that fueled the division of the colonies from each other, the British Empire, and the Native Americans and then subsequently look at the religious ideas that are fueling the division in our world today, we can see many similarities.
After finishing the Skemp reading I thought back to a book I had to read for my fourth grade or third grade class. My Brother Sam is Dead. Although this story was extremely dramatized and doesn't follow the EXACT scale of division that Benjamin and William had, it does give us a parallel to work off of. Families all over the colonies were being torn apart over this clash in political, economic, social, religious, and philosophical ideas. And we can see the same happening in the same continent, in the same country over two centuries later.
When looking at the "Concise History" reading, we draw a few other conclusions on how division based on the above ideas has formed our country, and learn how to use this information to understand how it is STILL forming our country. When the first two colonies declared independence a chain reaction throughout all the colonies took place. Those who had not been politically active in this dispute before, found themselves being presented with an ultimatum. I am of course also referring to the rest of the world after the French signed a treaty with the patriots after the battle of Saratoga. They must become politically active as a loyalist or a patriot. This is easily paralleled with a State of the Union address in 2001 by president George W. Bush in which an ultimatum was given to the world much in the same way it had happened in 1776 and 1777.
In what other ways can we parallel political divides in the American Revolution to our political divides today?
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8 comments:
You are right..it is like George W. parallels the colonies and the Iraqi soldiers represent Britain. And i guess you could also say both wars were fought defending our rights.
I agree (with your blog and Mallory's comment). The colonies were divided fighting against Britian like we are today in Iraq. This division will be worked out through either war or talking. How well have our communication skills improved or the past 100 years or so?
I think the division over war in general can be easily compared to the American Revolution. Although it seems as though the division is occuring in two very different time periods of the war effort, the colonies seeing a division pre-Revolution as well as through the duration, and today Americans seeing a division more and more as the war effort in Iraq continues.
i cant draw the same parallel between Iraq and bush. we invaded Iraq. we are trying to destroy a ideology in Iraq. britian was trying to destroy a ideology in the colonies. if anything i see GWB as britian. sadly our country does act like a empire today, out policing the world. yeah yeah we have to fight them over there so we don't have to here, but the thing is have you seen any improvements around here? better security in air ports? maybe, or better put, sometimes. customs didn't even check my bags when i came back into the u.s. this spring. about the only major homeland security act i have seen is the patriot act, giving the u.s. gov't the right to monitor our phone calls. how ppl. don't see this as a invasion of privacy amazes me. yeah yeah, i get that if your not doing anything wrong than what do you have to fear. however, i don't fully trust every man that is elected to some sort of office. especially in our gov't with big business corruption out the window, but what i am getting at is say you know something that someone in the gov't doesn't want you to know, who is going to stop them from making you disappear. yes sounds a little conspiracy theorist, man has done much worse things and i wouldn't put it past someone to use it in a ill advised way. thats the other reason i draw a parallel between britian and gwb. they are trampling our rights and they are doing it using scare tactics. read 1984, and then think about it more.
The parallels of the Revolution to the war in Iraq are very interesting, but it's true that it doesn't work completely. In some ways we're comparing the US to the colonies when our power and force today is more like that of Britain in Revolutionary days. But the ultimatum comparison was also very good. The thing that I believe history could've taught America to prevent this war from failing like Britain's loss in the Revolutionary war is that forcing war doesn't make friends and is very difficult when over seas. The difference here is that in the Iraq war we're fighting hate and terrorism, which is bad for everyone.
well, division will always be present in democracy. that's its basis, so there will always be similarities. as far as the iraq comment... im at a loss. iraq is britain? ummm, we went over there to solve their political problems for them. if anything the insurgency represents the patriots and the american soldiers rep red coats. except were not trying to tax them.
Yes I really think that link to Iraq is a really good way to portray the colonies to todays sociecty. Although it appears everyone is all spirit for the revolution, many people disagreed with it. They wanted to stay united with the king.
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