autumn jasper ([info]autumnjasper) wrote,
@ 2006-01-24 13:36:00
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so i have a history assignment for which i have to read this essay and then write a reaction to it in the online discussion forum (all of my classes are online through the SUNY network). i really hope the prof isn't expecting us to learn something useful and that i don't get in trouble when i post about what a poorly-written, sprawling, narrow-minded essay this is.

if i didn't HAVE to read it for class, i would've stopped in disgust 20% of the way in.

Edit: ok, to be fair, it WAS written in 1893. apparently, that was before decent grammar was invented =p

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[info]ozy_y2k
2006-01-24 10:43 am UTC (link)
Ah, manifest destiny.

I assume from the title of that webpage that the essay in question was, in fact, written in 1893? I can only imagine that the best way to approach it, critically, is to note the vast difference in philosophy between the hegemony of that time period and the more multiculturally-sensitive approach of the day?

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[info]autumnjasper
2006-01-24 11:09 am UTC (link)
that's what i was thinking. i actually added my edit before i saw your comment :) yeah, the essay is all about how Americans "civilized" the frontier. lots of references to "indians" and glossing over the fact that we yanked their land out from under them. one thing i thought was interesting was that he says that a difference between american frontier and european frontier is that growth of european borders usually involved conquering other people to take their lands while that isn't true of the american borders. i'm like, whahuh?! yeah, the perception of the situation at the time is very disturbing...like the native americans weren't even really people, they were just "speedbumps" in the way of the US's right to expand.

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