Reading like a historian: Lincoln, Columbus, and historical perspective

¶ … Historian: 5 Chapter RESPONSES WINENBURG

Lincoln in Context

Stories of white people assuming that they were born to rule other races were widespread in the slave trade period. The stories below reveal a lot in terms of the human aspect in the hard times of slavery.

\"Can you really deprive a \'negro\' of the equality that was granted by God and the Declaration of Independence?\" (Wineberg, et al., 2013)

Through examination of the struggles that Lincoln went through in his attempt to get discrimination and slavery abolished, we can make sense of the power he yielded, and implement his teachings in the classroom and make them relevant.

Lincoln was caught between ideals and reality. The ideal was that everyone is equal; including brothers and sisters. The reality was that he was not comfortable living with real black people. The story is not exactly strange or new. When one thinks of the ideals of justice and liberty, and how we all fall short of living them out fully, such a stance is perfectly understandable.

If he is analyzed statically, Lincoln was a rather weak opponent of the practice of slavery. However, he is known to have been a great fighter for upholding the concept of humanity; by dynamic analysis. He held these ideals close to his heart and experienced the inner force that led him to act.

Chapter 4: Columbus Day: 1892, not 1942

There are debates over why a day was dedicated to honor an individual; and the actual significance of such an individual. Amidst such controversy, there is a subtle discussion that focuses on the intention of Columbus and his interests in travelling. The following statements cast new light on what was previously thought to be trivial in the whole discussion.

Columbus emerges as a champion of progress and enlightenment. This is just one perspective. However, from the lessons that I have learned, his goals were not all noble as might be perceived. They were more like \"get rich, discover the way to West Indies and demonstrate that the earth was not flat\" (Wineberg, et al., 2013)

It is notable that as of 2014, the fate of Native Americans is still influenced strongly by the legacy of brutality that was carried down from the Columbus days. It is a fact that many Native Americans are still caught in shackles of poverty. The young natives also struggle to access education. It is widely believed that to celebrate Columbus is to implicitly send a message that the Native Americans are not worthy humans in the USA.

Indeed, there are several states and cities that have since ceased celebrating Columbus Day. They have replaced the holiday with Indigenous People\'s Day or similar holidays that appreciate and respect the rich heritage of American natives. A movement to change Columbus Day to Indigenous people\'s Day started in Berkeley California in 1992. Numerous other cities have followed suit. They include Seattle, Washington, and Cambridge. Other states such as South Dakota, Hawaii, Oregon, and Alaska have refused to celebrate the holiday.

Utah (1830s to 1850s)

History

Jim Bridger was the first English speaker to sight the Salt Lake. Owing to its saltiness, he thought it was the Pacific Ocean. Numerous American and Canadian trappers soon set camp and trading posts around the lake. Many thousands of migrants from the Eastern part of the U.S. headed west made stops around Salt Lake. It was known as Lake Youta then.

Culture

Utah celebrates a lot of heritage including the great history of dinosaurs when they reigned supreme. Such ancient Pueblo cultures commonly known as Fremont Indians and Anasazi grew corn abundantly in the southern part of Utah from 1 AD to 1300. There are petroglyph and pictograph panels that serve as living evidence of their lifestyle. There are many fossils that were unearthed to tell the present generation of the life and art of a rich, cultural society. The Ute and Navajo Tribes roamed the area for many centuries before the explorers arrived.

Climate

The Utah landscape is varied. It\'s largely mountainous. The principal ranges include the Wasatch which run through Utah and Uinta Mountains. The Colorado River and the Green River; its tributary, feeds virtually the whole of Eastern Utah. The Western part of Utah is largely in the Great Basin. It has no outlet to the sea.

Population

People looking for somewhere to settle found the great basin far from civilization, way back in the 1830s. Brigham Young sent several settlers to other sections of the state even as the Mormon Salt Lake Village started thriving. He commissioned a contingent of skilled personnel to each community. The aim was to avail every town its own group of people who could farm, weave cloth, hue wood, and make leather products and more.

Cities

The region used as the initial settlement area, i.e. the Great Salt Lake was later known as Salt Lake City. This area along with West Valley City forms the areas with the highest populations per square kilometer. Dating back to 1830s, the region has retained its reputation as the center of civilization. Provo has a population of over 100, 000 people. The combined population of Salt Lake City and West Valley City, too is approximately 100, 000.

Making Students learn Utah better

The questions below will assist students develop interest Utah and learn more about it.

Do the students know the reason why 24th July is a Utah Holiday?

Can the learners name five parks of national stature in Utah?

Can they describe Utah\'s landscape in detail per region?

Can the students name the historic tribes of Utah?

Do the learners know where to find the fossils of dinosaurs in Utah? If they cannot answer these questions, they could use their summer holiday to learn about their state in detail (Moench, 2015).

Utah comes from the Native American term, Ute. It\'s a tribe name that means mountain people. It has also been noted that Utah is the most homogenous state, religiously, in the U.S. Indeed, it is the only state in the country with Mormons as the dominant religion. It is also the only place where the majority population attends the same church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or LDS Church or Mormons).

Interesting Facts to Know about Utah (Anon., 2016)

i. The Golden Spike National Historic Site is a monumental site where the first ever transcontinental railroad was celebrated. It was then Promontory; the point where the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railways met on the 10th of May 1869.

ii. Levan is actually \"navel\" but spelled backwards. It was named as such because it is the center of Utah.

iii. The first departmental store of the nation was set up in Utah. Zions Co-operative Mercantile Institution, still operational today, was established in the late 1800s.

iv. The Mormon Temple located in Salt Lake City was built for 40 years. Temples of Mormons in St. George, Logan Utah, and Manti were completed before the Great Salt Lake temple.

v. Interstate 70; one of the longest interstate stretches through deserts in the U.S., enters Utah via the eastern edge weaving from Grand Junction in Colorado and terminates at the point where it intersects interstate 15 next to Cove Fort.

Chapter 5: The Invention of Electricity; the Impact on Women, their Work and Life

Mrs. Lathrop\'s letter written to thank and acknowledge Edison\'s work tells of a woman who clearly must have seen and enjoyed the benefits of electricity and the household devices that were made possible and available because of electricity. She narrates of just how Thomas Edison\'s invention made her life as a woman liveable, easy and fun. It is easy to be tempted to conclude that, indeed, Lathrop\'s letter, written in the 1920\'s is representative of all women that lived at the time, but is it?

Electricity remained a dream for most rural households in the 1920 because it was too expensive for the rural folk. It is reported that Electricity companies did not have any incentive to spread electricity to the rural area. Indeed, most farmers and rural dwellers had to wait until for the New Deal for electricity to reach them. Of course, the deal came long after Lathrop\'s letter to Edison.

It is clear that Mrs. Lathrop was one of the few privileged women of the time to have had access to electricity and the electric devices she mentions. Figures show that Norton had a population of less than 30 people per square mile at the time.

Therefore, the invention by Edison was beneficial to the wealthy and privileged women such as Mrs. Edison and not women of the time in general. Indeed, she states that her husband was a surgeon while she was a graduate. Few people, let alone women had the privilege of such educational and professional attainments at the time.

Mrs. Lathrop\'s letter gives one a false impression of the impact of electricity on the lives of women at the time. The benefits indicated in the letter are clearly a preserve of a few privileged women who hardly represented the whole of USA.

How the Lessons Can Be Intergraded in a Future Classroom Situation

The letter by Mrs. Lathrop is a good example of historical documents that present different impressions depending on how insightful and historically skilled one is in the analysis of documented pieces from history. The colour and immediacy of the data greatly affects the typicality and representativeness of data. The letter only represents Mrs. Lathrop\'s situation; not that of the whole country or women of the time.

In order to understand the actual effect of technology, learners must seek the identity of the beneficiaries of such technology. There is need to address the above question from multiple perspectives as mentioned earlier, i.e. time, place, context and the socioeconomic environment.

In summary, therefore, ask learners, to probe the representativeness of Mrs. Lathrop\'s words, Learners should discuss in pairs or groups and explore and critique the assumptions they make from the letter. Students should write an essay with a conclusion on the ramifications of the words by Mrs. Lathrop and the extent of its representativeness of the views and feelings of women in 1921.The responses to such tasks must be aligned to the important historical skills of corroborative sources, contextualizing sources, representativeness and rational argumentation using evidence.

Chapter 6: The Dust Bowl; Historical Lessons

The Oklahoma region along with areas of Nebraska, Texas, Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado were subjected to widespread erosion, dust storms, and black blizzards in the 1930s.

Important lessons emerge from the discussions, Steinbeck\'s account of the Dust Bowl and the historical and even scientific portrayal of the event. The discussions stir the need to find ways of preventing such a catastrophic disaster and how to make use of innovation and science to unravel the mysteries and provide solutions for the future. The dust bowl provides a subject of investigation in different disciplines. It has also triggered consciousness about contemporary events. In particular, the world is faced with a green revolution. This is an occurrence that is directly related to an event such as the dust bowl. We are more concerned about the relationship between humans and the environment. Consequently, the dust bowl helps us to reflect on effects of human interaction with the environment. It inspires a search for solutions to similar incidents occurring in future.

Who is to blame?

The most significant argument yet is that the dust bowl was a consequence of the socio-economic capitalistic policy. To this end therefore, the causes of the dust bowl and thus environmental disasters can be linked to socio-economic and political stance.

Other notable human attributes that have been linked to the dust bowl include human greed and the need to make more profit.

How the issues can be integrated in future classroom lessons

Learners should deduce from the foregoing that there is need to review multiple sources of historical events and deduce the pertinent and overriding credible issues. Further, history students also learn to recognize limits of historical accounts. As has been demonstrated, text books present the dust bowl catastrophe in varying fashions and versions. Some textbooks claim that they are natural disaster while others associate it with human activity.