"The American Story"

Paper Summary:

The book "The American Story" attempts to dispel common notions of the conquest of the new world. The writer explains that the European colonization of the new world forever changed the lives and cultures of the native Americans. Their populations were ravaged by displacement, disease warfare, and enslavement. Yet, the traditional, conservative views surrounding Thanksgiving and American history seems to be ingrained in Americans, even though virtually none of it contains much in the way of of authenticity, historical accuracy or cross-cultural perception. The writer shows that it is this distortion of history, more than any other factor, which motivated Divine to set the record straight on the conquest of the New World.

Table of COntents
I. Author's Representation
II. Theme Portrayal
III. Discussion Response
Bibliography

From the Paper:

"Although Divine isn't as left as many historians, he's certainly to left of the average person-on-the-street. Media has stereotyped Native American Indians as wild, aggressive savages. Americans most frequently associate American settlements with groups such as the Pilgrims who came to the New World not because of competition between religions, but to flee religious persecution by the Church of England. And, Americans are taught the kindness of the English as best exemplified by Thanksgiving, a holiday in which the colonists share their feasts with the Indians. Due to mainstream teaching of American history that only relates part of the truth, the average person is likely to have a very negative reaction to Divine's book, dismissing it as socialist-like propaganda or at least an anti-American diatribe. As Loewen mentioned, once ideas are ingrained they are difficult to change. For history to be rewritten, it must be related correctly beginning at a very young age."

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