Compare & Contrast. Approaches used by the three Historians
Students will write a paper, 6-8 double-spaced pages long, based on the Blight, Gannon and Clark books noted above. Students will compare and contrast the historians’ approaches to understanding how Americans remember their past. They will touch on the various topics that each author considers important, judging why each author emphasizes certain things at the expense of others (30% of final grade). The instructor will provide additional details in class.
Books for paper:
David W. Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory
Barbara Gannon, The Won Cause: Black and White Comradeship in the Grand Army of the Republic
Kathleen Ann Clark, Defining Moments: African American Commemoration and Popular Culture in the South
A student will not be able to earn an “A” on any assignment if that assignment:
1. has an inadequate introduction that fails to state the writer’s purpose and the paper’s thesis
2. fails to have page numbers placed in the upper right hand corner of each page after the cover page
3. fails to have a cover page
4. uses passive voice
5. incorporates “This paper will explore,” “I will show” or similar phrases that do not advance the argument of the paper
6. is turned in late even with the instructor’s permission
Introduction
In their texts, Clark, Gannon and Blight have used diverse approaches to understand the way Americans recall their past. The books written by these three historians are explored. They are compared and contrasted for the purpose of determining the approach that each historian has utilized to understand how Americans remember their past. The exploration of the topic is significant as it would reveal the areas or subject matters in America’s past, such as the Civil War, Reconstruction, Emancipation, and Integration of Black and White Civil War veterans, that each historian considers important to remembering the country’s past. Thesis statement: in their books, each of the three historians has used a different approach to understand how Americans remember their past, each emphasizing different topics and issues. For example, Kathleen Clark has focused on African American efforts of interpreting the historical memory of the Civil War and the Reconstruction, and she emphasizes African American commemorative traditions in the Southern United States. The approach used by Barbara Gannon entails showing the extent of African American integration and participation in the Grand Army of the Republic. Unlike the other historians, she emphasizes the issue of racial integration of the Grand Army of the Republic posts. The approach used by Blight entails exploring the dangerous path of remembering and forgetting. Unlike the other two authors, Blight emphasizes various issues such as the changing meanings of sacrifice and death, soldiers’ reminiscences of the fighting, Reconstruction, the ritual of Memorial Day, and the notion of the Lost Cause.
The three historians are Kathleen Ann Clark who is the author of Defining Moments: African American Commemoration and Popular Culture in the South, Barbara Gannon who wrote The Won Cause: Black and White Comradeship in the Grand Army of the Republic, and David Blight who authored Race and Reunion. Kathleen Clark in Defining Moments explores the commemorative traditions of Blacks in Southern United States, where various occasions like the 4th of July and the Emancipation Day celebrations provided opportunities for Blacks to avow their own understandings of Emancipation, Civil War, and slavery. Barbara Gannon in The Won Cause explains that even though African American veterans of the Civil War still suffered racism, they were still honored by the Grand Army of the Republic as demonstrated by integrated posts. The book also reveals how African American veterans were accepted and embraced by their white counterparts. David Blight in Race and Reunion looks into the dangerous path of recalling and forgetting, and divulges its catastrophic cost to race relations in the United States as well as to the nation’s national reunion. In this book, the author provides a history of how the unity of White America was purchased by means of the growing segregation of white and black memory of the Civil War. The contents of the three books are similar since they all focus on people’s memory and understanding of the Civil War and the period immediately after this war.
You Might Also Like Other Topics Related to civil war:
- Angola. The best and cheapest means of transport to Angola is by plane2 pages/≈550 words | 5 Sources | Other | Literature & Language | Article |
- The Theme Of To Live Zhang Yimou Movie Review3 pages/≈825 words | 2 Sources | APA | Literature & Language | Movie Review |
- Watch 12 watch 12 years of slave. History Movie Review2 pages/≈550 words | No Sources | MLA | History | Movie Review |
- Constitutional Governments American Federalism 1787-1937-Present1 page/≈275 words | No Sources | APA | Literature & Language | Essay |
- The Cattle Kingdom And Cowboys 1 page/≈275 words | 2 Sources | Chicago | Literature & Language | Essay |
- The importance of the Constitutional Convention Essay3 pages/≈825 words | No Sources | MLA | Literature & Language | Essay |
- Overexploitation of Natural Resources Results in Crises Language Essay2 pages/≈550 words | 4 Sources | APA | Literature & Language | Essay |