Product Description
We meant well to the Americans-just to punish them with a few bloody noses, and then to make laws for the happiness of both countries," said George III. The ensuing uprising led to the creation of the United States, the most powerful country in the modern world.

Robert Harvey, whose most recent book Liberators was brilliantly reviewed on both sides of the ocean, challenges conventional views of the American Revolution in almost every aspect-why it happened, who was winning and when, the characters of the principal protagonists, and the role of Native Americans and slaves. In a time when the history of the United States is being reconsidered-when David McCullough's John Adams and Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers top the bestseller lists-Harvey creatively studies this seminal event in the making of the United States. He takes a penetrating look at a war that was both vicious and confused, bloody and protracted, and marred on both sides by incompetence and bad faith. He underscores the effect of the Revolution on the settlers in America, and those at home in Britain-the country that the settlers had left behind, and to which many returned. The result is an extraordinarily fascinating and thoroughly readable account. Amazon.com Review
The American Revolution, writes English scholar Robert Harvey, was a defining event in modern world history, creating "the mightiest nation in human experience." Yet, he adds, in his country the revolution is ignored, while on the American side of the Atlantic it's "clouded by a fog of myth" that prevents understanding. Harvey seeks to illuminate the realities of the conflict. One, as he writes, is the war's strange similarity to Vietnam, not just in the role of guerrilla and militia versus conventional forces, but also in the antiwar strife it produced at home. Another of Harvey's myth-bursting themes is his insistence, contrary to many American textbooks, that the British commanders were not uniformly incompetent, American commanders not uniformly heroic; he cites many examples to show that neither side had a monopoly on either bravery or incompetence. Still another is his argument that the constitutional outcome of the revolution was in many ways a betrayal of the very principles for which the revolution was fought--a charge sure to excite controversy. Harvey's approach is balanced, his writing engaging, and students of the period will learn much from him. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Revisionist History or Sore Losers?
If you like to believe our Founding Fathers, as well as all Americans in the 1770s and 1780s, were the angels depicted in our elementary school textbooks, then you probably should not read this book. They all had their faults and the moral issues were not the only reason men fought (or didn't fight) to gain independence from Great Britain.

Certainly many of the myths of our country's founding and the events preceding, during, and after the Revolutionary War should be exposed as such and the truth taught... But this book sometimes does as much to support some of those myths as it does to expose others. In fact, numerous books by revisionist historians have done an excellent job of documenting the falseness of some American myths that Harvey continues to mention in his book as events or actions that supposedly occurred. Harvey appears to use the criteria that anything that supports his premise that Americans were stupid to split from the British Empire, passes the test of truthfulness.

I love American history, but I am most fond of the revisionist works that many historians are producing that are setting that history straight. But when you do a revisionist work, it is not enough to say that "This is what really happened," with your proof being "Because I said so." This is the gist of what is wrong with Harvey's book. He lists dozens of work in his "Select Bibliography," but not one single citation to show why what he says has any truth to it.

This work is full of Harvey's personal opinions, unsupported by any facts that he dares to cite. It is my opinion that he uses enough truth or interjects praise of people or events to win you over to his premise, then slips in personal opinions that are unsupported but which are meant to demean people or events during the period covered by the book. I could offer examples, but there are so many I am at a loss which to select. However, let's pick on poor John Hancock. As Harvey describes him he was a key figure in the Revolutionary cause, but then goes on to use the adjective "arrogant" numerous times when mentioning Hancock. Why? Surely, there must be more reason than the size of Hancock's signature on the Declaration of Independence.

While I am enjoying the book, as I do any revisionist history even when I do not completely agree with it, I would say this to Harvey who often compares my country's revolution to the war in Viet Nam. "I was a USMC officer who served in the Viet Nam War over 35 years ago. My country lost the war. I accept this and have learned to live with it. Maybe we deserved to lose it. Your country lost the Revolutionary War over 220 years ago. Isn't it time you got over it?"

Apparently not, as his book tastes of sour grapes in too many places.

Important Book -- However, Like A Rattlesnake It is Injurious to Your Health
How can I defend 5 stars with my title?Well, there is much to learn here as to how foreigners look at us, treat us as stupid little children, claim that everything we know about our own history is false, and from the author's perspective, how the British really do know everything and why we should let them rule the world.Nearly everything is false, slanted, spun, or otherwise fabricated -- but it is important to know because many people believe this nonsense.When you read this book, keep other references handy like Phillips' "The Cousin's Wars", Flood's "Rise And Fight Again", Burrows' "Forgotten Patriots", Middlekauff's "The Glorious Cause", Ferling's "A Leap in the Dark", Marshall's "Washington", Miller's "Origins of the American Revolution" and whatever other references you have.

Why foreigners believe they know everything that is wrong with the United States and find a ready market for their tomes here is beyond me.But they do.First of all, we are not ignorant of the "warts" on the Founding Fathers and do not believe Washington was a military genius.In fact, I know of no American historian who would say that.I vividly remember my first book on the Revolutionary War, Coffin's "The Boys of '76" that I read when I was eight years old.At the time I was thunderstruck at the many defeats suffered by the patriots, actually a majority of the battles, and have never been under illusions concerning the Revolutionary War since.Harvey's "illusions" are rather what he EXPECTS the Americans to believe if they were British and one were talking about British history.A note to Mr. Harvey -- please do not ascribe your shortcomings to us.

It is difficult to know where to begin with this review.One can almost pick out any page at random and argue over the content.George III was not some benign democratic monarch only wishing to inflict "a few bloody noses" on colonial troublemakers and bring the rest into line in the world's best government (see "Forgotten Patriots").And yes, self-interest played a role in the patriot uprising, but the basic tenent of the idea of freedon is to be able to pursue one's self-interest without interference from government.Somehow the author doesn't understand that.The author brings forth Lee, Conway and Gates as "...all fell from stars to ignominious discredit...".Gee, Lee and Conway made only negative contributions in the war, and Gates was fortunate to have others (most notably Arnold) fight his only victory (Saratoga) for him.They were "stars"?And Knox was an uneven general (see Germantown) rather than the consistent hero the author makes him out to be.

The author's equating of the Revolutionary War with Vietnam betrays his total bankruptcy in understanding either conflict.Vietnam was not an American colony peopled by American colonists, Vietnam did not possess the approximately 2/3rds of its population unwilling to fight (in the Revolutionary War the idea that 1/3 were patriots, 1/3 loyalists and 1/3 neutral is roughly accurate and although many historians argue over the exact percentages, these were the major divisions), and after Tet, the Vietnam War was fought largely against North Vietnamese regulars, not domestic rebels.Nor did the Vietnamese and Americans come from the same racial stock, possess a common language, enjoy the same general Protestant religious base, or even share a common heritage in law.But no matter -- at least not for the author.

The author states that (based on his work) "Virtually every common assumption has to be substantially modified, if not rejected."Unbelievable hubris!The author writes one book on a subject and every common assumption on that war has to be modified or rejected?I wonder what he would say about an American author writing a book on the English Civil War in the 1600s if the American author made such a preposterous statement.

Maybe that means every one of his common assumptions, but let's start with the first and most important: that the United States won its independence from England.There are American historians who would argue that the French intervention was decisive.That probably is true, but it would not have happened had the patriots not defeated Burgoyne and captured his army.Or another that many American historians recognize -- that support in England itself, especially in London, was critical to maintaining the revolution on life support.But in fact, without the patriots' insensitivity to losses and ability to endure adversity, we'd still be in the Commonwealth today -- apparently where the author wants us.Up to one patriot in five was killed, died of wounds, died in captivity or soon after release, or from sickness during the war -- an almost unheard of level of fatalities in war; and surprise, apparently the author knows that.But hang in there, Harvey will tell us that it was England who won the Battle of Bunker Hill (Howe's comments to the contrary), that Lexington and Concord were well organized and efficient ambushes (although there were no British casualties at Lexington), and that the constitutional convention was the ultimate defeat to the patriot cause (now I'm really speechless.)

I would argue with almost every polemical point the author makes, with the added comment that he declined to give sources or refer the reader to where he obtained his inaccurate information.No doubt the author has good reasons for this upon which I do not wish to speculate.He does present a half-way reasonable bibliography, but I doubt that he read any of them.A Google search would do as well.

So read this book and then put it on the shelf with a product warning label that it is a prime example of the revisionist tripe being propounded about the US and its history by foreigners today -- or better yet, simply "Reading This is Hazardous to Your Health."

Hallucinogenic Revisionist History
Mr. Harvey obviously speaks for those British subjects whostill havn't come to terms with the fact that patriotic Americans wanted to get rid of the "Little Dinglybury Nation" that attempted to keep them surpressed. Mr. Harvey is in sorts, a very sore loser. It is amazing that after 230 years, some British commoner would still harbor ill feelings towards the men and women who gave the world the best hope of freedom and liberty that has ever exisited. This book is only good for people in Britain who want to have a nice, happy feel good day.
Mr. Harvey has many wild and undocumented claims, and they are far to many for me to waste my time on. But deep into the book I could not "stand" the non-factual and non-truthful writings of the book, henceforth here is an example; on page 355 he makes a statement that disparages the Founding Fathers of The United States by his complete conjecture;George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and all of Congress called for the extermination of all the American natives. There is no such proof of this and absolutely no documentation to back up his statements. As you will quickly notice in the book, there are no references to exactly where he got his information. There may be a bibliography, but never is there a book reference or let alone a page reference to a book to back up his statements.
His facts are often wrong. On page 128, he calls Marblehead, Massachusetts, Mobilehead. He slyly omits the fact on page 351, that the notorious "Hair Buyer" Hamiliton, the British Commander in the Western outposts who bought the scalps of men, women and children, had this name attributed to him. He only emphizises that Americans scalped victims. On page 355, he says that perhaps Americans killed an Indian chief. No proof is offered, he just feels like offering the statement. On page 365, he mixes up Charlestown, Massachusetts with Charleston, South Carolina. No proof reader here. And on page 350 he states that there were West Virginians. West Virginia did not even exist at the time.
Poor job Mr. Harvey with your myths.

A revised look at the American Revolution

Journalist Robert Harvey has attempted to write a "corrective" regarding the American Revolution; it's his belief that the Americans have mythologized and glorified the events and people involved, while the British have merely ignored them. Considering both trends to be negative and counter-productive, he has written this book with the hope of bringing both sides into better balance.

At the beginning Harvey states that "virtually every common assumption has to be substantially modified, if not rejected." Some of these "assumptions" that he challenges include: Americans were not just motivated by a love of liberty, but more by economic self-interest and internal social unrest; a large number of Americans opposed resistance to Britain (8% of the population left America after the war); British commanders were incompetent while America's were geniuses; Saratoga was "the turning point" of the War; and French intervention "saved" the colonies from destruction. Harvey's most compelling argument regarding these objections is with the French intervention: he points out, and it makes sense, that when the French decided to back the American cause, it forced the British to concentrate its naval power off the European continent rather than against the colonies. The least compelling concerns his dismissing the British military leaders as being "merely" arrogant or lazy or overconfident - faults in generals that have wrecked many an army.

Harvey is usually pretty fair-minded, and instead of totally debunking standard beliefs (he points out Washington's failures in the War, which the mythologists try to ignore, but recognizes his strengths, too), he re-examines them in a more critical light. I thought his final chapter on the creation of the Constitution after the country almost fell to anarchy, bankruptcy, and internal revolt after the British were defeated to be the best. He is quick to point out that the truly amazing thing about the Constitution and the "American experiment" in democracy was how they were able to combine individual freedoms with a set body of laws, to put controls on what undoubtedly would have spun off into total chaos. He is very impressed with how the Constitution was hammered out and what it finally meant for a free republic - as we all should still be today. Harvey writes engagingly and with verve, and his book is a most interesting one. Whether his goals in writing the book were ever actually achieved (see my first paragraph above), it's hard to say (my guess would be doubtful), I personally got much pleasure from reading it. Recommended.

Little Bit of How the Other Side Saw It
As someone who isn't very familiar with the American Revolution, I was looking for a summary history, preferably one that didn't get bogged down in the mythology that all too often surrounds old wars.Harvey's book fit the requirements.He summarizes the war well, though admittedly from a British perspective. He also provides a "reality check" of sorts for what we Americans have been taught to believe happened.Washington still comes out a hero, but one with noticeably fewer Godlike qualities, and a man who actually made some serious mistakes.Harvey also defends the Loyalists as not the Devils they are often painted to be. And, he points out that the British actually won most of the battles.

A couple of interesting ideas, the French really won the war for the Americans, and a lot of those American "lovers of freedom"
also loved the idea of slavery.Hmmm. The British's experience in the Colonies was very similar to the Americans experiences in Vietnam a couple of hundred years later.

I'd definitely recommend the book. ... Read more

Product Description

Folktales are at the heart of Native American culture. Prepared especially for students and general readers, this book conveniently collects 31 of the most important Native American folktales. These are drawn from the major Native American cultural and geographical areas and are organized in sections on origins; heroes, heroines, villains, and fools; society and conflict; and the supernatural. The tales reflect the environment, cultural adaptations, and prevailing concerns of the areas from which they are taken. Each tale begins with a brief introductory headnote, and the book closes with a selected bibliography. Students in social studies classes will welcome this book as a window on Native American culture, while students in literature courses will value its exploration of Native American oral traditions.

Prepared especially for students and general readers, this book conveniently collects and comments on 31 of the most important Native American folktales. These are drawn from the major Native American cultural and geographical areas and reflect the environment, cultural adaptations, and prevailing concerns of the regions from which they are taken.

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Customer Reviews (10)

Native Americans Praise Mayor's Research
The celebrated late Sioux activist/scholar Vine Deloria, Jr called Mayor's work on Native American oral traditions about fossils and mythical creatures "courageous," "brilliant," and "well-researched." Roger Echo Hawk, leading Pawnee historian, wrote that this ground-breaking book is the first to show why Native American oral tradiitons should be taken seriously in academic scholarship, history, and science. Comanche writer David Yeagley also finds Fossil LEgends of the First Americans a praiseworthy book. The numerous Native American elders, storytellers, historians, and others from tribes all around the United states and Canada who helped Mayor recover fossil-related narratives from becoming forgotten obviously trusted her and imparted their traditional understandings of the notions of monsters of the sky, water, and earth. Their respect was mutual, good testament to the depth and sensitivity of Mayor's contribution.

Deeply flawed
This is an interesting book and quotes important stoties and localsources. Unfortunatly, it is deeply flawed by Mayor's lack of background in understanding First Nation's discourse about"monsters;" beings that are connected to land, story and people.

Excavating Folklore
This work exceeds expectation created by Mayor's previous excavation, "The First Fossil Hunters", which digs out the solid remains of myths of the Classical ancient world. The research may not qualify as 'exhaustive'; but, it is certainly extensive, with shovels-full of previously unpublished Native American lore. The Appendix and Notes sections take about a fourth of the volume, but are as fascinating as the text itself. It is a companion milestone to her first projectdemonstrating that, contrary to the overconfident opinion of academic science, Human ancestors did not simply create their traditional histories out of their imaginations for entertainment purposes, as we tend to do nowadays; but, were usually quite genuine in observing, understanding, and explaining these undeniable pieces of the past in their own way, as is the tendancy of every culture. The reader will be further enlightened to find that the various folktales of the Native Americans contain common elements which preserve a knowlege of the remote past that exceeded the academic science of the time. You may even be inclined to think, after considering the 'former myths' of Troy, Ankor Wat, Irem, Ebla, and others, that the only true myth is "myth" itself: a pigeonhole term that was invented to safely and securely catagorize anything that does not immediately seem believable.

The First Paleontologists in America
Indians in North America were the first to have the thrill of discovering bizarre and enormous dinosaur fossils, long before white europeans and the founding fathers got interested in paleontology.
This book is filled with fascinating stories of all the tribes in Alaska and Canada, the United state and Mexico and south America, who came across mysterious bones, teeth, claws and footprints of huge extinct creatures, unlike the animals and birds and fish they knew.
These stories will amaze anyone who thinks science only began in Europe in the 18th Century! Many of the speculations of the American Indians come close to anticipating modern science theory.
Highly recommended.

One of most interesting books aout fossils and people
This is really wonderful book! I recommend it to everybody interested in fossils although the book is more about people than about old bones. Tons of fascinating facts and legends. The book is also quite serious study of native american folklore as well. ... Read more

Product Description
Not since the 1920s has American architecture undergone such fundamental changes as those which are revitalizing the profession today. But in this period of great artistic fertility and unrest, there has yet to emerge a critical theory capable of analyzing the conditions and examining the attitudes by which our architecture is being redefined.

Gavin Macrae-Gibson is the first of a generation of architects educated in the 1970s to construct a method of criticism powerful enough to interpret this new architecture. The theory is built upon a close reading of seven works, all completed in the 1980s: Frank Gehry's Gehry House in Santa Monica, Peter Eisenman's House El Even Odd, Cesar Pelli's Four Leaf Towers in Houston, Michael Graves' Portland Public Service building, Robert Stern's Bozzi residence in East Hampton, Allan Greenberg's Manchester Superior Courthouse in Connecticut, and Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown's Gordon Wu Hall at Princeton.

The author uses urban plans, and architectural drawings and photographs to reveal the layers of meaning present in each building, including the deepest layer—its secret life. At this level the buildings have in common the fact that their meaning is derived from the realities of an imperfect present and no longer from the anticipation of a utopian future.

A Graham Foundation Book. ... Read more

Product Description
Mexican-Americans of today are richly nourished by the folkways of three cultures Indian, Spanish, and Mexican. This comprehensive look at the Mexican-American world includes proverbs, riddles, and folksongs ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Mexican-American Folk Expression
The final chapter of this book is subtitled "A Little bit of Everything."That would also make a good subtitle for this entire volume of folklore that reflects Mexican heritage in America.The book has good folktales and legends from Mexican-American culture, but these texts comprise only a small portion of the interesting volume.There are good chapters on Mexican-American folk speech, proverbs, riddles, ballads and folksong, and folk poetry.The book moves beyond many compilations to include good chapters on folk drama, dance, traditional games, foodways, folk art, and vernacular architecture.The presentation of these forms of folklore is interesting, and West also includes good discussions that place the genres and folk expressions within cultural and historical contexts.It's a good source for general readers who wish to learn a bit about Mexican-American culture, and the supplemental materials and extensive bibliography will appeal to those who wish to delve into a more in-depth understanding of the subject.

Mexican-American Folklore
I just bought this book for Father's Day.It includes many well known folktales, folklore, sayings, and stories from the Hispanic culture - many I had forgotten from my youth.Very interesting. ... Read more

Product Description

Latino Americans have a powerful voice in society and a wealth of cultural traditions. Fundamental to those traditions are numerous folktales. Some are funny, some draw upon the supernatural, some look back on ancestral ways, and some capture the experience of Latinos in the United States. Written expressly for students and general readers, this book assembles and comments on a wide range of Latino American folktales. These are grouped in topical sections on origins; heroes, heroines, villains, and fools; society and conflict; and the supernatural.

Each tale is introduced by a headnote, and the volume closes with a selected, general bibliography of print and electronic resources suitable for student research. Students of literature and language will value this book for its exploration of Latino American folktales, while students of history and society will welcome its illumination of the Latino American experience. The more than 30 tales are grouped in thematic sections on origins; heroes, heroines, villains, and fools; society and conflict; and the supernatural.

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Customer Reviews (1)

This magnificent collection of Native American folktales will fascinate the reader!Da neho!
Can you imagine a world without stories?It is true that a long time ago "there were no stories."It was just plain, old boring sitting around without having anyone tell a funny tale, a fanciful one or better yet, one that made the listeners excited and motivated.Gaqka (Crow) was a Seneca Indian boy who was an orphan that no one would pay any attention to because he was a slovenly looking thing.Without anyone to take care of him, what could they expect?One day when he was out hunting he had an amazing experience.A great stone began to talk to him and told him a story.He listened to the stone's instructions and at the end the stone said "Da neho," or "I have spoken."

Gaqka began to tell these tales to his people who gave him small treasures in exchange.He "continued to return to the great stone for more tales to share with his people each night."Eventually he became a well-respected member of his tribe and his name was changed to "Hage-ota, the storyteller."And that is how stories began.In this book you will travel the northeast, the southeast, Great Plains, the southwest, California, the northwest and to the far north listening to the legends of our Native Peoples.The people who speak in this book are the Seneca, the Lenape, the Wampanoag, the Seminole, the Creek, the Choctaw, the Cheyenne, the Lakota, the Blackfeet, the Pawnee, the Hopi, the Navajo, the Isleta Pueblo, the Maidu, the Miwok, the Pomo, the Wiyot, the Salish, the Yakama, the Wasco, the Aluutiq, the Inuit and the Koyukon Alhabascan.

If this marvelous book were expanded into a lengthy series, it would be well received by anyone who has taken a peek inside these pages.Each grouping of stories is introduced by a brief cultural history of tribes and a description of the topography of the land.Each story has a brief introduction. For example, one introduction read,"Pueblo tradition says that there must be balance in all things.Earth and sky are in balance, as are the seasons.So, too, as this tale explains, are darkness and light."The very appealing folk art is scattered throughout the text.This is a magnificent collection that would be welcome on any homeschool or classroom shelf. Da neho! ... Read more

Product Description
From snapshots to formal portraits, photography offers a fascinating record of the complex interplay of attitudes toward Native Americans in the United States. In this first major book to present a comprehensive look at photographs of Indians by both Native and Anglo Americans, from 1840 to the present, we are offered a compelling array of images reproduced with exacting respect for the physical qualities of the photograph as a document. Alfred Bush and Lee Mitchell help us see these photographs not only as historical artifacts but as rich texts that describe their makers as tellingly as their subjects. More than three hundred images relate an important tale of the intrusion of technology into the traditional life of the American Indian, and the political uses both Native Americans and Anglo Americans found for the photograph.These photographs reveal the many agendas of both photographers and American Indians. From images pandering to popular stereotypes to ones that catch troubling realities, these photographs encourage us to consider the photographic enterprise from various perspectives, including those of Native Americans. Contradicting the common notion that Native American photographers are a recent phenomenon, Indians make their appearance as photographers in this work as early as the 1880s with portrayals as varied and conflicted as any by Anglo Americans. The exciting dynamics among multiple American cultures encountering each other through art and technology is masterfully documented here. The text provides authoritative dating of the photographs, biographies of the photographers, and an extensive bibliography. This is a treasurehouse for readers with interests in Native Americans and their history and in the history of photography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A COMPELLING CHRONICLE OF OUR HISTORY
Thanks to Alfred Bush and Lee Mitchell for a compelling 150 year photographic chronicle of the history of American Indians.

This volume is the ofspring of an exhibition of the same title that was held at Princeton University, and it's the next best thing to having been there.

The book is the first to hold photographs by american Indian photographers, many of which have not been reproduced before.It's a significant documentary record. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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They come from the Pawnee, Iroquois, Algonquin, Inuit, Navajo, Sioux, and Hopi--and every one of these myths reveals the richness and depth of Native American culture, with its honored traditions and rituals. Born out of a deep sensitivity and respect for nature, they are exquisitely beautiful and contain the most profound spiritual and emotional truths. Through these legends, meet the Master of Life, who created the world; Thunderbird, who brings the storms; Grandmother Spiderwoman, who descends Earth to spin her silk; Coyote and his friends; as well a cast of other intriguing characters central to various Indian nations' cosmology. As part of an ancient heritage, these stories are a lasting tribute to the imaginative power and worldview of the first Americans.
Amazon.com Review
From the mouths of one generation to the ears of the next, the tales in Native American Myths have been passed down through the ancient tradition of oral storytelling. Though something is lost when these stories inhabit the page instead of the fireside, Diana Ferguson (Tales of the Plumed Spirit) was determined to preserve the spiritual heritage of American Indians in order to "enrich the lives us all." Whether we hear stories from the cliff-dwelling Pueblos or the Northwest coastal Makah, we find common mythic archetypes: creators, tricksters, heroes, and quests. Yet each tribe also has its unique tales, inspired by the land they inhabit and their wild animal companions. The Nez Perce, natives of the plateau and basin, tell stories of wily coyotes and enemy wolves. Natives of the plains tell buffalo tales, and the Northeast coastal Algonquian speak of canoeing in the fog and meeting a great white whale. Almost every spread includes photographs of artifacts and landscapes, as well as evocative tribal drawings and paintings. --Gail Hudson ... Read more

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When Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina savagely caned Senator Charles Sumner Massachusetts on the floor of the U.S. Senate on May 21, 1856, southerners viewed the attack as a triumphant affirmation of southern chivalry, northerners as a confirmation of southern barbarity.Public opinion was similarly divided nearly three-and-a-half years later after abolitionist John Brown's raid on the Federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, with northerners crowning John Brown as a martyr to the cause of freedom as southerners excoriated him as a consciousness fanatic. These events opened American minds to the possibility that North and South might be incompatible societies, but some of Dixie's defenders were willing to go one step further--to propose that northerners and southerners represented not just a "divided people" but two scientifically distinct races.In Normans and Saxons, Ritchie Watson, Jr., explores the complex racial mythology created by the upper classes of the antebellum South in the wake of these divisive events to justify secession and, eventually, the Civil War.

This mythology cast southerners as descendants of the Normans of eleventh-century England and thus also of the Cavaliers of the seventeenth century, some of whom had come to the New World and populated the southern colonies. These Normans were opposed, in mythic terms, by Saxons--Englishmen of German descent--some of whose descendants made up the Puritans who settled New England and later fanned out to populate the rest of the North.The myth drew on nineteenth-century science and other sources to portray these as two separate, warring "races," the aristocratic and dashing Normans versus the common and venal Saxons. According to Watson, southern polemical writers employed this racial mythology as a justification of slavery, countering the northern argument that the South's peculiar institution had combined with its Norman racial composition to produce an arrogant and brutal land of oligarchs with a second-rate culture. Watson finds evidence for this argument in both prose and poetry, from the literary influence of Sir Walter Scott, De Bow's Review, and other antebellum southern magazines, to fiction by George Tucker, John Pendleton Kennedy, and William Alexander Caruthers and northern and southern poetry during the Civil War, especially in the works of Walt Whitman.Watson also traces the continuing impact of the Norman versus Saxon myth in "Lost Cause" thought and how the myth has affected ideas about southern sectionalism of today.

Normans and Saxons provides a thorough analysis of the ways in which myth ultimately helped to convince Americans that regional differences over the issue of slavery were manifestations of deeper and more profound differences in racial temperament--differences that made civil war inevitable.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Normans and Saxons
This book is very compelling and informative, as well as well-researched and documented. It specifically describes the way a mythology was created in the pre-Civil War era, to appeal to the cultural identity of people of Norman versus Saxon heritage; however, the reader can't help noticing the similarity of the tactics used then to those used today to influence and control the minds of the populace. Today's all-pervasive media constantly bombards the masses with mind-shaping messages, so the need to be on guard against propaganda is even more critical in the modern age. This book shows how the pervasive racism that persists today in our society originated - ironically, using a reverse sort of racism which played the cultural identity of one group of people against that of another to justify the exploitation of yet another group. This book is a valuable tool to help us sort through and see through the power of relentless media messages aimed at shaping our opinions. Democracy can't work if we don't educate our citizens to become informed, thinking, responsible voters, and this book goes a long way toward achieving that by showing candid examples of how the media appealed to and conditioned the various factions of our citizenry, thus producing the landscape for the Civil War and its aftermath. You can't read this book without realizing how much of human history has been manipulated by creating a "we" versus "they" mentality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Stories
This book tells the life of Natives in the same way they would tell it--with stories. You feel dropped into another world than our fast paced life in the so-called urban landscape. You have to slow yourself down to step in and then it greets you and pulls you deeper. It fills you up with images that heal and restore you. An deeper view of Reality.

What I am reading, by Alice Walker
This is the book that has been on my nightstand for the past several months. I read several pages each night. It is a big book, over 800 pages, written like a poem, and almost impossibly precious. The wisdom between its covers is astounding. For what this book teaches is something we, at this time in history, desperately need to know: how to start anew after devastation. How to be a whole people after we've been reduced to fragments. It teaches that the wisdom is within us, to survive, to begin again, to thrive. Hallelujah.

Wow
Sad, beautiful, wonderful, wise, haunting, and totally relevant to our global issues of change. Destructive paths happen easily. Creative paths are contingent.

compelling narrative Iroquois history=textbook on learning
This is a great story, compellingly told with simplicity and beauty.It also happens to be the best single book I've ever read on "organizational learning."

The "Walking People"left central Asia and walked across an ocean, over to another ocean andback to the great lakes.On their way, they had to learn to deal with anever changing circumstance, both physical and social.In order to survive,they learned how to learn as a people more and more effectively.

Thisstory deals with issues such as the balance between diversity and unity,how to honor individual styles of learning and use these to help thecommunity, ageism, sexism, racism, cooperation and competition, the balanceof long term goals and short term necessities, planning and improvisation,war and peace.

Are you beginning to get the picture?This should beread by everyone, but at least by anyone who teaches or manages people.Ifa CEO or Senator reads one book in this millennium to prepare for the next,this should be it.

Real stories about real people from long ago-A MUST READ
Most of our historical evidence about the lives of our ancestors is in the form of tools, bones, fragments of pottery and cloth, and rock paintings. What was daily life really like before even these artifacts were tools? Perhaps something else did survive . . . In "The Walking People",Paula Underwood presents stories of real events lived by real people fromthe oral tradition of her people.Not a collection of mythological tales,they cover a span of history, geographical locations and events that isintellectuallly staggering and nearly impossible to put down.These arethe stories of the Oneida people "from the beginning" which tracetheir intentional wanderings over three continents including how theycrossed what is probably the Bering Strait, explore the events anddecisions that made them who they are, and record some of their tantalizingencounters with other people.These are also teaching stories and can beunderstood on many levels intellectually and emotionally, individually andcollectively.They can be seen as a straighforward historical account; anabsolute literary delight; the unfolding of a people's culture and society;a presentation of the development of individuality (ego); a process oflearning how to learn; an anthropological exlposion of possibilities; theevolution of scientific experimentation and evaluation; a description ofordinary living in various times; stories of individual lives andcommitments - and so much more. I have read "The Walking People"cover to cover at least a dozen times, each immersion bringing fresh andexpanding comprehension.The language used and the physical presentationon the page combine to make reading this book a nearly "auditory"experience.It invites the reader to walk with these people through time,participating in their experiences, sharing the tears of theirmisjudgments, the joy in their masterful accomplishments, and the reliefthat the laughter at their predicaments brings.It is a most extraordinaryglimpse into the perceptions and thinking of real people in ancient andhistorical times.It is very difficult to describe the deep psychologicaleffect of perceiving the actual voices and syntax of people who livedthousands and thousands of years ago - suddenly, "history"becomes an intimate, personal reality.Almost understated in terms oftoday's world of extremism, rampant emotionalism and dramatic egotisticalconflicts, these stories carry a haunting impact quietly hidden in thesimple, direct telling that spares nothing.I have no doubt that thesestories have been kept accurately for millenia. This is the firstpresentation I have found that is a sharing of one Native American people'sheritage; it has been my experience that such depth has either been lostaltogether or is usually carefully preserved as part of the private,heartfelt identity of the Original People of America.Paula Underwood'sgenerous recounting of the Oneida oral tradition is a stunning andmanumental achievement in language and scope of material, a very specialand unique gift to whoever cares to explore its pages."The WalkingPeople" blows the western world's catalog of knowledge to the winds,tatters our self-imposed limits regarding what is possible and how thepossible may be accomplished, and rebuilds hope in a positive way -provided we can perceive the possibilities contained inthis true epic saga. It is a sharing of the soul for the soul, touching the essence of us all. ... Read more

Product Description
Fascinating U.S. Government ethnological study made at the turn of the century explores the use of katcinas—Hopi god symbols—in Pueblo Indian culture. 260 katcina figures on 62 black-and-white plates are reproduced here from original drawings by native artists. 62 plates. 260 black-and-white figures. Introduction.
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