HIST 100: Engineering The Past

Competing Interpretations of the First Thanksgiving

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1.

“The Pilgrims and America’s First Thanksgiving” was the basic elementary school lesson according to most of the “My First Thanksgiving” posts that I have read. The basic understanding that for a brief moment in history, all was well between the pilgrims and Native Americans. There is a lot of factual information in this but there is also lots of facts missing.

2.

I think that it would be hard to not find the differences in how the articles were written interesting. People these days usually thrive on drama and this is a very dramatic argument even in today’s politics. However I find that with reading upon any topic it is important to check other sources and try to weed out the hard facts and create your own opinion on the topic.

3.

I find these articles much more interesting than those in part 2. They provide a first person feeling to the story. I can remember sitting down next to my great grandfather and listening to his story about WW2. Now his opinion played a huge part in these stories so not everything that he said about the European countries can be taken for the truth, but it sure helps you build a good idea of what happened in the eyes of someone that was there for the event.

4.

I think that it would be hard not for a historian to create an opinion on the “First Thanksgiving”. That is how our minds work as people. The trick is to put your opinion aside and search for the truthful facts. I think that it easy to see that historians have changed the common persons knowledge of the past. They are the ones writing school books and when they leave parts of history out or only telling part of the story, it is equivalent to being completely biased. There are countless historic events that are left out of school books. And the youth learning from these books have no idea of the full story.

competing narratives of the first thanksgiving

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  1. The reading that was closest t my childhood image would probably be the first article because it was the only article that, in my eyes, was more fact based and talked about how the pilgrims and the indians became partners and how they feasted together in celebration. The article that is most relevant to my current understanding of Thanksgiving would still be the first article because it was straight forward and easy for me to follow along with previous knowledge. Honestly learning more about Thanksgiving over the course of my life hasn’t changed the celebration of the holiday for me. When the day comes around I do not think about the Natives and the Pilgrims feasting together. I think about spending quality time with my family.
  2. I don’t find these interpretations interesting at all because they are more about economy and socialism which is just a way for the richer to become more rich and the poor to remain poor. These articles do tell me about how the pilgrims didn’t fully thrive until Bradford, their governor, divided up property. When I googled the author Richard Maybury it showed that he is a publisher and writes about economics, law and history from a librarian viewpoint.When I googled Rush Limbaugh, he is an American entertainer, talk show host and writer so he is very outspoken and you can tell from his interview/ article. Knowing more about the authors doesn’t change my view of their Thanksgiving stories. Everyone is entitled to their ow way of thinking.
  3. I feel like the more I read these articles the more repetitive it all becomes which I know they are telling the same story but none are really attention grabbing or stick out to me. The authors of these articles are the same as the others. Again knowing more about the authors does not change my view of their version of the first Thanksgiving.
  4. A historian would probably make sense of the first thanksgiving by relating all other events that occurred at the time. They would try to make it as accurate as possible by reading and comparing articles like we didnt today and then writing a more fact based article. An average adult would most likely make sense of the competing articles by comparing the knowledge behind each authors articles. They would probably like an article like Rush’s the most because is is more entertaining to read or listen to. Primary sources related to the first Thanksgiving would be history books or history websites. A secondary source of knowledge would be something like wikipedia because it has many facts and is cited

Interpretations of First Thanksgiving

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1:

For me the best understanding to my childhood was probably the second article.  The main facts that I knew and understood were that the pilgrims were seeking the religious freedom. The third article was definitely the one that I believe fits my current understanding the best. It included many of the dates that sounded familiar but I can’t remember the exact numbers. My true understanding has developed that this is a time for all of us to be with family and be thankful for what we do have.

 

2:

All of these articles are pretty interesting to read and analyze. The biggest thing that jumped out to me was the fact that they were first created on a socialistic idea. That everybody would work and they would also get the equal amounts of food. Their first years were definitely a struggle until they did away with the socialist idea and created a free market. Socialistic idea is just always unsuccessful and author of article three describes it the best by stating, “eventually the one who works hard decides that tomorrow he will do his own strolling and puffing”.

I did find many of the articles compelling and I do believe that there is some accuracy to these events. The first and third articles were the ones that grabbed my attention as being resourceful. They way they were described and the language usage was very highly educated. Author Richard J. Maybury was the author of the first article, “The Great Thanksgiving Hoax”, he is an author of many different books from teenage to adult books. He is a very well educated is considered a very credible source having the background that he does. Author of article two, “The Real Story of Thanksgiving”, Rush Limbaugh I have a tough time finding him credible. He is very well known for always stating his beliefs on political topics. He has become a radio show icon. I don’t find him as credible because he is in the business of entertainment.

Del Tackett is honestly decent source to have to gain an extra perspective from the different articles. He is a very religious person but does have a pull in the political standings. He worked for president Bush during his two terms, and was a technical planner for National Security Council. He is a very well educated man and would be useful for credible information. I struggled on the last article find the author, but it did seem as though they were educated due to their writing.

Looking at the author of the last article I can see that they are of of higher education due to their writing style, unfortunately I was having difficulty finding the author and the information about them. However due to the nature of AIER and the requirements that are needed to have an article published results in the author being knowledgeable about the historical events. With all information you may want to take it with a grain of salt. Knowing the background of all of the authors helps me gauge which one I want to trust more than others. In other words it changed slightly but not very. I believe my ideas have changed a little and I kind of have better understanding to do extra research. The authors presented didn’t have enough credible information to full persuade me.

 

3:

I found them somewhat interesting, but it seems as though a lot of the information is being repeated and the works are relatively the same. The biggest understanding that I have gained is the fact they became very lazy humans after going through such a great struggle to come to America. The biggest thing I have come to understand was the main idea with some important facts, but a lot of it can be taken lightly. Overall, I found them about equally as interesting, but the articles seemed to drag on just because of the information being repeated.

It seems as though Kate Zernike has numerous articles that were published with “The New York Times”.  Writing and researching is some she can do very well and her articles seem to be very informative. She seems to be able to analyze information at a deeper level, seems to published many political topics as well. I really did enjoy listening to Bob Edwards he is in the National Radio Hall of Fame. I really enjoyed listening to him and seems to be very well rehearsed and knowledgeable. The information I was able to gain on Gary Hopkins was very little. I know he is the Cheif Editor at Education World, which specializes in what teachings work. I feel like this makes him a reliable source because he always doing research and seeing what works in the teaching world. I was unable to find any information on who was the author of the Pilgrim Hall Museum. The website and article as themselves seem to be a pretty credible source of information. In the speech given by Wamsutta it was very clear was his point an idea was. He wants to get of the story told in schools with the real story. It strongly seems as though he had a very biased opinion and mission to get done.

 

4:

I believe a Historian will always start off with a simple history story. Then from there they will take the necessary steps to find credible information. They will also go through numerous sources to find out more in-depth details that correlate with their story. As they gain the important information necessary to make a fact based idea of what happened long ago. I believe each step is valuable step and a historian will make sure that they fully understand all of the information presented.

I feel as though the average 18 to 30 year old if they were presented those articles. They would probably just read it and either say no that’s not anything that I was taught in school, or just believe the information presented. I feel as though that is what most people will do, but there is always that person that will take the information and do the research themselves, and then base the decision off the information they have gathered. If you asked me to find information based on this topic. The first place I would go to start my research is the going to the bronco library. The only articles I would read are those that are peer-edited, college grade papers, with credible sources. My secondary source would probably be google, but I would run through the different steps to prove that an is still a credible source. I always try to find articles without any bias presented.