Title and Author
101 more things every college graduate should know about American history by John .A. Garraty
Date of issue
American heritage Magazine December 1987, volume 38, issue 8.
Page numbers
Web version, link: http://main.americanheritage.com/content/101-more-things-every-college-graduate-should-know-about-american-history
Introduction and thesis statement
The article gives a summary of information on important episodes and individuals in the history of America. The article shows that the 101 things are indeed the most crucial in American history. The article’s information elates to college graduates because of an educational perspective in the examination of history between colonial period and after 1865.
Brief summary
Garraty (1987) gives interesting insight on crucial historic information focusing on 101 things in American history. The content in this case is of educational nature, and summarizes content on historical issues. The article first explains aspects of the New South as its introduction. There is also explanation of new nationalism and new freedom; concepts that are indeed crucial in the history of America. The focus of the article is not only on events, but also on individuals such as Woodrow Wilson and Roosevelt. Another issue of great consideration in the introductory stages is the New Negro concept that shows the state of affairs after the First World War, particularly the Harlem Renaissance. Each issue mentioned by Garraty (1987) as being part of the 101 things college graduates should know is given a brief explanation of facts. The 101 historical things come from diverse topics ranging from immigration, politics, to the life of prominent members of the American society.
Garraty (1992) also shows that some events in the history of America history are more essential than other events. The point of view of the article shows that these 101 things had the greatest impact in the history of America. There is also consideration of slogans that grabbed the United States, turning points and texts that changed lives and issues such as wonderful historic names like the revolutionary war officers, Henry Lee, Light Horse Harry, among others (Garraty, 1987).
The diverse content about American history in this case is coherently put, where related events are categorized together; for example, there is a category of historical episodes on the topic of compromises. Other issues considered in this case include the category of the land of rebels, which examines rebellions such as the Leisler rebellion, Paxton boys uprising, among other rebellions. The history of cartoon in this instance shows the urge by Benjamin Franklin for unity in 1754, where there is allusion to the first newspaper cartoon. In American history, issues such as economic downturn were referred to as panics. The article shows panics in history like those in 1837, 1857, 1873, and 1893. The nature of content cuts across various historical topics, and there is information on warships in American history.
Garraty (1987) also shows that in the history of America, there was perception of some prominent black activists as being trouble makers. These include Journer Truth, Frederick Douglass, Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X. History of different social groups in America is also documented in various publications. The struggle for equality by women is a fundamental event in history that involves issues of legislation. Another major category of things among the 101 things in this case includes great compromises and deals in American history; for example, there are the constitutional conventions between states, among other compromises.
Inventions in the history of America changed the nature of life. Crucial inventions in this case include nylon, frequency modulation in 1933 by Armstrong Edwin, and the 1950s invention of oral contraceptives by Gregory Pincus, as well as invention of automobiles, which also marks the end of the article. Some of the things in history have different implications on the life of people. Focus in this case is on educational nature, famous historical happenings and personalities (Gerraty, 1992). The American Heritage magazine articles are scholarly historical documents; therefore, combining articles to come up with 101 most crucial things has a scholarly perspective. The point of view in this case is objective; and there is no sense of opinion, but only facts to prove historical events. The author of the 101 more things college graduates should know about American history focuses on bridging information gaps in issues that may be absent from curriculums but are crucial.
Evidence
The article is a summary and combination of different articles; therefore, there is wide ranging evidence on historic events. However, in this case, proving the article’s thesis shows the significance of historic events, which also justifies the need of giving them prominence. Consideration of issues such as the first newspaper cartoon in the year 1754 in history shows that the article’s claims are valid and objective.
Assessment
The article gives a summary of essential historic episodes and prominent personalities. The evidence in this case is persuasive in terms of showing 101 things that college graduates need to know about American history. Issues of considerations and the arrangement of information build coherence in analysis of events from the colonial period to the period after 1865. A piece of evidence persuasively used in this case is the constitution of America, specifically talking about compromises in history. The article also gives a brief description of 101 things in history without clearly showing the source of information. However, Garraty (1987) does not form subjective conclusions regarding historical happenings; but rather there is objective display of summaries for readers to make conclusions.
The educational nature of information in this case relates to college graduates. The nature of content as well does not require great use of external evidence because the author does not make any claims that require evidence to back up. The article is a chronological display of historical information that does not need to be persuasive, but needs to be factual because there is no argument to be made. In the case of information on individuals, for example, in the case of new nationalism and new freedom focusing on the lives of Woodrow and Roosevelt, there is appropriate use of biographic information. The point of view in this case is that out of thousands of historical issues, the 101 in the article are the most prominent and necessary for graduates to know. Different historical events in the history of America affected the future of America, and the level of impact differs (Kellog, 2003). The nature of the article in this case is persuasive because the issues mentioned are essential.