It has all of the sources and resources Horwitz used to write the book. Information on the author: Tony Horwitz is a graduate from Columbia University. He was originally a reporter before he became an author. He started off at a small newspaper company in Indiana, and then he began traveling across Europe Africa, and Asia to report on foreign affairs for The Wall Street Journal. When he returned, he won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting. He then wrote articles for New Yorker before starting his career as an author.
Since then he has written four New York Times bestsellers including A Voyage Long and Strange (the book I chose), Confederates in the Attic, Blue Latitudes, and Baghdad without a map. Sources: The author used A LOT of sources when writing this book. Some examples are: Primary Sources: The Log of Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci’s Journal, and Good News from England. Secondary Source: Colonial America: an encyclopedia of social, political, cultural, and economic history Government Documents: The Mayflower Compact, The Charter of Massachusetts Bay, and the letters from Christopher Columbus to the Queen.
Newspaper Articles: The Juan Pardo Expeditions, The Southeastern Indians, and Atlantic History: Concept and Contours. Books: Hidden Cities: The Discovery and Loss of Ancient North American Civilization, As Near to Heaven by Sea: A History of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Roanoke: Solving the Mysteries of the Lost Colony. The author also included all of his notes for the chapters. Evaluation: I enjoyed this book. It was very neat how the author traveled all across the east coast going to different landmarks. I the book was very interesting, but hard to read at some points.
The Essay on Films As Primary Sources For History
Films as primary sources for history If a picture is worth a thousand words than how much is a moving picture, or movie, worth In the study of history, the usage of movies as primary sources is controversial. Motion pictures are more commonly well-known as sources and created for entertainment purposes. Film is a creation of a reality. This has some valuable resources for the study of history in ...
Tony Horwitz did a good job at incorporating humor into the book by describing the events he encountered while visiting the historical sites, but sometimes he would just carry on and on. In chapter seven, Horwitz spends an excessive amount of time describing the plains and the Indian artwork. “The oldest artwork done by Indians about seven hundred years ago, depicts birds, lizards, bighorn sheep, and stick-figure humans” (Horwitz 167).
Horwitz’s purpose of the book was to inform readers of the time between 1492, when Columbus discovered America, and 1620, when the pilgrims landed at Plymouth.
He believes that most Americans do not know what happened between those two events, and that most Americans think the Pilgrims came with Columbus. He also wanted to clear up false rumors and ideas that people had been taught. I think Horwitz does accomplish his purpose. He clears up a lot of things I would have not known if I had not taken this class prior to reading this book. The book is not very well organized. Horwitz skips between personal encounters and historical events freely. Sometimes I had to go back and re read sections to figure out what century in.
It was very informative though. Sometimes I think he is a little biased when telling the stories. For instance, when he is writing about John Smith, he hypes him up A LOT. “What natives couldn’t know is that their rescuing of the English would unleash John Smith, the one man capable of mobilizing the beleaguered colony” (Horwitz 332).
He makes the reader believe as if John Smith alone saved all of the colonies from destruction of the evil Indians. Over all, it was a good book. I would never recommend it to anyone, but that is just because of the topic.
I would recommend it to someone next year when they do their first nine weeks book review, or if they just had an unquenchable thirst for early exploration, but those are about the only circumstances that I would recommend this book. Bibliography Horwitz, Tony. “Tony Horwitz. ” About: Bio. Tony Horwitz, 2011. Web. 25 Sept. 2012. <http://www. tonyhorwitz. com/tony/>. Horwitz, Tony. A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America. New York: Picador USA, 2009. Print.
The Essay on John Smith And Pocahontas A Disney Romance
It can be easily assumed that almost everyone has heard the tale of the American Indian princess, Pocahontas the narrative of a mysterious young girl who rescues an English explorer from death only to fall in love and win his affections in return. It is one that is quite popular and has even been developed into an animated movie by Walt Disney Pictures. Regardless of which version they may have ...
