Birth of the American Republic - Book Report/Review Example

Full Birth of the American Republic World History Elisabeth Gaynor Ellis & Anthony Esler Publisher:Pearson Prentice Hall Year: 2009 World History by Ellis and Esler is an interesting book that presents itself well to various readers, whether they are interested in history or not. This is because the book has a lot of colorful pictures that breaks the monotony of printed words that could bore readers. With the presence of picture, readers have something to look into which make the communicated words interesting and well understood. Since it is a history book that covers not only a certain part of the world, the book extends its subject discussion of the different stories of nations, from pre-historic time to the present. The more than eleven hundred pages of illustrations and explanations may be enormous but considering the scope of the subject matter, the number of pages is not sufficient to have presented a complete set of information. Rather, the information is limited to the most important facts that follow the objectives of the writers. There is a lot of information important enough in the making of world history and the book covers stories of events, discusses biographies of important people, notes important places, the formation of religions, expression of self through arts, music, dances as well as the different languages. Political and physical maps are scattered over the pages but a quick look at the big picture is possible with the atlas geography contained from pages 1134-1145. The book is well written by history authors who did not just write history books but also wrote other books related to their specialization. Elisabeth Ellis mainly writes history books and some young adult books (jacketflap.com). Anthony Esler on the other hand is an emeritus professor of history at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. His interests are mainly on anything influenced by historical facts that he devoted his time on studies on historical conflicts, research and surveys of the world and western history and wrote and published books on the aforementioned topics. He also published novels based on history. He is a member of the American Historical Association, the World History Association, and the Authors Guild. He has received a Fulbright, Social Science Research Council, and other research grants, and is listed in the Directory of American Scholars, the Directory of Poets and Fictions Writers, and Whos Who in America (Hayes). With that said, there would probably be no doubt as to the validity of the information contained in the book. It is understood that with the background of the authors, the book was finalized after a lot of considerations of the information that needed to be included, texts and photographs as well as illustrations, a lot of research and verifications. The topic that got this author’s attention is the Birth of the American Republic which discusses how America separated itself from Britain. America was first a colony of the British government in the mid-1700s however, with wars that occurred, financed by the government to widen territories problems arose that led to rebellions. Britain was ruled by King George III, who took his mother’s advice and proved himself to be a king, able to make his people move upon his command. He ventured into widening British territories through colonization and thus had to fight long wars with native inhabitants as well as rival colonizers. Among the wars Britain fought that caused the king to make disastrous decisions was the French and Indian War in North America. Since wars were extremely expensive, Britain’s treasury was drained and this forced King George III to impose taxes on imported products through the Stamp Act in 1965. Nevertheless, the colonists thought they should not be taxed because they have no representatives in the Parliament but still, a declaration was implemented claiming full authority over the colonists. This begun the misunderstandings that led to violent clashes caused by the British men and rebellions of the colonists. One of the famous violent acts of the British soldiers was the killing of protesters in March 1770 called the Boston Massacre. On the other hand, a vain response to import tax was the Boston Tea Party wherein a number of colonists hurled a cargo of British tea that just arrived in the harbor. When Britain tried to punish Massachusetts for this act, other colonists cried against the government. Violence spread widely and the tension grew, leading to the war in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts in April, 1775 commonly known as the Revolutionary War or American Revolution. These acts initiated important players in the declaration of independence to confer the following year, with Thomas Jefferson of Virginia heading the authorship of the draft that protected the people’ natural rights to life, liberty and property (Ellis & Esler, 560). The Declaration of Independence was officially drafted in July 4, 1776, aimed to protect the rights of the people, giving birth to a republican government that did not give supreme power to one person ruling over the entire nation rather it gave power to the people to fight for their rights. This is the spirit of America that spurred nations to stand in support in the war that they fought and it has become a stigma, an example that many peoples want to have. The declaration has a tinge of Christian values as it is stated that the authors believed in the truths mentioned in the draft to be self-evident, well understood by commoners and highly educated citizens alike, that all men are created equal. Since this is evidently true, there is no need to explain that all people have the need to attain their unalienable rights endowed by their Creator, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This refers to the freedom exercised both by the government and the governed. The argument is raised that indeed a government is instituted to rule over the people, to maintain peace and order, control economic stability and safeguard the people from whatever calamities that come, whether natural or man-inflicted. However, the argument continues, the governed also have the right to react to their circumstances, to express their thoughts like when they feel that their freedom is not respected. In such case, the people then have the right to go against the government to claim and preserve their freedom. Since the government is given the power by the people, the people also have the power to strip it off from the government or even abolish the existing government and change with one that would respect human rights (p. 559) The American Revolution seemed to be a battle that guaranteed the defeat of the colonists because they were mismatched. The colonists did not have the army, armaments and money to make them stand against their enemy who was far stronger in terms of needs, trained soldiers and weapons. The colonists were ants waging war against a giant. Thankfully, help came on time with France wanting to support the revolution against her long time nemesis, Britain. Consequently, Netherlands and Spain followed suit and strengthened the American spirit in their fight for their freedom. As many nations and peoples felt the hardships of war, the colonists were no exception in their experience so that despite the help that was extended to them by their newfound allies, hard times still continued. The effects of war was coupled by the harsh winter season in 1777-1778, making continental troops at Valley Forge suffer from extreme cold, hunger and disease. Nevertheless, George Washington, a Virginia planter and soldier, stood strong and gave a good example of unshakeable courage to stand for the people’s rights and reach the goals stated in the Declaration of Independence (p. 561). One of the vehicles that helped the American Revolution reached its peak and finally end is the newspaper. Since there were no technological machineries then that would have accelerated the exchange of information, the printed papers became the only access to updates about the war. From 1770-1775, the number of newspapers increased from 29 to 48. When the Stamp Act was passed, it did not exclude newspapers to be taxed and in response, the media did not just serve as a tool to inform people rather, it became a medium that expressed the people’s discontent about the British government. Different opinions were expressed in many ways like the worded communication of editors. Caricatures featuring events during the American Revolution caught the attention of readers and this made the people aware of what was really happening. Awareness and enlightenment were achieved creating a path for newspapers to reach the people. As an effect, the people were enraged with Britain, one thing that stirred the fighters to be strong and keep to the end of their fights. The Stamp Act was then repealed as an effect of this reaction of newspaper publishers but the damage was already done because actions were already initiated for the Declaration of Independence (p. 564). World History is a well-written narrative of the history of peoples. Considering the subject to be boring as it discusses people, places and events a reader might have never heard of, the book is made interesting with various illustrations. Short captions under photographs or maps are helpful in citing immediately what the picture is all about without going through the long narratives. Maps are sufficient and they are well laid-out, scattered throughout the book, not making another uninteresting history book. Photographs of leaders, philosophers and scientists who have impacted the history of the world are numerous. In addition, photographs of unearthed documents and artifacts are also helpful in making the contents of the book believable and authentic. Nevertheless, although the pictures are very helpful, giving some idea about how the person being talked about looks like, where a war or important event took place, and how the people’s situations were during a time in history, they seemed to have covered more space than they should have. Some photographs are so large that they covered almost the whole face of a page that sometimes, the information about a subject matter seemed to be insufficient. Probably, if the sizes of photos were cut to just the right ones, more information could have been included. The book opens with the pre-historic data covered by geologists, researchers and scholars dating from 300 B.C., discussing the Neolithic, Paleolithic and other early eras usually mentioned in the study of the evolution of man. It closes with a little information about the present situation in general like the technological advancements, politics and economics which is appropriately added considering it is a World History book. References Ellis, Elisabeth Gaynor and Anthony Esler. World History. Massachusetts: Prentice Hall, 2009. Print. Hayes, David. Anthony Esler. Historic Naval Fiction: The Home of Naval Fiction Set in the Age of Sail. 2008. Web. April 30, 2012. < http://www.historicnavalfiction.com/other- authors/1775-anthony-esler>. n.a. About Elisabeth Gaynor Ellis. Jacket Flap. 2012. Web. April 30, 2012. . Read More