America
From talking to people from other countries, their ideas about America aren't really accurate, like it's not stuff that weee all would think about the states but I find that the majority get a picture of either one of two things: Indians, and New York City, so that's what I chose. It's just sort of an iconic thing that I think pretty much everyone could identify as America, even though we all know that this is far from what the rest of America is like. New York is kind of like it's own little country inside the states. It could be a symbol for like, growth and modernism and stuff like that that separate us from other countries!

Song 15

We Didn't Start the Fire: Billy Joel---1989

Great song. Billy Joel lists off events in history to point out that just because there are conflicts and issues we are facing today, it doesn't mean there is something wrong with us or our generation (it still applies even though he is from an earlier generation) The message is that people have always been people since the begining of the world. There have always been conflict and problems in every age and in every civilization and there always will be.
His song also shows how history repeats itself. Wars, persecution, corrupt governments...
It could be used as a history lesson because there are events mentioned in the song that a lot of people may not remember or recognize from history. It makes you curious. He crams a lot of history (1949-1989) into that one song, though. I was going to count, but it seemed pointless.

Song 14

The Hands that Built America: U2---2002

U2 often sings about politcal or other issues in our world, this song included.
Bono reminds us where we all came from. We're not just Americans, we're everything that our history is. We are everyone from every country who ever left their home countries for a new beginning and new hope.
He talks about the struggle to reach the goal that we founded America on.. Liberty and justice for all. 'Of all the promises is this the one we could keep - Of all the dreams, is this one still out of reach'
I think the end is about 9-11 (early Fall, cloud on the New York skyline). , but it's hard to tell what his little symbols mean. What is the 'yellow line'? Maybe its the dividing line between those who don't believe in America (those who want to tear us down) and those of us who are still building America...

Powerful song. It reminds us that we are still creating America's history. We are still building America.

Song 13

The Times They Are A-Changin': Bob Dylan---1964

The song is kind of vague, he's not really specific but it's clear that he's talking about how things in the world around us wont always be comfortable and we won't always be ready but we need to keep an open mind. You can't really fight it. Change will come whether you're ready for it or not. Civil rights, the Vietnam War, and other things were going on when Bob Dylan wrote this song. He was probably speaking to himself as much as to his audience.
I like the message of this song. You never really know what tommorrow is going to bring. If your mind is closed and you're unwilling to consider other people's points of view you'll never grow.

Song 12

Youngstown: Springsteen----1995

It sounds like the steel mill in the song was first built in 1803 and was used to make cannon balls during the civil war. Then the singer's dad worked there and made tanks and bombs for WW2. The singer found himself working under the same brutal conditions in the same mill. He feels like he will die there. He doesn't feel anyone knows or cares about the suffering they have all gone through. What was it all for?

The ending was poetic but probably no one but the writer really knows what "I pray the devil takes me to stand in the fiery furnaces of hell" is supposed to mean. The song is depressing.
Suffering shows up again in America's history.

Song 11

A Change is Gonna Come: Seal---1963

The song, to me, is talking about the frustration black people had to experience after seeing slavery end but not prejudice and segregation. It's a very hopeful song because even though he describes the hardships, he keeps repeating that he expects to see a change one day. He faces the day and crosses boundaries with hope, knowing that he might get knocked down today but one day he'll be treated like every other man.
The song is in story form kind of, sung in the present tense as the singer is living the problem. I don't really like the song.
I'm glad to say that America has moved beyond segregation and most people are enlightened to the equality of every person whatever race or gender.

Song 10

Strange Fruit (1939) Single Version-Billie Holliday---1939

What a sick song. But it keeps the truth of America's past in our memory. Everyone knows about slavery and the brutality black people suffered because of their "owners". But even after slavery ended, black Americans' suffering didn't stop.
Abel Meeropol describes the 'strange fruit' dangling from the trees. It makes me want to vomit. The fruit is a disgusting metaphor for black people who were lynched during the post slavery years and for generations after. Like fruit, these people would swing and hang from the branches of the trees. Like fruit, their flesh would be there for hungry birds to pluck. Like fruit, their bodies would rot in the sun. it's so sad and gross.

Song 9

Do Re Me (live): Ani DiFranco ---1937

Another Woody song... at least someone else sings this one. What the heck is the 'do re me'??? Do as in "doe"? Are they talking about having money to survive if you leave to escape the dust bowl? It is told as the person is experiencing it. They left to get away from the dust bowl, but it doesn't sound like there is alot of hope in California if you don't have any moolah.
Each verse kind of just says the same thing in another way. Basically, without money, you are screwed. Not an uncommon story in American history.

Song 8

Jesus Christ: Woody Guthrie---1940

I didn't konw they had redneck music in the 40's (they wrote this song for Joe!) The lyrics are meaningful but the music is pretty much unbearable. Guthrie tells the ancient story we all know but he uses common, everyday language. As he refrains 'and they laid Jesus Christ in the grave' he sings it in an upbeat tune... which is kind of weird. But millions of Christians have sung the very same phrases. Maybe he is upbeat because of the message of what it means that Jesus went to the grave - for us.
You don't have to like the song to appreciate the message. Guthrie does give witness through his song. I guess everyone worships in their own way.
It doesn't really teach you anything about America's history, but you can't forget that
America started with people who wanted to worship in their own way. Amen

Song 7

Paddy's Lament-Sinead O'Connor

Sinead O'Connor's version of this song is almost a wail.
Obviously she's playing the part of a guy as she tells the story of an Irish immigrant who left his homeland for the promises America had to offer. He left hunger and poverty behind for the 'streets paved with gold'.
To his sorrow, he is given a weapon and told to go and fight for his new country during the Civil War. His heart is heavy and he wishes with all his heart that he could just go back and start over back in Dublin. He knows that so many other Irish people will face the same fate... but he just wishes with all his might that he could keep them from that fate.
We see America at war, this time through one who came here full of hopes and dreams, but he found nightmares. It's a really sad song but the more I listened to it, I have it on repeat as I make this blog post, the more I like it.

Who in the world would have this as their ringtone?!

Song 6

Hard Times Come Again No More---1854

It uses evocative language. Personally, I thought it sounded like it came straight from the heart of a slave during the civil war sung from her perspective, to me she was saying that she knew they were going suffer until they died and theeen their suffering would be over but then there's a part in the lyrics that mentions a 'pale sorrowed maiden', is it talking about a white person? Reading deeper, I understood that suffering was everywhere and even though some people had it better off, few were spared sorrow and people had to lean on each other. There is a hint of hope though.

I'm tired of listening to sad songs!

Song 5

Johny Has Gone for a Soldier

I can't tell when this song was written. When I first heard this it kind of confused me. Did Johny leave her for a soldier? The second time I listened to it I took it more seriously. Her Johny, who was with her and loved her, went away to war. It's a real situation, like dear John letters, and other stuff that happens in war, that lots of women lose their love of their lives. The song sounds really country, but I think it's cute. Really it could be a story from any war. Countless men leave wives and families out of duty or because they want the glory. Sometimes they have to. Throughout the US's history this same story plays itself out over and over again.

Song 4

Brave Wolfe---1997

I'm not sure when the original song of this came out but it kind of tells a story about General Wolfe without using words. Without lyrics you're left to your imagination, you can kind of picture a man leaving his wife behind and going off to war, and people riding around on horses blowing trumpets and trying to be noble and stuff like that. Since this version was released in 1997, it's a current view of the event it's about, but I don't know if there's another older version that actually does have lyrics to it. I think it's very very cool when songs can tell stories without words! This is a cool song.

Songs 1-3

Anon: Virgen Madre de Dios/SAVAE
Apache Indian Drums (Sedona)-American Indian Music
Shaman's Call-R. Carlos Nakai

They were probably just celebrating the beauty of their culture and their beliefs. The songs highlight the lives of the Native Americans before Europeans invited themselves to make homes in the Indians' territory.

The soil we claim as our own today was here long before it was "our's". The Native Americans thrived for many generations on this land and they shared it (sometimes unwillingly) with those who wanted to live and raise their families how they felt they should. The Indians are the beginning of the whole American story in the first place.

Mayflower Question

15. I think that the importance of being objective and unbiased for writing a historical account of something was met by the author. No matter what, a history book is going to be a little biased because they teach the things that they think are the most important and leave some things out; it's not like they can tell you every single thing about history that happened. The whole book was a lesson I think to undo some of the generalizations and cliche thoughts most people have about what happened, I didn't really get a moral lesson out of it though.

Mayflower Question

12. To me, neither side could claim moral superiority. Actions speak louder than words; no matter what face either side put on about trying to look like a victim in the situation, or justifying and rationalizing their motives for showing brutality to the other, the truth is both the English and indians had prejudices against the other and acted as violent as they liked.

Mayflower Question

11. I think that some of the tribes probably joined forces with the English because they had enemies that had sided with King Phillip. They were also being opportunistic and sensible; allying themselves with the English might help assure them safety frooom the English, and they probably foresaw English victory. I think I would have done the same thing, if nothing else then out of fear of facing the English.

Mayflower Question

10. The English assumed that an indian was an indian was an indian, which wasn't true. They tried to kill aaall of the indians, when the indians weren't all together. Tribes probably had enough differences between them to make them as differential as the English and New England natives were to each other, but the English didn't look at it that way. If they took time to better understand the dynamics of the relationships between different tribes the English could definitely have used it to their own advantage.

Mayflower Question

9. I think Church showed humility, and acting just like the first pilgrims, didn't put himself so far above the indians to not ask them for help. He showed tolerance for the Indians who had converted and humbled himself to ask for their help. I don't really think that this makes him a hero though. In all likelihood, he probably had a little prejudice against even the indians that he asked help from, but overcame it because he recognized it as something that needed to be done.

Mayflower Question

8. The book lets you relate to the characters somewhat and helps you think of these historical figures as actual people with real emotions and lives and stuff. Movies a lot of times portray indians as stupid and uncivilized because they lived in tents and didn't wear pants and shirts, or exaggeratingly spiritual, wise, nature-y people. This book shows how smart they really were, and that people are pretty much the same in that they can all be power-hungry and sneaky to get what they want. Squanto is a good example, from all of the planning and deceiving he did, it really humanizes him. The only cliche indian characteristic I can think of as pretty realistic is their use and connection of nature.

Mayflower Question

6. The sons and daughters of the first pilgrims didn't have to work for what they had. They became arrogant and got a sense that they deserved everything, like they forgot what got them where they were in the first place! They were proud of themselves without reason. I think the reputation was earned and entirely deserved, not a self-full filing prophecy. People made the judgement based on the second generation's behavior not the other way around.

Mayflower Question

5. Squanto was really smart. He charmed his way into being close to Bradford and he was already close with Massasoit so that he had large influences over them. His power-hungry motives would be his downfall. He played on fears of both sides, especially when he told Massasoit the story about the plague the pilgrims kept in their barrels, actually full of gunpowder. When he told the sachem that the pilgrims could release the plague at will, he was taking advantage of being the only one that could speak both languages fluently. He used this to his extreme advantage. But for all of his little plotting, when things turned unexpected and left the sachem Massasoit, not himself, in charge of the area. Things would have been different between pilgrims and the natives and who knows how the world would be today.

Mayflower Question

4. The original pilgrims' complex relationship with the indians depended a lot on their early reliance on the tribes for survival. Free of this dependence, the second generation were not as respectful. They undid so much of what their parents worked for by taking on an heir of undeserved superiority. Two other things that lead to King Phillip's war, and the end of peace between the pilgrims and indians, were massive purchase of indian land by the settlers and the unfair trial regarding the man's dead body that was thrown in the frozen lake. I think the peace could've continued, had the second generation pilgrims been acted a little more humbly towards their indian neighbors.

Mayflower Question

3. Since no one here was around back then, we rely on written descriptions of the events from people like Bradford that were there. The stories have been Hollywood-ed up since then and made more interesting. Things were built up and made to sound special because it was more inspirational than truer accounts of what had happened. It could almost be looked at as a form of propaganda. I think stories like the First Thanksgiving have been exaggerated to make you feel proud to be an American. I'm sure it's also like the Pocahontas story that was changed a ton, because the version we made up was more romantic and entertaining.

Mayflower Question

1. The pilgrims were steadfast in their faith; this took them very far. It kept their spirits up in the hardest of times. They had humility in that they didn't think themselves too good to receive help from the native people. They showed extreme perseverance throughout the whole story. They continued to attempt survival, instead of just giving up, in the beginning when so many of them had been lost to disease and they faced constant fear of Indian attacks. They were good at adapting to their new surroundings for both moves, both to Holland and America. The only traits that turned out to work against them later was the second generation's laaack of humility which would later contribute to the build up of King Phillip's war and it also worsened the pilgrims relations with future settlers because of their sense of superiority and religious intolerance.