Review of Portrait of America

Review of Portrait of America

During the process of reading this compilation of works, Portrait of America, many different point of views were aired. The opinion or attitude on the subject was too tainted. The authors were very biased to their perception of the "story". This book could have been much more beneficial if the facts would have stayed to the straight and narrow. Only the detrimental facts needed to be applied to these chapters. For a history class, as broad as this, this book opened too many doors that could not be explained in as much detail as would be liked. Many of the authors enjoyed mentioning the most scandalous moments of the people's lives then dropped the fact without much support or follow through as to what happened to cause or end these events. Brief summaries only tease the mind, and with the course load of most students, there is hardly extra time to investigate the matter further in detail. For a class such as History 152, biographies and/or documentary style books are more worth the while of the student. For instance make a list of a selection of novels that could be read for the class, so that every student can then explore in depth what that student thinks is interesting. Although the book was teasing in nature the chapters did flow well and were easy to read. The procession of the chapters had wonderful transition as to not loose the student. While proceeding through this book there were several different reoccurring topics that appeared. This paper will discuss these two reoccurring topics: the civil rights movement and former presidents.

The civil rights movement, by many people, is though to have happened during the 1950's and 1960's. The truth of the matter is that civil right has and always will be an ongoing issue for anyone who is not of color. The civil rights movement started when the black slave started arriving in America centuries ago. The civil rights movement is one of the most known about issues in American history. Everyone at some point in their life has studied this movement. This movement is particularly interesting due to the massive amounts of different stories and occurrences through the course of the movement. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a vital figurehead to this movement. He inspired many people who had lived their whole lives in the shadow of fear of change. People knew that things were rough and many people took that as how things have been and always will be. Then Jr. decided to make a martyr of himself and try to further the cause. There was a specific chapter, "Trumpet of Conscience: Martin Luther King Jr.", that dealt with nothing other than the, abbreviated, life of Dr. King Jr. Learning about this man has always been interesting because of the many different issues that were broached during this era. The author of this chapter, Stephen B. Oates, portrayed several negative aspects of Jr.'s life. As in many chapters in this book, this chapter divulges Jr.'s lack of better judgment regarding staying faithful to his wife. As with any person in the world that has ever done anything close to the outrageously great projects as he, there will be bad times. In every fight the are smaller battles lost to win the war. A man can give his life to the nation to better their lives, and in return all America ever does is look for weakness to criticize. The country is so threatened by insecurity that the immediately attack something that has been nothing but wonderful to them. There was also a blurb in this chapter on the attempt of suicide at age twelve. In what way does this give an insight to his life other than the fact that he was a compassionate child that could not weigh consequences? This small undescribed incident leaves much to be considered. Was Jr. of the mental capacity and state of mind to be a leader? Is this why he cheated on his wife? Or is this the lamenting of a normal child who has been instilled with the fear of God because of a very religious upbringing? If so how was a suicide attempt even contemplated at all? These questions and many more like these are the kind of answers that can be answered in a novel, not excerpt from novels or large biographical works. Although the civil rights movement is a very known about topic there are several numbers, percentages, and facts that are made available in the chapters dealing with blacks. In the chapter "African Americans and the Quest for Civil Rights" there are several references to the disfranchisement of blacks. It was interesting to learn how much of an impact the disfranchisement "laws" made. There was a statistic in this chapter that said that the disfranchisement laws basically dropped voting participation by sixty two percent in the South. In Louisiana voting went from 130,344 in 1890 to 5,320 in 1990. That large of a jump in numbers is a very awful revelation. Never would anyone suspect that these laws would have that much of an effect on the voting numbers of blacks when in 1990, 11.5 percent of the American population was black. It is outrageous that American could have been completely different because of such a decision by a small amount of its populace. The first chapter in this book, "1865: Beautiful, Cruel Year of Transition in the Black Struggle", was a chapter that could be more enjoyed than some of the other chapters in this book. This chapter divulges information that was not priorly talked about in any other chapter. In all of the chapters assigned there was never mention at all of the 13th amendment. It seems that the actual end of slavery, basically the largest civil rights event in the history of America, is never actually explained. There has never been a word said reference the 13th amendment in any previously taken history class. In this chapter there is not great detail on the subject, but at least there has been mention to the actual writing on paper that "ended" slavery. In a whole he chapters on civil rights movements restated the basic facts that people have largely known since the beginning of this struggle.

History is a very interesting subject to study. The history of American presidents is a very colorful part of history that is explored in Portrait of America. The most interesting chapter dealing with presidents is: Franklin and Eleanor: The early wartime White House". This chapter was really enjoyable to read. There were