Harry Stout and George Santayana

So today in class we read the introduction to "Upon the Altar of the Nation" by Harry Stout. These couple pages discussed the premise of a book which questioned and discussed the way in which history, tragic history in particular, is viewed by historians and students. He stated that historians and students subconsciously judge the morality of the piece of history they are dissecting and that this judgement, while subconscious and in most circumstances justified, did nothing to further the analysis of the piece of history. I definitely agree with this statement because people tend to judge events too much rather than analyze the value and impact that the piece of history has on modern life or life in the time the event took place. You can make moral judgments, but don't let the moral judgments get in the way of a detailed and unbiased analysis.

The journal discussion we did today was centered around the quote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -George Santayana, 1905. We were asked to reflect on this saying and what it meant to us. Most people responded saying that they agree with this statement and that studying history and learning its implications from daily life helps better our society and prevent us from making mistakes. I agree with these statements, mostly. I do think that humanity has learned from a number of mistakes that they made throughout history, but I do not think that simply learning about an issue that happened and ensued negative consequences prevents humanity from making this mistake again. For example, discrimination, hatred, and war have been a constant threat throughout the world as long as anyone can remember and learning about incidents like the civil rights movement hasn't prevented discrimination from existing today. This is because some mistakes are simply human nature, and even education and reflection cannot prevent people from being people.

Stories of the Civil War Era

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and " The Cask of Amontillado" are two very different stories of the civil war era with very different plots. However, they both carry the same underlying message, unrest. In "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" the environment of sleepy hollow causes extreme anxiety for the main character. Throughout "The Cask of Amontillado" the main character is terrorized by his conscience's morality and the horror of the murder he committed. The message of these stories, both written in years close to the civil war, are a reflection of the civil war because the represent a time of unrest in America. The period of American history in the years leading up to the great civil war were filled with anxiety between political parties, genders, races, and people in general. American citizens (and also non-citizens since slaves were not considered citizens) throughout the country lived lives of unease that was reflective of the division of people in their culture. It is only natural that writers such as Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe would either consciously or subconsciously incorporate this American culture theme into their literature. These two works of literature, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820) and "The Cask on Amontillado" (1846), reflect this time through the emotions portrayed in their writing.

Romanticism and The Civil War

The era of romanticism is defined by individuality and powerful emotions in literature and in the minds of many people. The civil war was a fight for individuality based on powerful emotions concerning slavery and the way America was run. Coincidence? I think not. The social turmoil leading up to the civil war was caused by many things including political and economic difficulties, but also by the freedom of the emerging ideas of romanticism. During the time of the civil war romanticism was just beginning to settle into the world. It encouraged expression and discarded previous rules centered around faith and structure. This mindset had a hand in bringing about the civil war because it encouraged people to express their emotions, no matter how violent or angry. Since the civil war was a war based on emotions and anger between the two sides, romanticism added to the flame of the feud between the north and south. As Drew Gilpin Faust states in The Problem of Confederate Nationalism southern men of power "read widely in the literature of European romanticism" (10) which built their ideals towards a individual nationalist society that challenged the rule of the Union. Therefore, the era of romanticism helped bring about the civil war through the expression of emotions and individuality.