A Different Mirror - Chapters 1-3

The United States was settled by Europeans and Americans are white.

• The “Other”

• Master Narrative of American History

• “Frontier Thesis”

• Naturalization Law of 1790

Not white.

• “Greenhorns”

• “American”

• Master Narrative

• The "Other"

Idea coined by Frederick Jackson Turner that America was founded on the frontier, where “savagery and civilization” intersected, and Europeans were “Americanized” by the wilderness.

• “Frontier Thesis”

• Transcontinental Railroad

• Chinese Exclusion Act

• Ethnic Strategy

Reserved “citizenship” for whites only.

• Pogroms

• Chinese Exclusion Act

• Naturalization Law of 1790

• Master Narrative of American History

Slavery.

• Transcontinental Railroad

• Declaration of Independence

• Chinese Exclusion Act

• Peculiar Institution

Two inconsistent thoughts/actions/behaviors engenders a dissonance. Humans dislike dissonance (there is a physical discomfort) and they strive to relieve the discord. One way is to change one of the thoughts/actions/behaviors, so as to restore consistency. Another way is to add a thought into the mix to rationalize a thought/action/behavior.

• Presentism

• Cognitive Dissonance

• Master Narrative

• Peculiar Institution

Became an export crop and sparked both a greater hunger for more land and stimulated greater immigration to the colony of Virginia.

• Cultivate of Tobacco

• “The Starving Time”

• Virginia

• Powhatans

As a result of Tobacco the Virginia grew from 400 people to 4,500 people in the span of five years.

• Cultivation of Tobacco

• “The Starving Time”

• Powhatans

• The “Great Migration” of 1618-23

A war that is unrestricted in terms of the weapons used, the territory or combatants involved, or the objectives pursued, especially one in which the laws of war are disregarded.

• King Philip’s War of 1675-76

• Total War

• Pathogens

• Pequot War of 1637

From the English perspective it meant to serve the devil or be decivilized.

• Indianized

• Assimilation

• Cognitive Dissonance

• Psychological Projection