American Leaders and Heroes: A Preliminary Text-Book in United States History

Gordy, Wilbur F. (Wilbur Fisk), 1854-1929Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
412K words
Chapters
42

Tags

English Originals World History Historical ReappraisalAmerican HistoryPortrait GalleryHeroismCivic AwarenessInspirationPatriotismFamous FiguresFounding EraYouth Reading

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.American Leaders and Heroes: A preliminary text-book in United States HistoryAuthor: Gordy, Wilbur F. (Wilbur Fisk), 1854-1929,Language: English, Class: E151: History: America: United States, Release Date: Apr 1, 2011

Editor's review

American Leaders and Heroes: A Preliminary Text-Book in United States History was written by the late 19th-century American educator Wilbur F. Gordy as an introductory U.S. history textbook for beginners. The book links the course of American history through biographical narratives, selecting representative figures from political, military, and public life and recounting their deeds and characters in a storytelling style, with a clear civic education purpose. As a public-domain ebook from Project Gutenberg, it preserves the language and values of late 19th-century American history textbooks and is valuable for studying the history of American history education, the evolution of textbooks, and the construction of national narrative. Its narration is clear and its length moderate, with English difficulty generally manageable, making it suitable as an English-language history reader. Note, however, that its selection of figures and evaluative standards reflect the limitations of its era, and its treatment of issues such as Native Americans and slavery may not align with contemporary historical scholarship. Readers are advised to treat it as a documentary reader rather than an authoritative general history and to read it alongside modern works on American history, which allows them both to practice English and to observe how historical narrative changes over time.

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A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the biographical chapters in order, and after each chapter summarize the figure's deeds and the author's evaluation in your own words.
  2. Prepare a modern U.S. history textbook for comparison and mark differences between the book's narrative and contemporary scholarship.
  3. Extract passages dealing with Native Americans, slavery, and similar topics separately, and consider the narrative standpoint of a 19th-century textbook.
  4. Use it as English extensive reading material, reading one chapter a day and accumulating expressions related to historical figures and events.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42

FAQ

What English level is this book suitable for? The book is written in the style of a late 19th-century English textbook, with fairly regular sentence patterns and generally moderate difficulty. Readers with high-school-level or above English reading ability who are willing to look up historical background vocabulary will find it easier to get into. Younger or beginning English readers may need considerable support.
Are the historical narratives in the book still accurate today? They cannot be fully judged by contemporary academic standards. This is a preliminary textbook from the late 19th century, and its selection of figures and value judgments carry the limitations of its time; this is especially true when it touches on issues such as Indigenous peoples and slavery, which require critical reading against modern scholarship.
Can this book be used as an introductory American history text? It can serve as a supplementary, character-story-style introduction, but it is not recommended as the sole or main general history reader. It lacks the problem awareness and pluralistic perspectives of modern historiography, and is best used alongside contemporary American history textbooks.
Why is an old textbook worth reading? Its value lies not only in historical knowledge, but also in showing how Americans in the late 19th century chose heroes, told the national story, and transmitted civic values. For the history of education, textbook studies, and analysis of national narratives, it is an observable textual sample.

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About the author

Gordy, Wilbur F. (Wilbur Fisk), 1854-1929 Author · American · 1854–1929

Wilbur F. Gordy (1854–1929) was an American educator and author of history textbooks. Public information about his life is limited, and his contribution lies chiefly in readers on American history and civics written for young people. Two of his works are held in this collection: American Leaders and Heroes: A preliminary text-book in United States History and Stories of Later American History. The former uses the lives and deeds of American leaders and heroes as a thread, serving as an introductory textbook in United States history; the latter recounts stories from the later periods of American history. Both present historical facts in a narrative, story-like style for student readers, emphasizing a coherent account of people and events, and are representative of early American popular history education.