Incentives to the Study of the Ancient Period of American History

Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 1793-1864Project Gutenberg · United StatesMar 2023

Rating 2.9

Word count: 73K words
Chapters: 8

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.Incentives to the Study of the Ancient Period of American History by SchoolcraftAuthor: Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 1793-1864,Language: English, Class: E011: History: America: America, Release Date: Apr 27, 2009

Editor's review

This is a nineteenth-century American scholar Henry Rowe Schoolcraft's advocacy piece on the value of studying ancient American history, an electronic reprint of a public-domain historical document. Its value lies not in providing a systematic historical narrative but in showing how early nineteenth-century American intellectuals viewed the ancient remains and history of Native Americans, giving it reference significance for the history of scholarship and historiographical thought. Its discussion of the necessity of studying ancient America, source materials, and methods lets readers directly sense the problem consciousness and limitations of early American historiography. It is short, in English, and suitable as auxiliary material for studying early American academic history and the history of Native American studies, as well as extended reading for readers interested in historiography. Readers are advised to read critically, distinguishing the author's period biases from the document's historical value.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars or students studying the history of early American historiography and academic thought
Readers concerned with changes in the writing of Native American history
Researchers needing the original nineteenth-century English historical document as reference material
Readers interested in public-domain historical documents and early ebook projects

Not a good fit for

Beginner readers seeking systematic, modern knowledge of ancient American history
Readers who need a Chinese translation and are unaccustomed to reading nineteenth-century English prose
Readers expecting empirical archaeological data and contemporary research findings

Reading tips

First learn about the author's era and background, then read the text, so as to identify his positions and assumptions.
Read alongside other nineteenth-century works on Native American studies to observe similarities and differences in viewpoint.
Take notes on the text's methodological claims while reading, as a summary of historiographical material.
For the English text, read through once to grasp the main points, then revisit key passages for notes.

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.

FAQ

Is this book a complete work on ancient American history?

No. It is a piece advocating the study of ancient American history, focused on discussing the significance and methods of research; it is not a systematic general history and contains no complete chronological account of historical facts. Readers should treat it as a historiographical document rather than an introductory textbook.

What English proficiency is needed to read this book?

The original is nineteenth-century English, with long sentences and somewhat archaic diction. University-level English reading ability is sufficient to read through it; a dictionary can help with unfamiliar words. If you only want the main points, read the first and last sentences of paragraphs first.

What reference value does this book still have today?

Its main value is at the level of academic history: it reflects the cognitive framework of nineteenth-century American intellectuals regarding ancient American history and Native Americans, and can be cited as reference when studying historiographical thought, colonial-era knowledge production, and subsequent shifts in research paradigms.

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About the author

Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 1793-1864 Author

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1793–1864) was an early American ethnologist and writer known for recording the oral traditions and tribal cultures of Native Americans. The library holds 14 of his works, including Algic Researches, The Myth of Hiawatha, and Other Oral Legends, Notes on the Iroquois, and The American Indians. His writing drew on fieldwork and long-term observation, combining legends, myths, and ethnographic material in a style that lies between scholarly record and literary arrangement. The oral tales he collected influenced later American literature on Native American themes. Public information is limited, so biographical details are not expanded here; readers may turn to the works above to understand his subject matter and contribution.