Week Eight (and final) Update of 18th Century Farming

Weekly Objective: To determine the authenticity of J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer, and to finish research paper.

http://www.esperdy.net/

 

What I did: De Crevecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer was my text for the week. I have not had a chance to finish this book in its entirety as of yet. I may not, in fact, be able to finish reading it this week. I will finish it, no matter what next week (even though the class will be out). I had originally scheduled this to be read in full, but because of the difficulty that I have had in returning to my text in the Kindle to find exactly what I was looking for, I have run out of time. I know that I am beating this topic to death, but I will now know how to make sure about my notes. Some of the books, you can put in a word and search the book. However, it looks like this is not possible when they were just scanned and uploaded. They are not technically in the Kindle, just visible. Does that make sense? So, I have had to run through each area that I highlighted, hoping that I highlighted the information that I am remembering. I did, thank goodness, most of the time. This was not true all of the time, however! Boo, to that!

http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9780140390063

I know that this is a little short, but most of my time really has been spent looking back at notes, and writing my last portion of my research paper. I have finished the central portion today. Tomorrow, I will write my introduction and conclusion, and finish my bibliography. (I have to work all day tomorrow, so I won’t be able to do much more). Sunday I will be able to proof read and edit. Then, most probably at the last minute, I will turn it in! I am really excited about the finished product, or about getting it finished! I believe that you know how much this means to me, and how much I enjoy research… especially this topic! I have found that some of the information that I thought that I would include, doesn’t fit in with the paper, and then I included others that I initially didn’t think about. As usual, I hope that you like it.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124061520220654895.html

Discussion on this week’s text: I am excited and disappointed in this text, all at the same time. First, let me say that this was promoted by Amazon as a historical piece, that these were letters that had been written by this man and had been published. However, I do not believe this to be true. In fact, this is really not history, but a period fiction that was written beautifully and poetically. This is prose promoted as history. There is just too many things that are obviously fantasy. One part a bird eats bees, and St. John kills the bird and opens it’s mouth to have many of the bees be alive and be grateful to him for saving them. Seriously! Another part he says that he keeps hornets in his house to catch other insects and that they obligingly eat bugs off his children’s eyelids. Again, this is pure fantasy. However, there is some great information because it was written during my reviewed time period. And, it is beautifully written so I cannot say anything bad about it, except that it is not true history. I am not disappointed that I purchased it, because I love the prose. I cannot, however, use it too much as a source, sadly.

 

Terms:

Pantisocracy (73) – A form of utopian social organization in which all are equal in social position and responsibility (late 18^th century).”

 

 

Originally written for class at American Military University