Summary of Readings about the USA Geography
Summary of the Article: Populating the Continent: The Post Columbian Experience
This reading was written with the main argument that America is home to millions of people who came from other nations and that this migration did not happen because of one single reason, but that various issues led to different peoples moving from their homes into America. These reasons are the main focus of this reading (Schein, Nd). The writer has categorized the immigrants, say like the Irish and the Chinese but has also indicated that among these general groups there are also various reasons that led to different individuals migration. Our research question therefore becomes, what reasons led to the migration of the different peoples who now occupy America from their initial homeland to their current one?
This research employs mixed method approach, where qualitative data employed revolves around the groups of people who comprise the migrants; it classifies them according to their continent of origin such as European or the Native Americans who previously inhabited the continent. It also goes to the extent of grouping them according to their ethnicity such as the Indians and the Africans. Both groupings are made qualitatively.
Quantitative data is presented in terms of the size of populations coming into America, such as the estimated 10-20 million Africans brought into the continent as slaves. Another quantitative representation is in terms of the years presented as when significant events occurred such as the surrender at Quebec in1759.
1. Is migration into America during the previous periods and currently really that different?
2. Does America thrive in its diversity or does it not?
Summary
The main argument of the author of this text is pretty direct; it is about the transformation of America from the simple state that it was before the settlement by the migrants, into the diverse and very different nation that it was to become. The authors support their arguments by addressing the migrants as people who came into the continent with different motives, missions as it is put. Some are said to have come on evangelical missions, others were political geographers (Agnew, &, Sharp, Nd). By considering these two activities, the diversity element in America was bound to expand. The research question that is posed in this work is what sets the United States apart from other countries? This is a very intriguing question. Just like in the previous work, historical research methods are applied in this text by means of multiple referencing from previously published texts to get insight into the factors that set America apart. The data involved are the years set to indicate significant events that took place in the early American era and even in the twentieth century such as the Vietnam War that took place between 1968 and1975. Graphs are also used such as the one that indicates people's living standards along the recessionary period.
Critique
1. Does America really deserve credit for shaping the world?
2. Did the events discussed in this text make America a better nation?
References
Agnew, J. A. &, Sharp. J. P. (Nd). American Frontier Nation: From abstract space to worldly place
Schein. R, H.(Nd). Populating the Continent: The Post. Columbian Experience
