As I Lay Dying William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying is a novel about how the conflicting agendas within a family tear it apart. Every member of the family is to a degree responsible for what goes wrong, but none more than Anse. Anse's laziness and selfishness are the underlying factors to every disaster in the book. As the critic Andre Bleikasten agrees, "there is scarcely a character in Faulkner so loaded with faults and vices" (84). At twenty-two Anse becomes sick from working in the sun...

Factors Leading to the Growing Divide between North and South The conclusion of the War of 1812 was the beginning of the industrial revolution that, by the time of the civil war, divided the US into Northern and Southern cultures. This division was gradual, and greatly motivated by technological, international, and agricultural factors of the time. Canals linked the agricultural Northwest to the industrial Northeast, creating an economic relationship that excluded the Southern states. The...

American Heritage Created by the Revolutionary War Years After the end of the Seven Years War (manifested in the colonies as the French and Indian War) between Great Britain and France in 1763, the British needed a way to finance their war debt. Its own inhabitants already overtaxed, Britain looked to the prosperous American colonies as a potential source of revenue. Under a policy of salutary neglect, the colonists had been allowed to live in relative peace and self-government since they were...

The Battle of Long Island is the biggest battle in the Revolutionary War. General Howe went with his forces to Halifax, and General Washington started for New York, where he soon arrived with his army. However, by superior numbers and more daring activity, Congress had gained the dominance. When he arrived in the city, General Washington attempted to block the navigation of the East and North Rivers, by sinking vessels in the channels. He also raised defenses at New York, and on Long Island;...

The First Total War World War I, was the first total war. It lasted from August 1914 to November 1918, that involved many of the countries of Europe as well the United States and other nations throughout the world. Why did the Germans decide to take such harsh measures? When Bismarck retired in 1890, however, his carefully crafted policy of isolating France began to unravel. The impetuous new German emperor, William II, abandoned Bismarck cautious foreign policy. When William refused to renew...

Soon after England established the colonies in the New World, it began a period of salutary neglect. The English rarely intervened with colonial business. It was during this time that the colonies began gradually to think and act independently of England. This scared England, and initiated a period in which they became more involved in the colony's growth. Parliament tried o establish power in the New World by issuing a series of laws. The passage of these laws undermined the Colonist's...

Implications of Having not Fought the Revolutionary War Benjamin Franklin said at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, “We must all hand together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” There could have been many possible outcomes to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. One of the ways that it could have been avoided was if it was never fought at all, therefore Franklin would not have needed to worry about being killed. So what if the American...

Explanations for why the North Won the Civil War From the beginning of the war the North had obvious advantages. Essentially the North had large amounts of everything that the south did not have. Their industry was extremely powerful, and the Southerners made the fatal mistake of believing that their thriving cotton industry alone could support the Confederacy throughout the war. Union officer William Tecumseh Sherman said to a southern friend, “In all history, no nation of mere...

Civil Liberties and the Civil War “On to Richmond” was the enthusiastic battle cry of the Union Soldiers as they went into battle. With the apparent disagreements between the Northern and Southern states, war was inevitable. The drastic differences in location, economy, and population played prevalent roles in the outcome of the war. The Civil War was surprisingly drawn out considering the North’s overwhelming advantages, which eventually led them to victory. One of the...

African Meeting House Research Paper Established December 4, 1806, the African Meeting House, referred to in the larger community as the Black Faneuil Hall, is now the oldest standing African American church in the United States. The Meeting House is located on 8 Smith Court on Beacon Hill and is a site of the walking tour of the Black Heritage Trail, which traces the history of African Americans in Boston. The facade of the African Meeting House is an adaptation of a design for a townhouse...