US History: Wild West

This has been an interesting section. We spent a lot of time on Reconstruction and then we got bogged down with a Geography tangent. Around April we came back and have been moving toward high tide again.

This period of time (late 1800s to early 1900s) is amazing. It's the Wild West and it's Sherlock Holmes. It's Edison spinning off ideas like sparks from a roman candle and it's my great grandmother living in a sod house, traveling West. It's the railroad and the Statue of Liberty. It's the age of the American aristocracy (Rockefeller, Carnegie, Hormel, etc.) and the time of crushing poverty for "huddled masses."

We spent a little while on the Wild West which of course, brings up the Native issue. There is just no way around it. The kids read books on Annie Oakley, Wild Bill Hickock, Geronimo, and Custer and then we all discussed the books.

The Custer book was from the 50s and portrayed Custer as a hero. Mxyl had picked that one and I decided to talk to him about it after he had read it. I don't think he knew who Custer was before he picked up the book. His take on it was that what Custer had done to the Indians didn't seem right and he could see why they killed him. Good to have a critical reader! We talked some and then watched this with all the kids:


We ended up with a good discussion of perspectives on history. Who tells the story of what happened and why? People can almost always rationalize their choices as being good - the Nazis did not think they were evil. What influences our conscience and how can we make choices that are objectively good?