Download and Annotate, from the Core Canon and upload into your Drop Box
The American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts, has one of the largest collection of historic objects relating to American History anywhere--ranging from portraits to games. John Winthrop's portrait is there. Click to see what online collections are available from the Society.
John Winthrop was the first Governor of Massachusetts Colony, founded as a refuge for Puritans fleeing persecution from Henry VIII's Church of England. Most people when they think of Puritans think of persons dressed in very plain clothes, looking very "religious,". As Winthrop's portrait shows, they dressed suiting to their social class, and the only thing they "purified" was the church as they understood it. They drank alcohol, played games, and did what other Englishmen of their era did.
Winthrop served as Governor many years. Nobody serves that long without sometimes winding up in disagreement with the people being governed. Winthrop's short speech reflects on what citizens can expect of those who rule over them, and also what they should not expect of them. For more information about Winthrop,Click here.
The Internet Archive is an amazing source of material of all kinds from old movies and pictures to thousands of books. John Winthrop wrote the first history of New England, and one can find all five volumes at the Internet Archive. If you are interested, click on the image to the left and explore volume I.
As I've mentioned before, one can tell a lot about an artist's attitude toward his or her subject by how he or she chooses to depict it. There three are representations of Thomas Hobbes. In none of them does he look particularly jolly. Which one disliked him the most? What do you think?
Hobbes was a philosopher whose attitude towards human beings was rather pessimistic, to say the least. We use the term "human nature" to express a belief about what all human beings share in common. Try filling in the blank. "Human beings are basically. . ." and you'll se what I mean. As you read Hobbes here, mark and note what he seems to think about human beings. We're equal, but is that is a good thing? Why or why not? Then pay attention to what he sees as the primary purpose of government, given human beings' basic nature.
John Locke, whom you see in the three pictures above, was a distinguished man. In his era, men wore wigs in public (you see the same in the center picture of Thomas Hobbes, above).
John Locke, on the other hand, was less critical of human nature, and had a different view of the function of government. We begin, once again, with the idea of "State of Nature". What are we like in that state? Use a sticky note or a footnote to summarize Locke's idea about that. Think too of the ideas of "liberty" and "equality"-- if we are "equal" in the state of nature, why do we need government? Is Locke's view different from Hobbes'?
Spend some time thinking about the idea of "the common". What does it suggest? How many "commons" do we have on this campus, and why are the called "commons"? (Think of the Library, and of the places where students and faculty eat, for example). Below is a view of the "Bristol Common". Visit it and see what it contains--and what kinds of buildings are located next to it.
Finally how does Locke explain the idea of "private" property? What gives each of us the right to call something "mine"? And what does "money" have to do with all of this? Use these prompts to mark up your file before you add it to your dropbox.
History and the Modern World
