Not So Wild a Dream” by Eric Sevareid

This work from "not so wild a dream" by Eric Sevareid, a young journalist by profession, proves to be a tailor-made, master-piece, for the course of "history and identity". This reading would adequately serve our course outline and would also provide our students with a comprehensive understanding of American history and its role in evolving its identity. This would be done by this passage in the following way:

1. description of American history

2. role of history in evolving American identity

3. tough times in history resulted in great nation

This work is a perfect example of a professional writing, which

kept its elements coherent and terse. It was this skillful writing, which made this articulate excerpt even more appealing. My recommendations of the passage for "history and identity" course are solely based upon the body of the excerpt and its critical analysis.

The passage starts off with a brief description of the early

American settlers along the river side. How they settled? How they survived upon the wheat crop? How concerned were they about their crops? How he takes a turn and describes the unpopularity of his primitive land in an amazing fashion?

After answering all these questions, he moves on to describe

how his parents decided to stay at these places which ones were well known for pleasant weather and fertile soil, but with time, this changed and the weather- soil condition kept on worsening from time to time. He describes some real characteristics of their society, which he thought were true examples of a democratic mass. Then he throws some light upon the social values of their community as he quotes "If the man of the in one of the families which lives close to the edge fell ill and could not work, my mother and many mothers carried there baskets of fresh food to eat".

Now he compares his present with history which he quotes as

"it