Laboratory Manual In American History PDF Download

Excerpt from Geographic Factors in American History, a Laboratory Manual to Accompany the Study, of United States History There are many striking analogies between the development of a child and the development of a people. Some contend that heredity is practically the only factor to be considered in the develo)ment of a child or a race. They hold that family or ethnic stock is the determining factor, that blood is the only thing that tells. Others contend that heredity plays very little part, that environment and training may counteract hereditary advantages or handicaps and that by selecting environment and directing the training, the character of the resultant child or race may be almost entirely controlled. The viewpoint of this manual is that both heredity and environment play a part. There are characteristics peculiar to family and ethnic stocks which help to determine the result environment may produce. The character of the matrix out of which development grows shapes the character of the resultant. There is something about each child or each people which is peculiarly its own, which renders it unlike any other individual or race in the world. All that environment and training can do is to develop what is already present. On the other hand, the nature of training and environment has a profound influence in determining the character of a child or race. If not, why strive to make better homes, better schools, better social conditions or better governments. It makes a great deal of difference under what influences a child is reared. So it is with people. Geographic environment, climate, resources and location constitute the school in which a race is trained and exert a profound influence in determining the character of its industries, its customs, its institutions and even modifies its religious beliefs. Some regions of the earth constitute a suitable environment for the development of a race, others retard. Some localities are helpful in one stage of development but may become detrimental when the people have reached a higher stage, and vice versa. The variations in results are as numerous as are ethnic stocks and environments. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.