In the  early nation, “nationalism” and “religion” were a lot alike.

One of the first examples that the book gives for the similarities between “nationalism” and “religion” is the feelings that they both envoke on a person. There was a close parallel to evangelical Protestantism which sought to “establish sentimental, affective bonds among audiences, impart certain norms of behaviour, and inculcate a voluntary attachment to abstract principles. The religious sentiments held would serve as a motor for promoting “nationalism”.

Another example that the book gives is the civic texts being parallel to books in the bible. When reading the civic texts, the citizens were encouraged to take the texts to heart, in the same way that they were encouraged to take the words of the Bible to heart. The Bible was also to be read as universally as possibe. The civic texts emulated the idea of the universality of the Bible. The citizens were also taught to read the civic texts with the same “extraordinary intensity” as they used to read the Bible. The intensity of these civic texts turned the people that wrote them into icons like people in the Bible and Jesus himself.

Washington, himself, was compared to people in the Bible. Many people thought that Washington and Moses were alike because they both brought the people of their land out of bondage. The mourning rituals of Washington’s death were similiar to the religious rituals: such as the thirty days spent mourning Moses’ death. Washington’s life itself became a sacred text and a “volume” to be read, studied, and memorized by future generations. According to the book, “they created nationalist traditions that could be replicated long into the future by consenting Americans, perpetually bound together in everlasting remembrance of Washington. One visitor stated that the Americans felt the need to have a likeness of Washington in themselves as we feel the need to have a likeness of God in ourselves as saints. Sometimes the most lavish and the only pictures in people’s homes were of Washington. People from every region started making trips to Washington’s home at Mount Vernon after his death to “drop a tear at the tomb of Father of his country.”

I feel like there was an extremely thin line between the “nationalism” and the “religion” of the early national period. The fact that the nation was formed based on the purposes on religious freedoms helps to blur those lines even more. The way that the early citizens immoralized Washington and the civic texts makes it extremely hard to draw the line between what was nationalism and what was religion. The only argument that I can think of that they were not alike was that the people did not go to a special place to worship Washington or the civic texts, but at the same time, the citizens did keep those things in their Bibles and studied them in school which makes my argument weak. I personally believe that the Americans of that time did not have a difference between “nationalism” and “religion”.

After researching about some of our candidates, I found a lot of interesting information on all three of the candidates.

The first candidate that I researched was Al Capone. Al Capone began his gang activity after he was expelled from school when he was 14 years old. Capone became dedicated to smuggling, bootlegging liquar, prostitution, bribing government figures, and other illegal activities.  Although he was involved in many illegal activities, he became a public figure and known as the “modern day Robin Hood”. During the Prohibiton Era, Capone provided $100 million per year in revenue to the Outfit. He recieved his wealth from many illegal activities but majority of the money came from the illegal sale of alcohol. As Capone’s revenue increased, so did his grip on political figures and law enforcement, which helped Capone and his gang to operate without fear of legal intrusion.In 1931, Capone was indicated for income tax evasion and various violations of Prohibition. One of the facts that a found very interesting was what happened after his Cadillac was seized. There were many attempts to assasinate Al Capone, so other than being heavily guarded, Capone had his Cadillac fitted with bullet proof glass, run-flat tires, and a police siren. His car was seized in 1932 due to prohibition issues and was later used President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s limousine. Capone’s isolation at Alcatraz and the repeal of Prohibition in December 1933 reduced a major sourcce of his revenue and diminished his power. Even today, Capone has been the subject of articles, books, and films. His personality and character has been used as a model for crime lords and criminal masterminds ever since his death. The stereotypical image of  a mobster wearing a blue pinstriped suit and tilted fedora is based on photos of Capone.

I found Billy the Kid to be especially legendary due to the fact that there’s several ways to tell the stories that are known about him. I favored Billy the Kid more so out of all the people on the list because of a tv episode that I have watched once. I believe it was an episode of unsolved mysteries when a man claimed to have been Billy the Kid eventhough most people said that Billy the Kid was killed. What really intrigued me was that some people thought that it was possible that the man could be Billy the Kid and some people thought that there was no way possible for the man to be Billy the Kid, but there is not any evidence that could prove either of these notions, so that will stay an unsolved mystery. Even as I tried to research about Billy the Kid I saw that there were many different variations to the stories of the things that Billy the Kid did. Most of the time they ended with the same things, death, but there were different variables that led up to the ending in each story. Eventhough there’s not a lot of concrete things about Billy the Kid and what he did, I would like to research him the most because I feel like the things that are unknown about him will make him the most interesting to learn about for me.

I didn’t spend quite as much time researching Henry Ford as I did Al Capone or Billy the Kid. The only things I knew about Henry Ford in the past is that he was responsible for building the Model T. I know that it is rumored that he used slaves to produce his cars but I did not look it up to see if it has been proven. Since I have spent most of my time doing extensive research on Al Capone and Billy the Kid, I will try to dedicate most of my time this week to research about Henry Ford and find some facts about him that really stand out to me.