B. Clay Shannon

Still Casting Shadows: a Shared Mosaic of U.s. History B. Clay Shannon

Breaking with the traditionally white-centric and politician-, military leader-, business magnate-dominated portrayal of American history, Still Casting Shadows: A Shared Mosaic of U. S. History presents a holistic overview of American history, giving equal weight and emphasis to the viewpoints and experiences of Native Americans, African Americans, and other marginalized groups. Rather than simply parading forth facts and figures of what "important" people accomplished or perpetrated, Still Casting Shadows delves into what life was like for "average" families in America-from 1620, when the Mayflower landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, up to the present day. The lives of the individuals portrayed are cast in the context of hundreds of events of national import that occurred in the times and places in which they lived. Among those whose lives are thus illuminated in this broad outline of American history are John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley, passengers on the Mayflower who subsequently married; Capt. John Gorham, a notorious Indian fighter in Colonial New England; Susan Lucky, an Indian woman whose tribe was massacred in northern California; James Shannon, a Civil War sharpshooter who was at Gettysburg and Appomattox; and Theodore Shannon, a California Highway Patrol officer who was awarded that state's Medal of Valor in 1980.