conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is a description for a book titled The Complete Idiot's Guide to American History about Overall, American, History with the genre: Politics & Social Sciences, Social Sciences?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Overall information on American History. In Complete Idiot's style.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is the first four paragraphs for the book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Complete Idiot's Guide to American History
  After three lethal winters, Karlsefni and the other would-be settlers forever abandoned Vinland, and the Viking expeditions to North America led to pretty much nothing—at least for the time being. There is good evidence that Christopher Columbus, half a millennium after the Viking voyages, heard of the Vinland tradition when he was a young man. Many believe that these tales of a New World across the "Ocean Sea" planted in his imagination the dream of sailing there himself.
  Everyone's heard the Columbus story so many times and in so many bits and pieces that most of us just stop listening, and we fail to imagine the creativity, the capacity for wonder, the courage, and the sheer madness that sent a Genoese seafarer and crew in three small ships across an unknown expanse of ocean to (it turns out) they knew not where.
  Columbus returned to Genoa from his early voyages in 1479, and then went to Portugal, where he married. The following year his wife died while giving birth to their child, Diego. But by this time, the seafarer's thoughts had sailed far from his family.
  Earth's actual circumference at the equator is 24,902 miles. The distance from the Spanish coast to the Bahamas, via the route Columbus took, is about 3,900 miles.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is four more paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Frustrated by long, futile pursuits, Custer—ever ambitious for martial glory—was determined to fight it out whenever and wherever he could. That is why, on June 25, 1876, when his scouts discovered a Sioux camp and warriors near the Little Bighorn River, Custer decided not to wait until the next day, when he was supposed to rendezvous with the others. Instead, he resolved to immediately attack. First, Custer sent Captain Frederick Benteen and 125 men south to make sure the Sioux had not moved to the upper valley of the Little Bighorn. Then he sent another 112 men under Major Marcus A. Reno in pursuit of a small body of warriors he had sighted. With his remaining troops, Custer planned to charge the Sioux village. But it was soon apparent that Reno and his men were being overwhelmed, and Custer dispatched his bugler, Giovanni Martini, to recall Benteen. Custer then entered the fray, leading his men against the warriors. Almost immediately, he and his troopers were engulfed by huge numbers of Sioux warriors, who killed Custer and 210 cavalrymen. Reno, joined by Benteen—368 officers and men total—held off a relentless siege for the next two days. U.S. Army casualties totaled about 268 killed and about 55 wounded. Sitting Bull reported 36 killed and some 168 warriors wounded. Red Horse put these numbers at 136 killed and 160 wounded.
  The Battle of the Little Bighorn was the last major Indian victory of the Indian Wars. In subsequent engagements, the Sioux were defeated by the army's two most successful Indian fighters, Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie and Colonel (later Lieutenant General) Nelson A. Miles. It was Miles who finally subdued the Nez Perces at the five-day Battle of Bear Paw Mountain in Montana (September 30 through October 5, 1877).
  Led by Chief Joseph the Younger, a faction of the Nez Perces refused to abide by a flawed and prejudicial treaty. He and his followers defiantly refused to leave their homeland in the Wallowa Valley of Oregon. Troops under the command of General Oliver O. Howard and Colonel Miles pursued and battled some 800 Indians over 1,700 miles of the most inhospitable terrain on the continent. When it was over, Joseph and his people, having suffered intensely, had earned the respect of their pursuers. Both Howard and Miles joined in Joseph's petition to the White House to return his people to the Wallowa Valley. The petition was denied because the valley was rich in minerals coveted by mining interests. Joseph lived out the remainder of his long life on a reservation near Colville, Washington, with about half of his followers, the rest having been assigned to another reservation.
  In 1850, Mexican settlers had ambushed and killed Geronimo's first wife and his children, after which the warrior devoted his life to raiding the borderlands along with his brother-in-law, Juh, a Chiricahua chief.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the first sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: That is why, on June 25, 1876, when his scouts discovered a Sioux camp and warriors near the Little Bighorn River, Custer decided not to wait until the next day, when he was supposed to rendezvous with the others. Instead, he resolved to immediately attack. First, Custer sent Captain Frederick Benteen and 125 men south to make sure the Sioux had not moved to the upper valley of the Little Bighorn. Then he sent another 112 men under Major Marcus A. Reno in pursuit of a small body of warriors he had sighted. With his remaining troops, Custer planned to charge the Sioux village. But it was soon apparent that Reno and his men were being overwhelmed, and Custer dispatched his bugler, Giovanni Martini, to recall Benteen. Custer then entered the fray, leading his men against the warriors. Almost immediately, he and his troopers were engulfed by huge numbers of Sioux warriors, who killed Custer and 210 cavalrymen. Reno, joined by Benteen—368 officers and men total—held off a relentless siege for the next two days. U.S. Army casualties totaled about 268 killed and about 55 wounded. Sitting Bull reported 36 killed and some 168 warriors wounded. Red Horse put these numbers at 136 killed and 160 wounded.
  The Battle of the Little Bighorn was the last major Indian victory of the Indian Wars. In subsequent engagements, the Sioux were defeated by the army's two most successful Indian fighters, Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie and Colonel (later Lieutenant General) Nelson A. Miles. It was Miles who finally subdued the Nez Perces at the five-day Battle of Bear Paw Mountain in Montana (September 30 through October 5, 1877).
  Led by Chief Joseph the Younger, a faction of the Nez Perces refused to abide by a flawed and prejudicial treaty. He and his followers defiantly refused to leave their homeland in the Wallowa Valley of Oregon. Troops under the command of General Oliver O. Howard and Colonel Miles pursued and battled some 800 Indians over 1,700 miles of the most inhospitable terrain on the continent. When it was over, Joseph and his people, having suffered intensely, had earned the respect of their pursuers. Both Howard and Miles joined in Joseph's petition to the White House to return his people to the Wallowa Valley. The petition was denied because the valley was rich in minerals coveted by mining interests. Joseph lived out the remainder of his long life on a reservation near Colville, Washington, with about half of his followers, the rest having been assigned to another reservation.
  In 1850, Mexican settlers had ambushed and killed Geronimo's first wife and his children, after which the warrior devoted his life to raiding the borderlands along with his brother-in-law, Juh, a Chiricahua chief.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is the last three paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: There was, of course, the great inescapable fact that the American people, inheritors of a land to which African slaves were first brought in 1619, had chosen the son of an African to be their president. An African American first family would live in a White House that had been built by African American slaves.
  Cleansing America of the stain of racial oppression was a significant aspect of the election, but it was not the only aspect and perhaps not even the most important. A politics of fear ushered in by the events of September 11, 2001, and a creed of greed that took root during the Reagan years had contributed to a sense of collective impotence embodied in the many national failures of the first eight years of the twenty-first century. In a midnight victory speech delivered to 60,000 joyous and tearful Americans gathered in Chicago's Grant Park—site of the police riot that had accompanied the 1968 Democratic National Convention—and seen and heard by millions via television and Internet broadcast, the president-elect intoned three words. They were spoken not as a rallying cry, but as a quiet, confident statement of fact: "Yes we can."
  Barack Obama became the first African American U.S. president, winning 66,882,230 votes (53 percent) and defeating Republican John McCain, who polled 58,343,671 (46 percent). Obama took 365 electoral votes to McCain's 173.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the first sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: An African American first family would live in a White House that had been built by African American slaves.
  Cleansing America of the stain of racial oppression was a significant aspect of the election, but it was not the only aspect and perhaps not even the most important. A politics of fear ushered in by the events of September 11, 2001, and a creed of greed that took root during the Reagan years had contributed to a sense of collective impotence embodied in the many national failures of the first eight years of the twenty-first century. In a midnight victory speech delivered to 60,000 joyous and tearful Americans gathered in Chicago's Grant Park—site of the police riot that had accompanied the 1968 Democratic National Convention—and seen and heard by millions via television and Internet broadcast, the president-elect intoned three words. They were spoken not as a rallying cry, but as a quiet, confident statement of fact: "Yes we can."
  Barack Obama became the first African American U.S. president, winning 66,882,230 votes (53 percent) and defeating Republican John McCain, who polled 58,343,671 (46 percent). Obama took 365 electoral votes to McCain's 173.