Author: chris

“The Case for Contamination”

discuss the Appiah article, “The Case for Contamination.”  In your essay you must include ideas and examples from the article.  You must define the purpose of his article – i.e. what issue(s) is he debating?  In your essay, you must include the names of the other members of your group and at least one comment from each of the other members.

The age of great dreams

1.    How would you describe America’s “national public culture” heading into the 1960s? How did it change during the 1960s? And what force, or forces, drove this change?

2.    What was the “liberal dream”? What was its “nightmare”?

3.    Why did America’s leaders “Americanize” the war in Vietnam? Why did the war go poorly for the Americans? What effects did the war have inside the United States?

4.    Compare and contrast the three Presidents in the book—what did they have in common? What set them apart from each other? What are your views on each?

5.    The 1960s was very much a struggle between the forces of change and the reactions against them. Which, in the end, prevailed, and why?

6.    In your view, and on balance, was America a better place for having gone through the 1960s, or not? Explain your answer.

John Berger’s theory of “mystification”

John Berger’s theory of “mystification” and then assess its validity as you examine 2 or 3 authors in Jane Tompkins’ “Indians.” What exactly might cause the historians Tompkins cites to “explain away what might otherwise be evident”? And what does this “explaining away” suggest about the worldview of each historian? Your motive might identify a problem in Berger’s theory. Your thesis will make a claim about the historical accounts. And your evidence will consist of closely-read passages in Tompkins’s essay which support your
argument.