1 / 7

Western Traditions 203

Western Traditions 203. American Experiences and Constitutional Change. First Things First. “Things You Need to Know” handout Course website Discussion sections Close reading, thinking, talking, writing Example: Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address Terrorist: “Sic Semper Tyrannis!”

Download Presentation

Western Traditions 203

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Western Traditions 203 American Experiences and Constitutional Change

  2. First Things First • “Things You Need to Know” handout • Course website • Discussion sections • Close reading, thinking, talking, writing • Example: Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address • Terrorist: “Sic Semper Tyrannis!” • Define “history” – product or process? • Example: George Washington

  3. Whose “History”? • Lone Star (John Sayles, 1996) • Power privileges texts • Whose version is the “official story”? • From subatomic physics, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle • Act of measuring something changes the thing • No such thing as an “impartial observer”

  4. “What we see is not nature, but nature subjected to our means of questioning.” -- paraphrased from Werner Heisenberg (1927)

  5. Influence of $$$ on govt. Interests of many vs. few Class struggle populism Agrarian vs. urban culture Counterculture War & national identity vs. peace & internal dissension Confrontation with land Human migrations Immigration Slavery Gold Rush Movement of African Americans to North Transience of middle-class Porous southern border Enduring Conflicts

  6. Columbus (1451-1506) Heroic navigator Mistaken explorer Agent of destiny Genocidal conqueror “dis-” coverer or “un-” coverer? Smith (1580-1631) Leader & savior of Jamestown Colony Raider of Indian towns Romantic interest of Pocohontas Public relations expert Christopher Columbus& John Smith

  7. Primary Sources • Original words of contemporary participants and commentators • Need close reading • Avoid “presentism” • ”Strip ourselves in imagination of all the surroundings of our own lives . . . [the past] is another planet, another human universe” • -- Fernand Braudel (1949)

More Related