Prof. Matthew J. Countryman

Dec. 10, 2001

Please answer two of the following three questions in essay form. Each essay should be 3-5 pages long, typewritten, and double-spaced. Please provide citations-- author and page number is sufficient-- when you either quote from or summarize the arguments of one of the course readings. The best essays will be those that demonstrate a firm grasp of the arguments of a number of the course authors. The essays are due Dec. 17 by 4 p.m. in 2408 Mason.

1. The term 'multiculturalism' has been at the center of many debates over the nature of American education. This question has two parts. First, describe the viewpoints of Arthur Schlesinger, Ronald Takaki, and Lisa Lowe on what role, if any, multiculturalism should play in educational curricula. Which approach, of the three, do you think is most appropriate for the teaching of American history and society at the elementary and secondary school levels? Second, evaluate the content of this course (i.e. the syllabus and web outlines, rather than my teaching) according to the views of each of the authors.

 

2. Juan Flores, Nathan Glazer, and Lisa Lowe have very different views of the experience of immigrants to the United States. Discuss the immigration experience of the four Garcia girls/women, from Julia Alvarez's How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, according to the views of each author. Are the stories of the four sisters examples of acculturation and assimilation, of the development of resistant racialized identities, or of something in between? Defend your views with examples both from the novel and the writing of each of the immigration theorists.

 

3. A prominent Political Scientist has argued that the idea that "America has been most shaped by the unusually free and egalitarian ideas and material conditions that prevailed at its founding--... fails to give due weight to inegalitarian ideologies and conditions that have shaped the... substance of American politics." Do you view the racial and ethnic inequities evident in U.S. history as fundamental to or aberrations within the American system? Defend your position with specific examples from the course texts.