American Studies Preface and Conclusion
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and most of the other Founders of the country did not intend for it to be a democracy with equal rights for all citizens, although some like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine did. Like the Quakers, they were ahead of their time in supporting human rights for blacks and Native Americans, which did not exist in reality during the 18th and 19th Centuries. Racism and discrimination existed in America since the colonial period, long before it became an urban, industrial economy, and at the time the country was founded, almost all blacks were slaves. Nor did the most of the Founders wish to extend equal voting rights to all whites, but only those who owned property. Real democracy in the U.S. came only very gradually, with the granting of equal voting and civil rights to women, minorities and the lower classes, and this took centuries of struggle. For example, blacks did not obtain voting rights everywhere in the U.S. until 1965, which is not long ago at all by historical standards. Even today, the poor, working class and minorities still have far fewer social, economic and educational opportunities than whites, and indeed the differences between wealth and income between the elites and the lower classes has been increasing greatly over the last thirty years. As the 1992 riots in Los Angeles showed, there were still huge numbers of very poor, alienated and marginalized people in the United States who had no real stake in the political and economic system, and were generally ignored and left to the criminal justice system to deal with unless they rebelled.
Every generation in the U.S., a major reform movement occurs and offers some hope to those...
American Studies One theme that could unify the wide variety of readings in this course would be the paradox of Equality vs. Hierarchy in American history and society, which is closely related to Inclusion and Exclusion. Black observers, activists and critics of American society like Martin Luther King, Langston Hughes, Cornell West and James Baldwin understood these themes particularly well. From the colonial period to the present, this country has always
American National Character What characteristics are distinctly American, regardless of class, race, background? What is problematic about making these generalizations and inheriting the culture? What have we inherited exactly? What problems arise with our ideals - and are we being honest with ourselves? Discuss individualism and the "American Dream." Are these goals realized and are they realistic? This paper seeks answers to those questions. The Puritans (The American Puritans: Their Prose
Blackness was not an unremittingly negative quality, as it would be seen later on, but the associations of blackness and other stereotypes that would be attached to 'Negroes' began fairly early. The development of colonies based upon cash crops, including those in the Southern United States, necessitated a large enslaved labor force, larger than whites could provide. As the economic need for slave labor increased, so did negatively expressed views
Catholic church and public policy have remarked that the members of American clergy in general, without even excepting those who do not admit religious liberty, are all in favour of civil freedom; but they do not support any particular political system. They keep aloof from parties, and from public affairs. In the United States religion exercises but little influence upon laws, and upon the details of public opinion; but it
C. Only fragments of these works, which include two letters and four speeches, survive (Sallust). In the Preface to the Second Impression, John C. Rolfe (May 15, 1928) purports: The part of the Introduction dealing with the manuscripts has been re-written in the light of the new classification of Axel W. Ahlberg (Prolegomena in Sallustium, Gteborg, 1911), which was followed by him in his Teubner text (Leipzig, 1919) and, except in some
Interior Design and Theories "Architects everywhere have recognized the need of… a tool which may be put in the hands of creators of form, with the simple aim… of making the bad difficult and the good easy" (Corbusier). Interior Design is considered to be a multi-faced art where an array of different arts and projects come together to turn a given space into an effective setting for the required purpose. In the
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