AMST 20100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Meritocracy
Document Summary
Islamaphobia wasn"t heard of before 9/11: we are dealing with this now, history that is in the more distant past is easier to write about in textbooks because there is a greater consensus about it (pg. 261: you can"t presume there is only one story of the past, it is a student/scholar"s job to challenge the idea of one story. Potential history textbook events in the future: sandy hook, legalization of gay marriage, transgender military ban. Review for midterm: key historical myths that shaped contemporary american identity, ex. Brown, the declaration of independence: examined historical origins of american values, ex. meritocracy, the frontier, reformism, upward mobility, exceptionalism, imperialism, questioned how history is taught in high schools and other institutionalized settings, ex. The revisionaries, loewen: differences between official historical narrative and alternative narratives, ex. School house rock, columbus murals in the main. Building: understand americanness as a complex, contradictory, and contested idea, ex. freedom, pluralism, founding values in the.
