Reaction #3

To be honest, of all the readings in this class, Cohen seemed the most excessive and unnecessary. The book was full of information, but much more than was really useful to the class. But in any case that's just my opinion. It was also easier to relate the more personal readings to this class, so Cohen's was a bit taxing by comparison. Nonetheless the information was illuminating.

One of the most convincing and entertaining readings was the piece on King Tut. The range of themes it brought together was impressive, and the arguments were convincing. It was fairly detailed, but not tedious. While it wasn't the most important reading for the course, it was another great cultural studies essay.

Probably my favorite part of the course was the paper assignment. As a film major, I enjoyed the opportunity to read more images. And it made me see that there was some value in image reading that could extend just past art and film courses..

Overall this was an excellent course that gave a critical and careful look at history through a more culturally informed lens. Hass' associations and observations were inspired and gave me a whole new appreciation for the cultural studies field.

Reflection 4

I have always enjoyed U.S. history, but this class made me look at our country's past very differently. I do not feel like the things I have learned in the past were necessarily wrong, but I feel that through grade school, high school, and even some college courses, a lot has been left out about the history of our country, and how we have treated others. As a country we have prided ourselves on democracy and equal rights, yet we do not exhibit these qualities. We constantly are pushing others to the side, and making others suffer, so we can be more successful. This is something I never realized before this course.

I also didn't realize how much gender roles have played a role in American history. I always knew they existed but I never knew to which extent they were taken. Throughout the entire course gender roles existed and to some point they still exist today. Americans pride themselves on Manliness, men are seen as being strong and powerful, while women are seen the be responsible and thought of the be the caregivers. Although gender roles are not as prevalent in today's society as they have been in the past, they are still very much in existence.

Overall, I really enjoyed this class. I feel that I have learned a lot about our nations history, and the formation of our national identity. I have learned how the national identity changes quite often, and it is the people of our country who define the national identity. This class was a great course on the Culture of America and how we got to where we are today.

Reflection 4 (Final Thoughts)

I wanted to take a moment to reflect on this course and how it has allowed me to see America and its "Culture." As I stated on the last day of discussion, I did not think that America had a culture because we do not have key identifiers like some other countries found in other parts of the world. But if you examine our history, it is apparent that there are key identifiers during certain periods of our history that collectively create an American Culture. Our culture, unlike many others, if fluid and it changes over a period of time.
As I think of the times we are in now, I see a new culture emerging, and we can help it come to fruition. I believe that with all of the economic and world issues that we are experiencing, we could establish a period of reform. Our new culture could be centered around reforming the world and our nation.

Reflection

I think what struck me most about professor Hass's last lecture was how quickly the last four to six years have become apart fo the annals of analytical "history". It shows that the world at cultural zeitgeist around us is produced by historical actors, but more importantly, by unique events. The atrositys of Abu Ghraib and "enhanced interrogation" used at Guantanamo Bay have helped dictate policy debates on redifining the definition of torture --and has even called into debate the efficacy of the information gained, which in turn has opened up discussion of increased transparnecy (from surprise of the year, the previous administration).
The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11/2001 created fear in the international financial markets, which the government felt needed to be stimulated by easing regulatory measures and acceptable market practices. Years non-interventionalist policy on apart of the SEC and lackadaisical due-diligence by credit rating agencies helped lead to the current financial crisis --which in turn has lead to the re-leveraging of the country's fiscal futures to escape from.
Again, people can also argue the connection between the enviornmental crisis and the need for cheap oil and the Iraq war all they want, the point is it is interesting to notice how strongly some of the events that many of us would consider to happen 'not that long ago' resonate with the issues of today. And in our "flatter" more inter-connected world of today, our national narrative is increasingly becoming more international by the year. I just thought it was interesting and somthing I thought about during class, and made me feel really old :(

Reflection #3: Final Thoughts

I have throughly enjoyed this class.  I was eager to go to class and discussion every week, knowing I would learn something new about American history and our culture.  Before this course, I was one of those people who thought naively that Americans do not have a concrete culture, basing this on the fact that I could not think of rituals or customs that we partake in as a nation.  I see now that our rituals are not as obvious, but need to take a further in-depth look to see them.  I think they are less obvious because we have struggled and maybe still struggle with a national identity.  There are so many other races and ethnicities in the United States bringing their own culture with them.  Over the years the 'we' of the US has made the mistake of dehumanizing such minorities instead of learning and embracing their cultural behavior, because of fear.  

This class really opened my eyes to the world around me.  I knew that minorities faced hardships in this country, but I had to idea the extent they actually endured.  The saying goes, "history repeats itself," but I believe if you have the educational background, the negative aspects of our history should not be repeated.  Since everyone does not go to college, I think it imperative to teach some of the more heart wrenching facts in high school. 

We as Americans have a lot of work to do now.  We are currently in a time of hardship and need to work together to get out of such a rut.  We have seen collaboration efforts succeed before, and I have no doubt it can happen again.      

Reflection #3

Before this class I never really realized how much the "We" has changed over the course of U.S. history. I have taken a number of US history courses, and I have been aware of the discrimination which people such as the Irish and African American's have faced, but I looked at it in depth, like I have in this class. I have learned that ever since we have landed on American soil, we have been excluding others from our way of life, and depriving them from basic rights. We like to think that we have come along way since forcing Indians off land, and enslaving African Americans, and in many ways we have, but we do still discriminate against certain races.

As mentioned in class before, it seems like we define being American, and the "We" by who is excluded. When looking back on this course I can not think of a time, when Americans have not discriminated against a race or religion. Although we no longer enslave others, we still treat people from different races poorly, and often stereotype others. Although we have taken great steps towards being more accepting, and less discriminatory. Although I hope that we are heading in the right direction I also feel that as a country we still have a long way to go before we can truly say that we treat everyone equality

Reflection 4

I want to sum up some of the things this class has taught me.  I realize that the type of history I was taught in high school left out many details about what was going on at home and solely focused on the government and the war itself.  I enjoyed learning about the impact it had on society much more than just about the occurrences of the war.  Learning what was going on at home helped me connect the past to the present which was the link that was missing from my knowledge of history.  Coming into the class I expected it to be like all the other history classes I've taken and didn't think there was much more to tell, but I was definitely wrong.  The way this class made a full circle from the part to the present and connecting it together throughout really helped me understand that times have changed drastically but there are still many factors that have stayed the same.  Also, I feel like I received a non-biased view of the past.  IN previous classes I would only learn about what we felt and how war affected the white population.  In this class I learned much more about how war affected both sides.  I also, learned about how it affected the different genders and races which I had never touched on in previous classes.  Before I was taught the happy side of history where America was always the good guy and we never did anything wrong.  Now my view has been widened to see that even our nation makes mistakes.

Reflection 3

One thing Professor Hass tried to teach us was what is nationalism and patriotism.  I found myself finding out what they were during the beginning of the class when we read books like Little Women.  This book portrayed patriotism in the sense of the father going to war while the children and mother stayed home in full support of their husband/father doing whatever they could to help with the war.  The entire society was supportive of the war and their soldiers.  Throughout the class this type of nationalism seemed to dwindle as we progressed from war to war, decade to decade.  More recently we see patriotism a more broken than in previous years.  Being anti-war has been seen as extremely unpatriotic whereas now patriotism doesn't depend on being supportive of war and few seem to still think so.  Within WWII and into the current war on terrorism society has been becoming much more unsupportive of the governments decision to go to war.  At first those people were seen as being unpatriotic and unsupportive of the nation.  Now the idea of patriotism has been altered to include those who don't necessarily agree with the government and their decisions.  Being more opposed to the government and speaking out against it is seen as still being patriotic.  There are still many people who are not patriotic and decide to be completely against the nation as a whole including many celebrities which is unfortunate to see because of the impact they have on the media and in turn the media has on the population.  It would be nice to always have a unified nation but, it is good to see that we have not totally lost our unity when it comes to threats of our nation.  The reaction to 9/11 was really good since we all came together to ban against terrorism. Unfortunately the unity didn't last very long but it is reassuring to see that it is still possible to do in our nation. 

Reflection 2

The articles by Herr, Pyle, and Crawford were really eye-opening to the different responses and views of the different wars.  Patriotism and Nationalism were main factors in the support for the war.  Along with a common enemy and media coverage which highly altered the support of the war.  I didn't realize there was such a significant difference of support of the wars within both the soldiers and the nation.  The three articles demonstrate the immense difference in opinion of the war with respect to other wars.  These writers addressed the wars from different perspectives, whether as a soldier in the war or as a report at home and at the war.  The main things that effect the way the war was accepted at home was how the media portrayed it.  Before wars were shown on television a sense of nationalism and patriotism seemed greater in this nation.  I also believe that people were more pro-war than now because before people didn't have a way of truly knowing how horrible war is, only what they imagined.  By showing people what war actually looks like really upset people and made them realize that war was worse than what people may have thought.  Media being brought out during WWII greatly influenced why the public became so anti-war.  Seeing actual footage from the war made everyone rethink whether war was really a good thing as Herr portrayed in his article.  Crawford brought in the opposition from the soldiers perspective by retelling his fake war encounters.  Many soldiers were in a similar position to the one he talks about where the soldiers don't actually support the war or want to be their fighting for their country.  The way Crawford described the soldiers not wanting to be fighting the war, not being supportive of those in other regimes, and the all around negative feeling of those we are trying to protect was upsetting yet, true.  It is unfortunate that so many soldiers were forced to fight in wars of the past yet, didn't want to be fighting for their country.  What happened to the past sense of nationalism where it was seen as an honor to fight for your country?

Reflection #2

My favorite reading this course was The Montgomery Boycott and the Women who started it, telling the story of Mrs. Jo Ann Robinson.  I had little knowledge of this event, only really knowing the role of Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat.  I was unaware that a boycott was installed and what this boycott stood for for the African American community in Montgomery, Alabama.  I am thankful that after many years of searching for someone to publish her manuscript, Mrs. Robinson finally found someone to complete the task and tell her story.  It does not surprise me in the least bit that for so many years no one was willing to listen to her story, for the 'we' of America did not wish to discuss the topic of African American power.  

Her manuscript focused on the relationship between black activists and white leaders following Rosa Parks arrest.  She discusses how she organized and facilitated the events leading up to the boycott, working diligently sending out flyers and plotting the right time to begin a huge change among African American lives in this part of the south.  After 13 months of boycotting the bus system, the buses were finally desegregated, and the African Americans had won over justice.  

A quote by Mrs. Robinson that especially stood out in my mind was her words in regards to the way African Americans felt saying they would, "suffer for the sake of peace."  It is still beyond me that our country treated people so wrongly and inhuman.  Many African Americans kept questioning when they could stop suffering and what it would take to do so.  Finally, their collaborative movement brought the onset of less suffering, for they were standing up for themselves and fighting back.  

This piece touched me because it revealed how powerful people can be when they fight hard and are passionate about their cause.  Furthermore, this boycott was led by women, showing their strength and power in a world that sought hard to suppress them.  Mrs. Robinson is an inspiration to me and I am glad I was exposed to her story.  

Reflection 1

Professor Hass' lecture on the War Memorials was insightful on how many discrepancies there were when it came to the memorials.  Before this class I had not learned much about the memorials besides that they exist.  Hearing about the competition that was used to decide what the WWII memorial and how important the race of the statues were really surprised me.  I didn't imagine a memorial as something controversial but instead as a way of remembering the past.  Now I realize that the memorials had to accommodate the correct representation of the soliders and that was a difficult task based on what happened and what those in the states saw. 

 A point we addressed in discussion was the purpose of the memorials and what those who participated in the wars felt about them.  It seems that the war participants didn't really want the millions of dollars spent on the memorials but would rather that money be spent in a way that will help those still living.  While the purpose of memorials is meaningful and respectful of the soliders' who fought for our country there are cheaper ways to recognize them and everything they did.  For instance, we could spend more time in school recognizing their importance and how much they did for our nation.  

Another point recently addressed in section was whether memorials will be built for current wars or recent movements.  I feel they will not be built because of how expensive they are.  Currently, we especially don't have the millions of dollars to spend creating memorials.  Different measures should be taken by educating the nation about what occurred.  This will help us all remember the past and see what needs to be done in future situations that may be similar.

Reflection #4

After looking back over the semester, I think it is clear that I will take a lot away from American Culture 201. Among many other things, the most important lesson I have learned throughout the class is to never take anything at face value and to always question everything. Growing up we are taught American history from a textbook that contains a very small selection of stories from the past. Not only have many aspects of our country’s history been left out of our education, but the stories we do hear are usually told from only one perspective. Although I have previously learned about many of the events and people we discussed in this course, I have only heard them from a single viewpoint. This class definitely helped to open my eyes and showed me how biased and protective the American education system is.

One of the stories that I think particularly exemplifies this point is the tale of Custer. As a child I remember learning about Custer as a hero who defeated the Native Americans and helped bring about the end of the wars. I have a distinct memory of my brother being assigned to a report on Colonel Custer as part of their American Heroes project. However, what we aren’t taught in the classroom is that Custer was actually an aggressive degenerate soldier who instigated a battle with Native Americans and probably deserved what he got. It is amazing to me that this story, and countless others, have been distorted so much. This class definitely made me look a lot more closely at the history education I have, and got me to question many of the stories that I have previously taken as fact. I have learned how important it is to look at everyone’s side of historical events and not just accept the version we have been taught.

Reflection #3

Although I have enjoyed almost all of the readings we have been assigned during this course, Crawford’s “The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell” touched me on another level. I think the main reason this piece affected me more is because it told a story about the war that is currently being fought. Going through the other readings I was not surprised to find that there were many aspects of history that I had either been mis-taught, or never learned at all. However, after reading The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell, I was shocked to discover how little I know about the current wars. Although I know the basic background and reasons we initially became involved in the war, I never realized how much I have lost track of what is going on overseas. Crawford’s storytelling technique not only helped me to get a better grasp on the state of the war, but also made it seem more real. Unlike many other people, I don’t know anyone who is currently serving in the armed forces and I have never really felt personally affected by the war. However, after reading Crawford’s account I started to feel a stronger connection to the American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who are risking their lives everyday for our country. I don’t want to say that I have taken their services for granted, but rather I was just never really aware about all that they were going through.

After thinking about this for awhile, I started to become very disturbed by how little information we are actually given about the current war. It seems like in previous wars the country came together in support of the troops, offering aid and helping in anyway that they could. However, now I feel like everyday we are hearing less and less about the war and the conditions the soldiers are facing in Iraq. Most of the war coverage in the media is focused on the Obama administration, and what they are trying to do to end the war. There is rarely any footage or stories told about the actual men and women who are fighting. I had never really noticed this before reading Crawford’s piece, and now that I have, I am curious to know why. Because the fighting overseas has lasted far longer than initially expected, I’m guessing the government is trying to downplay the war, hoping to avoid scrutiny. However, I think this is unacceptable. I believe they need to make a more conscious effort to inform the public about the current state of the war and not let it be forgotten before it is even over.

Reflection #2

I thought that Professor Hass’ lectures on the construction of war memorials were both very interesting and eye-opening. It had never occurred to me before that veterans would not be in favor of having a memorial built in their honor. This seemed to be especially prevalent in regards to the possible creation of a World War Two memorial. I always assumed that memorials were places where soldiers would come to reflect on their time at war and to remember their friends and comrades who had died. However, after hearing Professor Hass’ lectures and doing a bit more reading about the opposition to memorials, it seems that many view war memorials as a superficial attempt to garner patriotism rather than honor those lost in war. After thinking about this viewpoint for awhile it has started to make more sense. Veterans who spent time in World War Two have an experience that no one else will ever be able to fully understand. They have been through things that can’t be put into words or physical forms. Maybe they feel that the construction of a huge showy memorial is more for appearance and not actually designed for the benefit of veterans. By creating a gaudy monument, it seems like the government is trying to call more attention to the war, almost promoting a celebration instead of a rememberance.

This idea fits with many of the themes we have discussed throughout the class. We have talked a lot about how times of war seem to bring Americans together and heighten patriotism. I think that the government feeds off these emotions and feeling of “togetherness” in order to promote their own agenda. When the country is focused on fighting against some other nation, outside of America, there is less interest and effort directed towards dissenting within the country. Perhaps by constructing memorials that remind people of the war, the government is hoping that the unifying and patriotic feelings of wartime will also be aroused. If this were to happen people might again not spend as much energy fighting battles within our own borders. Therefore, while at first glance our looming war memorials may seem like honorable tributes to the veterans of our country, I think it is more likely they were created for additional purposes, beyond just serving as rememberances.

Reflection #4

After taking American Culture 201, I believe the greatest benefit to me has been making myself more accepting of other opinions and ideas. mirroring several of the previous comments, I believe that if nothing else, at least I will be a little more skeptical of things in the future. I find that in our culture today, there is little emphasis placed on individualism and developing our own ideas, and much more placed on following what is considered normal. It was individualism that brought change in the early years of our nation, and I believe we have come far from this mindset. Within the course, I enjoyed our time spent on the Vietnam war the most. I have a better understanding now of how controversial the war was, and the different yet valid opinions. I also thought looking at consumerism and its history was very interesting as well. Overall, after coming into the course not really having a good idea of what to expect, I believe that it has been very beneficial to my understanding of the different opinions of major issues that exist within the United States today.


I thought the paper assignment was very interesting as well. It forced me to look deeper into a photograph and interpret the artist's intended meaning, rather than simply taking it for face value. Similar to questioning everything, taking the time to thoroughly understand a topic and assess it rather than simply what is given is imperative, especially today as many issues are very complex and require a multi-angled approach to resolve. More than the facts we discussed, it is this type of thinking that made the class so beneficial to me.
Going forward, as I enter discussions about current events and political issues, I will be able to think back to this course and hopefully approach the conversation with a more open mind.