American culture

American Culture -- Winter, 2015,

These questions will appear on the final exam. Read them carefully so you’ll be sure to adequately address what is being asked. The final exam will be held as scheduled on the university final exam schedule--on Monday, March 16 at 6:30 (NOTE HALF-HOUR TIME CHANGE) in our regular classroom, HEC 305. This is a 75-minute exam, so you should be finished by about 7:45-8:00.

(1) What are the two most important issues facing American society today? Explain why these are crucial or important. How should we address or resolve these issues? Explain your answer, drawing on discussions and materials we have used in this course – readings, films, articles presented, lecture and discussion. The issues you think are most important do not have to be ones we discusses specifically in class, but your answer should be based broadly on what you have learned and discussed about American society and its conflicting values, the functionality of institutions, etc. Support your statements with reasoned culturally-based argument or evidence. NO uneducated emotional venting, please.

(2) I will select some of the following terms for the final exam, and within that selection you may have choices. For each term on the exam, the questions will be: What does the term mean? Describe or explain its relevance to American culture or American society, perhaps even in a specific historical period or with reference to a specific major issue in American society, if you can. This list is taken entirely from our class lectures and discussions, films, and/or readings. In studying these, I suggest you start with those you know or think you know, first. Don’t spend all your time on the (very) few you don’t recognize.

· Culture

· Individualism

· Prejudice

· Discrimination

· Extended family

· Nativism

· Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

· Mexican Revolution

· Libertarianism

· Liberalism –utilitarian, moral, economic, political/social

· Rosie the Riveter

· Civil Rights Act (1964)

· Security (its different meanings, and as an issue)

· Hamburger University

· Church-state separation

· Diversity and multiculturalism

· Equality (its different meanings)

· Affirmative Action

· Desegregation

· States’ rights

· Browning of America

· Globalization

· Family values

· Racial stereotypes

· Consumer society