scholarly journals My America: Immigration, historical education and vision of nationhood

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar Lansen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Us History ◽  
Teacher Competency ◽  
Catching Up ◽  
Historical Education ◽  
Informed Citizenry ◽  
Changing Demographics ◽  
Primary And Secondary School

My America: Immigration, historical education and vision of nationhoodEver since the United States of America was founded as a more perfect union, it has struggled to find a balance between a narrow, ascriptive, Eurocentric vision of nationhood favoring an explication of rational and/or divinely-sanctioned nation-building, and one that acknowledges the struggles and contributions of its ever-renewing immigrant citizenry in shaping its vision of self. This contrariety has played itself out in classrooms and textbooks where historical narratives of nation compete with societal reality; and in state houses where citizen-educators rather than academics seem to know history best. Whereas one can attribute this disconnect to curriculae catching up with changing demographics, in actuality, US History education’s de-facto role as the Great Americanizer has made it a factional battleground of what it means to be American; and a victim to the perversion of the very principles it seeks to instill. As a result, primary and secondary-school US History ranks amongst to lowest amongst subjects in terms of student proficiency and teacher competency. This article discusses the origins of the fraught relationship between vision of nationhood and citizenry education in the United States; and the necessitated steps to give renewed relevance and competence to historical education in developing the critical, informed citizenry fundamental to a well-functioning democracy. Moja Ameryka. Imigracja, edukacja historyczna i wizja bycia narodemOd chwili, gdy Stany Zjednoczone Ameryki stały się doskonalszą unią, kraj ten z mozołem szuka równowagi pomiędzy wąsko askryptywną eurocentryczną wizją bycia narodem, która sprzyja budowaniu narodu sankcjonowanemu racjonalnie i/lub przez boskość, a wizją, która uznaje obywatelski wysiłek i wkład imigrantów w kształtowanie jej własnego obrazu. Ta sprzeczność rozgrywa się w salach lekcyjnych i w podręcznikach, w których historyczne narracje o narodzie konkurują z realiami społecznymi, jak też w łonie instytucji państwowych, w których najlepiej znają historię, jak się wydaje, raczej obywatele – edukatorzy niż środowiska akademickie. Jakkolwiek tę rozłączność można przypisywać temu, że programy nauczania doganiają przemiany demograficzne, to jednak w rzeczywistości rola historii USA jako wielkiego amerykanizatora stała się w istocie polem zmagań o to, co to znaczy być Amerykaninem. Stała się też ofiarą przewrotności samych zasad, które chce wdrożyć. W rezultacie jako przedmiot nauczania historia Stanów Zjednoczonych zalicza się w szkołach podstawowych i średnich do tych przedmiotów szkolnych, które w kategoriach umiejętności uczniów i kompetencji nauczycieli mają najniższą rangę. Artykuł analizuje przyczyny tego brzemiennego w skutki związku między wizją bycia narodem a edukacją obywatelską w USA i docieka, jakie należy podjąć kroki po to, by poprzez rozwój krytycznej, świadomej postawy obywatelskiej o fundamentalnym znaczeniu dla kraju, przywrócić nauczaniu historii właściwą rangę i kompetencje. [Trans. by Jacek Serwański]

End-of-Life Care behind Bars

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phyllis B. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
The United States ◽  
Chronic Illnesses ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Prison Health ◽  
The Many ◽  
Changing Demographics

More people than ever before are being incarcerated in the United States. Many inmates are infected with HIV and hepatitis C. Sentences are increasing in length. Prison health care is now having to cope with the many chronic illnesses associated with an ill and aging population. The growth of end-of-life care programs in corrections in the United States is a direct result of the changing demographics of inmates. This article examines the need for end-of-life care behind bars and discusses selected hospice programs.

scholarly journals Populism in the United States: Binary Constructions by Donald Trump in the Domestic and Foreign Policies

2021 ◽  
Vol VI (III) ◽  
pp. 59-71
Author(s):  
Muhammad Nadeem Mirza ◽  
Lubna Abid Ali ◽  
Irfan Hasnain Qaisrani
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
The United States ◽  
Andrew Jackson ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
White House ◽  
Us History ◽  
The People ◽  
The Us ◽  
Foreign Policies

This study intends to explore the rise of Donald Trump to the White House. Why was Donald Trump considered a populist leader, and how did his populist rhetoric and actions impact the contours of American domestic and foreign policies? The study adopted qualitative exploratory and explanatory research techniques. Specific methods utilised to conduct the study remained political personality profiling. It finds that the populist leaders construct the binaries in the society by dividing the nation into two groups: �us� the people, against �them� the corrupt elite or other groups presented as a threat to the lives and livelihood of the nation. Though populism as a unique brand of politics remained active through most of the US history, yet these were only two occasions that populists were successful in winning the American presidential elections � Andrew Jackson in 1828 and Donald Trump in 2016. Structural and historical reasons became the biggest cause behind the election of Donald Trump, who successfully brought a revolution in American domestic and foreign policies. And if structural issues in the United States are not addressed, there is a clear chance that Trump � who is not withering away � will come back to contest and challenge any competitors in the 2024 presidential elections.

Inca Aesthetics and Scholarly Inquiry

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Herring
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Art History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
Scholarly Inquiry ◽  
Andean Culture

This chapter discusses the interpretive challenges that art historians and anthropologists have faced in approaching Inca intellectual and artistic achievements, which do not fit comfortably in Western categories. George Kubler took up the question of Inca art in the mid-twentieth century, creating a space in art history for studying the Incas. This development occurred at a time when archaeologists such as John Rowe worked to place the Incas within the broader context of Andean civilizations, and structuralists like Tom Zuidema were beginning to challenge historical narratives in search of underlying elements of Andean culture. The scholarly interest in Inca art, material culture, and intellect was but one aspect of the Inca focus of that time, as artists found inspiration in Inca ruins and museum galleries in the United States, and other countries began to exhibit Inca artifacts as an art to be approached on its own terms.

Spatializing Differences

Nuncius ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 754-778
Author(s):  
Dayana Ariffin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Mapping of “ethnic” or “racial” groups in the Philippines was an enterprise that was taken up through the direct interventions of the two colonial polities in Filipino history—Spain and the United States. The objective of mapping race or ethnicity in the Philippines was to identify the location of native racial groups for ethnological and administrative purposes. This article intends to explore the relationship between mapping and the scientific conceptualization of race during the changeover in colonial rule by examining two ethnographic maps, specifically the “Blumentritt Map” (1890) and the Atlas de Filipinas (1899). Maps are complex artefacts that can be read on various levels. Thus, the spatializing effects of mapping can extend well beyond the documentation of a geographic reality and capable of altering historical narratives and sociopolitical experiences.

Technology and US Foreign Relations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Krysko
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
Us History ◽  
Patterns Of Use ◽  
Global Power ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Us Foreign Relations

Technology is ubiquitous in the history of US foreign relations. Throughout US history, technology has played an essential role in how a wide array of Americans have traveled to and from, learned about, understood, recorded and conveyed information about, and attempted to influence, benefit from, and exert power over other lands and peoples. The challenge for the historian is not to find where technology intersects with the history of US foreign relations, but how to place a focus on technology without falling prey to deterministic assumptions about the inevitability of the global power and influence—or lack thereof—the United States has exerted through the technology it has wielded. “Foreign relations” and “technology” are, in fact, two terms with extraordinarily broad connotations. “Foreign relations” is not synonymous with “diplomacy,” but encompasses all aspects and arenas of American engagement with the world. “Technology” is itself “an unusually slippery term,” notes prominent technology historian David Nye, and can refer to simple tools, more complex machines, and even more complicated and expansive systems on which the functionality of many other innovations depends. Furthermore, processes of technological innovation, proliferation, and patterns of use are shaped by a dizzying array of influences embedded within the larger surrounding context, including but by no means limited to politics, economics, laws, culture, international exchanges, and environment. While some of the variables that have shaped how the United States has deployed its technological capacities were indeed distinctly American, others arose outside the United States and lay beyond any American ability to control. A technology-focused rendering of US foreign relations and global ascendancy is not, therefore, a narrative of uninterrupted progress and achievement, but an accounting of both successes and failures that illuminate how surrounding contexts and decisions have variably shaped, encouraged, and limited the technology and power Americans have wielded.

The American Children’s Bible

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell W. Dalton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
The United States ◽  
Biblical Literacy ◽  
Moral Virtues ◽  
Us History ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Religious Publications ◽  
Formative Experiences ◽  
Bible Stories

Children’s Bibles have been among the most popular and influential types of religious publications in the United States, providing many Americans with their first formative experiences of the Bible and its stories. This chapter explores the variety of ways in which children’s Bibles have adapted, illustrated, and retold Bible stories for children throughout US history. Children’s Bibles served a variety of ends, such as teaching biblical literacy, instilling a fear and respect for God’s power and judgment, calling children to salvation in Jesus Christ, modeling moral virtues, and reframing Bible stories as fun and engaging stories that portray a friendly God who cares for children.

Our Higher Calling

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holden Thorp ◽  
Buck Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
The United States ◽  
Special Relationship ◽  
American Higher Education ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
The Future ◽  
Changing Demographics ◽  
Incoming Students

American higher education is strong because of a special relationship with the American public and the federal government. Misunderstandings about how higher education works have strained the partnership, which has animated and driven American higher education. Carefully describing the roles of faculty, students, trustees, and administration can clear up some of these misunderstandings and position universities to deal with the pressures caused by changing demographics of incoming students, financial challenges associated with these changes, and differences in learning brought on by technological advances. Greater clarity sets the stage for an important conversation about the future of higher education and the United States.

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