Primaries

I hope you had the time and energy to get the homework for seminar 11 done, and I'm sorry I did not have the time to go through the important points with all of you.
In a nutshell : what you have to remember is that the first caucuses and primaries are extremely important. If the front runner wins the Iowa caucus and/or the New Hampshire primary then it is very likely that s/he will go on to win the nomination. But if these first two races are won by a challenger, this gives his/her campaign a huge momentum that might ultimately even lead to the defeat of the national front-runner.
The importance of these two first States is huge, and this, in turn, explains why the candidates spend so much time there, especially those who are not ahead in the national polls, such as Mike Huckabee ( GOP) and John Edwards (Democrat). Because if they manage to carry the first States, they become competitive and might even win the nomination thanks to the momentum they will have gained. These first States enjoy picking a candidate that is not the obvious choice : in a way this might give them even more weight in the process (they give a chance to someone who is not the national front-runner).
For instance, Jimmy Carter was completely unknown and nicknamed "Jimmy Who?" untill he won the Iowa caucus and then went on to win the Democratic nomination and the presidential election in 1976. Of course this is not a hard and fast rule, you will find many exceptions, but the media pays a lot of attention to the early election because they yield a first trend (obviously) and that's all that they'll have to go on untill Super Tuesday when most of the States vote including some big States such as New York, California.
The Economist in their latest edition defend this unusual system.



Rudy Giuliani is the national front runner but is being challenged by two contenders who are ahead of him in the early States.
Here's a "negative ad" by Mitt Romney attacking Mike Huckabee who has recently emerged as the front runner in Iowa. This was a complete surprise but, as a Baptist minister he appeals to social conservatives and evangelicals ( the religious right). His popularity is alarming Mitt Romney who is courting the social conservative/Christian vote.




The next video is Mike Huckabee's holiday ad: both responding to people who are tired of political ads (by yet another one!) and to the Christian audience:



This ad has created a bit of controversy, especially regarding the white book shelf in the back ground : what do you think?
Read NPR's comment on this.


Giuliani's Christmas ad :



Do you find it funny? Some commentators say this joke doesn't really work.

A couple ads from the other side now.
A classical Hillary Clinton motherly ad :



John Edwards is arguing for an overhaul of the entire system ( "the system is rigged") and indirectly attacking Hillary Clinton as a member of the "Establishment".



Barack Obama tries to carry people away with his new vision for America.



NB :
Red America = Republican America
Blue America : Democratic America
As you will probably have noticed the colors representing the two parties have changed over time : basically until the 2000 there was no pre-determined color code but most TVs represented the Republican States with blue and the Democratic States were symbolised with red. (The map I used in the powerpoint presentation for the 1980 election uses the new color code but was probably not the one used on TVs at the time.)
In 2000, all media outlets started using the same color-code and because this was a hotly contested election, the new code stuck. I hope this isn't too confusing for you, just remember today R=R and D=B.
I got the explanation from wikipedia's article.

Seasonal greetings

Enjoy the holidays.
I'll keep in touch via the blog and will shortly post a couple videos related to the last lecture and some thoughts on the primary season.

Take care

AM

West Side Story and the origins of social problems

A couple weeks ago I went to the theater to see the live performance of the famous Broadway musical. West Side Story was first performed in 1957 and it wove into the traditional Romeo and Juliet thread many topical themes. And this is probably what made it a success along with the great music by Leonard Bernstein and the clever lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

This short extract is extremely telling about how the understanding of poverty and social problems had evolved by the late 1950s. You probably remember how these problems were explained away by heredity (c.f. the selection of immigrants) or lack of individual responsability (if you were poor, drunk etc... it was more or less your own doing => "self help philosophy" ) in the 19th century and early 20th. After the Great Depression and WW2, the causes of social ills were sought for in society itself, in the educational context and no longer only in the individual.





I was struck by this song that clearly highlights these changes : the boys in this gang behave inappropriately ( hang out in the streets, get involved in fights with rival gangs etc...) because of their family background, or because they are psychologically inadequate or neurotic ( notice the strong german accent of the shrink !) or because they are a symptom of a wider crisis in society ( they are "sociologically sick").

Of course, West Side Story is also about immigration and urban rivalries between ethnic whites (Poles) and Porto-Ricain immigrants. One of the most famous scenes deals with the different expectations men and women have about their new life in America.



I hope you enjoy these two videos although the quality isn't as good as I wish it were. If you want the watch the entire movie, I recommend choosing the English subtitles : then you can really follow along and the French subtitles aren't as witty.

the religious right (follow-up)

DON'T FORGET TO BRING YOUR CONSTITUTION TO THE EXAM NEXT WEEK.

Some of you might want to listen to the podcast on the evolution of religious voters in America : this is the webpage, then click on "listen".

The Economist offers a very interesting blog and podcast on democracy in America. Check out their website : the post of the 29th of November entitled "values voters" is particularly worth you time. It will probably clarify some of the things we discussed in class this week. You can either download or listen to the audio on their website.

Help for the seminar on religion in America

Jennifer Burns' lecture on the religious right is very interesting and I am confident that it will help you understand the importance of religion in politics today.

Electoral ads from the 1950s

Dear students,

It's been a while since I last up-dated the blog. I'd like to show you a couple electoral ads of the 1950s and 1960s.

Dwight E. Eisenhower, aka Ike, was extremely popular in 1948 and 1952 : members of both parties wanted him to get their nomination.
The "Draft Eisenhower " movement was created to push him to run for the presidential election. Unbeknown to him, his supporters wrote his name on the ballot of the New Hampshire Republican primary and he came in first. He decided to answer this popular call for his candidiacy and ran in the other primaries, defeating Taft his rival for the Republican nominaton. He won the presidential election by a landslide, taking all States except 7 Southern States, Kentucky and Virginia.
This commercial clearly emphasizes the fact that Ike is cruising to the White House on a wave of popular support.





In 1964, Lyndon B Johnson was running for President against Barry Goldwater, a libertarian Republican (advocating the scaling back of the federal government, tax cuts and a tough stance against communism) who had repeatedly appeared as trigger happy and ready to resort to the nuclear arsenal. This is one of the most famous electoral ad of all times : it was only played once as a commercial before being pulled by the Johnson campaign but it bacame instantly famous and was broadcast by televison stations as a news item. It plays on the fear of the A-Bomb and remains very emblematic of the Cold War context.





Today this ad is being used against the Democrats. Watch :



For more details :
you can refer to the remarks made by Barack Obama on Pakistan.
or check out what Hillary Clinton has said about nuclear weapons.

Help for Seminar 7

Dear Students,

If you enjoy using podcasts to prepare your homework, I'd like to recommend Neil Wehneman's Life of a Law Student website and podcasts. He is an American law student and has been offering for 3 years now an amazing coverage of what he has had the opportunity to learn and study at the Ohio State University and at the Indiana University. Listening to what he offers is probably second best only to studying law in the US.

For Plessy, Schechter, Brown, and US v. Nixon turn to Constitutional Law 1 , episodes 30, 10, 31 and 25.
For Roe v Wade turn to Constitutional Law 2 , episode 7
For Miranda, refer to Intro to the Law episode 4.

Of course you can find all these episodes in the i-store under the heading : life of a law student. (or LoaLS)

A last snippet of advice : there is an good article by Gwénaël Calvès on the issue of judicial activism in Les Etats Unis. Denis Lacorne. Fayard-Ceri. 2006.

PS : COME TO THE SEMINAR WITH YOUR CONSTITUTION (and please circulate the message)

A critical assessment of George Bush's speeches

Maybe you have heard of a famous TV show hosted by Jon Stewart, it's broadcast on Comedy Central four times a week and is entitled The Daily Show.
Jon Stewart is extremely critical of all politicians and here you have an interesting analysis of the way the President expresses himself. Apart from being quite funny, the point made by Jon Stewart is fairly clever.
You probably won't find this too difficult to understand.

Feel free to share your opinion on this video : leave a comment.

Scorcese on the immigrant experience

Dear Students,

Try and listen to this interview with Martin Scorsese who discusses movie-making and the immigrant experience.

Reminder : Jennifer Burns' two lectures on immigration are excellent and will help you grasp the issues around this problem (Immigrant Culture & The meaning of whiteness).


I'd be happy to read your comments on the blog, so feel free to leave remarks, advice to your fellow students and questions if you have any.

The Sopranos

Dear students,

For those of you who would like to use the TV series The Sopranos to study what it means to be an immigrant : these are the episodes I recommend in particular :

Season 2 : episode 4 = Commandatori ( a trip to Italy)

Season 2 : episode 9 = From where to eternity (Tony discusses why he does this "job")

Season 4 : episode 3 = Christopher (taking place on Columbus day).

I'd like you to watch at least 2 episodes to get an idea of how the immigrant issue is dealt with.

Studying history at Berkeley

Pr. Jennifer Burns, a history teacher from Berkeley, California, offers all her lectures to pod-casters. She covers 2/3rds of the period that we are studying at the UCP and listening to her lectures is an excellent way of improving your English and your understanding of American history. The lectures you will find most interesting to complete and review what we cover together are :
The Civil War and its aftermath
Reconstruction
Gilded Age politics
Workers and Unions
Progressivism
Social Thought in the Gilded Age.

Seminar 5 will be on Native Americans, the following lectures will provide you with the required background information :
The Conquest of the West
The Settling of the West

For seminar 6 on immigration, you will learn a lot by listening to the lectures on :
Immigrant culture
Meaning of whiteness

If you want to prepare for the lectures I will be giving after the break you can listen to :
The Roaring 20's and The Scopes Trial
The 1920's: The Jazz Age
The Great Depression and New Deal
New Deal, Part 2

You will find all these podcasts on Berkeley's website. If you have a MP3 player, you can download the MP3 files onto your computer and then copy them into your player.
If you have an i-pod, go to the i-store and search for "History 7B" or "Jennifer Burns". You can then subscribe to the entire series of podcasts or download them one by one.

If you want to find out more about Jennifer Burns check out her website.

Google Group for the first year students

Dear first year students,

You will find the homework on this link.

The Mormons

As a young boy, Joseph Smith started having visions and revelations. In 1827, he claimed he had been directed to golden tablets on which the story of the ancient israelite tribe of America was inscribed. He translated these revelations into English and the Book of Mormon became the fundamental text of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. All this took place in up-state New York in a context of intense religious revival and amidst a treasure hunting craze.

Ever since the 1830s, when John Smith started preaching this new religion, he encountered scepticism and downright hostility. The hostility was and still is based on the originality of the Mormon faith and on the peculiarity of their brand of Christianity.

The prophet and his followers were gradually chassed west : from up-state New York to Ohio, and then to Missouri (God had revealed to Smith that the city of Independence was to be the New Jerusalem) from which they were violently expelled. They fled and settled in Illinois, where their community established a boyant city that was renamed Nauvoo. It was in that city that Smith received the revelation encouraging plural marriages and integrating the practice into the Mormon faith. However, once more, as they were starting to build a temple and as the number of converts they made increased, opposition built up against them. A newspaper harshly criticized the Mormons' hold over the city and Joseph Smith, their spiritual leader and prophet who held the office of city mayor. On the orders of Smith, the newspaper's presses were destroyed, this led to charges being pressed against him. Joseph Smith was held in jail and on June 27, 1844, a mob stormed the jail and Joseph and his brother were shot dead. This marked a second stage in the development of the Mormon faith (Brigham Young became the second prophet and religious leader of the Church) and latter led to the great migration of 1846-47 to Salt Lake City in the barren territory of Utah.
In Hugh Brogan's book (p. 232-45) you will find an excellent survey of the creation and early years of the Mormon Church.

The PBS documentary frontline offers an interesting overview of the life of Joseph Smith and the history of the Mormon Church. I would recommend parts 2, 3 and 4, which explain the origins of this new "American" denomination. The rest of the episodes retrace the troubled early years of the newly founded community. PBS offers a sequel to this historical overview exploring the evolution of the Mormon community in the social and political fabric of the USA. They were the ultimate outsiders for more than a century but today Mormons are part of the mainstream American society, they hold values (family, faith, community) that are shared by a majority of Americans. Today one of the front-runners in the Republican primary race is a Mormon. Mitt Romney has been presenting himself as a social conservative (despite a reported flip-flop on abortion) and is trying to seduce the evangelical base of the party and debunk commonly held misconceptions about his Church. You can hear what Mitt Romney has to say about this issue here.

Commentators have been eagerly reflecting on whether his faith will hinder him from getting the nomination.
NYT commentary.
NPR page on Mitt Romney.

free speech, you tube, etc...

During the seminar, Antonin mentionned the video that caused a bit of scandal several weeks ago. At a forum where John Kerry was speaking, an unruly student was taken away, silenced and "tasered" by the police. Watch the video.
The incident was covered by the local press and the television outlets passed excerpts form the videos taken by students attending the meeting. Wikipedia offers an ongoing debate (see the discussion page) about the event and tentative transcript of the exchange between Us Senator John Kerry and Andrew Meyer.

For more information on the repercussion of this event check out the NYT article on a student journal using vulgarity to express discontent towards the administration.

movies for seminar 5

At the request of a student, the Godfather II has been added to the movie list for seminar 5 on immigration.

You will shortly find a pdf document dealing with immigration in the US to download on the UCP website and on the american studies google group.
More from me on the mormon faith, the primary elections and other topics soon.

Obama or Hillary?

As far as I could guess, most of you find the Democratic race more interesting than the Republican contest for the presidential nomination.
Do you think Hillary Clinton is the first woman to run for President? Think again ! You might want to find out more on this topic. A woman tried to run for President as early as 1872, at a time when woman weren't enfranchised.

So far, Hillary Clinton has been in the lead, at least in national polls. Her campaign is strong and this quarter she has raised more money than Barack Obama, for the first time this year. This week's issue of the Economist has a long paper on her candidacy. According to them, Hillary Clinton is likely to win as she has many assets (name recognition, money, an organized party machine...) however she is a divisive personality : she musters real opposition and even hatred (and not only from conservatives). Her Republican opponents use her probable victory in the primaries to exite and unite their own rather apathic base, which is still considerably undecided.
Some Democrats thus consider it would be a mistake to nominate her, since she would not create a concensus and might not manage to win against a strong Republican nominee.
If you are interested in specifics you will probably find the presentation of her health care plan worth your time.

You probably all know that this is not the first time a Black American is running for the nomination. But this is the first time an African American is getting quite so much attention and support. The New York Times has a video on the Obama fans.
You can also refer to the video I had recommended on an earlier post (2008 Primaries) if you want to learn what is the main challenge Barack Obama needs to overcome in his duel against Hillary Clinton.

Please do leave a comment if you want me to cover any thing in particular.

Constitution of the USA

If, for some reason, you didn't get a photocopy of the American Constitution you will need to print it off the internet, or download it from the google group site.
See you next week.

Podcast for seminar 1

PBS is an American TV network offering, amongst other things, a variety of documentary programs. They offer a history series called American Experience for which there are short audio previews. These extracts are often well thought out and are all available for podcasting. Do try it out, you can access the podcasts through the website or through i-tunes ( by going on the i-tunes store and searching for "american experience").
The 4th of July 1826 was a momentous day : the Americans were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Find out what else happened that day by listening to the summary.

I usually enjoy their frontline series that you can watch on the web with windows media player or realplayer. Some of the shows I found most interesting were on the Mormons, the Irak war, Karl Rove, the "persuaders" (marketing gurus).

Book available at the FNAC Cergy

Dear Students,

The book I recommended on Tuesday has been delivered at the FNAC.
The author is Melinda Tims and the book is catalogued by the FNAC under the title Initiation à la civilisation américaine. They might ask you for the name of the teacher who ordered the books.
Please let me know if you are having trouble downloading the material or watching the videos, listening to the NPR broadcasts etc...
I'm looking forward to seeing you on monday or tuesday for the first seminar and the second lecture under undoubtedly better material conditions !

Aude de Mézerac

2008 Primaries

The Primary election campaign has started earlier than ever before and is now well under way.

One of the best ways of learning more about the primary process and about the main candidates for the Republican and Democratic nomination is to check out the New York Times coverage. Visit the website to read articles about the issues around the primary calendar, to follow candidates on the campaign trail and to learn about the political hot potatoes of the day.

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front runner, has tried to undermine Barack Obama's claim that he has enough experience to be President of the United States. Find out how he is responding to the challenge by watching the video.

Democratic candidate and governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson is running one of the most entertaining ad campaigns. Find out more and watch the ads here.

On the Republican side, former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuiliani is leading in the polls but losing ground to Mitt Romney and John Mc Cain. Maybe one of the them might be able to overtake him in the small States that vote first in the primary season: Iowa and New Hampshire. However, a few weeks ago, Fred Thompson entered the race. He is an attorney and a former Senator and you might have seen him in the TV series Law and Order in which he played District Attorney Arthur Branch. Will he manage to win the support of evangelical Christians, who haven't clearly picked a candidate yet, and take the lead in the polls? Learn more.

More from me later.

Lecture 1

Welcome to the American Studies Year 2 blog which is meant to enhance the lectures on American history.
I will use it to post links to websites that will help you make the most of the classes.

For instance you might like to listen to a 6 minute interview with Stanley Weintraub who has written a book on the American Revolution from the point of view of the British.
click here.

NPR also offers a very short summary of Thomas Paine's life and famous pamphlet : Common Sense. Apparently Washington would read it to his soldiers when times were tough. Click here.

You will find all the necessary documents for the lectures (powerpoint presentations and extra handouts when necessary) and for the seminars ( home work : text under study and questions on the text) by visiting the American-studies-Year-2 google group.
Please download and print the file for each week's seminar, don't forget that homework is a mandatory requirement. If having the powerpoint presentation helps you follow the lively pace of the lecture, you should print it out and bring it to the class ( I recommend using the option allowing you to print 6 slides per page).