American Political Culture Final Exam Review Sheet
The exam will include 30 – 40 multiple-choice questions, a choice of identifications (important terms and/or
people), and a brief essay. It will cover all material covered through class readings and material covered in class. An
outline is listed below including the assigned readings, which have been underlined. All information related to,
and not limited to, the following topics may be included in the exam:
1. What Does it Mean to be American?
a. How would we define politics and political culuture?
b. What has shaped American political culture?
c. Pluralism in America
i. Various forms of diversity in America – how does this affect shared American identity?
ii. “What Does It Mean to Be an “American?” Social Research, Vol. 57, No. 3 (FALL
1990), pp. 591-614
iii. hyphenated-americans
d. what does it mean to be American – Jose Antonio Vargas video
e. citizens and citizenship
i. role, trust, rights, and political knowledge of citizens 9knowledge of, gov, politics,
democratic principles)
ii. role of government in our lives
1. political efficacy
f. Civic Literacy Test
g. Major Political Values: Liberty, Equality, Democracy
h. American political system and structure
i. American identity
i. The Bradley Project on American National Identity, “E Pluribus Unum,” pgs. 1-46 (also
available at: http://bradleyproject.org/EPUReportFinal.pdf)
j. Identifications: democracy, liberty, equality, e pluribus unum, republic, U.S. Constitution,
pluralism, Declaration of Independence, Federalist Papers, Bill of Rights, Michael Waltzer, Jose
Antonio Vargas, political efficacy
2. Social and Historical Construction of American Identity and Values
a. Essentialism vs. social construction
b. Constructing categories of difference and inequality
i. “Part I: Constructing Differences,” from The Social Construction of Difference and
Inequality by Tracy E. Ore, pgs. 1 – 17
ii. Three contexts
1. socializing agents/institutions (family, education, economy, government,
media)
2. interpersonal context
3. internal context
c. Constructing race, ethnicity, calss, gender, and sexual orientation
i. Race vs. ethnicity
d. Historical construction
i. How has class and poverty been constructed historically (poverty threshold)
ii. Historical construction of race (U.S. Census etc.)
iii. Role of slavery (how was it defended, how did it form racial categories…)
1. Course Website: “The Evolution of Identity,” from The Washington Post in
The Meaning of Difference, 5th edition, eds. Karen E. Rosenblum and ToniMichelle C. Travis pg. 59
iv. Rothenberg: “Racial Formations,” by Michael Omi and Howard Winant, pgs. 13 – 19
v. Course Website: “Introduction: The Fabrication of Race” and “The Political History of
Whiteness,” from Whiteness of a Different Color by Matthew Frye Jacobson, pgs. 1 –
14
vi. Course Website: “Whiteness as an “Unmarked” Cultural Category,” by Ruth
Frankenberg in The Meaning of Difference, 5th edition, eds. Karen E. Rosenblum and
Toni-Michelle C. Travis pgs. 81 – 87
e. Other Assigned Readings:
f. Identifications: essentialism, social construction, historical construction, race, ethnicity, poverty
threshold, cultural relativism, ethnocentrism
3. How Should Americans be Educated?
a.
Public education in America
i. Goals of public education (how have these changed over time?)
1. Role of education in shaping American identity and “Americanizing”
immigrants
ii. History including foundational players (Webster, Jefferson, Mann, Dewey, Kallen…)
iii. Course Website: “Education and Democracy: The United States of America as a
Historical Case Study,” by Diane Ravitch, Yearbook of the National Society for the
Study of Education, (April 2008), pp. 42-56.
b. Cultural Literacy by E.D. Hirsch – what is it? why is it controversial? Is it helpful? Relationship
to American values?
c. Affirmative Action
i. History (Early political foundations, Bakke case, Michigan cases, current Supreme Court
case)
d. Other Assigned Readings:
i. Course Website: “American Democracy, Education, and Utopianism,” by Eamonn
Callan, Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, (April 2008), pp.
74-81.
e. Identifications: Noah Webster, Thomas Jefferson, Horace Mann, John Dewey, Horace Kallen,
Cultural Literacy, E.D. Hirsch, affirmative action, Bakke vs. Regents of University of California,
Davis,
4. The Media Effect
a. Types of media (print, broadcast – radio and TV, and internet)
i. How have these changed? What does each do well?
ii. How do these shape American political culture?
iii. Course Website: “On the Connection Between Associations and Newspapers,” from
Democracy in America (1834), by Alexis de Tocqueville.
b. Media power (agenda setting, framing, priming, watchdog/oversight)
c. News Coverage (journalists, audience, conflict, changes in news coverage over time and through
different media)
i. Course Website: “The State of the News Media 2013: Overview and Major Trends,”
The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.
ii. Course Website: Ch. 12 by Markus Prior, pgs. 153-163
d. Who plays an active role in shaping our political news
i. Course Website: Ch. 35 by Jarol B. Manheim, pgs. 421 – 429
e. Identifications: agenda setting, framing, priming, political “watchdog,” Marcus Prior, audience
fragmentation, Jerol Manheim, JFK/Nixon debates
5. Immigration, Multiculturalism, and Changing U.S. Demographics
a. Why have Americans felt positively and negatively about immigrants throughout history?
b. “old” and “new” immigrants
c. Changes in US immigration policy
i. Naturalization act of 1790
ii. Chinese exclusion act of 1882
iii. Immigration act of 1924 (Reed-Johnson Act)
iv. Immigration act of 1965
v. Refugee act of 1980
vi. Immigration reform and control act of 1986
vii. Rothenberg: “A New Century: Immigration and the US,” by MPI Staff, updated by
Kevin Jernegan, pgs. 201 - 206
d. Immigrants Today
i. Where do most immigrants live in the US and where do they come from? How has this
changed?
ii. Characteristics of immigrants today (housing, economy, jobs, education, income,
citizenship status
e. Effect of immigration on the future of US (diversity, birth rate, changing opinions on
immigration)
i. What is the best policy for legal immigration in the future? Undocumented immigrants?
1. Current immigration proposal including paths to citizenship
ii. Course Website: “Demographic Trends in the 20th Century,” by Frank Hobbs and
Nicole Stoops pgs. 71 – 111
iii. Course Website: “Minority Population Growth: 1995 to 2050,” by U.S. Department of
Commerce, pgs. 1 – 10
iv. Course Website: “Census Bureau Predicts Diverse U.S. Future,” by Genaro C. Armas,
pgs. 203 – 205
v. Course Website: “A New Race,” by Arthur M. Schlesinger in The Disuniting of
America, pgs. 23 – 43
f. Other Assigned Readings:
i. Rothenberg: “Immigration’s Aftermath,” by Alejandro Portes, pgs. 365 – 369
ii. Identifications: old immigrants, new immigrants, Naturalization act of 1790, Chinese
exclusion act of 1882, Immigration act of 1924 (Reed-Johnson Act), Immigration Act of
1965, Arthur Schlesinger
6. Race and Ethnicity
a. How have our personal ideas about race and ethnicity been formed?
i. Project implicit from the blog
b. Race and ethnicity as social constructs
i. How has categorization and ranking of people based on race changed
ii. Rothenberg: “Racial Formations,” by Michael Omi and Howard Winant, pgs. 13 – 19
iii. Role of media and history in social construction on race
1. Rothenberg: “The Black Codes,” by W.E.B. DuBois, pgs 528 – 536
2. Rothenberg: “Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896,” pgs. 542 – 544
3. Rothenberg: “Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954,” pgs. 550 – 554
c. White Privilege
i. Rothenberg: “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” by Peggy McIntosh,
pgs. 172 – 177
ii. What is it and how is it related to American culture and norms of society?
d. Effect of race and ethnicity in American national identity and political culture
i. Role of immigration, slavery, racial tension, social movements
ii. Major historical events (reconstruction, black codes, jim crow, legal battles, civil rights
movement, legislative victories)
iii. Lasting effects – Meeting David Wilson video clip
e. Asian American experience
i. Historical events
ii. Rothenberg: “Asian American?” by Sonia Shah, pgs. 217 – 219
iii. Rothenberg: “The Myth of the Model Minority,” by Noy Thrupkaew, pgs 220 – 226
iv. Course Website: “Seeing More Than Black and White,” by Elizabeth Martinez in The
Social Construction of Difference and Inequality ed. Tracy E. Ore, pgs. 752 – 758
f. Other Assigned Readings:
i. Rothenberg: “Shades of Belonging: Latinos and Racial Identity,” by Sonya Tafoya, pgs.
214 – 217
g. Identifications: Samuel Morton, black codes, reconstruction, plessy v. ferguson, brown v. board
of education, white privilege, Jim crow, grandfather clause, literacy test,
7. Class in America: Individualism, Inequality, and the Role of Government
a. Income vs. wealth
b. Level of income and wealth inequality in America today
i. Course Website: William Hudson, American Democracy in Peril, 5th ed, Chapter 7:
“The Seventh Challenge: Inequality,” pp. 263-304.
ii. Rothenberg: “Imagine a Country – 2009,” by Holly Sklar, pgs. 307 – 315
c. Political ideologies (social conservatives and liberals, and fiscal conservatives and liberals)
d. Libertarianism (what is the political philosophy? What is the general perspective about the
government? what is the role of the individual? how does this connect to American political
values?)
i. Course Website: Chapter 4: The Dignity of the Individual,” from Libertarianism: A
Primer by David Boaz, p. 94-105.
e. The “Life Happens” Game
f.
Identifications: income, wealth, social conservative vs. liberal, fiscal conservative vs. liberal,
inequality, individualism, libertarianism
8. Religion in America
a. Role of religion in politics (and American culture) through history
i. Course Website: The Mayflower Compact
b. American religions today
i. How have they changed? What is the American religious marketplace?
ii. What religions are gaining, which are losing members? Role of unaffiliated?
iii. Various types of religions in America today
iv. Course Website: “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,” The PEW Forum on Religious and
Public Life. Pgs. 1-71.
v. Religious discrimination today: being Muslim in America, stereotypes against religions,
ethnicities seen as being “less American”
1. Post 9/11 America, PATRIOT Act etc.
c. Separation of church and state (what is it, where does it come from, how realistic is it)
i. How much influence should religion have in our political or policy decisions in
America?
ii. Secularism in America
iii. Representation of religions in American government
d. Identifications: separation of church and state, Thomas Jefferson, American religious
marketplace, protestant, evangelical, mainline protestant, war on Christmas
9. Electoral Politics, Representation, the Obama Election and Beyond
a. How do different groups vote (exit polls)
b. Representation (descriptive vs. substantive and symbolic)
i. Course Website: “Preferable Descriptive Representatives: Will Just Any Woman, Black
or Latino Do?” by Suzanne Dovi, pgs. 729 – 742
c. Arguments for descriptive representatives
d. Current representation in congress
e. Majority minority districts (gerrymandering, effect on minorities and the parties)
f. 2008 election and beyond (Obama effect, effect on race relations, “post racial” concept, electoral
implications of changing racial/ethic make of the country)
i. Course Website: “A More Perfect Union,” speech by Barack Obama
ii. Course Website: “Speech Following George Zimmerman Verdict,” speech by Barack
Obama
iii. Course Website: “Is Obama the End of Black Politics?” by Matt Bai, NY Times
iv. Course Website: “Inside the Hispanic vote: Growing in numbers, growing in diversity,”
by Manav Tanneeru, CNN
g. Affirmative Action
i. Historical buildup (political actions and major court decisions)
ii. Use in employment and education (effects on other stakeholders)
iii. Course Website: “The Effects of Affirmative Action on Other Stakeholders,” by
Barbara Reskin in The Social Construction of Difference and Inequality ed. Tracy E.
Ore, pgs. 419 – 427
iv. Modern debate (Bakke, prop 209, Michigan cases, Seattle case)
v. Course Website: “Beyond Race in Affirmative Action (read all six viewpoints),” NY Times
h. Identifications: Shadow Senator, majority minority district, descriptive vs. substantive, vs.
symbolic representative, A More Perfect Union speech, affirmative action, Bakke v. Regents of U
of Califormia, Michigan Cases (Gratz and Grutter cases), ten percent plan, Fisher v. University of
Texas
10. Major Themes from Student Presentations