What’s So Great About America - mrssimunekhistory



What’s So Great About America?

By Dinesh D’Souza

Due Date: The First Day of School

(this is worth a significant part of your quarter grade)

Part I: Answer the bolded questions on a separate sheet of paper, restating the

question in the answer (RQIA), using complete sentences, and no typing (to be handwritten).

All other questions can be answered in the space provided (Be sure to restate the question in the answer.)

Part II: Choose one point of D’Souzas and write a 2-page essay arguing an

opposing point of view and explain your reasoning. Look for a good topic as you read through the book. (Be sure to use page numbers to reference your argument.)

Part I: According to Dinesh D’Souza:

1. What was Pericles’ dilemma faced by free peoples throughout history?

2. What American symbols were the terrorists’ targets on 9/11/01?

3. List and describe the 3 main currents of foreign opposition to the spread of American influence.

4. The West is a society based on _______________ whereas Islam is a society based on virtue.

5. What political movement is the most serious internal critic of America?

6. Who said “To make us love our country, our country must be lovely.”?

7. What is the difference between nativism and patriotism?

8. Becoming American is less a function of birth or blood and more a function ________________________________________.

9. Why was Saul Bellow’s comments greeted with a universal cry of outrage?

10. What is Eurocentrism? Is it a justifiable approach when describing western civilization? Why or why not?

11. Describe the “environmental” thesis for explaining why Christendom accumulated so much power to conquer and subdue the other cultures of the world?

12. Explain the oppression theory?

13. Are ethnocentrism, colonialism and slavery intrinsically Western? Why or Why not?

14. What about a profound effort to rise above ethnocentrism and benefit from other cultures’ ideas and inventions – is this intrinsically Western?

15. What about the movement to end slavery – is this intrinsically Western?

16. ___________________ is an exclusively Western institution.

17. Who sent delegations to the West to protest the abolition of slavery?

18. “Colonialism had injured those _____________________, but paradoxically it ____________________ to their descendents.” Explain this statement.

19. Does D’Souza justify colonialism and slavery? Explain.

20. Explain the three institutions that made the West the dominant civilization in the modern era (1500s-2000).

21. Not until 1990s did America begin to enjoy supremacy. Did they do this through military force?

22. What do you think is the appeal of America?

23. Why do you think so many detest America?

24. “The lives of many poor people in the Third World nation are defined by an ongoing _______ _________ _____________. Their life is characterized by _________, ___________, and ______________.”

25. What are some of the hardships faced by the middle class in Third World nations?

26. What examples of comforts do ordinary Americans enjoy that would be reserved for only the elite in other societies?

27. In most parts of the world your ___________ and ______________ are to a large extent handed to you; in America, you ______________ them yourself.

28. Is virtue, or freedom, the highest value? Why?

29. What was Voltaire’s remark about the ingenious solution of the American founders’ separation of religion and government?

30. What systems did the founders devise to prevent or minimize the abuse of power?

31. What were the 2 great problems that were a source of misery and conflict in ancient societies which the American founders solved?

32. What does Shelby Steele mean when he refers to “the shock of freedom?”

33. Contrast the two perspectives of oppression – the immigrant perspective and that of the leadership of “indigenous” minority groups.

34. Delineate D’Souza’s reasoning that the Founders were not hypocrites when they said all men are created equal but then included slavery in the founding documents.

35. Why does white racism not stop non-white immigrants, even black immigrants, from becoming successful in America?

36. The American founders set up a regime dedicated to classical liberalism – economic freedom, political freedom, and freedom of speech and religion. The moral revolution of the 1960s and 1970s extended and radicalized the idea of freedom by adding another freedom: ____________ freedom, defined as:____________________________________________.

37. There was a switch in the 1960s from the “old morality” to the “new morality.” Describe this change.

38. What advice does Dinesh D’Souza give to conservatives like Judge Bork as well as to the “Starbucks guy?”

39. What is the difference between American exceptionalism and American universalism?

40. Critics of American foreign policy are right that America is not always in the right. Give some examples where US foreign policy has been right.

41. America is an _______________________ superpower. Give examples of this.

42. What 3 groups make up the “blame America first crowd”?

1.

2.

3.

43. According to _______________________________, the United States cannot be morally superior because no culture is morally superior to any culture.

44. What lesson did Western history learn from the Spanish Inquisition?

45. What is the main difference between the society the Islamic fundamentalists want and the society America has?

46. Which is more successful in achieving the goal of virtue?

47. Which is more valuable – virtue that is freely chosen or coerced/forced virtue?

48. Ultimately why is America worthy (or not) of our love and sacrifice?

Don’t forget to go back and do part II of the assignment.

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