History 450 Reading Response One (based on Hunt’s book).  

Reading responses for HIST 450 may be typed or hand-written.  If you miss class, you can find the questions on my website.  Unlike most assignments in this class, I will not look at spelling or grammar when evaluating them.  Focus instead on articulating creative ideas and on showing evidence of your engagement with the reading.  A full paragraph or two should be sufficient for answering each question

For Response One, please answer FOUR of the following SIX questions:

1. According to Hunt’s Preface and Chapter 1, what are three or four key elements that define “ideology” as an analytical concept?  In making your list, express Hunt’s ideas in your own words, instead of simply relying on quotations from Hunt (but still provide relevant page references in parentheses).

2. In three or four sentences (again, using your own words), what is Hunt’s main thesis?

3. Although Hunt finds a lot of continuity in U.S. foreign policy across time, what kinds of changes does he see in U.S. foreign policy ideology during the twentieth century?

4. Of the three main ideological pillars (national greatness, race, and fear of revolution) that Hunt describes, which do you think has had the most profound effect on American views of the world?  Why?

5. Hunt’s book offers three core ideas to explain how Americans have historically seen the world.  If you could nominate a fourth factor to join Hunt’s trio, what theme would you select and why?
 
6. How well does Hunt’s book, written in 1987, help us explain U.S. foreign policy ideology in the eras of George W. Bush and/or Barack Obama?  What did his book anticipate and/or fail to anticipate?

7. Open-Ended Question: Describe and explain something in the book that you found particularly interesting, surprising, compelling, or frustrating.  (Just be sure to discuss something that you haven’t already covered in earlier answers.)

---

History 450 Reading Response Two (based on Costigliola, Oropeza, and Briggs articles). 

1. Costigliola discusses concepts useful for interpreting primary sources, such as emotives, metaphors, constructs, and binary oppositions.  Using the Bush speech that we read in class on 14 January, identify at least four different examples of these concepts at work in Bush’s speech.  Explain how each of your four Bush examples fits Costigliola’s definitions.  (Note also that more than one analytical term might apply to any given specific passage in the Bush speech.)

2. According to Oropeza, in what different ways did Chicano and Chicana views of the Vietnamese people and the Vietnam War affect the Chicano movement itself?

3. Even more explicitly than Hunt, Briggs links images to politics.  She stresses that images can do “ideological work” in support of particular government policies.  What did you find to be the most persuasive or compelling example provided by Briggs to show how images supported political goals?  What example offered by Briggs struck you as the least persuasive or the most strained?  Why?

---

History 450 Reading Response Three (based on Rotter, Buzzanco, and McAlister).

1. According to Rotter, why did the United States form an alliance with Pakistan and not with India during the early years of the Cold War?

2. Explain what you see as one of Buzzanco’s strongest arguments against Rotter.  Then explain what you see as one of Buzzanco’s weaker points. 

3. On the whole, are you closer to Rotter or Buzzanco when it comes to evaluating the usefulness of the cultural approach?  In other words, how useful is the cultural approach for explaining U.S. foreign policy?

4. What do you find to be one of McAlister’s strongest points in her effort to connect Hollywood biblical epics and U.S. foreign policy?  What do you find to be one of her weaker points?