Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Message to WS II and Regional Studies Students

I will be offering term paper group writing sessions over the break; please let me know if you would be interested in participating by writing me a short email.

For Regional Studies students taking the exam on March 21st, I will be offering a review session March 13th at 2 pm. Meet at my office and bring concrete questions with you that you'd like to have covered.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Regional Studies Übung USA, Homework for Week 14

Thanks for your great contributions on the topic of the inauguration today. I really enjoyed the multifaceted and fruitful discussion.

In preparation for next week, please have a look at this brief timeline of US-Iranian relations: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-24316661

And complete the following study questions for Chapter 24: The Clinton Presidency:
1. What were the effects of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 and out of what context did it emerge?
2. (pgs. 650-651) Assess Zinn's analysis of the term "big government".
3. (pgs. 660-661) What was Bill Clinton's strategy in the war in Kosovo?

Nixon's "great silent majority" speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4ZO-niTg18
Luz Long's letter to Jesse Owens: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2016/08/tell-him-about-his-father.html
Nice clip by NDR on their friendship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DhhmroflsU

Useful dates:

       Reconstruction ends in 1877
      1865: „40 acres and a mule“
      contentious 1876 election Hayes (Republicans) vs. Samuel Tilden (Democrats)
      Electoral Count Act of 1877: special recount committee established
      Compromise of 1877: Democrats accept Tilden‘s defeat, complete withdrawal of federal troops from South
      Post-1877: rise of Jim Crow 

Civil Rights Act (1960, Eisenhower): penalties for those who obstruct another‘s right to vote
Civil Rights Act (1964, Lyndon B. Johnson): outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin
Voting Rights Act (1965, LBJ): outlaws discriminatory practices such as literacy test


       1964: Gulf of Tonkin and escalation
       Late Jan. 1968: Tet Offensive
       March 1968: Johnson announces he will not seek reelection
       July 1968: Nuclear non-proliferation treaty signed
       1968: My Lai massacre
       1969: Nixon delivers “silent majority” speech
       1969-1972: draft lottery for men registered with selective service
April 1971: Vietnam Veterans Against the War March on Washington
June 1972: Watergate break-in
December 1972: peace talks between US and North Vietnam fail
1973: Roe vs. Wade
August 1974: Nixon resigns
April 30, 1975: NVA tanks enter Presidential Palace Gate in Saigon ending war


1970: first “Earth Day”, Nixon establishes EPA
1972: Apollo 17 full view photograph of Earth from space; EPA bans DDT
1980: Superfund program established by Congress to clean up toxic waste sites
1984: Green Party of United States founded

1987: US signs Montreal Protocol
1997: Kyoto Protocol, US agrees to reduce emissions by 7%
2005: Kyoto Protocol is ratified by 141 nations, but not US
2006: Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth