Kulturraumstudien USA, Homework for November 9th

**If you had difficulty accessing the class on Monday/were not allowed into the session, please send me an email. In some cases, this had to do with not being on my list. I only accept people into the session whose names appear on my list, so please contact me via email so that we can sort out any issues.**

Welcome to the course! For homework, please do the following in advance of next week's session: 

- purchase the text These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore (ISBN: 978-0-393-35742-4) and bring it with you to each class session (we will be using this text for the entire academic year)

- as soon as you get the text, read the entire chapter entitled "Introduction: The Question Stated". This is a total of 10 pages and represents academic-style English, so it might be a challenging read at first. Don't be discouraged and do the best you can. As you read, consider and write down notes in response to the following questions: 

1. How did the general public gain access to the text of the Constitution in its earliest days?

2. (This requires some outside research) Where is the Constitution housed today?

3. Page xiv features the expression "the American experiment." What do you think is meant by this expression and what is this experiment, exactly?

4. Page xv features as a distinction being made between "sacred & undeniable" and "self-evident." Why was this distinction made and what spirit of its times does this distinction reflect?

5. How does this chapter define "history"? 

- this isn't required, but I encourage you to explore the text of the US Constitution available here: https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/the-constitution

- follow the election coverage of this week (bear in mind, it's not just the president who is being elected this week!) and bring in one interesting finding from it to class next week (examples include how the way a state voted surprised you, how a media outlet covered the election, reactions to the election both in the US and abroad, etc.)