AMST 2011 MIDTERM (Spring 2014)

AMST 2011 MIDTERM (Spring 2014) Answer the following questions in 2 double-spaced typed pages each, for a total of 4 pages. Be sure to analyze the readings in your own words rather than in my words from the lectures. You will be graded on how well you analyze the readings not on your opinions; therefore, take great care to focus on the texts. Please turn in your midterms via email by midnight, Sunday, March 29th. 1.    Focusing on the Elaine Tyler May article “Echoes of the Cold War,” A) discuss the concept “frames of acceptance.” Then B) discuss what, according to May, made WWII, particularly Pearl Harbor, an appealing frame of acceptance. C) According to May, how was WWII an inadequate and inaccurate frame of acceptance? 2.    According to Amy Kaplan A) in what ways is the history of Guantanamo related to the U.S’s participation in the Spanish American War and the U.S.’s presumed efforts on behalf of Cuban sovereignty? According to Kaplan, B) how did the Platt Amendment help to establish the foundations of U.S. empire? C) According to Kaplan, what was ambiguous about the Insular Cases and how did that ambiguity work to constitute U.S. imperialism? 3.    Discuss A) Eqbal Ahmad’s notion of the U.S. as an “island power.” Then B) discuss how, according to Ahmad, the war in Vietnam “laid to rest the Third World’s illusions and myths about the United States.” Then using Dudziak, C) discuss the ways that “war time” influences our perceptions of peacetime and why it is regarded to be temporary and exceptional. Is it?