American History and Literature
Lecture 3
English Dept.
IKK/Linköping University
Margarette Connor
From Willa Cather’s A Lost Lady
• What you think of and plan for day to
day…you will get…because a thing that
is dreamed of in the way I mean, is
already an accomplished fact. All our
great West has been developed from
such dreams; the homesteaders’ and
the prospectors’ and the contractors’.
We dreamed the railroads across the
mountains, just as I dreamed by place
on the Sweet Water.
Gettysburg Address
• One of the many
paintings of Lincoln
giving the
Gettysburg Address,
a seminal moment
in American history.
Important cultural artifact
• People would hang
prints like this in
their homes to
commemorate
Lincoln’s words.
Key question for the US:
• How do we take this large
conglomerate of people from all over
and make it unified?
Kennedy’s address to the world
• On January 20, 1961,
President John F.
Kennedy delivered his
inaugural address in
which he announced
that "we shall pay any
price, bear any burden,
meet any hardship,
support any friend,
oppose any foe to
assure the survival and
success of liberty."
Kennedy giving his famous speech.
•
From
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.
php?flash=true&doc=91
"Why am I who I am?"
• What makes me the person I am?
• What cultural references inform the
way I see the world?
A Republic of Virtue
• American Values
• Freedom
• Justice
• Equality
• Honor
• Liberty
• Responsibility
John Gardner
• Gardner was the Secretary of Health,
Education and Welfare (now called the
Dept of Education) under President
L.B. Johnson.
• For more information, go to this great
PBS site.
Liberty
American Core Values
• Primary values * individual
responsibility * family security *
honesty * fairness * freedom * work *
spirituality
• Secondary values * responsibility to
help others * compassion * personal
fulfillment * respect for authority *
love of country
• (http://blogs.onenw.org/jon/archives/2
004/07/23/core-american-values/)
Langston Hughes
World’s smallest political quiz
What it looks like—NOT MY SCORE!