One Nation Indivisible?

Nationalism refers to an ideology, a sentiment, a social movement, and an approach to governance that focuses on the nation. It fosters a collective identity. In the specific case of the U.S., nationalism refers to devoting primary loyalty to the United States as opposed to a region or a state. As a corollary to this, the U.S. government, according to nationalists, should reign supreme over state and local governments.

Sectionalism refers to an ideology, a sentiment, a social movement and an approach to governance that focuses on the sovereignty of one section of a country. In the specific case of the U.S., sectionalism refers to devoting primary loyalty to one’s state or region as opposed to the “United” States. As a corollary to this, state governments, according to sectionalists, should wield considerable powers vis-à-vis the national government.

Directions:

Throughout the Antebellum Era (1789-1861) numerous events took place which led to struggles between advocates of nationalism and advocates of sectionalism. In most cases these are complex issues which can only be properly understood in the context of the antebellum milieu.
Your task is to, describe and analyze each issue:

  1. Describe the issue: tell the story. Describe the basic facts: who, what, when, where, and why.
  2. Analyze the impact of this issue: thoughtfully explain how this event contributed to nationalism, sectionalism, or both. Your explanation requires an argument about whether this event contributed primarily to nationalism or sectionalism.

You may bullet point your responses to the summary in part A; you must explain your analysis in part B in full sentences.
You may use your textbook and/or the internet.
This will be a time consuming endeavor which, if done carefully and methodically and thoughtfully, will give you a nuanced understanding of the challenges faced by the new nation and the causes of the Civil War.

Here is you assignment. Take your time. Stop and think. Enjoy.

George Orwell: You and the Atomic Bomb

This George Orwell piece was originally published by the Tribune on October 19, 1945 within two months after atomic bombs were dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan by the only country ever to have used them to kill people and destroy cities, viz., the U.S.A. Orwell had written enough about the same (re: A. Bomb) but this particular piece was exceptional for the insights it shared about the world dispensation that lay ahead in the age of atomic weaponry. In addition, it was clear that the groundwork for his novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four had been completed by this writing.

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 110–Chile

President Richard Nixon acknowledged that he had given instructions to “do anything short of a Dominican-type action” to keep the democratically elected president of Chile from assuming office, according to a White House audio tape posted by the National Security Archive today. A phone conversation captured by his secret Oval Office taping system reveals Nixon telling his press secretary, Ron Zeigler, that he had given such instructions to then U.S. Ambassador Edward Korry, “but he just failed, the son of a bitch…. He should have kept Allende from getting in.”

Peruse the recently released NSA files on Pinochet

The Nixon Tapes

Between February 1971 and July 1973, President Richard Nixon secretly recorded 3,700 hours of his phone calls and meetings across the executive offices. These recordings played a leading role in the resignation of our 37th president on August 9, 1974. They remain perhaps the greatest treasure of information ever left by a president, as well as the most complex, controversial set of presidential records in U.S. history. However, today these recordings remain relatively unexplored on non-Watergate topics.

nixontapes.org is the only website dedicated solely to the scholarly production and dissemination of digitized Nixon tape audio and transcripts. This is the only website in the world that makes the complete collection of Nixon tapes available directly to the public in a user-friendly format, free of charge.

Survey: The Political Compass

There’s abundant evidence for the need of it. The old one-dimensional categories of ‘right’ and ‘left’, established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789, are overly simplistic for today’s complex political landscape. For example, who are the ‘conservatives’ in today’s Russia? Are they the unreconstructed Stalinists, or the reformers who have adopted the right-wing views of conservatives like Margaret Thatcher ?
On the standard left-right scale, how do you distinguish leftists like Stalin and Gandhi? It’s not sufficient to say that Stalin was simply more left than Gandhi. There are fundamental political differences between them that the old categories on their own can’t explain. Similarly, we generally describe social reactionaries as ‘right-wingers’, yet that leaves left-wing reactionaries like Robert Mugabe and Pol Pot off the hook.