La Civilisation Américaine

Introduction Civilisation American

Mr. Griffin is an expert in warefare and military issues in Britain, America and france. He works on research in anti-terrorism in France.

Grading:

In our 1st semester we will start work on a file/dossier of researched writing. 50% of this semester’s grade will come from a 2 page written summary of our topic that we will research and a bibliography, which will later form the basis of our final 8-10 page essay.

The second part of our grade will be an oral test where we are presented with a document/article related to a topic studied in class and we will be asked questions about the text similar to the kinds of questions asked in class. You will have 15 minutes to read and analyse and then 15 minutes to talk about the article. To do well in this you must show understanding of the text and clearly express your ideas.

First year – Contemporary America (the past 30 to 35 years), examining major problems and issues, elections

Foreign policy – how America deals with current problems

Economy – the 2008 crisis

Social system – no healthcare (link to religion: protestism)

Gun control

Universities – culture wars and the problems they pose for universities

Minorities – Native Americans (casinos on reservations), Black culture (police violence which increased after Obama was elected/ Martin Luther king), Hispanic culture.

Religion – very powerful, Protestantism, the Super Bowl

Second year – Biographies of famous Americans.

Third year – War history and military.

Note: Mr Griffin advises us to read the US news: CNN is a free cable news network which tends to be on the Left side of politics, Fox News is free and tends to be on the Right of politics, The Los Angeles times is free, the Wall Street Journal and NY Times are paid subscriptions.

Current Presidential Election

This year’s election will be held on November the 8th. The candidate who wins will begin working as president in January of 2017.

What do we know about the current president and the candidates running for president?

Obama – people think that he is honest but has been inactive/ he hasn’t done anything. The healthcare that he proposed was unconstitutional. His wife Michelle Obama has tried to make it so that kids eat better, driven by the problem of Obesity in the US.

Candidates:

Hillary Clinton is also disliked by much of her country. She is 69 years old, a similar age as Donald Trump, and was married to Bill Clinton and is seen by many as arrogant and cold.

Her popularity has suffered from her husband’s infidelity when he slept with his assistant Monica Lewinsky in 1998. It is not a crime to have slept with his mistress, but he made the mistake of lying about the incident, which is a crime. Congress can remove a president from office in a process called Impeachment.  He was an embarrassment to the US. Congress has 2 houses: The House of Representatives (lower) and the Senate (higher). The House of representative voted to Impeach Bill Clinton, and in 1999 he went on trial in courts for lying. The Senate decided to keep him as president.

Bill and Hillary Clinton met at Yale as students of Law. They had business in real estate in the late 80’s and early 90’s. They were prosecuted for dishonesty in a business scandal known as Whitewater. Bill Clinton was in office as president from 1993 to 2000 (some people write 1992-2000 as he was elected in 1992, but since he started actually working as president in January of 1993, 1993-2000 is more correct).

Although Hillary Clinton failed in running against Obama in the primaries in 2008, she became Secretary of State under Obama from 2009-2012. There were accusation that she used her private emails to move information to get people killed. She is accused by the general public as being responsible for the killing of the Ambassador of Lybia.

“The” Donald – Donald Trump (a lesson in grammar, “the” implies that he is unique)

This brings us to the confusion that many people overseas have that Trump could possibly run for president and win. The thing is, in American culture this isn’t all that odd.

Trump was a businessman in real estate and has between 4 and 10 billion USD. He is one of the richest men in America. Presidents are often some of the richest people in the US, for example George W. Bush was the richest man in America when he became president.

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