Assignment for Huntington Discussion
Aug 7th, 2016 by amcadams
For your first discussion section on Friday, please read Samuel Huntington’s provocative and controversial article, “The Hispanic Challenge.” Read this article at least twice and as closely as you can. Pay particular attention to the last full paragraph in Huntington’s main text.
In preparation for your discussion section, respond to the questions below. Your response should be no more than one, typed, double-spaced paragraph.
You must send this paragraph to your respective TA before the section begins on Friday. Joy You ( zyou@nd.edu ) or Alejandro Castrillon ( alejandro.castrillon.1@nd.edu ).
Respond to these questions:
Under what terms does Samuel Huntington welcome Hispanics (and Hispanic Catholics) into the American nation-state? Are his terms reasonable and appropriate?
The theme of immigration is all over the US Presidential election, and Huntington anticipated it. There is no single, correct answer to this assignment. In your discussion section, some of you will agree and be glad you have found someone who shares your views. Some will profoundly disagree and want to argue with you. We are simply interested in seeing how you make an argument about a hotly-contested theme. Keep in mind that persuasive arguments always take into account the counterarguments that can be raised against them.
My expectations are quite modest. I will be pleased if you simply turn in the best paragraph you have ever written in your life.
As you know, I define ‘nation-state’ as a “symbolic community to which people voluntarily devote their primary political loyalties despite the many particularistic differences (ethnicity, race, creed, religion, partisan affiliation, tribe, etc.) that otherwise divide them.”
In preparing for your section, be sure to read your additional assignments on the Course Syllabus.