american studies forum: fall 1992

8/6/2019 American Studies Forum: Fall 1992

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M leANSTUDI S

September/October issue

From the EditorGreetings American

Studies Forum readers! I wouldespecially like to welcome youwho are new to the major and arereading an AS newsletter for thefirst time. For those of you whohave read the forum in the past,cut us some slack . . . we aretrying to get up to speed.

We apologize for gettingthe September/October newsletterout so late. I could explain themany reasons for its late arrivalbut will refrain from doing so inorder to maintain my futurepolitical viability within thesystem. Nevertheless andnotwithstanding, I am calling forall good American studies majors--who have been oppressed anddenigrated over the decades--tostay home from school and fromwork, to read this AS Forum andshow your support for the cause.

Even though the newsletteris a bit tardy, we hope the articlefrom Dr. Richard Cracroftconcerning AS classes for Winter

CONTENTSAmerican Studies News (p. 2) Twentysomething and Holding ...

(p. 4)Multiculturalism and Political Derek BairdNarratives (p. ~)Paul Lauter Professor Profile(p. 5)

Pulsipher." Funny guy.While the efforts of my

editorial predecessors areimpressive and commendable, Iwould like to usher in a new eraAS Forum history . . . a sort ofJacksonian, common man era innewsletter authorship. I hope wcan solicit contributions fromstudents and faculty that concernnot only academic and intellectuaconcerns, but also other elementsof the American experience--Iikereligion, sports, politics, popularmusic, movies, and so on.

I also hope no one will ftoo intimidated to submit an articor too inferior to even try. Wehave no pretensions here at ASForum headquarters--if you submit, we will print it. Just don't gcrude or anything.

Again--welcome. Hopeyou enjoy the Forum and willcome join us in putting togetherthe November/December issue.

--D. Kyle Samps

Semester 1993 will be helpful. Asyou can see, he has allowed forseveral substitutions to offset Dr.Fox's sabbatical and Dr. York'spseudo-sabbatical. Also includedin this issue is an excellent essayfrom ASSA president, DerekBaird, as well as an excerpt fromPaul Lauter's essay onmulticulturalism. We are alsointroducing a new feature,Professor Profile, which spotlightsin this issue our revered chair, Dr.Richard H. Cracroft.

In preparing this issue, myfirst as editor, I reviewed pastissues and was impressed with thescholarly presentations of topicslike Cultural Diversity andIntellectual Integrity. To behonest, I was somewhatintimidated by the lofty rhetoricand scholarship of previous editorslike David Pulsipher and DavidClark. I mentioned my feeling ofinferiority to Dr. York one dayand he said, "Yep. I knew DavidPulsipher. And you're no David

DAVID M. KENNEDY CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUD,IES


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Winter Semester:Some SuccinctSuggestions forCoursesby Richard H. CracroftAmerican Studies Coordinator

For compelling reasons(Dr. Frank Fox on leave, Dr. NeilL. York otherwise deployed),several key American Studiescourses usually taught in WinterSemester will not be available thiswinter. In addition to the severalcourses on the official study list,which I will not repeat here, Ioffer (and herewith authorize) thefollowing substitutions forAmerican Studies courses--with theproviso that students must registereach change with the HumanitiesAdvisement Center via anauthorized "Major ModificationForm" signed by me:Hist. 368. Mormonism and

American HistoryHist. 372. New American NationHist. 384. Women & the American

ExperienceHum. 404-1, Intellectualism &

Anti-Intellectualism inAmerican Life

Eng!. 293, Perspectives onAmerican Literature

Eng!. 361, 362, or 363, surveys ofAmerican Literature

Eng!. 368, Literature of the Latter-day Saints

Eng!. 495R-I, Willa Cather; Sect.6, Reynolds Price; Sect. 7,John Steinbeck; Sect. 400,Contemporary MormonFiction

If necessary, check with me (378-3082) regarding other courses.

Who Said It?This year marks the 200th

Anniversary of the White House.Guess who made the followingstatements regarding thePresident's residence:1) "It really is a little house. "2 ) "The big white jail. "3) "It's the best public

housing I've ever seen."4) "This damned old house."5) "This is the loneliest place

in the world."6) "Big enough for two

emperors, one Pope andthe Grand Lama."

American StudiesNewsGraduate Admissions Test Dates:GMAT: January 16, 1993

March 20, 1993June 19, 1993

LSAT: December 5, 1992February 13, 1993June 19, 1993

GRE: December 12, 1992February 6, 1993April 17, 1993June 5, 1993

Additional information, aswell as applications andpreparation classes can be obtainedin 136 HCEB (Harman ContinuingEducation Building).

June 24. 1876: Custer's last group photo

American StudiesPresents...The first lecture of the year

will be Wednesday, November18th. More information will beforthcoming.

General ElectionBush, Clinton, or even

Perot! It is up to you to choose!Remember to vote November 3rdfor your candidate. Get out androck the vote!


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Twentysomething andHolding ...by D erek E. BairdP resid en t o j A SS A

We, the twentysomethings,are about to inherit a world withdepleted natural resources, pollutedland and water, and a nation with adirty social conscience. At the ratewe are going, how much longercan we exist? Will there be anytrees left, or will they have all diedor been sold to greedy lumbercorporations? Will nuclear warhave finally caught up with us?Will we, the twentysomethings, beable to acquire the life-style we areaccustomed to? Will we be able toafford the "American Dream" --ahouse, two cars, 3.5 children, a catand a dog-or will it all become aromantic ideal of the past?

If we are able to obtain thedream, will it be worth the pricewe will have to pay? Will it beworth the sixty-hour work weeksand uprooting families for the bigpromotions with more money sowe can afford that new BMW?Will it be worth the frustration ofcity life, traffic jams, smog, andan outrageous cost of living? Mostimportantly, will we be giving upour dreams in order to bear theweight of all our inheritedresponsibilities?

Indeed, life for thetwentysomethings looks bleak atbest. I suppose some would blameit on the thirty or Jortysomethings;after all, they are the ones whomaxed out the national gold cardduring the 1980s with theirdecadent lifestyle and RonaldReagan demigod. We, thetwentysomethings, are going to

atone for the sins of the 1980s.Perhaps we, thetwentysomethings, should learn

from the 1980s and avoid makingthe same mistakes. We shouldpick up the thirtysomethings'dreams where they left off--somewhere in the late 1960s orearly 1970s. We should start topurify our national spirit throughcontrolling our pollution, recyclingour resources, and helping thehomeless. In the process we willbe able to create a society wherefamily--not money--comes first. Aplace where AIDS victims aretreated with empathy, not hatred.A world where we can walkoutside at night and not be afraid.But most importantly, we shouldcreate a world where our children,when they are twentysomething,won't have to ask us--theJorty andfifiysomethings--why?

Myth of the Month:"The Frontier"

Few of those famous forshooting people actually shot asmany people as is commonlythought. Billy the Kid was apsychopathic murderer, but hehadn't killed twenty-one people bythe time he was twenty-one.Authorities say they can onlyaccount for three men he killed,and there were probably only threeor four more.

Bat Masterson is anotheroverrated killer. He has beencredited with killing betweentwenty and thirty men; the actualnumber was only three.

Wild Bill Hickok, theAbilene marshal, claimed to havekilled six Kansas outlaws and

secessionists in the incident thatfirst made him famous. He lied.He killed just three--all unarmed.And he never killed anybody forviolating the ordinance againstfiring guns within town limits.

Bill Cody's reputation as agunslinger often seemed like purefiction--and was. It was only indime novels, which he himself hada hand in writing, that Codyresorted so often to gunfire. As heacknowledged in a letter to hispublisher, he didn't care much forthe truth. "I am sorry to have tolie so outrageously in this yarn ... If you think the revolver andthe bowie-knife are used toofreely, you may cut out a fatal shotor stab wherever you deem itwise." Cody was a good shot andis said to have proved it repeatedlyat the bison-killing contests where

he earned the nickname BuffaloBill. But he didn't kill manyIndians. Furthermore, when hewas old his estranged wife revealhe had been wounded in combatwith Indians only once, not 137times as he claimed.

Who Said It Answers1) Prince Charles2 ) Harry S. Truman3) Gerald R. Ford4) Abraham Lincoln5 ) William Howard Taft6) Thomas Jefferson


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Multiculturalism and Political Narrativesby Paul Lauter

Editor's note: Paul Lauter isprofessor of English at TrinityCollege and General Editor of TheHeath Anthology of AmericanLiterature, from which this excerptwas taken.

The development ofmulticulturalism offers manysignificant parallels to the historyof the Civil Rights movement ofthe 1950's and 1960's. Both hadto do, at least initially, withexclusion. The essence of the JimCrow system was to exclude blackpeople--from the front of the bus,from the separate and superiorwhites-only waiting rooms, clubs,and hotels, from most of theamenities of southern life. Inmany states of the old South, JimCrow practices excluded blackchildren from schools which taughtalgebra or a foreign language orlab sciences, or which had newbooks or classrooms .... [T]odaythe tools are [of exclusion] areoften culturally defined: hatespeech, campus minstrel shows,swastikas on synagogue walls,fraternity gang rapes. Or, more

subtl y, the parental gesture ofcontempt read by the child, thestereotypes reinforced by theevening news, the unseen fencebanning "them" from "our"neighborhood, the soft resistancewhich would never opposedesegregating American society,only programs that might actuallyproduce change.

Just as, in the firstinstance, the Civil Rightsmovement was a movement forinclusion. so the multiculturalmovement has in its initial stagesbeen one of inclusion. The CivilRights movement said "we wantaccess"--access to decent schools,to public accommodations, to thefront of the bus, and especially tojobs and the vote. So themulticultural movement has calledfor access, access to the full rangeof the cultures of the UnitedStates, not just to pieces of ourheritage. Like the Civil Rightsmovement, multiculturalism is notabout separation and itsconsequence, exclusion. Rather, itis about inclusion and what canemerge from inclusion: a realunity.

We are looking for thoughtful (orplayful articles to publish inupcoming editions of theAmerican Studies Newsletter. Ifyou want to contribute. call KyleSampson (373-6324)..\lERlCAN SITDIESSn;DEYr ASSOCrATION

Incidentby Countee CullenOnce riding in old Baltimore,Heart-filled, head-filled with gleeI saw a BaltimoreanKeep looking straight at me.Now I was eight and very small,And he was no whit bigger,And so I smiled, but he poked ouHis tongue, and called me,

"Nigger."I saw the whole of BaltimoreFrom May until December;Of all the things that happened

thereThat's all that I remember.


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PROFESSOR PROFILERichard H. Cracroft

HOME:"Provo, Utah. Brigham said, 'Go to

Provo, or go to hell.' I say purgatoryis more like it."

AGE:Unknown. But check out the shirt.

PROFESSION:English professor and AmericanStudies chair at Brigham YoungUniversity. Resident genius.

HOBBY:"Oh, lots of things. I enjoy catching

moths, bill collecting, needlepoint, andattending rock concerts. Madonna isone of my all-time favorites."

LATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT:Negotiating to replace James Stockdaleon the Perot Presidential ticket. "They

want to see daffy, I'll show themdaffy!"

LAST BOOK READ:Rockstar by Jackie Collins. "A

literary classic."WHY I DO WHAT I DO:

"Frankly, the money was hard to turndown."

QUOTE:"All I am saying is give peace a

chance. "PROFILE:

A paradox. Intellectual and yet alive.Compassionate and yet purposeful.

Genuine and yet ... out there. A realAmerican Studies kind of guy.

HIS SCOTCH:"Tape ... definitely. I love scotch

tape. "

american studies forum: fall 1992

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