Response Paper 4 The Pasley article has to be, without question, one of the strangest articles I have ever read. The physical imagining of a cheese that large is almost absurd. However, on some level, it does show the importance of both religion and the press in the political culture of the time. For example, Jefferson, while more or less a Christian Deist (as is shown in the Jefferson Bible, which eliminates almost all mention of Christs divinity or the miracles Christ performed), is incredibly sensitive to the hold that religion holds on politics at the time. Indeed, he is so sensitive that he attends a sermon by a backwoods preacher. The newspapers at the time, at least according to Pasley, indicted Jefferson as an atheist, something he clearly was not. Overall, political culture in the early American Republic revolved around two basic things. The first of these, at least based on Pasley, seems to have been religion. Although the United States is officially a secular state (hence the wall of separation doctrine), religion played an absolutely massive role in the formation of the early Republic. Personally, I find this very interesting. Despite the clear attempt to make the United States a religiously neutral state, the political culture of the time demanded that the President and other elected officials make statements of faith and attend religious devotions. Secondly, much like today, the media pushed the message of one party or another. Ironically, Pasley seems to equate newspapers today (if there still are newspapers- their numbers decrease yearly) with objective reporting, which is something I completely reject. More accurately, newspapers and, more generally, the media are the mouth of political parties (see: Fox News and MSNBC). With regard to Hunt, I strongly agree with the idea that the Marxist interpretation of the French Revolution, while troubled, is the most developed. I also believe that De Tocquevilles interpretation is probably the closest to correct, actually. Unfortunately, as Hunt correctly points out, there is almost no scholarship on this matter. I believe that this is a function of the cultural power of Marxism, which, like it or not, dominated the intellectual climate of much of the twentieth century. On page 12, I deeply appreciate the attempt to avoid segregating the ideas into levels. This seems like an attack on Braudel, who believed that history could easily be segregated into fairly coherent levels. Finally, to close out Hunts introduction, she seems to be creating some sort of combination of the longue duree and social history, which seems extremely odd, though potentially a very potent combination. I am in agreement with the statement in the final paragraph of page 53. As per Abbe Sieyes What is the Third Estate?, the nation holds political power. However, as is correctly pointed out, nobody really knew how this would be implemented. Yet, I disagree with political iconographys becoming power itself. Yes, there were certainly political ideas that imposed themselves into the culture, such as the bizarre Cult of the Supreme Being. However, Hunt is absolutely correct that a government without iconography is not much of a government. Every country, regardless of its political system, has national iconography and national myths. I suppose that the revolutionaries could have seen the execution of Louis XVI as a form of iconography. The elimination of the former king would be a rallying point for the revolutionaries, as they would be able to create a symbolism around the death of the tyrant.As time went on, the symbolism of the French Revolution grew, as I agree with Hunt. When combined with the anthem Le Marseillaise and the Tricolor flag, as well as the slogan Liberte, Equalite, Fraternite, it is very easy to see how political culture was directly affected by the government, and how that political culture later forced its way into peoples lives. Indeed, the Festival of Reason (much like the Cult of the Supreme Being) attempted to take that political culture (of anticlericalism) and foist it upon the masses, regardless of whether or not they actually wanted it at all. Moreover, the creation of a ten day week shows the influence of political culture on the Revolution and the French nation as a whole. Hunt argues that this is all political culture developing symbolic power, which I do not agree with. I believe that, while there is a large element of political culture in this, there is also a fair amount of personal bias. For example, the French Revolution truly was an attempt to realize the Enlightenment. Many learned men during the Enlightenment were deistic, and in some cases, anti-theistic or anti-clerical. In cases like the Cult of the Supreme Being and the Festival of Reason, the clear influence of these ideas is apparent. This was not so much political culture as it was their own personal biases.