- 9-11: Saudi and Pakistani allies v. Iran
- Arab Spring: Tunis, Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya
- Cold War: Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
- CIA support of Osama Bin Laden's mujahideen ("holy warriors," Muslim "crusaders") against Soviets
- 1979 Iranian Revolution
- 1953 CIA-MI6 Coup d'Etat in Iran for British Petroleum
- Guns v. Butter
- Occupy Wall Street
Rotating Weekly 3-Minute Speech:
Start a Google Reader account.
1. Sign into your SAS gmail
2. Go to http://reader.google.com
3. Subscribe to
- http://fulltextrssfeed.com/feeds.washingtonpost.com/rss/opinions/right-leaning
- http://fulltextrssfeed.com/feeds.washingtonpost.com/rss/opinions/left-leaning
4. You will be scheduled to give a 3-minute presentation on the current event of your choice. It must follow these conditions:
a. You can make a connection to the ancient empires, politics, religion, and/or economics of anything we've discussed so far this year
b. You prepare an outline and present it to me two days before your speech
c. You create a Slide Presentation using conscious design values (present it to me when you present your outline)
For Thursday's Seminar:
Remember, you have to bring in hand-written notes with sources and main ideas.
Use at least 3 of the articles listed here.
Make connections between those articles--all about the USA today--and the ancient Roman Republic and Empire.
Seminar Questions:
1. Are there any strong parallels between modern America and the Decline of the Roman Republic after the Punic Wars?
- Required by Thursday: Read World History: Patterns of Interaction, pp. 155-62 on the Roman Republic's Rise and Fall. (I'll have a podcast ready on this subject soon, but this is a decent overview.) Focus on:
- Social issues after the Punic Wars
- Economic issues after the Punic Wars
- Political breakdown after the Punic Wars (especially the Gracchus brothers)
- Required by Thursday: For a current events controversy about the wealth gap in the United States, read this New York Times article by billionaire Warren Buffett (remember, take notes as you read), and then watch Jon Stewart discuss it (and notice he features opposing points of view in the video, though he's obviously biased against them):
2. Using the Roman Empire as our model, in what ways is the United States today an empire?
- pp. 162-5 for the Roman Empire background. Read weblinks (coming soon) on USA.
3. Are there any strong parallels between contemporary America and the Roman Empire during its decline?
- textbook pp. 173-77 for background on Rome. Read weblinks (coming soon) on USA.
4. In what ways can it be argued that 9-11 was or was not the result of "imperial" US foreign policy?
- For starters, watch the first ten minutes (required) of this video on the background of US policy over the last 50 years in the Middle East:
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