“From the founding of Jamestown forward, the tension between the quest for equality and representative government, on one side, and the determination to preserve powers of domination and privilege, on the other, has animated the main battles of American history?” – Nancy MacLean
The American ethnic/racial past is best understood within a framework of the “insider/outsider dilemma.” It is the tension within this dichotomy that has driven the history of American ethno-racial relations.
To what extent do you find this analytical thread useful? That is, in what ways and to what degree does this theme organize a messy history and/or in what ways does it distort or detract from a more accurate portrayal of the American past?
Explore one major ethnic/racial development from each of the following periods (1607 – 1789, 1790 – 1900, 1900 – 1980) to demonstrate the utility and/or limitations of the insider/outsider dilemma framework. If you feel that the insider/outsider framework is completely rubbish, propose a new framework and show how it better organizes America’s ethnic/racial history for each of the three time periods identified above.
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