Mirror Sites:
CSUDH Habermas UWP

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: April 13, 2001
Latest update: April 13, 2001
jeannecurran@habermas.org

This essay was sparked by an exchange between TR Young and William Mandel in the following postings on Progressive Sociologists Net (PSN):

• A Child History: Espionage and Military Adventures at Tax Time by TR Young
• Re: A Child History: Espionage and Military Adventures at Tax Time by William Mandel

Other links we will want to discuss are at:

• The Dawn of the Second Cold War By Matthew Rothschild. Report on China Debacle. The Progressive. A frontstage left perspective.
• A National Humiliation By Robert Kagan and William Kristol. Report on China Debacle. A frontstage right perspective.

• Dr. Larry Wortzel, Director of Heritage's Asian Studies Center, Comments on the Bush Administration's handling of the situation with China, and outlines the next steps. . . . A think-tank right perspective.

  ---

  ---

  It's important for you to recognize that public discourse means argument, reasoned argument, back and forth. Sometimes as activists argue, they fall back on attitude persuasion theory and take firm rhetorical positions. Sometimes they shout. Sometimes they lend each other the solidarity of caring.

  Through these exchanges they are reconstructing and reanalyzing history as they recall it, as they lived it, and providing many voices that need to be included in that history. (But history and its construction are a whole 'nother essay.)

  Such debates and shared memories and beliefs are the "backstage" in which they need to assume a certain security from oppositional argument. I invite you to read, at least cursorily, as activists discuss their own issues in their own "backstage." Turn to Left/Right Perspectives for links to many sites.

  Discussion Questions
  1. Is William Mandel challenging TR Young, or supporting him?

     jeanne's notes on a plausible response

     I think seriatim is a clue. William Mandel was around in the McCarthy days. He lived the experience as one of the youngest professionals caught in the House Unamerican Activities Committee black listing. He is adding his lived experience to TR Young's lived experience. Such support, from those who lived through an earlier stage of the struggle for social justice, permits us a fuller history. And that increases our sensitivity to history as collective experiences of all.

     But to those of us who have only been exposed to "A Child's History" to sample these corrections in memories and beliefs permits us to more easily fathom the ambiguity of what is called "history" in school.

     Front Stage Leftist Perspective

     Front Stage Conservative Perspective

     • A National Humiliation By Robert Kagan and William Kristol. Report on China Debacle.

     • Dr. Larry Wortzel, Director of Heritage's Asian Studies Center, Comments on the Bush Administration's handling of the situation with China, and outlines the next steps. . . . Backup.

     • Bush "Exacerbated" China Showdown CyberAlert. Backup Scroll down about an inch for the first three stories. This is a good site for reference when you're looking for the right perspective. Remember only that there are many right perspectives, just as there are many left perspectives.

     More soon . . .