End of Semester

I submitted my final assignment of the Semester.  Hip hip hooray.  It was an essay on citizenship as part of my study of American Foundations.  The text began:

This essay considers the proposition that ideas of the citizen and citizenship originated in the American context as deliberately loosely defined concepts.  As a consequence they have been debated, revised and contested throughout the history of the United States.  The lack of precision in the founding texts of  Revolutionary America reflects the 18^th Century liberal idealism upon which myths of American nation identity were subsequently built.  But the history of contestation and revision of citizenship demonstrates the reality that for “at least two-thirds of American history, the majority of the domestic adult population was … ineligible for full citizenship” because of “latent … racial, ethnic and gender restrictions.”

Ho hum. We hold these truths to be self-evident: term is done; no prizes this year!

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