Based upon your reading of these two primary documents and incorporating your textbook as a secondary source, answer the following question. Please provide specific examples from the documents that support your arguments. According to President Reagan, what does “having a positive view of American history” mean and what values does the country stand for? What should modern Americans think of their country’s past in regards to race relations according Senator Obama? Do you agree with these documents arguments about America’s past? Why or why not? PRIMARY DOCUMENT 1 President Ronald Reagan Defends American Morality (March 8, 1983) President Ronald Reagan portrayed America as the embodiment of morality. He attributed American morality to traditional values he associated with Christianity. Reagan believed his views represented 100 percent Americanism and that those who differed were either deluded or suspect. Millions of Americans agreed with him and voted for him. Reagan drew upon his ideas of American morality in his speech here to the annual convention of the National Association of American Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, in 1983. The speech illustrates Reagan’s concept of history as a struggle between good and evil and his certainty that America was on the side of good. A TRANSCRIPT OF THE SPEECH CAN BE FOUND HERE: https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/reagan-evil-empire-speech-text/ A VIDEO OF SPEECH CAN BE FOUND HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcSm-KAEFFA PRIMARY DOCUMENT 2 “A More Perfect Union” Speech by Senator Barack Obama (March 18, 2008) In running for President of the United States in 2008, Senator Barack Obama faced severe criticism over his prior attendance at a church where the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s incendiary sermons about America and race stirred anxieties about the presidential candidate’s own feelings about race in America. Speaking at the National Constitution center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Barack Obama delivered a campaign defining speech that paved his way to winning the Democratic Party nomination and ultimately the White House. A TRANSCRIPT OF THE SPEECH CAN BE FOUND HERE: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88478467 A VIDEO OF SPEECH CAN BE FOUND HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrp-v2tHaDo

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