Dear MONT 109N Students,

    Attached is a marked-up version of your submitted
   paper 1 -- I used the "insert notes" feature of word
   to add comments, so you should see them to the right
   of your original text when you open the file.  Please
   let me know if you are having difficulty reading the 
   comments and I will try something else. 

    As I announced in class, I'm giving everyone a follow-up
   assignment to rewrite this paper.  The purposes of this
   are two-fold:

     1)  (less important) There were a number of papers
         that were still somewhat rough in terms of 
         mechanics -- typos, awkward sentences, etc.
         Part (but only part) of what you do for the 
         rewrite should be to fix any of those problems
         that I might have marked.  

     2)  (more important) There was an aspect of Diamond's
         ideas that relatively few people mentioned.  But
         I think it is really important both for understanding
         what happened in the examples of past collapses 
         he gives and for evaluating whether his "cautious 
         optimism" about the future is justified.  That is 
         the idea he discusses in the paragraphs on pages 
         523 and 524 beginning with "The other crucial
         choice illuminated by the past involves the courage
         to make painful decisions about values."  I would 
         like everyone, including those who mentioned
         this point, to consider it again and to try to 
         address the following additional question(s) in 
         your rewrites:

         First, exactly what does Diamond mean by "decisions 
         about values?"  What are some examples in the cases 
         from the past we discussed?  What questions of that 
         sort might we be facing now?  Then, if decisions 
         about values are (perhaps especially) painful, does 
         that affect your overall conclusion about whether 
         we can learn from the past?  

   In connection with this rewrite assignment, I am 
   adjusting our semester schedule slightly:

     1)  Rewrites on paper 1 will be due Friday, March 18 
         (that's the week we return from Spring Break)

     2)  The midterm exam will be pushed back one week
         to Friday, March 25.

   Let me know if you have any questions.

                                       John Little