In their own distinctive ways, chapters 12, 13, 14, and 16 from the book, Understanding the Cultural Landscape by the geographer Bret Wallach of the University of Oklahoma. describe a modern world undergoing turbulent political and economic change. After reading these chapters, respond to this discussion assignment as follows:

1. Post an initial response to the discussion prompts below. As a general guideline, this initial post should be a couple paragraphs long (approximately 250 words). You are not expected to address every question listed below, nor are you expected to write about all of the chapters around which this discussion is built. Instead, pick out one or two broad themes or specific ideas that caught your attention from any of these chapters and summarize them for your classmates, highlighting why you think these themes/ideas are interesting and important.
2. Add additional posts responding further to the discussion. You may highlight additional themes and ideas as you continue your reading, but you also should read and comment upon your classmates’ responses. These discussion assignments are intended to serve as a virtual reading group where we work our way through the same book together, through interactive question and comment.
3. TO BE CLEAR YOU DO NOT HAVE TO RESPOND TO ALL PROMPTS JUST ONE OR TWO AND YOU ARE ONLY READING THROUGH CHAPTERS 12, 13, 14, AND. 16 OF THE BOOK UNDERSTANDING THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE.

The Discussion Prompts

• Big, for-profit companies have been central throughout the continuing history of the industrial revolution. How have these companies changed, from the early days of U.S. Steel and Ford to today’s giants such as Apple and Walmart? Consider in your responses what these companies make, how they make their products, and where they operate.
• How are the economic changes discussed in chapters 12–14 linked to some of the political reactions described by Wallach in chapter 16?
• Wallach illustrates his book with numerous current-event anecdotes. Since the book is more than 15 years old, these events are no longer so current. Find and share a recently published news story that illustrates an idea in chapters 12, 13, 14, or 16, as if you were a research assistant hired by Wallach to help with writing a revised second edition of the book. In addition to a URL hyperlink and a brief bibliographic description of the published story (author, headline/title, name of publication, date originally published/posted), write a quick summary of the article along with a short discussion of how it could be used to revise the book. The article you share could potentially correct or update a fact that appears in the original book, or it might challenge or extend an idea that Wallach presented illustrating that the world of 2021 is not quite what he had envisioned back in 2005.