It's time to kill two birds with one stone. The year is winding down quickly! There are mere weeks left in the semester/quarter, and there's still a lonely "paper" category in the grade book and on Canvas that needs filling. Thanks to snow days and OGT prep, I have elected to trim down this assignment and make the Blizzard Bag pull double-duty. Since you were going to do much of the work outside of class anyway, it fits perfectly. This time around, you will only need to reference your textbook (though you may certainly cite additional, credible sources if you wish).
STEP 1: Choose Your Topic:
Your first task will be too choose your research topic. Below are questions that I have pre-selected. You may also pick your own, provided you run it by me first.
Chapters 16-20
Chapters 21-25
Chapters 26-31
STEP 2: Develop Your Thesis:
Once you have chosen your topic, you will then need to decide what you are going to argue. Each of the topics asks you to choose a particular position and defend it, using evidence from your research. As you may recall from the previous paper, your thesis should form the last sentence(s) of your introductory paragraph, and the beginning of your conclusion in a restated form.
STEP 3: Research Your Topic:
With your working thesis set up, you should now dig through your text (and any other sources you wish to explore, provided they are credible and reliable) to find facts, examples, and other evidence that help you defend your position. Make sure you record where you found them. You may find it helpful to use post-it notes or flags to bookmark pages where you find good information.
STEP 4: Outline Your Essay:
For many writers, this is a very necessary step. Organize the evidence that you researched into an outline that sets up a clear essay - complete with introduction, body paragraphs/pages, and a conclusion.
STEP 5: Write Your Essay:
Now put everything together by adding on to your outline "skeleton" with full sentences and paragraphs. For this paper, you may use simple in-text citations (a page number in parentheses will suffice) along the way when citing your source(s). If you do choose to incorporate more than just the text, you will also need to remember to include the author's last name - i.e. (Peyton, 27). Include a works-cited page if you end up citing more than just your textbook. You may also include a title page.
Requirements:
STEP 6: Turn It In:
Upload your assignment to Turn-It-In.com just like last time.
STEP 1: Choose Your Topic:
Your first task will be too choose your research topic. Below are questions that I have pre-selected. You may also pick your own, provided you run it by me first.
Chapters 16-20
- The Gilded Age was characterized by the expansion and consolidation of corporate capitalism and the dramatic growth and stratification of the United States’ urban areas. Identify some of the social and economic critics that emerged in the 1870s and 1880s, examine their major concerns and proposals for social and economic change, and analyze their influence on American society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Based on your findings, argue either that the progressive movement represented a continuation of Gilded Age reform efforts or a break from them.
- American women won an important victory in 1920 when the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteed their right to vote. Examine political activity and influence among at least two groups of women activists (paying attention to class, race, ethnicity, and geographic location) between 1870 and 1920. Use your findings to either support or refute the notion that American women had no political power before suffrage.
- The process of industrialization transformed both the American economy and society from 1865 through to the 1920s, as mechanization and mass production altered the process and experience of work for the millions who were employed in mills, mines, and factories. Examine the effect of industrialization and mechanization and the work experiences for either small farmers or housewives in this period, looking specifically at the ways these changes either eased or complicated their tasks. Using this information, ask construct an argument that industrialization either improved or diminished your group’s status.
Chapters 21-25
- Was World War I a triumph of progressivism or a betrayal of the progressive agenda? Examine the wartime development of the U.S. military and its conduct of the war in Europe, or the wartime home front, paying particular attention to the ways each reflected or contradicted progressive values and objectives. Using your findings, evaluate the war as either a victory or a failure for the progressive movement.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs were heralded by some as the savior of capitalism and denounced by others as a betrayal of its ideals. Examine the impact of the New Deal on the structure of the U.S. economy and on industrial and agricultural workers. Use your findings to construct an argument that the New Deal was revolutionary or conservative.
- World War II is often described by historians as a “good war” or a “necessary war.” Examine one aspect of World War II;
for example: U.S. motivations for entering the war and the processes through which it became involved; the conduct of the war by the American military and its impact on those who fought; the war’s impact on the lives of American civilians; or the war’s effects on the U.S. government’s role at home and in the world at large. Using your findings, evaluate the assessment of World War II as a “good or necessary war.”
Chapters 26-31
- In the decade following World War II, economic prosperity fueled suburbanization and the emergence of new cultural norms linking consumer goods with personal fulfillment. Research the impact of consumer culture on everyday life in the 1940s and 1950s, focusing particularly on the ways that new emphases on prosperity and consumption affected Americans of different races and classes. Use your findings to argue that consumer culture created either a new foundation for egalitarianism (equality) in the postwar United States, or a new source of social disparity.
- During the 1950s and 1960s, the civil rights movement made significant progress toward challenging the discriminatory laws and attitudes that had subjugated African Americans in the United States since Reconstruction. Research the history of the civil rights movement during the twentieth century, focusing specifically on change and continuity in civil rights organizing from the 1910s to the 1960s. Use the information you find to argue either that the civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s was the continuation of the older movement, or the emergence of a new one.
- Analyze the U.S. role in Vietnam in the context of Cold War foreign policy, focusing on its rationale for entering the conflict, its conduct of the war, and its persistence in fighting despite elusive gains and an increasingly vocal domestic antiwar movement. Use your findings to argue that the war in Vietnam was a crucial element of the U.S. containment policy or that it was a misguided disaster.
STEP 2: Develop Your Thesis:
Once you have chosen your topic, you will then need to decide what you are going to argue. Each of the topics asks you to choose a particular position and defend it, using evidence from your research. As you may recall from the previous paper, your thesis should form the last sentence(s) of your introductory paragraph, and the beginning of your conclusion in a restated form.
STEP 3: Research Your Topic:
With your working thesis set up, you should now dig through your text (and any other sources you wish to explore, provided they are credible and reliable) to find facts, examples, and other evidence that help you defend your position. Make sure you record where you found them. You may find it helpful to use post-it notes or flags to bookmark pages where you find good information.
STEP 4: Outline Your Essay:
For many writers, this is a very necessary step. Organize the evidence that you researched into an outline that sets up a clear essay - complete with introduction, body paragraphs/pages, and a conclusion.
STEP 5: Write Your Essay:
Now put everything together by adding on to your outline "skeleton" with full sentences and paragraphs. For this paper, you may use simple in-text citations (a page number in parentheses will suffice) along the way when citing your source(s). If you do choose to incorporate more than just the text, you will also need to remember to include the author's last name - i.e. (Peyton, 27). Include a works-cited page if you end up citing more than just your textbook. You may also include a title page.
Requirements:
- 3 page minimum, typed, double-spaced, 12-point font (Callibri/Garamond/Times New Roman), 1-inch margins all around
STEP 6: Turn It In:
Upload your assignment to Turn-It-In.com just like last time.