Choose ONE of the following five questions to answer.
Your responses need:
· Please indicate which question you are answering.
· This essay must be 3-4 pages
minimum including 1 paragraph of introduction, 6-9 paragraphs for the body, 1 paragraph of conclusion.
· Each essay must include a thesis statement. You need to make an actual argument that needs to be supported with facts.
· Each essay needs to rely on evidence found in classroom lectures, our textbook, and the OER textbook. YOU MAY NOT use outside sources, like the internet, without prior approval.
Click here for the link to the OER textbook.
· You must use 2-3 primary sources and 2-3 secondary sources.
Lectures do not count.
· You must cite where you got each piece of evidence [For Example: “Hitler annexed Austria in 1938” (Created Equal) or “African Americans were often forced to take bogus literacy tests before they were outlawed in 1965 (“Voting Literacy Test 1965” in Created Equal) or “The Union Stockyards are an example of Gilded Age industrialism” (Gilded Age Lecture)].
· Use MLA or Chicago Style with parenthetical citations
· Essays should
ONLY include topics that happened between 1877 and 1990.
· Submit essays in word doc or pdf format.
Google doc links, pages, odt, or text submissions will not be accepted.
Follow the question prompts carefully. If a question asks you to give five specific examples, give five examples. If the question asks you to discuss the cause and effects, please discuss both.
The number one thing that students do wrong in these essays is over-generalize. Be very clear and very explicit. Do not tell me, for example, that the lives of women changed in the 20th century because “they got more freedoms.” That will not receive a passing grade. Instead, you should talk about things like the 19th Amendment or the specific things feminism did for women.
Essay Prompts (Remember, only pick one prompt)
1.
1. Capitalism, or economic success, becomes a defining American characteristic during the period this course studies (1880-1990). Find primary and secondary source evidence to support or refute this statement.
1. Explain how the fear of communism influenced modern US History. Use at least four specific examples and detail how the fear resulted in direct action from the US government, people, or culture. Be specific in your response using evidence from your textbook, primary source readings, lectures, and videos to support your argument.
1. Discuss the transition of the US government from isolationist to globalist. Use at least four specific events and detail how the event led the US closer to global foreign policy. Be specific in your response using evidence from your textbook, primary source readings, lectures, videos to support your argument.
1. How did white Americans define who was and wasn’t “American” during the period this course studies (1880-1990)? Who fit this definition? Your response should include:
4. At least one definition (from a primary source, not a dictionary)
4. At least three examples of how the actions of white Americans reinforced that definition.
1. Pick
ONE of the US Civil Rights Movements (African American, Feminism, Latinx, American Indian, LGBTQ, Disability Rights). Using primary and secondary sources, discuss four examples where the movement succeeded and/or failed. Be specific in your response using evidence from your textbook, primary source readings, lectures, and videos to support your argument.
1. Choose one group African Americans or Women. How did their lives change over the course of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries? Please detail at least four specific examples and outline the evolution. Be specific in your response using evidence from your textbook, primary source readings, lectures, videos to support your argument. [HINT: YOU SHOULD NOT BE TALKING ABOUT SLAVERY.. that is History 1301 and happened before 1877]
1. Examine how Americans moving away from urban centers in the Northeast and upper Midwest (ie places like New York City, Boston, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, etc) to suburbs or the South changed the landscape, society, or culture of the United States after WWII.
