How the learning and studying of history can be useful to you in your own life and pursuits.

I want you to think about how the learning and studying of history can be useful to you in your own life and pursuits. Please think about a problem, issue, concern, or other topic that you are personally passionate or care about in some way and write a five page essay about how and why history is an important component of fixing/understanding/addressing your chosen idea.

Please do not write something along the lines of “history is important to know because otherwise the past will repeat itself” or something equally redundant. Instead, truly think about what out there in this world grabs you and holds your interest and then discuss what the study/understanding/application of history can do for your chosen topic. Are you concerned about climate change? Wealth inequality? Housing crises? Racism? Sexism? Technology and AI? You are also more than welcome to write about sports, music, dance, art, or anything else that you want as long as you discuss the purpose and use of history to your chosen topic.

A few additional guidelines:

Your paper must be no shorter than five pages and no longer than seven pages, double spaced.

You must cite at least two sources from this class from any week you choose. Please cite appropriately using footnotes from the Chicago 17th edition to review how to cite. You do not need to include a bibliography.

You are allowed to use sources from outside of the class but they must be from a legitimate newspaper, magazine, book, website, etc. What I mean by non-legitimate is please do not cite wikipedia or other similar website; these are great for background information but not for more professional and academic writing.

You do not need to include a bona fide thesis statement per se, but it should be clear exactly what your topic is and what your argument about the use and purpose of history to that topic is as well.

Grammar and proper sentence structure matter, please do your best to leave time to write an essay you’re proud of and that you can proofread before turning in. My favorite way to proofread is by reading my writing out loud, I find that I can catch a lot of mistakes or weird hiccups that way.

Requirements: 5 to 7 pages Double Spaced