Identify sources that historians use to conduct research.
Adams Corner – Schulhaus 2opens in a new window” by Wolfgang Sauber – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0opens in a new window via Commonsopens in a new window.
This initial assignment is designed to help you gauge your understanding of some of the basic research skills we’ll be utilizing throughout the semester.
Please go to the Research Skills Tutorialopens in a new window in the Empire State College Online Library. Take the six quizzes; you may read the additional documents on the site before or after taking the quizzes, but this is not required for this specific assignment. We will be revisiting this site often over the course of the semester. Please do NOT email the results of your quiz!
After you have taken the quizzes and reviewed your results, please write a short essay, detailing what you learned. This essay should:
Identify sources that historians use to conduct research.
Assess your own level of familiarity with historical sources.
Map a plan for developing your research skills over the semester.
This paper should be short, approximately 250 to 500 words in length. Submit your essay here no later than the end of the first Module of classes. You must include internal citations and a work cited!!
Evaluation Criteria
Before submitting an assignment for this course please read the SUNY Empire State College statement on Academic Integrityopens in a new window. Please use the Chicago Style for citations, and take care to ensure that the citations are completed properly. In addition, please use Rampolla’s A Pocket Guide to Writing in History to help ensure that your work is of historical quality.
For assistance in completing your assignment utilize the resources available to you in the Research Assignment Guidelines page of the Course Information documents.
Your Assignment will be assessed on the strength of the historical question you ask as well the extent to which you develop your argument based on the selected documents along with the Historical Writing Guidelines.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 2 Assignment 1
Research Topic
Poor People’s March at Lafayette Park ppmsca.04302.jpg
“Poor People’s March at Lafayette Parkopens in a new window” by Warren K. Leffler, U.S. News & World Report – This image is available from the United States Library of Congressopens in a new window’s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID ppmsca.04302opens in a new window. Licensed under Public Domain via Commonsopens in a new window.
The first step in writing an effective research essay is to define the topic you will spend the next several weeks studying. You will fine-tune your topic as you progress through the semester. This first assignment is aimed primarily at helping you start to focus in on a particular theme or area of Modern American History. Here’s what to do:
Read Chapter 5, Section A of Mary Rampolla’s Pocket Guide to Writing in History (pp. 82-86) to get a sense of how you might come up with a topic for your research essay.
After you have some idea of a topic that interests you, write four sentences about the topic.
The first sentence should be about the topic in the broadest possible term (i.e. immigration, women’s rights, military experience).
The second sentence should offer a little more specific detail about the topic such as the time span(s) you would like to cover (i.e. for immigration, you might want to compare the 1920s to the 1960s, while for military experience you might want to consider the events leading up to the Vietnam War).
The third and fourth sentences should contain a “what” and a “why”: What the essay will argue and why the argument is relevant Using the example of immigration, the third sentence might be about laws and policies that affected Asian Americans.
The fourth sentence — the “why” — might state that the topic is of interest because you are of Asian ancestry.
Submit your topic statement here by the end of week 3.
If you’re having trouble coming up with a topic, try reviewing the chapter outlines for each chapter in our textbook. You also can do a search in the ESC library to consider a range of broad topics, as a way of getting a sense of what kinds of sources exist. You also might want to visit the ESC Online Writing Center’s page on Developing a Research Questionopens in a new window.
Evaluation Criteria
Before submitting an assignment for this course please read the SUNY Empire State College statement on Academic Integrityopens in a new window. Please use the Chicago Style for citations, and take care to ensure that the citations are completed properly. In addition, please use Rampolla’s A Pocket Guide to Writing in History to help ensure that your work is of historical quality.
For assistance in completing your assignment utilize the resources available to you in the Library Resources, Academic Integrity and Research Guidelines page of the Course Information documents.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 2 Assignment 2
Documents Analysis
Mulberry Bend-Jacob Riis.jpg
“Mulberry Bend-Jacob Riisopens in a new window” by Jacob Riis – http://italophiles.com/mulberry.htmopens in a new window. Licensed under Public Domain via Commonsopens in a new window.
As noted in the Course Introduction Materials, all of the written assignments, including this one, are aimed at helping you produce a research paper of significant scholarly value that will be due at the end of the semester. However, some of the other goals of the written assignments for this course are to help you strengthen your critical reading skills, to gain a deeper understanding of how to analyze and evaluate primary and secondary historical resources, and to create written interpretations of such sources. With those goals in mind, this assignment will help you begin differentiating between primary and secondary resources, and to consider how to use such resources to put together a typical historical essay. Here’s what you should do:
Read chapters 1-2 of Mary Lynn Rampolla’s A Pocket Guide to Writing in History. Familiarize yourself with the key points that Rampolla makes.
Select 2-3 of the documents and essays from Major Problems in American History, our course text.
These materials should relate to one another in some way or the other — for instance, they may all address a common theme or problem, or a particular historic event.
The materials also should speak directly to the topic that you identified for your final research essay in Week 3, and should differ from each other in form: For instance, select no more than one speech, or one essay, or one governmental document.
Outside documents may be used if the topic you select requires them. Use library resources to find appropriate sources.
For each document you select, identify whether it is a primary source or a secondary source, and evaluate its historic value, using the strategies that Rampolla outlines in chapter 2.
Write a 750-1,000 word essay based on the documents that you select, using your evaluation of the sources as well as the tips that Rampolla provides in chapter 1. The essay should bring the documents together into a coherent argument that asks a historical question of substance.
While Rampolla offers excellent advice on research, writing, and proper citations, you also might want to consult other sources. The ESC Online Writing Center’s page on Research Writing: Elements and Stepsopens in a new window is quite helpful.
Evaluation Criteria
Before submitting an assignment for this course please read the SUNY Empire State College statement on Academic Integrityopens in a new window. Please use the Chicago Style for citations, and take care to ensure that the citations are completed properly. In addition, please use Rampolla’s A Pocket Guide to Writing in History to help ensure that your work is of historical quality.For assistance in completing your assignment utilize the resources available to you in the Research Assignment Guidelines page of the Course Information documents.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 3 Assignment
Research essay abstract
In Module 2, you identified a topic for your final research essay and prepared a short analysis based on documents about that topic. This assignment should help prepare you for the next phase of the research essay writing process, which is to prepare an “abstract” for your project.
An abstract is a summary of a larger project that describes the content and scope, the objective, methodology, and findings, conclusions or intended results. The abstract differs from the research topic statement that you prepared in Module 2 because it describes the project — what you are doing — and not the topic itself. Most academic papers that are published in scholarly journals or presented at scholarly conferences begin with an abstract that is written well before the paper is even researched.
To write your abstract, please complete the following steps:
Read chapters 3 and 5 of Mary Rampolla’s Pocket Guide to Writing in History, as well as the guidelines for preparing an abstract that have been developed by the University of Wisconsin’s Writing Centeropens in a new window.
Prepare a statement of 200-250 words that includes the following (one essay incorporating the 2 – 3 documents you have utilized):
The main objective of your project. (You can and should draw upon your research topic statement to develop this point.)
The methods you expect to use to explore your project.
This section can include primary documents, books, and secondary sources.
It also might include interviews or oral histories, films, or other materials that you might find valuable in researching your project
What you think your project will reveal. (If we return to the example of Asian American experiences with immigration from Module 2, this statement might include a sense of whether or not the U.S. immigration policies are discriminatory.)
Something that others might learn from reading your final essay.
Submit your abstract here by the end of week 6.
Evaluation Criteria
Before submitting an assignment for this course please read the SUNY Empire State College statement on Academic Integrityopens in a new window. Please use the Chicago Style for citations, and take care to ensure that the citations are completed properly. In addition, please use Rampolla’s A Pocket Guide to Writing in History to help ensure that your work is of historical quality.
For assistance in completing your assignment utilize the resources available to you in the Research Assignment Guidelines page of the Course Information documents.
Your Assignment will be assessed on the strength of the historical question you ask as well the extent to which you develop your argument based on the selected documents along with the Historical Writing
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 3 Assignment
Library Research Project
This assignment is aimed at continuing to help you develop your final research essay for this course. It will help you continue to develop the research and critical reading skills that we began working on in the documents based analysis in Module 2, and will add a different set of historical materials to the documents and essays you chose for the first assignment. Here’s what you should do:
Read chapters 3-4 of Rampolla’s Pocket Guide to Writing in History. After you have done so:
Revisit the argument and historical questions you raised in your M2 Written Assignment, and consider what additional materials might be worth including to deepen and strengthen your initial argument.
The Research Topic statement and the Research Essay Abstract that you’ve prepared also will be helpful sources in this process.
Go to the Empire State College’s online library, and find 2-3 scholarly articles that relate to the material you covered in your first written assignment.
These articles should be articles that have been peer reviewed, and they should be available through the library in full-text format.
Please consult the guidelines on how to search the library, select an appropriate database, and access appropriate articlesopens in a new window.
Read the articles you select carefully, using not only the strategies that Rampolla outlines in chapter 2 but also the tips for careful reading that she offers on reading actively and thinking like a historian in chapters 3-4.
Using the articles you have found as well as the documents/essays you analyzed in the Module 1 assignment, prepare an essay of 1,000 to 1,200 words that presents a coherent historical argument with a well-defined thesis, introduction, body, and conclusion.
You may draw on your previous assignment in preparing this essay, but please do not simply cut and paste the text into a new document.
Rather, synthesize the findings of your library research with the findings based on your initial documents.
The essay ideally should make use of all 4-6 historical resources you have consulted so far.
Evaluation Criteria
Before submitting an assignment for this course please read the SUNY Empire State College statement on Academic Integrityopens in a new window. Please use the Chicago Style for citations, and take care to ensure that the citations are completed properly. In addition, please use Rampolla’s A Pocket Guide to Writing in History to help ensure that your work is of historical quality.
For assistance in completing your assignment utilize the resources available to you in the Research Assignment Guidelines page of the Course Information documents.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 4 Assignment
Book Review
This assignment ask you to write a critical book review. The goals of the book review are to introduce you to another typical form of scholarly writing and to help you continue to develop materials that you can use for your final research paper. Here’s what I’d like you to do:
Go to the Empire State College online library, or a public or university library, and select a scholarly book on a topic that is related to Modern American History that interests you.
By now, you have completed two short research-based written assignments and amassed a bibliography of four to six sources.
You may find it useful to go back to the bibliographies of those sources to see if they include a book that interests you.
You also may want to include materials from those sources in your critical book review.
This book should be included in the bibliography that you also are preparing in this Module.
After you have chosen a book, please do the following:
Familiarize yourself with the book and its contents.
Identify two or three themes or arguments within the book that you would like to focus on.
Do some additional research to deepen your understanding of the issues associated with the book.
The sources from the previous two assignments can provide some of this research.
You might seek additional research by looking at other documents included in the Major Problems text or through repeating the research assignment from Module 2.
Write a review of approximately 800 to 1,000 words Please structure the review in four parts:
Introduce the subject, scope, and type of book
Identify the book by author, title, and publishing information.
Specify the type of book (for example, fiction, nonfiction, biography, autobiography).
Describe the book’s theme.
Include background to enable reader(s) to place the book into a specific context. For example, you might want to describe the general problem the book addresses or earlier work the author or others have done.
Briefly summarize the content
Provide an overview, including paraphrases and quotations, of the book’s thesis and primary supporting points.
If the book has a narrative quality, briefly review the story line for readers, being careful not to give away anything that would lessen the suspense for readers.
Provide your reactions to the book
Describe the book: Is it interesting, memorable, entertaining, instructive? Why?
Respond to the author’s opinions:
What do you agree with? And why?
What do you disagree with? And why?
Explore issues the book raises: What possibilities does the book suggest? Explain. What matters does the book leave out? Explain.
Relate your argument to other books or authors: Support your argument for or against the author’s opinions by bringing in other authors you agree with.
Relate the book to larger issues:
How did the book affect you?
How have your opinions about the topic changed?
How is the book related to your own course or personal agenda.
Conclude by summarizing your ideas
Close with a direct comment on the book, and tie together issues raised in the review.
Briefly restate your main points and your thesis statement.
If you like, you can offer advice for potential readers.
For assistance completing the book review you might find the ESC Online Writing Center Guidelines for writing a book reviewopens in a new window or Australian National University Writing a critical book reviewopens in a new window extremely helpful.
Evaluation Criteria
Before submitting an assignment for this course please read the SUNY Empire State College statement on Academic Integrityopens in a new window. Please use the Chicago Style for citations, and take care to ensure that the citations are completed properly. In addition, please use Rampolla’s A Pocket Guide to Writing in History to help ensure that your work is of historical quality.
For assistance in completing your assignment utilize the resources available to you in the Research Assignment Guidelines page of the Course Information documents.
Your Assignment will be assessed on the strength of the historical question you ask as well the extent to which you develop your argument based on the selected documents along
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 4 Assignment
Bibliography for Research Essay
A bibliography is a list of sources that an author uses to research a topic. It includes all books, journals, Web sites, periodicals, and any other documents that you cite in a research essay. While the final bibliography often is developed at the end of the writing process, it is useful to start working on it early on. A good bibliography can help you keep track of sources you have consulted as well as sources you might have uncovered in doing your research that you would like to consult as you begin writing your paper. Here is what you should do:
Please read chapters 5 and 7 of Rampolla’s Pocket Guide to Writing in History. Pay particular attention to the segment on p. 89 “Keep a Working Bibliography” and sections b and c in chapter 7.
Prepare a bibliography of at least 8-10 sources for your research essay. This bibliography should include:
The 4-6 sources that you consulted for the documents based essay in Module 2 and the library research essay in Module 3.
It also must include two scholarly books about your topic, one of which you are reviewing in this module and another or others that you will use in upcoming modules.
Any other additional scholarly materials.
Format your bibliography in accordance with the sample that Rampolla offers on p. 154 of the Pocket Guide.
Submit your bibliography no later than the end of Week 10.
Please note: You might add more sources to your bibliography as you continue to do research for your essay, and that you might remove some sources that you decide are not necessary to the final project. However, the bibliography that you submit at this stage of the research process should represent the majority of sources that you plan to include in your final essay.
You will be preparing the M5 Written Assignment #1 Annotated Bibliography in the next module, which will provide brief summaries/evaluations of your sources, so you might also want to read ahead to that in order to get a head start.
Evaluation Criteria
Before submitting an assignment for this course please read the SUNY Empire State College statement on Academic Integrityopens in a new window. Please use the Chicago Style for citations, and take care to ensure that the citations are completed properly. In addition, please use Rampolla’s A Pocket Guide to Writing in History to help ensure that your work is of historical quality.
For assistance in completing your assignment utilize the resources available to you in the Research Assignment Guidelines page of the Course Information documents.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 5 Assignment
Annotated Bibliography
This assignment might be one of the most important building blocks toward your final research essay because it starts to bring together all of the pieces that you have compiled so far. If all goes well, you will have completed about 40 percent of the research essay by the time the annotated bibliography is written. The second written assignment in this module will bring the research essay roughly 75 percent toward completion. Here’s what I’d like you to do:
Go back to the research topic statement that you prepared in Module 2, and the research essay abstract you prepared in Module 3.
Review both of these pieces of writing, along with any instructor comments you received.
Use the two writings, along with additional thoughts you have gathered, to write a thesis statement for your final research essay. Consider this statement to be as close to your final thesis as possible. It should include a cause and effect statement. For guidance on preparing the thesis statement, please consult Mary Rampolla’s advice on Developing a Thesis Statement in chapter 4 of A Pocket Guide to Writing in History, particularly pp. 55-57. You also might want to visit the ESC online writing center’s page on Research Writingopens in a new window or the Purdue University Online Writing Lab for Tips on Writing Thesis Statementsopens in a new window. After you have developed the thesis, start to construct an argument. Look at Rampolla chapter 4 for guidance on supporting your thesis, as well as the links cited above.
BE SURE TO ADD YOUR CAUSE/EFFECT THESIS STATEMENT AT THE TOP OF THE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY. The thesis and argument together should be about 250-400 words in length. Place them at the top of the bibliography that you prepared for Module 4. You are now ready to begin writing the annotated bibliography.
Purdue University’s Online Writing Labopens in a new window defines an annotated bibliography as “a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources” one uses for researching a topic. Historians and scholars of many other academic disciplines prepare annotated bibliographies to organize materials and thoughts, outline papers, and develop arguments. We will use the annotated bibliography as a means for developing your thesis and argument. Please do the following:
Prepare a summary statement of 200 to 250 words for each of the sources in your bibliography. The statement should summarize the source and it should explain how that particular source will support your thesis and argument.
You may include one or two key quotes from the source in your summary statement (which also is known as an annotation) as well as biographic material about the author, if that material is relevant to your research essay’s topic.
Keep the annotated bibliography organized in alphabetical order for now. You will, however, probably want to start organizing your resources differently in the body of your paper as you start to do the final writing.
For further guidance on preparing your annotated bibliography, see Rampolla, chapter 3, pp. 29-31 as well as the Purdue Online Writing Labopens in a new window.
Evaluation Criteria
Before submitting an assignment for this course please read the SUNY Empire State College statement on Academic Integrityopens in a new window. Please use the Chicago Style for citations, and take care to ensure that the citations are completed properly. In addition, please use Rampolla’s A Pocket Guide to Writing in History to help ensure that your work is of historical quality.
For assistance in completing your assignment utilize the resources available to you in the Research Assignment Guidelines page of the Course Information documents.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 5 Assignment
Review Essay
Comparative Book Review Essay
“Afrika Bambaataa and DJ Yutaka (2004)opens in a new window” by Sean-Jinopens in a new window. Licensed under Public Domain via Commonsopens in a new window. The practices of sampling and mixing that are a part of hip-hop are similar to the skills gained in writing such papers as multiple book review essays.
This assignment introduces another form of important academic reading: The Review Essay. Such essays typically evaluate two or more books that are related in some way or the other. Scholarly journals often publish review essays as a way of helping their readers gain deeper insights into a particular topic. We will use the Review Essay assignment as a means for building the body of your overall research essay. Here’s what I’d like you to do:
Visit the University of Southern California Library’s Guide on the Multiple Book Review Essayopens in a new window.
Read the guide carefully, and consider how the books that appear on your list support the thesis statement and argument you wrote for your annotated bibliography assignment.
Take a careful look at your bibliography. Determine which book will be a central focus for the thesis/argument that you wish to present. This will be the book upon which you will base the review.
As you did with the first review, read the book carefully. As you are reading the book, consider the ways in which the author’s key points support or counteract your own arguments, and how this book converses with the first book you reviewed in Module 4. Organize your other sources, as well, on the basis of how they support or refute both the book’s argument as well as your own.
Prepare your review essay, following the guidelines from the USC Multiple Book Review Essay Guideopens in a new window. You also might find the advice that Mary Rampolla offers in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History, Chapter 3, on writing historiographic essays and book reviews.
The essay should be approximately 1,500 to 2,000 words in length.
The essay should include several of the sources from your research essay’s bibliography. You also might find additional sources as you’re working on the review essay that you might want to add to the overall bibliography.
Evaluation Criteria
Before submitting an assignment for this course please read the SUNY Empire State College statement on Academic Integrityopens in a new window. Please use the Chicago Style for citations, and take care to ensure that the citations are completed properly. In addition, please use Rampolla’s A Pocket Guide to Writing in History to help ensure that your work is of historical quality.
For assistance in completing your assignment utilize the resources available to you in the Research Assignment Guidelines page of the Course Information documents.
Your Assignment will be assessed on the strength of the historical question you ask as well the extent to which you develop your argument based on the selected documents along with the Historical Writing Guidelines.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 6 Assignment
Final Project
About the Research Paper
The culminating assignment for this course is to prepare a research essay of significant scholarly value. The final paper should be at least 2500 words with an effective argument and scholarly sources.
We will work on this project throughout the entire semester, beginning with the written assignment in Module 2. All of the written assignments that you complete in Modules 2-5 will become part of your research essay, so it is incumbent that you treat each assignment as a component of a greater whole. To that end, you will be asked to come up with a potential research topic no later than the end of Week 3, and to begin gathering materials for the topic with the written assignment that you submit in Module 2.
Here are some guidelines that I recommend you follow to ensure success:
Start your research based on topics you may be familiar with, or by reviewing the chapter outlines in the textbook, which will give you a good overview of what will be covered in the course. Selection of the documents for your first assignment should focus on a topic of interest to you, and will serve as an introduction to your research in preparation for the final assignment. You can also “try out” a broad theme and do a search in the library to see what you can find out there for sources, which is an integral part of the research project. Some broad themes might be “women in American history,” “immigration,” or “the war in Vietnam.” Finding effective sources will be crucial to your ability to write the paper, and is the purpose of the annotated bibliography which you will provide as part of the research paper in Module 5. The selection of a topic is personal, and the research done finding an appropriate topic will help as you develop your thesis and write your paper.
Empire State College Assignment Calculatoropens in a new window. This tool helps you to plan your time and find resources for writing assignments.
All good papers have a strong thesis statement. This rule applies not only to the final research essay but to all of the component parts. Your thesis statements on the shorter assignments will help fine-tune your topic, and will allow you to develop the thesis statement for the major research essay as you find and read sources. The thesis statement for the research essay will be a cause/effect statement that can produce a coherent historical argument about a topic in Modern American History. As you develop a thesis statement, try to formulate something that you can prove given the sources you have. Use the word “because” somewhere in the thesis statement.
Empire State College’s Online Writing Centeropens in a new window offers writing tips and assistance.
Research Writing: Elements and Stepsopens in a new window offers recommended online research resources
You will be expected to read at least two books and write two types of book reviews, again, focusing on the topic you have chosen to focus on for the research essay. The second of these two book reviews will be a modified version of a review essay, and will form a crucial part of the body of your final research essay. You should find interesting sources that will lead you to a topic you are interested in researching and writing about.
Magazines vs. Scholarly Journalsopens in a new window Helps you understand the difference between scholarly and popular articles.
Anatomy of a Scholarly Articleopens in a new window This interactive resource allows you to click along and and explore the different aspects of a scholarly article.
Peer Review in 3 Minutesopens in a new window How do articles get peer reviewed? What role does peer review play in scholarly research and publication. Watch this short 3 minute video to find out.
As you move forward with the required library tutorial, I suggest that you take advantage of the library resources available to you at Empire. These may help clarify the research process for you.
Empire State College’s Library and Research Resourcesopens in a new window takes you to the online Library’s home page with links to many database resources and other library services.
History Subject Guideopens in a new window Helps you find journal articles, web sites, images, audio, as well as primary sources. Use this as a place to start your research.
Information Skills Tutorialopens in a new window On this page you will find information and tips about all of the library resources and services available at Empire State College.
The paper will be written using the Chicago Style, incorporating footnotes and a bibliography with at least five academic sources, in addition to the two books you will review prior to writing the final research essay.
Chicago Manual of Styleopens in a new window Contains information from the Purdue Online Writing Lab on The Chicago Manual of Style method of document formatting and citation.
Research skills are vital to advanced level college work. Through research, you will develop higher level skills including techniques of historical research, developing and sustaining cohesive arguments, and integrating historical facts into comprehensive assertions about what they have learned. By synthesizing various perspectives and developing conclusions, the advanced level student will be able to identify and apply complex theoretical constructs.
URL endings offer a clue to the publisher:
.edu, the site is published by an educational institution that is responsible for its content. You will usually find reliable information there.
.org, the site is usually published by an organization. The information will reflect the values of the organization. For example, History.org is published by the historians at Colonial Williamsburg and is an excellent source for information about early America. Websites like democrat.org or gop.org are less objective sources. Information from sources like these will most likely have an obvious bias.
.gov, it is the site of a United States or a State government organization or agency.
.com, most sites end like this so you will have to do some investigation. The New York Times, like most news publications are .coms. If you or I started a website, it would also be a .com. You can find the publisher of most .coms through a site called easywhois.com. If you haven’t heard of the publisher, you can search them and found out who they are. Can’t find out much about them? Perhaps it’s because they are not reputable sources. Think carefully before using them for your research.
The author of the article is another vital piece of information in determining credibility.
Use your search engine to find out about the author(s). See if they have expertise and knowledge in the field. You should also read the work critically. Are the authors presenting their own ideas or paraphrasing other authors? Do they cite sources in their writings? All authors write from a unique perspective (a.k.a., “bias”); what is the author’s perspective? Do the authors position their viewpoints within a larger discussion on the topic? Authors with expertise will be able to describe how their own ideas are in agreement with or contradiction to other experts in the field.
What if the article has no author and it’s not in a reputable publication? Do you accept information from unnamed sources? Information from unnamed sources leads to essay conclusions that cannot be supported – or accepted – in this class.
Final Project:
Please submit your final paper no later than the last day of the semester.
Evaluation Criteria
Before submitting an assignment for this course please read the SUNY Empire State College statement on Academic Integrityopens in a new window. Please use the Chicago Style for citations, and take care to ensure that the citations are completed properly. In addition, please use Rampolla’s A Pocket Guide to Writing in History to help ensure that your work is of historical quality.
For assistance in completing your assignment utilize the resources available to you in the Research Assignment Guidelines page of the Course Information documents.
Your Assignment will be assessed on the strength of the historical question you ask as well the extent to which you develop your argument based on the selected documents along with the Historical Writing Guidelines.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 2 Discussion 1
Discussing the legacies of reconstruction
After completing the reading for this Module and reviewing Dr. Becker’s lecture notes, please consider the impact of Reconstruction on America, and answer the following questions in your initial post:
What were the failures of Reconstruction and what were its successes?
Why did the Reconstruction collapse, and how did African Americans feel about the possibilities and the terrors of Reconstruction?
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 2 Discussion 2
Narrating the frontier
Image of a cowboy and horse near the Lower Brule reservation in central South Dakota
Once you have completed the reading for this week:
Consider whether frontier settlement can best be understood as the story of competing ethnic, religious, and racial groups—or is it best understood as the place where capitalism made its mark?
Was the West truly the place where Americans were most individualistic, democratic, and “free,” as Frederick Jackson Turner argued, or was it actually riddled with inequalities?
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 2 Discussion 3
Discussing immigration in American cities
Chinese Emigration to America.jpg
“Chinese Emigration to Americaopens in a new window” by Chinese emigration to Americaopens in a new window Licensed under Public Domain via Commonsopens in a new window.
As you complete the reading assignment for this Module discuss the ways that various immigrant groups had to cope with the conditions they found in America’s brimming cities.
Were the conditions encountered anticipated?
Did industry crush immigrants or provide them with new opportunities?
Lastly, how did men and women experience immigration differently, and how did the realities of life in America reshape family life for immigrants?
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 2 Discussion 4
After reading the textbook and supplementary assignments for this Discussion Module, consider the following questions.
Enraged by a guerrilla massacre of U.S. troops on the Island of Samar, General Jacob H. Smith retaliated by carrying out an indiscriminate attack upon its inhabitants. His order “KILL EVERY ONE OVER TEN” became a caption in the New York Journal cartoon on May 5, 1902. The Old Glory draped an American shield on which a vulture replaced the bald eagle. The bottom caption exclaimed, “Criminals Because They Were Born Ten Years Before We Took the Philippines”. Published in the New York Journal-American, May 5, 1902.
“Editorial cartoon about Jacob Smith’s retaliation for Balangigaopens in a new window”. Licensed under Public Domain via Commonsopens in a new window. Enraged by a guerrilla massacre of U.S. troops on the Island of Samar, General Jacob H. Smith retaliated by carrying out an indiscriminate attack upon its inhabitants. His order “KILL EVERY ONE OVER TEN” became a caption in the New York Journal cartoon on May 5, 1902. The Old Glory draped an American shield on which a vulture replaced the bald eagle. The bottom caption exclaimed, “Criminals Because They Were Born Ten Years Before We Took the Philippines”. Published in the New York Journal-American, May 5, 1902.
How could a nation with democratic values fight a colonial war?
In what ways did the pursuit of imperialism negate American values?
What rhetoric made this undertaking palatable—and what insecurities fueled it?
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 3 Discussion 1
Evaluating the Progressives
Noordam-delegates-1915.jpg
“Noordam-delegates-1915opens in a new window” by Bain News Service, publisher – This imageopens in a new window is available from the United States Library of Congressopens in a new window Prints and Photographs division. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commonsopens in a new window.
The documents in chapter 5 of the Major Problems text ask you to discuss the meaning and value of Progressivism.
Was Progressivism an inspirational movement to further the nation’s democratic ideals, or was it an attempt at social control ?
To what extent did Progressivism express utopian tendencies?
To what extent did it address the real challenges of the Industrial Age?
How was the brand of progressivism that the U.S. experienced reflective of reactions of other industrializing nations?
How was the movement a success?
How was it a failure?
To answer these questions, please draw on at least two of the documents in Chapter 5, in order to prepare a compare and contrast argument.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 3 Discussion 2
Debating World War I
“President Woodrow Wilsonopens in a new window” by Harris & Ewing – National Star-Spangled Banner Centennial, Baltimore, Maryland, September 6 to 13, 1914opens in a new window (1914).. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commonsopens in a new window.
The documents in chapter 6 offer a sense of how Americans were reacting to the breakout of war in Europe. For this forum, choose two of the documents in chapter 6 to discuss. Examine the arguments in the documents carefully and create a post that highlights your discoveries.
Please try and select documents that have not been discussed by your classmates in previous threads. Do comment, however, on the points that those other documents reveal.
In creating your post and/or commenting on others, please devote some time to:
Discussing the role of President Woodrow Wilson in terms of formulating US foreign policy on World War I.
Was the president a “hopeless dreamer”?
Or was he a “prescient advocate” for a new world order?
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 3 Discussion 3
The Twenties and the Cultural Divide
5 Prohibition Disposal(9).jpg
“5 Prohibition Disposal(9)opens in a new window” by Unknown – Vintage periods. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commonsopens in a new window.
After you have read the documents and essays in chapter 7:
Discuss whether the 1920s were a decade of unleashed social freedom or one of new restrictiveness. Imagine yourself to be first a modernist and then a fundamentalist.
Using the documents, create two posts:
One that addresses the cultural changes of the 1920s from the perspective of a modernist celebrating the age of jazz
Another that looks at the decade from the perspective of a fundamentalist calling for prohibition and a curbing of such things as women’s sexual freedoms.
Have fun with this forum, but please stick to the arguments presented in the documents and make your arguments in the context of the real debates going on during this time period.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 3 Discussion 4
Experiencing the Great Depression
“Scott’s Run, West Virginia. (Unemployed miners.) – NARA – 518401opens in a new window” by Lewis Hineopens in a new window – U.S. National Archives and Records Administrationopens in a new window. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commonsopens in a new window.
Chapter 8’s collection of readings documents a range of ways that differing players in American history experienced the Great Depression. The task of this discussion forum is to:
Identify that range of experiences
Also, ponder how hardships and opportunities that emerged in this era of the past might be mirrored in our economy today.
For this forum, choose one document in chapter 8 and:
Examine both the arguments that the document presents as well as the socio-political position of the author.
Then, find a viewpoint from a person of a comparable socio-political status in the early 21st century, (i.e. President Barack Obama if you chose to analyze a document by either President Wilson or President Roosevelt).
Create a post that examines the similarities and differences across historic time.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 4 Discussion 1
Global impacts of World War II
A chart depicting the number of military deaths by country during World War II.
“WwIIDeathsByCountryopens in a new window” by Jroehlopens in a new window – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0opens in a new window via Commonsopens in a new window. A chart depicting the number of military deaths by country during World War II. To access a table with exact statistical information visit The National World War II Museum webpageopens in a new window.
The documents in chapter 9 revolve around certain themes associated with World War II:
The global character of the war
The changes in American perceptions of the nation’s role in the world
Different understandings of what American-style freedom meant.
For this forum, please review all the documents and additional essays in the chapter, and create a discussion post that discusses the three themes above.
You might find it useful to tie the discussion of these documents to some aspect of your research essay in process; if you do so, please make sure to explain your topic in a way that helps your classmates understand its focus.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 4 Discussion 2
Making sense of the Cold War
“Bundesarchiv Bild 183-48579-0009, Stralsund, Ho Chi Minh mit Matrosen der NVAopens in a new window” by Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-48579-0009 Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 deopens in a new window via Commonsopens in a new window.
The readings in chapter 10 focus on different perspectives on the Cold War. For this forum:
Read the documents and essays
Create a post that identifies and assesses the long-term legacies of the Cold War.
In doing so, discuss how the Cold War affected the way Americans thought about the rest of the world and question how those thoughts might still be in force today.
You might find it useful to tie the discussion of these documents to some aspect of your research essay in process; if you do so, please make sure to explain your topic in a way that helps your classmates understand its focus. Feel free to share insights that you might be developing from your research projects with each other.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 4 Discussion 3
Unraveling the myth of the 50s
Nine of the Hollywood 10 charged with contempt of Congress 1947
“Nine of the Hollywood 10 charged with contempt of Congressopens in a new window” by Los Angeles Times photographic archive – Digital collections — UCLA Libraryopens in a new window Published caption SURRENDER — Charged with contempt of Congress, nine Hollywood men give themselves up to U.S. Marshal yesterday. From left, Robert Adrian Scott, Edward Dmytryk, Samuel Ornitz, Lester Cole, Herbert Biberman, Albert Maltz, Alvah Bessie, John Howard Lawson and Ring Lardner Jr. Topic Hollywood blacklistopens in a new window Publication Los Angeles Times. Licensed under Public Domain via Commonsopens in a new window.
The 1950s have been memorialized as a period of good times and widespread prosperity in the United States. However, as the readings in chapter 11 show, this iconic understanding of the 50s has been more myth than reality. For this discussion forum:
Create a post that looks at the “other side” of the 50s.
Document the grim realities that faced Americans during this decade.
Choose 1-3 readings from chapter 11 to support your posts.
As with the earlier discussions in this module, you might want to draw on your research-in-progress — both in putting together your initial posts and in commenting on your peers’ contributions. Feel free to share insights that you might be developing from your research projects with each other.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 4 Discussion 4
Civil Rights and Third World Solidarities
“Wattsriots-policearrest-locopens in a new window” by New York World-Telegram – LOC. Licensed under Public Domain via Commonsopens in a new window.
Students of American history often think of the Civil Rights movement as a purely “American experience” that helped to usher in the end of racist Jim Crow policies, segregated schools, and the building of a more egalitarian society. Yet, as the documents in Chapter 12 illuminate, civil rights activists often found inspiration and support from other movements for justice throughout the world. For this forum:
Discuss the term “civil rights” in terms of what it meant in the U.S. as well as in a global context.
Ask yourselves how the Civil Rights Movement affected the place of the American people within the world.
Discuss how the movements in the U.S. contained an international dimension.
Choose two or more of the readings in Chapter 12 to support your posts.
After reading and interacting in this discussion:
Create a culminating post that identifies what you learned about civil rights that you did not know before.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 5 Discussion 1
Assessing the ‘Sixties’
“Robert Kennedy CORE rally speech2opens in a new window” by Leffler, Warren K. – This image is available from the United States Library of Congressopens in a new window Prints and Photographs division Licensed under Public Domain via Commonsopens in a new window.
“Woodstock-kidsopens in a new window” by Ric Manning – Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0opens in a new window via Commonsopens in a new window.
Our course text asks us to consider whether the sixties were a decade of hedonism or one of heightened social responsibility. For this forum:
Discuss whether it was decade of hedonism or one of heightened social responsibility using our privilege of having what is now a half-century of hindsight.
Choose one of the documents in Chapter 13, and read it carefully, putting yourself in the shoes of the person who wrote it.
Read the essays at the end of the chapter.
Create a post in which you re-write the document from the perspective of the initial author, fifty years later.
Discuss what that person might have stated had s/he known then what is known of the world and America today.
After reading an interacting in this discussion:
Create a culminating post assessing the era based on what the class has interpreted.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 5 Discussion 2
The Conservative Turn in America
“Ronald Reagan televised address from the Oval Office, outlining plan for Tax Reduction Legislation July 1981opens in a new window” by White House Photo Office; Originally uploaded to Wikipediaopens in a new window by Happyme22opens in a new window Licensed under Public Domain via Commonsopens in a new window.
It’s been nearly four decades since Americans overwhelmingly elected President Reagan as president. In hindsight, the conservative turn that Reagan helped to initiate seems almost incredulous in its ability to undo the numerous social welfare and civil rights oriented policies that Americans fought so hard to achieve in the 1960s and 1970s.
Yet, as the documents in Chapter 14 show, perhaps the change wasn’t so surprising. As our textbook notes, criticism, cynicism, and mistrust in the ‘American way’ were rife through the 1970s and well into the early 21st century. After reading the documents and essays in Chapter 14 address the following in this forum:
Create a post that identifies and discusses the ways in which the rise of a new right captured the imagination of the American public.
Assess the changes that emerged in the 1980s against America’s social fabric today, reflecting on what the United States gained during the 1980s.
As with the earlier discussions, you might want to draw on your research-in-progress — both in putting together your initial posts and in commenting on your peers’ contributions. Feel free to share insights that you might be developing from your research projects with each other.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 5 Discussion 3
Putting the Early 21st Century into Perspective
“2015-04-15_195opens in a new window” (CC BY 2.0opens in a new window) by OFL Communicationsopens in a new window
The essays and documents in Chapters 15 and 16 of our course text offer a look at foreign and domestic policies that have dominated the United States since the end of the Cold War from a global perspective. Local and national political movements within the United States, such as the renewed calls in the second decade of the 21st century for a $15 hourly minimum wage, often intersect with that global perspective while also addressing issues that might be unique to the American experience. As you go through the readings in these final two chapters consider the idea of “America” as it exists today. In considering such broad concerns as terrorism, economic stability, racial and social justice, and equitable health care for all peoples, what is one issue of particular importance from your perspective?
Create a post based on one the readings in Chapters 15 and 16 in addition to a newspaper article about the topic that addresses the issue. Be sure to address:
How do the issues that the country faces differ from those of other nations?
In what ways is America a part of the world, and in what ways does it stand apart from the world.
As with the earlier discussions, you might want to draw on your research-in-progress — both in putting together your initial posts and in commenting on your peers’ contributions. Feel free to share insights that you might be developing from your research projects with each other.
HIST3345 Modern American History
Module 6 Discussion
Peer Review
This discussion forum offers you the opportunity to share the project on which you’ve been working all semester with your classmates, and to receive from them comments that you might want to consider before you submit your final research essay to your instructor. Here’s what I’d like you to do:
Prepare the rough draft of your research essay and post it to the forum as a Microsoft Word document no later than the end of Week 14.
Select an essay that one of your peers has posted to review.
Read the essay carefully, and comment on it in accordance with the following prompts:
What is the main thesis and argument of the essay?
What are the essay’s key strengths?
In what ways might the writer improve the essay?
How is the evidence that the writer brings into the essay supportive of its key points?
Please complete your assessment of your classmate’s work no later than Wednesday of Week 15. You want to make sure that your classmates have plenty of time to take advantage of your helpful comments before submitting their final essays.
You might find Lynn Shackelford’s guide for offering and receiving peer review commentaryopens in a new window helpful in this exercise.
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