Choose ONE of the following five questions to answer.
Your responses need:
- Please indicate which question you are answering.
- 6-8 paragraphs (a paragraph is 3-5 complete sentences, not fragments, not bullet points). 1 paragraph of introduction, 4-6 paragraphs for the body, 1 paragraph of conclusion.
- a thesis statement. You need to make an actual argument that needs to be supported with facts.
- need to rely on evidence found in classroom lectures, our textbook, primary sources in the textbook source collections. YOU MAY NOT use outside sources, like the internet.
- 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)]
Follow the question prompts carefully. If a question asks you to give four specific examples, give four 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.
- How did the lives of African Americans change over the course of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries? Please detail at least 4 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]
- How did the lives of women change over the course of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries? Please detail at least 4 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.
- Over the course of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries music, art, film and television in the US entered a new cultural epoch where mass consumption and media created a homogeneous culture, arguably for the first time. Please outline at least four innovations, changes, or developments in US Culture. Make sure to describe the cultural output before and after and what is identified as the cause for the innovation, development, or change. Be specific in your response using evidence from your textbook, primary source readings, lectures, videos to support your argument.
- Explain how the fear of communism influenced modern US History. Use at least 4 specific examples and detail how the fear resulted in a direct action from the US government, people, or culture. Be specific in your response using evidence from your textbook, primary source readings, lectures, videos to support your argument.
- Explain the causes and effects, successes and failures, of any of the US Civil Rights Movements (African American, Feminism, Latino/a, American Indian, LGBTQ, Disability Rights). Provide me with at least 4 key events of the Movement, the events that led up to those key events, and where the Movement succeeded and failed. Be specific in your response using evidence from your textbook, primary source readings, lectures, videos to support your argument.
