Length: 1,500-1,650 words (approximately 5-6 pages)
Font: Times New Roman; Arial
Font Size: 12-Point
Line Spacing: Double Spaced
Citation Style: MLA Parenthetical Citations
Instructions: The purpose of Paper 2 is to build on your previous work on Paper 1 by asking you to craft an argumentative historical narrative that uses multiple primary sources to support your argument. You will do this by writing a formal, organized, and fully developed argumentative essay that responds to one of the prompts below. This means you will need to craft a strong, clear argumentative thesis; organize your paper into various “sub-arguments” that support your thesis; and present evidence that support those sub-arguments in the form of direct quotes from the assigned primary sources.
***NOTE: YOU MUST USE ONLY THE ASSIGNED PRIMARY SOURCES THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY READ THIS SEMESTER. YOU SHOULD NOT DO ANY OUTSIDE RESEARCH OR USE ANY SOURCES THAT WERE NOT ASSIGNED.***
Objectives:
Craft a nuanced and sophisticated argument using a variety of primary sources as
support
Evaluate primary sources based on a variety of factors including historical
context and author’s personal history
Identify and analyze biases and oversights in primary sources
Compare, contrast, and critique different primary sources that deal with similar
subject matter
Use specific evidence in the form of direct quotes from primary sources to
support your argument
Requirements: Your paper must contain the following:
Thesis: A strong and clear thesis statement stating what you will be arguing in
the paper
Introduction: An introductory paragraph that introduces your thesis statement
and places it in a broader historical context
Quotes: Direct quotations from the assigned primary sources that support your thesis
Historical Context: The sources and your analysis of them should be put into their proper historical context. This means that, when you introduce your source, you should provide details on when the sources were produced, who produced them, and why they were produced (i.e. what did the author want to accomplish).
Conclusion: A brief conclusion that restates your thesis and sums up your
analysis
Topics: Choose one of the following topics.
The Economic Aspects of Turner’s Frontier Thesis
Although it was not focused specifically on economics, Frederick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis” influenced American economic thought from its publication in the late-19th century. Write a paper that analyzes the economic aspects of Turner’s thesis and makes an argument for how and why it was so influential for succeeding generations. In writing your paper, you must use at least three sources from three different chapters.
The Turner Thesis and American Empire
Frederick Jackson’s Turner’s “Frontier Thesis” famously argued that American expansion across the Western frontier in the 19th century was critical to the development of a distinct “American character.” Yet, when he wrote it, the American government had famously declared that the frontier no longer existed. The focus of American expansion thus settled on foreign territories. Write a paper that argues either for or against the proposition that America’s foreign policy throughout the 19th and 20th century was a continuation of Turner’s Frontier Thesis. In writing your paper, you must use at least three sources from three different chapters.
The White Man’s Burden and Empire
As we saw, the notion that Western nations had an obligation to bring civility and progress to the less “civilized” peoples of the world was a powerful ideology in the late 19th century. Referred to as the “White Man’s Burden” after the poem of the same name by the British writer Rudyard Kipling, this ideology provided a powerful rationale for American intervention in various foreign conflicts throughout the world. Yet there are those scholars who argue that this notion of the “White Man’s Burden” was not merely an artifact of the late 19th century, and indeed that it continued to serve as a powerful rationale for American overseas interventions well into the 21st century. Write a paper that agrees or disagrees with this idea that the ideology of the “White Man’s Burden” continued to justify American empire beyond the late 19th century. In writing your paper, you must use at least three sources from three different chapters.
The Fight for American Ideals
A number of writers we have read this semester invoke universalist notions of rights and liberty in an attempt to generate support for their calls for equality and justice. Write a paper that analyzes the works that utilize these universalist appeals, and make an argument for why you think they do so. Do you think these universalist appeals are effective, and if so, why? Why do you think they recur over the decades and even centuries? What is it about universal appeals to rights and liberty that writers find so attractive? In writing your paper, you must use at least three sources from three different chapters.
Tribalism vs. Universalism
One of the organizing themes of this course has been the tension between what I have called the tribalist and universalist views of American rights and liberties. Those who subscribe to the tribalist view hold that only select groups should enjoy those rights and liberties, while those who hold the universalist view argue that those rights and liberties are universal. Write a paper using historical evidence that argues that either the tribalist view or the universalist view provides the best interpretation of the period of American history we have studied this semester. What is your understanding of each view? How do you see it expressed in the various sources we have read this semester? Why do you think one or the other view provides the best lens through which to understand American history? In writing your paper, you must use at least three sources from three different chapters.
