The papers should address one of the weekly subjects from the course syllabus (oikos, market, property, slavery, labor, machine, corporation, home economics, consumption, globalization, a capitalist identity crisis, and poverty) and discuss at least two (or more) of the primary sources included in that week’s reading, in addition to the week’s main reading assignment. You are NOT required to include a bibliography. We recognize that many of you have little experience in writing in English. That is why the papers will not be judged by the proficiency they exhibit in the English language. Just try to be as clear as you can be in conveying your ideas. Finally, and most importantly, this is a course in history. So when you are analyzing a source, try to focus on the historical questions it raises. This often means resisting the urge to participate in the debate itself (whether a certain set of practices or ideas was right or wrong, etc.) and, instead, asking what the significance of the debate was in the time and place when it occurred. Of course, there are many other historical questions you may ask (as modeled for you in the study-guide questions we post for each subject). Again, we emphasize that understanding historical realities and institutions often means adopting the point of view of those who created and promoted them, even if we find that point of view strange and even morally disagreeable.
PS. my essays in english are written in quite a simple language, since it’s only my 1st year and I don’t have an english background. There will be an attached file of my writing and the languge that I use so that you know what aspects to improve and what to focus on.
INCLUDE IN THIS PAPER: 1. Friedman, Gread Depression, Great Exception (attached in the screenshots)
2. Henry George, Progress and Poverty, 1879 (included in the screenshots)
3. Harrington, The Other America, 1962
4. Lyndon Johnson, War on Poverty speech, 1964 (can find on youtube)
NOT MANDATORY BUT YOU CAN INCLUDE:
5. Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, 1890
6. Cato Institute, Welfare Reform, 1995
