In this project, each student will be asked to use basic skills mastered by historians for the creation of historical narratives. Students will study a series of primary sources related to the experiences of soldiers in the Vietnam War, generating their own historical narrative. In each narrative, you (as the author) will make an argument by answering the following question:
How would I describe or sum up the experience of soldiers serving in the Vietnam War?
The primary sources come from the Library of Congress, which hosts a collection of recorded interviews with Vietnam veterans. (Here is the URL for that collection: https://www.loc.gov/collections/veterans-history-project-collection/serving-our-voices/vietnam-war/in-country/?st=gallery&c=50) Each student-author will need to work with two or more interviews in order to complete the project. In addition, it may be necessary to do background research in order to better contextualize the events about which the interviewee speaks. Background research may come from printed or electronic books, as well as credible online sources.
In order to write this historical narrative, students will want to consider a series of other questions that will help to formulate the answer to the main question listed above. What do the primary sources tell me about the specific experience of this soldier? How do I use my existing knowledge of the Vietnam War to contextualize these documents? What additional background information do I need to make sense of what appears in the documents? Do I need to quickly contextualize this additional background information for my readers? How do the experiences of these soldiers compare to one another? How do their experiences compare to what historians have said about the Vietnam War and the experiences of soldiers in that war?
The following are the formatting specifications for the assignment:
– 3–5 pages, excluding cover page and bibliography.
– 12-point type, times new Roman font, 1-1.25 inch margins, double-spaced
Please use the following format for in-text citations:
Books or Journal Articles: (Author, Page Number)
Interview: (Interviewee last name, time at which evidence appears in interview)
Websites: (URL)
Please refer to the following website for the appropriate format for bibliographical citations: https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/documentation/docchicago/notes-bibliography/
