HHS 126 Essays, Spring 2012

1. Digital History: What's out there? Due February 9.

In this assignment you will explore and critique one of the growing number of digital history projects available on the Web. The best digital history projects combine a collection of primary sources with some sort of analysis by a historian, museum professional, or librarian.

You should begin this assignment by browsing these websites:

George Mason University "History Matters"
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/browse/wwwhistory/

US Library of Congress American Memory Project
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

After browsing the digital history projects they list, pick a project that examines some aspect of American history between 1865 and 1905. Once you select a topic, confirm with me that it is suitable for this assignment. To do this, send me an email that includes the url of the project you plan to review. You should do this before the beginning of class on January 26.

After I confirm that the digital history project that you selected is appropriate, you should go back to it and examine it in a systematic and comprehensive way. Be sure to keep notes on what parts of it are successful and what are not. You might also consult outside resources to check the accuracy of historical statements or to learn more about the broader historical context.

You should then write a 3-page essay that summarizes your experience. Your essay should address the following questions: what was the topic of the online project? What primary sources did the project use? Was it successful? What were the strengths and weaknesses, and how could it be improved? Is there any aspect of the project that we can or should use in class? If so, how?

Your essay is due at the beginning of class on February 9. Keep three additional things in mind:

1. You should use MLA style citations, which means you should cite your sources in the text in a way that corresponds to your Works Cited list. (Make sure you understand the different components of a citation, particularly for a website.) You may also, alternatively, use the Chicago Manual of Style Citation Guide. Either way - be consistent!
2. Consult the American Library Association's guide to Using Primary Sources on the Web.
3. Consult Prof. Russell's list of things to consider when writing papers for HHS 126.

2. Primary Sources from the Vietnam War. Due April 10.

For this essay, you should work from the A Vietnam War Reader: A Documentary History from American and Vietnamese Perspectives, edited by Michael H. Hunt. At the end of Hunt's introduction, he poses five questions that readers should confront as they read the book. These questions are:

• What brought Americans and Vietnamese to blows? How did hopes and fears on each side contribute to this outcome?
• What calculations led U.S. leaders to intervene in Vietnam and defend their position there despite nagging private doubts and rising public dissent? Were there genuine alternatives to the interventionist path they followed?
• What led Vietnamese leaders to confront the Americans, and how did they ultimately overcome their vastly greater power? Can the outcome be explained essentially in terms of what the Vietnamese did, or do we need to focus on what the Americans failed to do?
• How well did the two sides understand each other, and how did their conceptions (or misconceptions) influence their decisions?
• How was the war experienced by ordinary Vietnamese and Americans?

For this assignment, pick one of the questions (or sets of questions) that Hunt poses and answer them, as best you can, in a 3-4 page essay (double-spaced, 12 point font). You should use (and cite) at least 4 primary source documents that are included in A Vietnam War Reader. You may also use, as secondary sources, the books required for this course (including Inventing America, The Story of American Freedom, and The Creative Society) as well as the excerpt from Robert Schulzinger's book American Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century that is posted on Moodle.

Your essay is due at the beginning of class on April 10. Keep two additional things in mind:

1. You should use MLA style citations, which means you should cite your sources in the text in a way that corresponds to your Works Cited list. You should cite each of your 4 (or more) primary sources from A Vietnam War Reader individually. You may also, alternatively, use the Chicago Manual of Style Citation Guide. Either way - be consistent!
2. Consult Prof. Russell's list of things to consider when writing papers for HHS 126.

3. What's Missing? Due May 1.

Survey courses (such as HHS 126) cover a lot of ground, but they often barely scratch the surface of a number of important topics. For this assignment you should pick a topic in American history between 1960 and the present that we have not discussed in any depth. In a 2-3 page essay, you should explain:

- what the topic is;
- why it is historically significant;
- why the rest of us should spend some time thinking about it; and
- what types of primary and/or secondary sources, both online and offline, that we might use to accomplish this.

The most successful essays will be those that use evidence to support a convincing argument. It is essential that your essay proposes specific sources (such as books, journal articles, websites, and/or films) that we could all use to learn more about your topic. As always, you should use appropriate MLA citations for all sources and revisit the list of considerations for papers in HHS 126.

Essays are due at the beginning of class on May 1. Usual conventions (stapled, double-spaced, no cover sheet, 12 point font, etc) apply.