Description
The essay should be approximately one page in length, single spaced. Please use one inch margins. Make sure the title of your essay clearly refers to the specific question you’re addressing. In writing the essay make sure you have a clear introduction, main body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Make sure that you support all main points with specific examples. You should look at the General Guidelines for Papers to ensure that you’re writing the best essay possible
Unformatted Attachment Preview
Instructions for Primary Source
Analysis Paper
You write on one of the following sets of documents for a maximum of 50 points. The
documents can be located within the textbook in the corresponding chapters
listed. Please make sure you read the instructions and understand what you’re supposed
to be doing!
What is a primary source? A primary source is an artifact that is contemporaneous of the
period under analysis. for example: if we are studying the Civil War, how do we know
what occurred at that time? What do we rely on to inform our understanding of this
event? Primary sources are evidence of the past, and they usually consist of documents or
other forms of “realia” (paintings, tools, clothing) that are from that period of time.
Historians are essentially detectives, who use these pieces of evidence to inform and
interpret the past. In the case of the example of the Civil War, historians may consult war
journals, newspapers, congressional records, or photographs (a newer innovation of the
period).
While primary sources are beneficial, they are also problematic. Since they are produced
by people, we must keep in mind that everyone has inherent bias. As such, one of the jobs
of historians is to detect and filter out these biases. For examples, in studying slavery,
must slaves were illiterate and left little behind in way of the written word (with some
exception). Historians have to generally rely on second-hand testimony (e.g., slaveowners) to understand the experiences of slaves. However, slave-owners, who were
predominantly white, did not have the most flattering or informed opinion of their
property. Therefore, we have to essentially “read between the lines” in trying to assess
the perspectives of the slaves themselves.
With this assignment, it is your job to play historians. You will read several documents
and be asked to assess and interpret their content relative to the historical period under
analysis. In doing so, you must have a grasp of who the author is, why they are writing the
document, and who the intended audience is (the public? A significant other? A
colleague?). You will then use this knowledge to answer the question that is presented in
the respective modular assignment.
The essay should be approximately one to two pages in length, single spaced. Please use
one inch margins. Make sure the title of your essay clearly refers to the specific question
you’re addressing. In writing the essay make sure you have a clear introduction, main body
paragraphs, and a conclusion. Make sure that you support all main points with specific
examples. You should look at the General Guidelines for Papers to ensure that you’re
writing the best essay possible.
Please submit ONE of the following assignments by the end of Week Three
(Please consult the Lesson Schedule).
1/ The Limits of Freedom Documents
•
•
Speech of Chief Joseph to the Nez Perce in Washington DC (1879)Links to an
external site.
Letter by Saum Song Bo, American Missionary (October 1885)Links to an
external site.
Concerns over the demographic composition of American society became evident by the late
nineteenth century, as actions were taken against those deemed undesirable. How do the above
documents reflect these concerns among Native Americans and the Chinese? In what ways were
their liberties infringed upon?
2/ Safe for Democracy Documents
•
•
Woodrow Wilson,War Message to Congress (1917) (Links to an external site.)
Eugene V. Debs, Speech to the Jury before Sentencing under the Espionage Act
(1918) (Links to an external site.
American entry into World War I was sold as an attempt to make the world “Safe for
Democracy”. Based on the following documents, was democracy made safe? Why or why
not? Cite evidence from the documents in support of your response.
3/ Postwar American Liberalism Documents
•
•
Barry Goldwater, Speech at Republican National Convention (1964)Links to an
external site.
Statement of Purpose, National Organization of Women (1966)Links to an
external site.
The decade of the 1960s saw Americans defining and redefining the concept of freedom based
on their sense of identity. How do these documents support these varying notion of the meaning
of freedom? What does freedom mean to them?
Purchase answer to see full
attachment
