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History 7B: An Introduction to United States History, 1865 – present
PAPER ASSIGNMENT
5-7 typed pages, double-spaced, 12 point font, 1” margins
Due by NOON on FRIDAY, 4/19 in bCourses. Please review the syllabus for policies regarding
late paper submissions and academic integrity; by signing your name to your paper you are
indicating that you have read, recognize, and adhered to these policies and understand the
consequences for failing to do so.
History 7B presents a history of the United States since the Civil War. It pays particular
attention to three, often interrelated, themes that weave throughout these 150+ years and
go by the mnemonic “The 3 P’s”: (1) pluralism, (2) political economy, and (3) projection of
power. Pluralism refers to the nation’s extraordinary social diversity and the struggles to
expand the boundaries of just who is included in the “We” of the Constitution’s “We the
People.” Political economy refers to the interaction between politics/policy and economics,
in particular, how 19th century populism, early 20th century progressivism, mid-20th century
New Deal liberalism, and late 20th century and early 21st century neoliberalism offered
different political and policy responses to the nation’s shifting economic base from
agriculture to industry to post-industry/service, striking different balances between how
much faith and responsibility to vest in the public sector (government) vs. the private sector
(the free market). Projection of power refers to the engagement of the United States with
the world beyond its boundaries, from “hard power” military force to “soft power”
economic and cultural influence.
For your paper, pick one (or a subset of one) of the first two “3 P’s”(i.e., pluralism or political
economy) – since they are the “P’s” that have received the most attention thus far – and write
an essay where you advance and defend a thesis about how and why the “P” you’ve chosen (or
a subset of that “P”) has evolved (i.e., changed over time) over the course of United States
history since the Civil War down to as far to the present as the course content allows you to go.
Your paper must include at least 12 endnotes drawn from at least 6 different course sources,
including a mix of both kinds of readings (primary and secondary) and lectures, though you
should feel free to go beyond that minimum, drawing upon course material only (including
films), in order to support the thesis you posit with evidence you adduce.
Advice on Thesis Statements:
Your thesis statement is the analytic heart and soul of your paper and should be clearly
delineated in your paper’s introduction, usually at the end of the introduction. Everything
that follows your thesis statement is the evidence you marshal from course materials and
to prove the thesis you posit in your introduction.
Once delineated in your introduction, it is imperative that you weave your thesis
throughout your paper. In other words, you must explicitly connect your supporting
evidence (cited in the body of your paper and reflected in at least 12 footnotes) to your
thesis statement. Think of this weaving-your-thesis process as a kind of helping hand you
provide your reader on a tour through the forest and trees of your essay. Your thesis
offers your reader a glimpse of the forest, while your supporting paragraphs and the
evidence contained therein provide your reader with a tour of the trees within the forest.
As you weave your thesis, you are moving your reader back and forth between the forest
and the trees, thus ensuring that your reader never loses sight of the forest for the trees.
Your paper grade will be based on the following components:
1. CONTENT (FOCUS, ARGUMENTATION, AND EVIDENCE) – The strength of your
paper will be a function of: (a) the persuasiveness/forcefulness of the thesis claim
you advance and (b) the thoroughness of the evidence you marshal from course
materials you conduct to support/defend your thesis claim. Keep in mind that
interpretation divorced from evidence will not suffice. Nor will evidence divorced
from interpretation. The key is to strike a balance between evidence and
interpretation, facts and analysis. You must, by all means, place yourself out on an
interpretive limb, just not so far from the empirical tree trunk that the limb snaps,
nor so close that there is nothing much to see. In addition, keep in mind that as a
general rule, it is better to cast your net deep than wide, to cover less in order to
uncover more. In other words, specificity (narrow-focus) is preferable to generality,
which is why you will probably be better-served by trying to focus on a subset of
the “P” you’ve chosen, rather than trying to cover too much and, in the process,
uncovering too little.
2. FORM (STYLE, CLARITY, AND ORDER) – Marshaling and explicating a wealth of
evidence on behalf of a clear, analytically rigorous thesis does not guarantee
success. Style / form helps bring substance / content to life, and as such you must
pay careful heed to the clarity of your prose and the logic of your organization.
Do not let a good, well-supported thesis get lost in bad writing and poor
organization. To this end, it is a good idea to write a rough draft, revise it, revise it
again, and scrupulously proofread the final version to root out all spelling,
grammar, and sentence structure mistakes. As you do so, keep in mind the
importance of varying your sentence structure, varying your sentence length,
varying your verb choice (avoid the passive voice and over-reliance on “to be”
verb constructions—i.e., is, are, were, was), and developing smooth transitions
between logically organized paragraphs. Think of transitions as double-sign-posts
to your reader, reminding them where you have been and cueing them into where
you are headed. One strategy for gauging the quality of your prose (beyond, of
course, submitting drafts to friends, writing tutors, instructors, etc.) is to read it
aloud. As you do this, ask: How do the words roll off my tongue and sound to my
ear? Am I hearing the same verbs over and over again? Am I gasping for air in the
middle of a sentence? Do I seem to be pausing between sentences at roughly the
same intervals? Does my argument make sense? If not, where does it fall short
and why—organization, evidence, clarity, failure to connect the trees to the forest,
etc.?
3. CITATIONS (ENDNOTES): Cite the book, article, or document using the “notes and
bibliography” format of Chicago style. You can access the most recent version of
the Chicago Manual of Style here:
https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html. In addition, see here:
http://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/c.php?g=139371&p=1403387, especially the
downloadable PDF guide. Please remember that anytime you are using quotations
and/or paraphrases from another source or author to support a point, you should
make it perfectly clear which writing rep
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