Semester Paper Assignment Options

SEMESTER PAPER SPECIFICATIONS

Length:            5-7 pages typed (I will not accept handwritten for this assignment without a special written petition, 1 page long, explaining the hardship you would face in typing the assignment.)

Font:                10-12 points, readable font, black

Margins:          1” top and bottom, 1 – 1.25” left and right

Spacing:           Double-spaced, except for block quotes

                        All quotation and attribution specs from your Response Papers apply to this assignment.

Footnotes/       Properly formatted in Chicago style (NO PARENTHETICAL CITATIONS)

Bibliography:  

Sources:           Minimum of three, one of which must be a print book (except for #3)

OPTION #1

Choose any influential person in modern world history (not from the United States).  Describe that person’s contribution to the present state of the world or any changes in the world this person caused or advanced.  This assignment is not a biographical sketch.  You may include biographical information, such as birth and death dates, but they should not bookend the paper and you should not rehash the person’s biography.  The bulk of this paper should be your interpretation of this person’s actions and his/her contribution to the world.  You may even speculate about what direction(s) that person’s country or the world might have gone in if that person had never existed or had behaved differently.  I also invite you to consider what other people around the main person you select may have helped her/him achieve what s/he was able to achieve.  Could this person have been so influential without the support of those around him/her?

OPTION #2

This assignment will require you to choose a broad topic in modern history (e.g. role of women, government structure, religion, literature, military tendencies) and examine it comparatively.  The most direct way to do comparative work is either to examine the topic in two places at the same time or the same place in two different time periods but there are other ways to do comparative work well.  It would be best for you to work out your topic and run it by me.  This is the most difficult of the options, and as such, will be graded with a lot of understanding and respect for effort.

OPTION #3

Complete an alphabet booklet in which you list and explain a person, place, thing, or concept we have discussed in the second semester for each of the letters of the alphabet (you may skip any two letters—I recommend X be one of them).  The booklet will be graded fairly strictly on creativity, art, pictures, color, and content accuracy and relevance.

To create the booklet, hamburger-fold seven pieces of 8.5 x 11 inch paper.  The outside front will be the cover and the first two inside pages will be your table of contents.  That leaves pages for 24 items to include in the booklet.

NOTE: If you use a person for any of the letters, that person can only be used for the initial letter of their last name (or family name).  For instance, Deng Xiaoping could only be used for 'D' and Josef Stalin could only be used for 'S.'

Neo-Colonialism?

Choose one country in Africa (except Liberia or Ethiopia) AND one country in the Middle East (except Israel).  Research those two countries in the CIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/) to answer the following questions:

1.) What country did they gain their independence from?

2.) When did they gain independence?

3.) Are their former colonizers still a major export partner?

4.) Are their former colonizers still a major import partner?

5.) Who is their largest export partner?

6.) Who is their largest import partner?

Questions 1 and 2 can be answered by looking under the "Government" tab for that country's Factbook page.  Questions 3, 4, 5, and 6 can be answered by looking under the "Economy" tab for that country's Factbook page.

For example (you can use this as a template): 

Mauritania gained independence from France on November 28, 1960.  France is still a major export partner of Mauritania, buying 8.1% of all Mauritania's exports.  France is also a major import partner of Mauritania, as 8.7% of all the goods Mauritania imports come from France.  China is Mauritania's largest export partner; 46.6% of all Mauritanian exports are bought by China.  China is also Mauritania's largest import partner; 12.5% of all the goods Mauritania imports come from China.

(Obviously you may not use Mauritania as your country).

Have your findings ready to present in class tomorrow, Wednesday, March 6, 2013.

Semester Paper assignment

Read the provided excerpts from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States and Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen's A Patriot's History of the United States.  The excerpts deal with the 2000 Presidential Election.

How do these authors feel about the election?  Did they favor one candidate over the others?  Can you tell how they feel about the outcome?  How did they feel about how the election was carried out (the various irregularities we talked about)?

3-5 pp., double-spaced and typed
Due Wednesday, January 16 at 10:30 am

ARGO Assignment

"Argo [expletive] yourself!"

Now that you have seen the movie Argo and studied the "Canadian Caper," reflect on its meaning for the 1980 presidential election.  President Carter refused to go public with the Argo operation because of the threat it would pose to the remaining American hostages inside Iran.  If he had gone public with the operation, would that have allowed him to win the 1980 presidential election?

Your answer should account for the other foreign and domestic issues Carter had to deal with during his presidency.

1-2 pp. typed or 2-3 pp. handwritten (double-spaced either way)

EXTRA CREDIT

Who was your favorite character in the movie Argo?  Why did you like that character?  What was that character's most important contribution to the success of the operation?

Essay Assignment

Please read the provided excerpts from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States and Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen's A Patriot's History of the United States.  Each excerpt is a treatment of the Watergate scandal.

Write an essay (at least 2 double-spaced pages typed) about the differences in how each book treats the Watergate affair.  You should discuss at least three differences (either specific content or tone), and you should also take some time to reflect on how two books can have such different views of the same historical event.  Isn't history supposed to be the simple writing-down of "what really happened?"

DUE: Monday, November 5

Alternate Response Paper assignment

If you would rather not do the response paper assignment on the "Hundred Flowers" speech, you can go to the web site linked HERE, read that section of the Little Red Book, and answer the following questions:

How does Mao think Chinese communists should interact with the rest of the world?

How does this make the Chinese communist revolution different from the Cuban revolution or the Russian revolution?

Your response should be double-spaced, 1-2 pages typed or 2-3 pages handwritten.  Due Monday, April 23.

NOTE: YOU CAN DO THIS ASSIGNMENT *AND* THE ASSIGNMENT FOR THE "HUNDRED FLOWERS" SPEECH AND I WILL TAKE THEM AS SEPARATE RESPONSE PAPERS (I.E. YOU CAN GET TWO A'S IF YOU DO TWO GOOD RESPONSES).