Description
It’s showtime. By now you’ve used primary and secondary sources to answer a historical question. You’ve generated your own historical question and analyzed sources to evaluate their credibility and utility (Project One). Now blend these skills by developing and answering a historical question of your own choosing that encompasses a significant period of time covered by our class (that is, since 1877). Project length can vary greatly, but eight double-spaced pages is a reasonable goal to shoot for (also see the “Alternate Formats” section below). A question is not the same as a subject. “America and War” is a general subject. “How did wars alter American race relations,” or “How have wars changed the role of American government,” or “How has music influenced Americans’ perception of war” are (huge!) historical questions. Answering such questions requires an open mind and solid research rather than an assumption of what your answer will be before you even get started. Excellent projects have clear thesis statements derived from deep research and deep thought. A project without a thesis statement is a project that has not answered the historical question it posed. A project with fewer than three primary sources and five secondary sources is a project that has not conducted deep research. Nor is a project that utilizes exactly three primary sources and five secondary sources necessarily deeply researched. A project that just combines the first few sources that pop up on Google is lazy and will make me cry. Your job is to become an expert on the theme you select, and to share your mastery of the issue with your audience. I urge you to locate the best available sources, using all the analytical and search tools we’ve worked with this semester.
