History Essay.

Part one.

choose ONLY 1 essay question from the list below, which covers chapter 15 and part of chapter 16 in the textbook. Grades will be based on the content of the answer and must be more than 300 words in length. Direct quotes do not count toward the required word count.

Essay Questions:

1 – What did freedom mean for the ex-slaves? Be sure to address economic opportunities, gender roles, religious independence, and family security.

2 – Reconstruction witnessed profound changes in the lives of southerners, black and white, rich and poor. Explain the various ways that the lives of these groups changed. Were the changes for the better or worse?

3 – Stating that he “lived among men, not among angels,” Thaddeus Stevens recognized that the Fourteenth Amendment was not perfect. Explain the strengths and weaknesses of the Fourteenth Amendment. What liberties and freedoms did it extend in the nineteenth century—and to whom? How did it alter the relationship between the federal government and the states?

4 – Who were the Redeemers, what did they want, and what were their methods? How did the Redeemers feel that their freedom was being threatened by Radical Reconstruction? Conclude your essay with a comment on how you think the federal government should have responded to the Redeemers.

5 – Was Reconstruction a success or a failure? Or was it something in between? In your response, consider land policy, key legislation during Presidential and Radical Reconstruction, southern politics, racial and political violence, and northern “fatigue” with Reconstruction. Be sure to make clear what you mean by success and failure.

6 – The debate surrounding the creation and ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment divided one-time political allies over the matter of women’s suffrage. What were the arguments for and against including a woman’s right to vote in the Fifteenth Amendment? What did this debate say about the boundaries of freedom defined by Reconstruction?

7 – What role did the government play in defining, protecting, and/or limiting the liberty of American workers during the Gilded Age?

8 – Henry Demarest Lloyd wrote in Wealth against Commonwealth (1864), “Liberty and monopoly cannot live together.” Based on your knowledge of the Gilded Age and the industrial revolution, assess the validity of this statement.

9 – How did the labor movement launch a sustained assault on the understanding of freedom grounded in Social Darwinism and in the liberty of contract?

10 – Compare the motives and methods of the various social reformers active in the Gilded Age. How did the efforts of thinkers such as Henry George, Laurence Gronlund, and Edward Bellamy differ from those of the Protestant and Social Gospel reformers of the period? Were any of these approaches more successful than others? Why, or why not?

PART TWO

For part 3 of the Unit 1 Exam, choose ONLY 1 essay question from the list below, which covers part of chapter 16 and all of chapter 17 in the textbook. Grades will be based on the content of the answer and must be more than 300 words in length. Direct quotes do not count toward the required word count.

choose ONLY 1 essay question from the list below, which covers chapter 15 and part of chapter 16 in the textbook. Grades will be based on the content of the answer and must be more than 300 words in length. Direct quotes do not count toward the required word count.

Essay Questions:

1 – Sitting Bull stated, “The life my people want is a life of freedom.” Likewise, Chief Joseph simply asked the government for equal rights enshrined by the laws. Describe what freedom meant to the Indians and how that conflicted with the interests and values of most white Americans. Also, explain why white Americans did not allow Indians the opportunity to have American citizenship.

2 – The West experienced tremendous growth after the Civil War; nowhere was this more apparent than in California. Write an essay on the consequences of population growth on the western landscape, looking at farming, livelihoods, the impact of the railroad, the growth of Indian reservations, and the subjugation of Indian peoples.

3 – What might account for the emergence of a mythic “Wild” West during the Gilded Age? Given the rapid post–Civil War expansion of industry beyond the Mississippi River, why would perceptions of a West, at once a lawless but timeless romantic frontier dominated by cowboys and Indians, permeate American popular culture in the late nineteenth century? (In composing your answer, consider the impact of the second industrial revolution.)

4 – Explain why Americans increasingly came to feel that they were being denied economic independence and democratic self-government during the late nineteenth century.

5 – How did the Populists seek to rethink the relationship between freedom and government to address the crisis of the 1890s? Why was their platform considered radical? How did their platform seek to guarantee freedom?

6 – Chronicle the process that developed in the South of chipping away the freedoms granted to blacks during Reconstruction. Give careful consideration to how the Civil War was remembered by white America. By 1900, what conditions did African-Americans in the South face? How did they respond to these conditions?

7 – Analyze the consequences of American rule in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines. Did the citizens prosper? Enjoy freedom? Accept American rule? Comment on the consequences for the United States with regard to the statement made by Eric Foner in the text: “Thus, two principles central to American freedom since the War of Independence—no taxation without representation and government based on the consent of the governed—were abandoned when it came to the nation’s new possessions.”

8 – Explain the controversy that the war in the Philippines and the annexation of the Philippines triggered over the relationship between political democracy, race, and American citizenship.

9 – Discuss some of the freedoms and restrictions experienced by American women after 1880. How did some women’s lives seem to change for the better, while others’ did not? How would you explain the disparity of their situations? Support your answer with specific examples from the text.

10 – Discuss the many obstacles faced by Chinese immigrants to the United States in the late nineteenth century. Among the immigrant groups arriving in the United States in the late nineteenth century, how were arrivals from China singled out for particular discrimination by Americans? Why do you think the Chinese received such unique treatment?

Your essay topic will be: “Racial & Religious Identity in Global History: Discrimination and Multicultural Diversity in Tension.” The essay should be written in a strictly factual, encyclopedic manner. It should include a brief introductory paragraph (75-100 words) highlighting the main issues/concerns of the topic. It should include a historically-based thesis statement, that is, a thesis statement which is based on historical evidence. The main body should then provide a summary of key historical examples (using both description and analysis). It should include reference to at least one example from each of the following: 1- European-Arab relations (see refs to “advanced race/nation” in “The Israeli-Palestinian Struggle: Primary Sources”), 2- European Christian-Jewish relations, 3- U.S. White-Black relations, 4- South African White-Black relations (see Fredrickson), and 5- U.S. White-Asian and/or Hispanic relations (see Kramer). Your essay should also include a brief explanation of how ‘globalization’, both historically and presently, relates to racial and religious identity issues in terms of both multicultural diversity and discrimination. The essay should end with a concluding paragraph which summarizes the main issues/points clearly & concisely, notes important related questions/issues raised by but not addressed in the essay, and states the importance of the findings for the present/future.

You must use only required course readings and in-class handouts. No outside sources. Essays based on outside sources will be given a failing grade. Your essay should cite each of the following course readings at least one time (or more):

WK 1 (cite from at least one of the following two sources from WK 1):

2- “Globalization (Globalization Theory)” in A Dictionary of Sociology, eds. John Scott and Gordon Marshall, 3rd rev. ed., Oxford University Press, [1994, 1998, 2005] 2009, 286-287.

3- J.R. McNeill and William McNeill, “Introduction: Webs and History,” in The Human Web: A Bird’s-Eye View of World History, (New York and London: W. W. Norton & Co., 2003), 3-8.

WK 6:

1- R. Charles Weller, “’Western’ and ‘White Civilization’: White Nationalism and Eurocentrism at the Crossroads,” in 21st-Century Narratives of World History: Global and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, ed. R. Charles Weller (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), pp. 35-80.

2- Paul A. Kramer, “Not Who We Are,” Slate, Feb 3, 2017. Wks 10-12:

George M. Fredrickson, Racism: A Short History (Princeton University Press, 2003/2015).

In-Class Handouts:

“The Israeli-Palestinian Struggle: Primary Sources”
“Primary Sources on Nazi Germany, the Jewish Holocaust, & Its Relation to Israel-Palestine”

Class Lecture Notes:

“The Historical Roots of the Holocaust & Continuing Anti-Semitism” “The Historical Roots of the Black Lives Matter Movement”

Citations should be in Chicago Style endnotes, using both full and abbreviated format as needed. Citations should follow this example, with only a number in the main text which corresponds to a number at the end of the essay where you place your citation information.1

You may use material from your WREs, but your essay should NOT simply copy & paste various sentences from your WREs into a document and turn it in. Your essay should be a flowing, coherent presentation which reflects refined, deeper critical thinking based on your completion of the entire course. It should be an argumentative essay which introduces and states a position on the main subject in the introduction, explains and supports that position in the main body with facts/evidence cited from the readings and class handouts, and then ends with a conclusion as described above.

I recommend that you start by drafting an introductory paragraph, then writing your main body and conclusion, and then going back and refining your introductory paragraph after you finish writing your main body and conclusion.

1 First use of source = give full citation info (use same formats as in LRAs). 2nd, 3rd, etc., use = Give only abbreviated info (author last name, abbreviated title, pg. #).