Business History research paper

5-6 pages (double-spaced), plus notes and bibliography

You may choose any pre-1980 topic relating to American business history. It is a research paper that should be based mostly on the primary (original) sources; a good paper will 1) put that evidence together to form a thesis that 2) is in conversation with at least one scholarly (history) secondary source on a similar topic. Keep your topic small--perhaps an event or particular person or accomplishment--and then talk about that story in a broader context. If your topic covers more than 20 years, the story is probably too big to tell (primarily) from primary sources.