Caterine Owens Only

POLS 3003 – Revolutions and Revolutionaries

Final Essay (30%)

Instructions: Please fully answer the essay question below. You will be evaluated based on how much correct and relevant information you summaries into a coherent argument. Your essay will also be evaluated on the quality of your research and your sources, as well as the formatting, spelling and presentation of your essay.

Top marks will only be given to students who demonstrate comprehension of the subject matter through credible and appropriate research , coherent and well-reasoned arguments, that are presented with care and attention to detail, and also submitted on or before the due date.

I will use a rubric to mark your essay. It can be found with the essay link. Please take a look at that before writing your essay. I have also uploaded an FAQ sheet about essays and a template to help you format your essay correctly and cite your sources correctly.

Please note that each essay has required sources that you must use to do well on the essay. They are found below.

Submission rules and due dates:

Please check your Critical Path for the due date of this essay.

Your essay is to be 6-8 pages of written text (not including title page, or reference page.)

The essay is to be in type 12 font, New Times Roman (or Ariel, Veranda or similarly readable font.)

Your essay is to be submitted through Blackboard’s drop box, found in the Assignments tab. It musts be submitted at or before 11:59pm of the due date on the Critical Path in order be counted as being on time. A late penalty of 5%/day applies to all essays submitted late. This includes weekend days.

Please note: Any essay that shows signs of plagiarism will be given an automatic 0% until we have a meeting at which point a final penalty will be determined (which may include removal from the course and a permanent record on your transcript.)

Essay Question:

Was COINTELPRO justified?

There is a story to be told here! It begins with a group called ‘The Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI.’ Who were they and what did they find? There is a secret operation by the government to spy on American citizens and disrupt political groups. Why? In this essay you need to find the answer to these questions, and explain what COINTELPRO was. You are to take a position on whether the government was justified or not when it in conducted the COINTELPRO operations. You need to provide a coherent argument for your position based on a logical presentation of your research. In your essay I

will be looking for you to incorporate any relevant course ideas, concepts, theories and theorists in your analysis. (Please look at the required resources below).

I will be looking that you included the following in your essay (not necessarily in this order):

An explanation of the socio-political context of the USA in the 1960s and 1970s

An account of the role and responsibilities of the state, based on political theories

A summary of the history of COINTELPRO

An argument based on evidence and theories as to why or why not these operations were justified

Required resources:

This essay has some required resources that you must use in order to answer the question. You are to supplement these resources with at least three sources of your own. The best sources are chapters from books written by experts or journal articles. In some cases, extended magazine articles may be used. Wikipedia, History.com, SparkNotes, as well as encyclopedias, dictionaries, blogs and similar sources are not sufficiently rigorous and useful and therefore should NOT be used in your essay. If you have any questions about determining the quality of sources please check with your professor. However, a good guide is Humber’ Library, which has many high quality sources.

Required Essay Resources – COINTELPRO

(2011). Freedom Archives: Cointelpro 101 [Video file]. MVD Entertainment Group. [Available through Humber’s streaming video collection.]

Khalsa, I. (Director). (2017). WAR / PEACE [Video file]. Monarch Films. [Available through Humber’s streaming video collection.]

Shames, S. & Seale, B. (2016). “Free Huey,” in Power to the People: The world of the Black Panthers. New York: Abrams. [Available online through Humber’s online catalogue.]

+ (at least) 2 sources you find on your own.