History Analysis essay

History 109 Dr. Contreras

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HISTORY 109 PRIMARY SOURCE ANALYSIS (our Paper) (15% of your course grade)

PRE-WRITING ASSIGNMENT: The Primary Sources your analyzing/the secondary sources you're using for historical context/your draft outline (your ‘roadmap’)/and your draft thesis. DUE: (see your syllabus and announcements- this is due well before the Paper due date) This is Mandatory. This guide fleshes out the description of your paper described in your syllabus. DUE: see the date in your syllabus and the announcement that came with this description. Paper: A five-page analysis of two primary sources (primary documents) on a related topic that you have been assigned to read (from Schaller’s Reading American Horizons: Primary Sources for U.S. History in a Global Context) and that you have not written about in your Discussion Board essays- they have to be different documents from the ones that you wrote about there in your Discussion Board essays- you have plenty of choices). Typed, double spaced, one-inch margins, no bigger than 12 point font. First, choose two primary sources on a related topic. You have lots of choices: Schaller’s Reading American Horizons: Primary Sources for U.S. History in a Global Context is full of excellent primary sources. You may also analyze primary sources that are not in our textbook, you just need to run them by me first. Below, I have a list of several research libraries and repositories of digitized primary sources. You need to run them by me first- I need to approve them (and when you analyze them, provide me with copies and/or the link to the exact primary sources you used). WHAT ARE PRIMARY SOURCES (also called primary documents)? Primary sources are firsthand accounts (it means "first", or "firsthand") or eyewitness accounts (people who were there at the time of the event in question). Examples of Primary Sources: letters, diaries, oral histories, testimonies, bills of sale, treaties, political proclamations, advertisements, photographs, murals, diplomatic correspondence, police records, records of security agencies such as the CIA/NSA, political cartoons, films too can be primary sources, “snapshots” of the time period they were made. Choose two of these documents (on a related topic) from Schaller’s Reading American Horizons: Primary Sources for U.S. History in a Global Context (or from those research libraries or repositories of primary sources I list below) that you have not written about to develop your analytical essay. Here is a brief "Primary Sources- what are thy?" guide that our library put together for students. It has a breakdown of how to differentiate Primary Sources from Secondary Sources, and a "where to find them". What is NOT a primary source? Textbooks are not primary sources. Textbooks provide us with very important scholarly analysis, but they're not first hand accounts, so not primary sources. Essays by historians or other scholars are not primary sources - they are secondary sources. Scholarly essays written by modern scholars who are writing about events hundreds of years ago (or even decades ago) are not primary sources either but they do provide important historical context as do our textbooks. Newspaper articles are not primary sources

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either (unless you’re analyzing historic newspaper articles from decades ago as “snapshots” of the time period in question). Writing your paper. In the introduction to your paper, you'll introduce your primary sources and tell me briefly about their importance to the history of this region. In this introduction, you will also lay out your thesis- this is a statement you can prove on the basis of the evidence you've gathered before you. In this case, on the basis of your primary sources (first and foremost) as well as the secondary sources you'll be using to provide historical context (our Schaller text, our films, and the articles I've assigned you and posted in Blackboard). Next, tell me all about your primary source. Who wrote it? What is it about? Contextualization (historical context): Here is where you'll place the documents in time and place to understand how those factors shaped its content. When and where your documents created? What was going on at the time these documents were written? What was different then? What was the same? How might the circumstances in which your document was created affect its content? Placing your documents into historical context is absolutely essential to this essay. Explain that document in the context in which it was written and in which those events unfolded (NOT in terms of present days norms and values- beware of applying today's norms and values to what happened 500 years ago). How does this document fit into the larger historical narrative that we’ve been looking at? What was going on at the time these documents were written? Cite our readings, reference our course material (including our films) and show complexity! Evaluating your Primary Sources. Now comes your analysis of the documents, where you will assess the strengths and weaknesses of each of your primary sources. What specific insights does it provide into the history of this region at this time? Are all historical sources equally trustworthy? How might the reliability of a historical document be affected by the circumstances under which it was created? Are they reliable sources? Can you identify any biases? If we want as complete and accurate a picture of history as possible, does this type of document give us the full picture? If not, what other kind of sources do we need to consult to get that full picture? There is no such thing as a perfect primary source that can capture all aspects of a historical moment. What can we learn about this historical topic based on these sources? In what ways do these documents contribute to our understanding of the history of the region your documents deal with? Despite their biases, the primary sources you have been assigned are enormously valuable for us. Discuss that. If we want as complete and accurate a picture of history as possible, does this type of source give us the full picture? If not, what other kind of sources do we need to consult to get that full picture? In what ways do these documents contribute to our understanding of the U.S. history and the time period your sources deal with? Ex: if you only read KKK constitutions/bylaws and look at no other documents, is that the complete picture? Sometimes documents can conceal a true understanding of the history of the region at that time (or perpetuate negative stereotypes; or perpetuate falsehoods; or perpetuate a simplistic view of events…). If this is the case with yours, discuss this. Of course, sometimes they can do both.

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Conclusion: what are some broad generalizations we can make on the basis of the primary sources and secondary source material you've just examined? Cite our readings, our films and course material, and show complexity! PRE-WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Primary Sources your analyzing/Secondary sources you're using for historical context/the 'blueprint' for your paper/and your draft thesis. This is mandatory. See the due date for this in your syllabus and in your announcements. You need to submit to me in writing (as a word file, via email): the primary sources you'll be analyzing; the preliminary questions that you'll be asking of those documents; the chapters and sections from our books that you'll be using for historical context; as well as your preliminary thesis statement (something you can prove from your primary sources). You're submitting this in writing- via email, and explaining to me what you're doing. This is so I can approve your sources, so I know you're on the right track, and to give you immediate feedback. This is due at least two weeks BEFORE the paper is due- see our syllabus and announcements for your exact due date for this part. This is mandatory- I cannot grade your paper if you do not submit this pre-writing assignment. Feel free to consult me at any time during the course of your writing this paper. I’d be happy to provide you with feedback. The writing center (in the Tech Mall) can also provide you with help as you write your paper. Format/Works cited: Because you’re using documents from our books, just cite the documents (which document, from which book and what page) and give me a brief "works cited" at the end. Style: History and Social Sciences use the Chicago Manual of Style, so the History department prefers you use that. Here is the link to their manual of style. English uses MLA. Here is the link to their manual of style. Which format you use is your choice so long as it is consistent. Academic integrity. Note on copying material from online sources: Please read the section in my syllabus about academic integrity and plagiarism. This analysis, as with everything else you write in this class, has to be yours. Please do not be tempted to copy the work of others (I hate to even remind anyone, but you’d be surprised at how many people think copying the work of others is acceptable- it is not). The consequences of copying the work of others are clearly laid out in my syllabus and range from a 0 to expulsion from the college. *NAME YOUR FILE: LastnameFirstnameHist109Paper (and submit the correct file!) *Always keep two safe copies of your exams/papers for your records- one in your hard drive and one on a flash drive! Submitting your Paper to Canvas: You will submit it as an attachment in the module “Assignments: Paper/Primary Source Analysis”

It must be one of the following file types: .docx, .rtf, .txt, or .pdf. Do NOT send it as a .wps file, nor as a Gdoc file (convert it to a word file or a pdf file

if you use Google documents) The Grossmont College Library (http://www.grossmont.edu/library) has great electronic sources (electronic books, journal articles in electronic format) and a pretty good collection of

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books (including books with collections of primary sources) that you can use to supplement our readings. You can also request books from other research libraries through Grossmont’s library. If you would like to learn more about resources at Grossmont’s library, try the Library’s Online Tutorial available at http://www.grossmont.edu/library/OnlineTutorial/libraryonlinetutorial.htm Here is the Grossmont College Library's Guide to Primary Sources (it also helps you find primary sources online): http://libguides.grossmont.edu/history Useful websites with thousands of primary sources that have been digitized: -U.S. Foreign Relations - primary sources at The Office of the Historian (U.S. Dept. of State) -The National Security Archive has some good ones on U.S. foreign policy: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ -The Library of Congress, located at: http://www.loc.gov -Here is an excellent website with images and photographs on The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/index.php -The Wilson Center's Digital Archives: http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org I also have several other websites with primary sources in Blackboard- under "History Resources" as well as inside each of our Course Content folders. Further resources, collections of published primary sources and example of “Works Cited”

page These also contain excellent primary sources beyond the ones in our text. Our library has the vast majority of these, and if they don't, they can request the book for you (or any other) from another library through inter-library loan. If you’re analyzing documents from these collections, I need to approve them. Calloway, Colin G. First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History. New

York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. (this is a collection of primary sources- you can choose primary sources from here to write about)

Calloway, Colin G., ed. Our Hearts Fell to the Ground: Plains Indian Views of How the West

Was Lost. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1996. (this is a collection of primary sources- you can choose primary sources from here to write about)

Holden, Robert H., and Eric Zolov. Latin America and the United States: A Documentary History. New

York: Oxford University Press, 2011. (this is a collection of primary sources- you can choose primary sources from here to write about)

LaRosa, Michael, and Frank O. Mora. Neighborly Adversaries: Readings in U.S.-Latin American

Relations. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. (this is a collection of primary sources- you can choose primary sources from here to write about)

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Longley, Kyle. In the Eagle's Shadow: The United States and Latin America. Wheeling, Ill.: Harlan

Davidson, 2002. Marable, Manning, and Garrett Felber, eds. The Portable Malcolm X Reader. New York:

Penguin 2013. Paterson, Thomas G., and Stephen G. Rabe, eds. Imperial Surge: The United States Abroad, the 1890's-

Early 1900's. Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1992. White, Mark J., ed. The Kennedys and Cuba: The Declassified Documentary History. Chicago: Ivan R.

Dee, 2001. Those below are scholarly works (secondary sources, not primary sources) you can consult for

historical context- to tell the history behind your primary sources (you can also consult their bibliography for more primary sources).

Grandin, Greg. Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New

Imperialism. New York: Henry Holt, 2006. Rabe, Stephen G. The Killing Zone: The United States Wages Cold War in Latin America. New York:

New York University Press, 2012.

Rabe, Stephen G. Eisenhower and Latin America: The Foreign Policy of Anti-Communism. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1988.

Rabe, Stephen G. The Most Dangerous Area in the World: John F. Kennedy Confronts Communist

Revolution in Latin America. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999. Schoultz, Lars. Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy toward Latin America. Cambridge,

MA: Harvard University Press, 1998. Schoultz, Lars. That Infernal Little Cuban Republic: The United States and the Cuban Revolution.

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009. Smith, Peter H. Talons of the Eagle: Latin America, the United States, and the World. New York:

Oxford University Press, 2013.