Project

Hist.  102  DE  Fall  2015   Primary  Source  Project  

  This  is  an  exercise  in  analyzing.       Students  will  select  a  primary  source  relating  to  a  time  period  and  topic  they  found   interesting  in  this  course.  Loved  the  Rough  Rider  rhetoric  of  Teddy  Roosevelt?  Pick   a  speech.  Moved  by  the  photographs  of  Dorothea  Lange?  Check  out  her  peeps  for   similar  images.  Think  Nixon’s  visit  to  China  is  even  better  than  the  Beatles  visit  to   America?  Find  a  magazine  article  on  the  event.       Students  will  write  an  argumentative  four-­‐page  research  essay  on  the  primary   source.  A  primary  source?  What’s  a  primary  source?  A  postcard  your  grandmother   wrote  your  grandfather  when  she  was  on  a  vacation  in  Hawaii;  a  photograph  of  a   Dust  Bowl  farmer;  a  song.  Think  creatively.       WORST  CASE  SCENARIO:  Hit  up  the  newspaper.  UNLV  subscribes  to  dozens  of   historic  newspapers.  Check  out  the  library  links  on  the  class  web  links  tab.       PLEASE  NOTE:  YOU  ARE  NOT  TO  USE  A  PRIMARY  SOURCE  WE  HAVE  USED  IN   THIS  COURSE.  YOU  ARE  TO  FIND  AN  ORIGINAL  PRIMARY  SOURCE.       You’ll  need  an  argument.  The  essay  will  argue  the  historical  significance  of  the   source.  So  you’re  answering  the  question,  “Why  is  this  primary  source   important  and  what  does  it  tell  us  about  American  history?”  This  is  not  a  report   about  why  your  grandparents  stayed  married  long  after  the  postcard  was  sent  or  a   summary  of  Nixon’s  visit  to  China,  but  an  argument  as  to  why  we  should  care  about   this  source.  DISSECT  YOUR  SOURCE!!!       So,  we  should  care  about  Roosevelt’s  speech  because  it  tells  us  about  1.  Masculinity   in  the  early  20th  century  (quote,  quote,  quote  from  speech);  2.  Because  it  addresses   what  historians  have  long  argued  about  the  American  West  (Fredrick  Jackson   Turner  and  other  historians  of  the  West  here)  and  3.  How  Americans  communicated   ideas  (read  as:  public  speeches  mattered  more  in  the  days  before  the  internet).     You  will  need  context.  What  era  is  the  source  from?  What  are  the   cultural/economic/political  “backdrops”  of  the  source?  Who/what  produced  it  and   how  does  it  being  from  them  impact  its  meaning?  People  make  primary  sources.   What  does  this  source  say  about  those  people?     Do  not  provide  an  overarching  historical  analysis  of  the  Gilded  Age  or  the  Roosevelt   family  tree.  Rather  stay  specific  to  the  historical  context.  Frame  your  source  with  a   smaller  window.  Roosevelt’s  speech  could  be  gender/American  West/   environment.  An  advertisement  for  love  beads  would  be  1960s  could  be   counterculture/consumerism/civil  rights.    

  You’ll  need  research.  Ideally,  an  essay  about  a  primary  source  such  as  a  Teddy   Roosevelt  speech  would  have  a  quotation  from  a  historic  newspaper  about  the   manner  of  Teddy’s  oration.  OR  an  article  from  a  current  day  historian  telling  us   about  the  gender  in  Roosevelt’s  speech.  OR  BOTH!       Projects  in  the  “A  Zone”  would  have  seven  to  ten  “extra  sources”  –-­‐that  are  then   found  on  “works  cited”  at  the  end  of  the  document.  “B  Zone”  have  five  to  seven   sources.         You  will  need  to  analyze  these  “extra  sources.”  For  example,  you  can  summarize  a   little  bit  of  the  scholar’s  argument  and  then  provide  a  quotation  from  the  actual   article.  You  can  mention  other  scholars  who  have  written  about  similar  Roosevelt-­‐ related  topics  and  what  they  say.