History 271

Devine

Spring 2009

 

Essay Assignment #1 (Option B)

 

INSTRUCTIONS

 

This essay is due March 1st by 11:59 pm.  If you did not submit an “Option A” essay on Fools Crow, you must complete this assignment.  If you did submit an “Option A” essay, you may complete this assignment as well and I will count the higher grade.  You may email your essay to me as an attachment, turn it in to the History Department office (Sierra Tower 610) during business hours, or hand it to me in person. I am willing to read and go over drafts with you.

 

I prefer you email the paper to me since this is the best way to ensure that your paper does not get lost.  When emailing, send a copy to yourself on the “cc” line. If you receive the email, it’s likely I did as well. I will send you a confirmation email when I receive your paper, however, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY (and not the email server’s) that I get it. (“But I sent it to you – didn’t you get it?” will not be a legitimate excuse for a late paper.)  Please “cc” Julia as well.

 

How Long? 

Papers MUST be 1500 words. If you use MS Word, you can check number of words by pulling down the FILE menu, selecting PROPERTIES, and then clicking on the STATISTICS tab.

 

Format?

• Typed, double-spaced, 12-point font with one-inch margins all around.  Margins can be set by using the FILE menu in MS Word and choosing “Page set up.”

 

• Please number your pages (use the INSERT menu on MS Word and choose “Page numbers…”)

 

• Give your essay a title that reflects what the paper is about. (Something more revealing than “Essay #1” or “Fools Crow Paper”) Clever titles will be duly noted.

 

How to cite?

 

If you are quoting directly from the book, cite the author and page number in parentheses within the body of the text, i.e. (Nasaw, 47). All direct quotes from the book MUST be in quotation marks and must be cited. Paraphrases of ideas drawn from the book MUST also be cited.  You are not required to use outside sources, nor should you.

 

If you have any questions or are in any way unsure about what you are being asked to do, be sure to speak with me or the teaching assistant via email or in person.

 

 

THE ASSIGNMENT

 

Answer ONE of the following three questions:

 

 

  1. In 1915, one “child saving” reformer declared, “These children out on the streets are having their childhood stolen from them.  They are exploited by greedy adults, denied a proper education, and become victims to the darker forces that are all around them.  They are exposed to all the wrong values, are corrupted by their adventures on the streets, and are ill-prepared to become honest, hard working citizens when they grow up.  It is outrageous and a failure of our society that we allow them to live such lives.”  Upon hearing this, “Smitty,” a twelve-year-old newsie responded, “Ah, she’s nuts.  None a’ that stuff is true at all.”

 

     Who do you think is closer to the truth, the reformer or “Smitty?” 

 

Cite as much specific evidence from the book as you can to make your case.  Perhaps you might think that both are right to an extent – that is an acceptable position. Regardless of the position you take, however, be sure that in the first paragraph you clearly explain to the reader what your paper will be arguing.  You should also look closely at the quote since one way of organizing your essay is to address point by point the various arguments the reformer is making.

 

 

  1. Social scientists have long argued that the environment in which children grow up dramatically affects the people they become – their strengths and weaknesses, their prejudices, their values, their preferences, their way of looking at and interacting with other people around them.  How did the environment in which the “children of the city” in David Nasaw’s book grew up shape them?  Overall, would you say this environment had a positive or a negative impact on these turn of the century kids?  Support your answer by drawing on specific evidence in the book.

 

 

  1. Immigrant children often adjust more easily to a new society than do their parents.  This seems to have been the case with the kids in David Nasaw’s book.  Why was this so?  What factors allowed the children of the city to become “Americanized” more quickly – and, arguably, with less trauma – than their parents?  In answering, be sure to demonstrate how different aspects of life in the city contributed to the “Americanization” of the children.