History 305

Devine

Spring 2011

Essay Assignment #2 (Option A)

 

INSTRUCTIONS

 

Your first essay is due Sunday, April 3rd by 11:59 pm.  If you do not wish to do this paper, you can wait for the next essay assignment (Option B) which will be due on 8 May.  It is far wiser to do option A so you will have one less paper due at the end of the semester. Remember that there is another paper based on Thomas Hine’s book on the 1970s due May 5th.

 

You may email your essay to me as an attachment (the preferred method), turn it in to the History Department office (Sierra Tower 610) during business hours, or hand it to me in person. Late essays will be penalized, so please turn your assignment in on time.

 

If you complete this essay and do not do well, you may then turn in the Option B essay. I will count only the better of the two grades.

 

I prefer you email me the paper since this is the best way to ensure that it does not get lost. Please send a copy to James as well (james.adams.397@my.csun.edu). When you email us, you should also send a copy to yourself on the “cc” line. If you receive the email, it’s likely we 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.) 

 

HOW LONG SHOULD THE PAPER BE?

 

Papers MUST be 1500 words and no more than 1900 words.

 

HOW SHOULD I FORMAT THE PAPER?

 

• Typed, double-spaced, 12-point font with one-inch margins all around.

 

• Please number your pages by using the “insert page number” feature on your word processor.

 

• Give your essay a title that indicates what the paper is about. (Something more revealing than “Essay #2” or “Disney”) Clever titles will be duly noted.

 

• Base your essay entirely on the assigned course reading. You do not have to (nor should you) draw on any outside sources.

 

Don’t forget to put your name at the top of page 1 of the essay before you email it. (People actually forget to do this.)

 

HOW DO I CITE?

 

If you are quoting directly from a source, cite the author and page number in parentheses within the body of the text, i.e. (Watts, 47). All direct quotes MUST be in quotation marks and must be cited. Paraphrases of ideas drawn from the book MUST also be cited.

 

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 James via email or in person.

 

HOW WILL I BE GRADED?

 

You will be graded on:

 

1)    focus (do you have a thesis statement and does it answer the question asked?)

 

2)    evidence (do you back up your argument with specific information from the reading?)

 

3)    coherence (is your argument consistent and understandable throughout the piece?)

 

4)    scope (does your paper deal with the question in appropriate depth and breadth?) 

 

 

THE ASSIGNMENT

 

Answer ONE of the following questions:

 

1.    According to the historian Robin Kelley, many African-American youths developed an “oppositional sub-culture” during the 1940s. What were the components of this sub-culture? What (or who) was the sub-culture opposing and why?  How and in what ways did these young people employ the components of this sub-culture to express their opposition?

 

[This question is asking you to do three things: 1) to recount the various elements of the sub-culture, be it clothing style, behavior, attitude toward work, etc.; 2) to explain what the sub-culture was opposing and the reasons for the opposition; and 3) to explain how the elements of the sub-culture (which, in and of themselves, were not necessarily “political” in the narrow definition of the term) came together and became a means for expressing opposition.)]

 

2.    According to the historian Steven Watts, Walt Disney’s ideology of “libertarian populism” seemed perfectly in synch with the views of most Americans during the early Cold War years of the 1950s.  What were the elements of this ideology?  Why was it more complicated than simple individualism or free market conservatism? How did Disney products – animated films, live action films, television shows, and Disneyland itself – reflect this ideology?  Finally, and most importantly, why did Disney’s “libertarian populism” resonant with audiences?  Did it tell them things about their country they wanted to hear?  Did it reassure them in a time of great anxiety?  Did it give them something to be “for” rather than simply “against” (as opposed to anti-communism)?

 

[Be sure to make clear to the reader what Disney’s “libertarian populism” entailed. Also, anchor your answer in specific evidence. Describe scenes from Disney films or tv shows or aspects of Disneyland that reflect the ideology and explain to the reader how they do this. Since the question says it is most important to explain why audiences of the 1950s responded so positively to Disney and his ideology, you should be sure to address this aspect of the prompt in some detail.]

 

 

3.    Some critics have dismissed Elvis Presley as “the white boy who stole the blues.”  Why is this characterization overly simplistic, misleading, and, if one believes Robert Pielke and Michael Bertrand, fundamentally wrong?  Why do Pielke and Bertrand think that Elvis was a far more significant figure in both the history of music and of race relations?

 

[In answering, be sure to describe the specific evidence that these two authors introduce to make their respective cases. Also, be sure to address Elvis’s significance to music and race relations.]

 

 

4.    Why did many young Americans – black and white – find rock’n’roll music and musicians – particularly figures like Elvis Presley – so fascinating while their parents considered Presley and his new brand of music a threat to deeply held values – particularly with regard to race, sex, and the Protestant work ethic?

 

[A thorough answer will not simply describe the music and behavior of Elvis and others, but explain why they were both fascinating and threatening.  In answering, you should explain how Presley and others’ brand of music challenged specific values and prejudices of the time.]

 

 

5.    Drawing on Peter Biskind’s analysis of Them! and The Thing, explain how and why corporate-liberal and conservative sci-fi films during the 1950s differed in their treatments of such themes as:

 

• authority/state power

• science and scientists

• the military

• the “common people”

• the nature and agenda of the Communist enemy

 

          Be sure to address at least three of the above themes in some detail and to describe specific scenes to demonstrate the validity of your points.

 

 

6.    Why were so many Americans worried about juvenile delinquency in the 1950s and why did they blame what James Gilbert calls, “mass culture?”  If comic books, movies, rock’n’roll, and “juvenile delinquency” itself were “scapegoats” for deeper and more complex concerns, what were adults really worried about?

 

[It is important to address in your essay what aspects of “mass culture” were blamed and why.  You should also try to specify as precisely as you can what “broader concerns” were behind the juvenile delinquency scare and in what troubling ways American culture was changing during this period. The readings by Gilbert, Biskind, but also Pielke should help you to shape your answer.]