History 474A

Spring 2009

Devine/Arrowsmith

Essay Assignment #1 (Option A)

 

INSTRUCTIONS

 

Your first essay is due Sunday, February 15th 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 15 March.  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.

 

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 Laura as well. 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? 

Papers MUST be 1500 words and no more than 1900 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 indicates what the paper is about. (Something more revealing than “Essay #1” or “Flappers”) 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 to 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. (Zeitz, 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 Laura via email or in person.

 

 

THE ASSIGNMENT

 

Choose ONE of the following questions:

 

  1. How did flappers and media-invented images of gangsters challenge traditional American notions of class and gender during the 1920s?  Were these notions overturned or rendered obsolete as a result?  Or did they retain a degree of influence?

    

     In answering, focus either on class OR gender.

 

 

2.     How did flappers and media-invented images of gangsters (and the reactions to them) reflect concerns about the emergence of a new urban culture in the United States during the 1920s?  What aspects of this culture proved most troubling for some (and most enticing for others)?

 

     In answering, be sure to demonstrate through specific examples how the flappers and gangsters personified these concerns.

 

 

  1. The historian Warren Susman has suggested a distinction between a “culture of character,” associated with the Victorian era, and a “culture of personality” that emerged after World War I and flowered during the 1920s. How do flappers and the media-invented images of gangsters validate Susman’s distinction? 

 

     In answering, be sure to demonstrate the differences between the two cultures and how the flappers and gangsters illustrate these differences. You might also consider how the emergence of consumerism and advertising contributed to the shift from one culture to another.

 

 

  1. While campaigning for the presidency in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt claimed that “government would have to step in to undo the damage from bad investment decisions by businessmen.” (Folsom, 37).  In what ways do contemporary historians refute FDR’s claim as to the causes of the Great Depression?

 

  In answering, draw on all three readings as you consider the causes of the Great Depression beyond “bad investment decisions by businessmen.”