History 474B

Devine

Fall 2014

Paper Assignment #1 Option A

This essay is due by 11:59 pm Sunday, September 21. You may email your essay to me as an email attachment. If you choose not to do this assignment, you may complete either Option B (due October 11).

If you are submitting this essay as a draft and intend to work with a writing tutor on a revision of your essay, please indicate in the subject line of your email that the document you are submitting is a draft. Your final version will be due ONE WEEK after your appointment with the writing tutor. To make an appointment, call the History Department at 818.677.3566.

All students are welcome to make an appointment with me to go over a draft before submitting a revision and the same deadline will apply.

How Long?

• Papers MUST 1500 words and no longer than 1900 words.

Format?

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

• Please remember to number your pages.

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

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. (Caputo, 47). All direct quotes MUST be in quotation marks and must be cited. Paraphrases of ideas drawn from the readings MUST also be cited.

How will I be graded?

You will be graded on:

1) focus (does the paper make a clear argument that answers the question posed in the prompt?)

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

3) coherence (is your argument consistent? do all of your sentences and paragraphs make sense? do your paragraphs flow in a logical order?)

4) scope (does your paper deal with the question in appropriate depth and breadth? or is your argument superficial and backed up only with the most obvious evidence that we went over in class?)

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 via email or in person. 

THE ASSIGNMENT

Answer ONE of the following questions:

1. One historian has argued recently that John F. Kennedy deserves no credit for advancing the cause of Civil Rights for African Americans. “Kennedy,” he maintains, “was merely a ‘bystander’ hoping to avoid political controversy and secure his re-election in 1964. He brought no moral passion or sincere commitment to the cause and simply wished it would go away.”

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the views this historian has expressed? What role, if any, did Kennedy play in advancing the freedom struggle of African Americans? In answering, draw on the Matusow reading and the Kennedy speeches we listened to in class.

2. After the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, it became more difficult to advance the African American freedom struggle. Why was this the case?

3. Why was Philip Caputo’s experience in Vietnam so disillusioning?

In explaining why Caputo’s experience in Vietnam was so disillusioning, you will need to do three things:

1. Identify the specific illusions Caputo had – about himself, about what it meant to be a soldier, about what being a soldier would entail, about his country and its national ideals, about war, and about the Vietnam war in particular.

2. Explain how he came to have those illusions. Did they proceed from his upbringing? the broader context in which he came of age? the influence of popular culture?

3. Explain how the war in the Vietnam shattered his illusions (leaving him literally “disillusioned.”