History 476

Devine

Fall 2013

Essay #1 (Option A)

 

 

This essay is due September 28 by 11:59 pm. 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 are submitting this essay as a draft and intend to work with a writing tutor on a revision of your essay, please indicate on the paper or in your email that the document you are submitting is a draft. Note that to take advantage of the opportunity to revise your draft, you must submit a complete draft. Your final version will be due ONE WEEK after your appointment with the writing tutor. To make an appointment, visit the writing center web site at http://www.csun.edu/social-behavioral-sciences/history/make-appointment.

 

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.

 

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

 

DIRECTIONS

 

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.

 

• Give your essay a title that indicates what the paper is about. (Something more revealing than “Essay #1” or “Youth Culture”) 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.

 

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

 

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 and is the supporting information especially effective in making your case)

 

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. 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?” 

 

To make your case, cite as much specific evidence from David Nasaw’s Children of the City and other pertinent course readings. 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.

 

2. How did the confluence of urbanization, industrialization, and immigration liberate young people from parental authority at the turn of the 20th Century? How, in particular, did these forces give them leverage over their parents that they had not had previously?

 

3. Most scholars agree that “masculinity” is not a fixed concept, but a social construct that changes over time. The very qualities that make one a “real man” in one era could get one tagged a “sissy” in another.  How do the course readings on boys and male college students at the turn of the 20th century confirm this view?

 

4. Why were many young people in a particularly rebellious mood during the 1920s? How did the prosperity of the mid-1920s both fuel and undermine the various strains of youth rebellion that emerged during this decade?