History 477

Devine

Spring 2013

Essay Assignment #1 (Option A)

 

 

Your first essay is due Saturday, February 23 by 11:59 pm.  If you do not wish to do this paper, you can wait for the next essay assignment (Option B).  If you plan to work with a writing tutor on this essay, you should email your complete 5-page draft to the tutor at the same time you email me your paper. I will pass around a sign-up sheet in class so you can schedule a meeting with the writing tutor.

 

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.

 

My email address is tom.devine@csun.edu. When emailing your essay, 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.) 

 

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 “History 477 Paper”) 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. (Levine, 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 are drawing ideas from a range of pages in a source, you would cite as follows: (Levine, 32-35).

 

 

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? do your sentences make sense?)

 

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

 

 

THE ASSIGNMENT

 

Answer ONE of the following five questions:

 

  1. How could P.T. Barnum get away with presenting “hoaxes” and yet still keep the people coming back to his Museum while he himself became a beloved celebrity?  What explains his fantastic success?

 

[In answering, you can draw on Barnum’s autobiography in which he provides some of his own answers to this question, but the chapters by Neil Harris should also be helpful in establishing a broader context that helps explain Barnum’s success.]

 

 

2.    Why did working class audiences enjoy going to the theater and blackface minstrel shows?  Did they derive anything from the experience other than an evening’s entertainment?

 

[A strong paper will draw on evidence and arguments from a variety of readings and include an analysis of both theater and minstrelsy.]

 

 

  1. In his essay, “A Night at the Opera, and Another in Hell,” Nigel Cliff concludes, “It was absurd that two Shakespeare actors fomented one of the worst riots in American history, but it would have been even more astonishing if peace had suddenly set in.”  Why was New York City “ripe” for a riot in 1849?  What factors contributed to the social upheaval and why is it not surprising that the catalyst for the riot was the theater?

 

[In establishing the broader context and explaining why it was conducive to a riot, you can draw on Cliff’s essay but also other readings that engage this topic.]

 

 

  1. How did antebellum blackface minstrelsy enable performers to engage ideas and voice social criticisms that otherwise would not have been publicly expressed? In what sense were minstrel performances “carnivalesque”? Why did the “subversive” content of minstrelsy decline as the nation came closer to Civil War?

 

 

  1. How does studying the evolution of popular culture during the 19th century reveal the widening gap between genteel members of the middle class and raucous members of the working-class? How did successful cultural entrepreneurs like P.T. Barnum and Stephen Foster bridge this gap, if only partially, by blending fun and entertainment with “respectability”?

 

[In answering, you might consider how changes in theater performances, venues, and audience etiquette show that the lines between “highbrow” and “lowbrow” entertainment were becoming more sharply drawn. In addressing Barnum and Foster, you might note how they adjusted their entertainment offerings to the middle class’s desire (and their own desire) for “respectability.”]