History 477

Devine

Spring 2013

Essay Assignment #1 (Option B)

 

INSTRUCTIONS

 

Essay #1 Option B is due Sunday, March 17th by 11:59 pm.  If you did not turn in an Option A essay, you must complete this assignment. 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 in your email that the document you are submitting is a draft. Recall that over the course of the semester, you must work with a writing tutor on ONE paper assignment. [Graduate students may work with a writing tutor, but are not required to do so.]

 

All students are welcome to make an appointment with me to go over a draft before submitting a revision.

 

If you completed an Option A essay but submit this assignment as well, I will count only the higher of the two grades.

 

How Long?

         

• Papers MUST be 1500 words and no more 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 “Essay #1” or “Coney Island”) 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. (Kasson, 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?)

 

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?)

 

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

 

Choose ONE of the following questions:

 

  1. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Americans flocked to see Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. What elements of the show drew them in and why? Did these elements change over time? What role did Buffalo Bill himself play in insuring the show’s success?

 

  1. In the novel Pudd’nhead Wilson, how does Mark Twain – through the clever use of humor and irony – level a profound critique of racial hierarchy (specifically the notion that whites are inherently superior to blacks)?  How is he able to do this without directly insulting his contemporary readers – many of whom may not have shared his enlightened views on race?

 

  1. Why did Hiram Powers and circus entrepreneurs create “narratives” that explained or justified female “nudity” for nineteenth century American audiences? Ultimately, did these narratives reinforce traditional notions about women and female sexuality or did they pave the way for a loosening of Victorian attitudes?

 

  1. According to the historian John Kasson, the turn of the twentieth century marked the emergence of a new mass culture that replaced traditional “genteel” or “Victorian” culture. What factors brought about the transition? How did the attractions at Coney Island (and people’s behavior at Coney Island) demonstrate that a cultural change was indeed occurring?