History 479B

Devine/Adams

Fall 2012

Essay #1 (Option A)

 

You must turn in a copy of your essay to the professor and the writing tutor by Friday, September 28th at 11:59pm. If you do not wish to do this paper, you can wait for the next essay assignment (Option B).  You may email your essay as an attachment (the preferred method), turn it in to the History Department office (Sierra Tower 610) between 9-5 M-F, 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.

 

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 “Economic History Essay”) 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. (Summers, 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? 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 questions:

 

1)    Mark Summers observes that the network of railroad lines that began to crisscross the country after the Civil War became the “wiring” for the new industrial economy. “Railroad building,” Summers concludes, “led to everything.”  Why was this the case?  Why were the railroads an essential prerequisite for the expansion of the national economy? Why is the metaphor of “wiring” an apt one?  How did the railroads provide business models for the newly emerging big businesses of the late 19th century?

 

 

2)    One well-known historian recently remarked, “American economic history is all about trade-offs.  To get something, you have to give up something.”  To what extent does this quote apply to the rise of big business and the changes that occurred in the U.S. economy and society during the late 19th century as a result of its rise?  Using specific evidence drawn from the course readings, explain what was “got” and what was “given up.” As part of your answer, make the case for what were the most significant trade-offs.

 

 

3)    How did a populist’s worldview differ from that of a social Darwinist?  In answering, you might consider how each might answer the following questions: Who or what was responsible for producing the nation’s wealth? What role should the government play in regulating the economy? What did concentrations of wealth reveal about the health of the nation? What explained success and failure in the human struggle for advancement? What was the responsibility of the citizen to the nation? How should one define a “good society”?

 

 

4)    During the Gilded Age, organizational efforts on the part of farmers and workers to challenge the power of the emerging corporate economy generally fell short.  Why was this the case? In answering, you might consider, among other factors, the role of the government, internal divisions in the farmer and labor movements, the tactics that large corporations employed to defend the status quo, and the attitude of the emerging middle class toward farmers and workers.

 

 

5)    Why was the South “economically backward” in the years from 1865 through 1920?  How does Jay Mandle’s notion of a “plantation economy” help explain this backwardness?  How did white racism impede southern economic development?  How did structural forces only indirectly related to racism contribute to the region’s economic woes?