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?