Presentations and Papers: Instructions and Expectations

You must choose the same topic for your presentation and final paper.  On the assigned date of your presentation, you must be prepared to lead an informative discussion of your topic.  Although you may use PowerPoint, you are not required to incorporate any technology. You must also submit a polished thesis statement on that date.  In addition, you must include a citation for a web-based source that you located on your own.  Please paste the URL of your extra source at the bottom of your thesis statement.

The best way to approach the presentation would be to begin by reading your thesis statement, then highlight specific themes or details, then comment on your central conclusion.  If you still have questions about your topic at the time of your presentation, feel free to ask me and your fellow students.  However, your presentation should be designed to show that you have already engaged in significant research.

Your final paper must be at least five pages long (double-spaced; eleven or twelve-point type; one-inch margins).  Please e-mail a polished and complete first draft (formatted in Word) by Thursday, April 28.  If you do not submit a  carefully written draft by 4/28, I will not be able to help you, and you will probably end up with a significantly lower grade.

Keep in mind that you will be graded according to your ability to convey accurate information in college-level prose.  Consequently, if you have writing problems, please visit the Writing Center to obtain assistance with proofreading and correcting your paper before you send it in.

If you hope to earn a higher grade than the one you received on the midterm, regular attendance, active class participation, and significant improvement of your writing skills are essential.  If you fall short in any of these areas, do not expect to receive a better grade.

Final Draft of Final Paper Due Via E-mail on Tuesday, May 10.

Formula for thesis statements:

General observation: "Scholars once believed..."

Qualification: "However, recent studies suggest..."

Statement of strategy: "By examining...this paper will show..."

  1. Ideas of the Founders

General Themes: Strict Constructionism; Gender Discrimination, Racial Discrimination; Affirmative Action; Gun Control; Campaign Finance Reform; Abortion; Racial Profiling; Torture; Tax Policy; Environmental Policy; Privacy; Regulation of Banks, Insurance Companies, and Financial Services Providers; Military Draft; Telecommunications Regulation; Welfare Policy; Marriage Law

Suggested Topics and Sources: (Specific) Times Topics: Affirmative Action (Browse for specific cases.); Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas; District of Columbia v. Heller; Hillary: The Movie Case; The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates; Don't Ask/Don't Tell; Debating the Clean Water Act; Google Timeline: History of Contraception, 1960-2009; Times Topics: Death Penalty; Times Topics: Same-Sex Marriage; Same-Sex Marriage: Developments in the Law, NOLO; Gay Rights Controversy, Exploring Constitutional Conflicts; Same-Sex Marriage: Recent Developments; Abortion Law Development: A Brief Overview, Almanac of Policy Issues; Supreme Court's Evolving Rulings on Abortion, NPR; Times Topics: Abortion

Sample Thesis Statements

      In 2009, when the Supreme Court overturned municipal gun-control laws in District of Columbia v. Heller, supporters applauded the ruling as a restoration of the constitutional right of the people to keep and bear arms.  In contrast, critics argued that Heller distorts the intentions of the Framers because it ignores the Second Amendment stipulation that gun rights pertain to participation in government militias.  By examining both sides of the debate, this [presentation/paper] will suggest that Heller was wrongly decided because it obscures the Framers' view of gun ownership as a collective necessity rather than as an individual right.

      Critics of District of Columbia v. Heller, a 2009 decision in which the Supreme Court overturned gun-control laws in Washington, D.C., have condemned the ruling as a radical departure from the long-held legal view that the language about militias in the Second Amendment defines gun ownership as a collective rather than individual right.  In response, supporters of Heller have argued that gun-control laws always violate the Constitution because the Bill of Rights applies to individuals, not to groups.  By examining both sides of the debate, this [presentation/paper] will show that the Court rightly decided in Heller, not that gun control would forever be impermissible, but that gun regulations cannot be supported if we accept the Second Amendment as it is presently written.

Sources:  District of Columbia v. Heller; Topics of the Times: Gun Control; The Federalist Society: Online Debate about District of Columbia v. Heller.

Background information for Unit 1

  2. American Transcendentalism: Then & Now

General Themes: Roots of Environmentalism; History of the Conservation Movement; Emersonian Principles in the Post-Modern Age; Thoreauvian Principles in the Post-Modern Age; Thoreau as a Media Critic; Thoreau in the 1960's; The Search for Authenticity in American Society

Topics and Sources:  Christopher Lydon's Take on Emerson: Blogging Transcendentalism in the 20th Century; Times Topics: Henry David Thoreau; Multimedia Thoreau; Environmental History Reader; Elizabeth Gilbert, The Last American Man; Colin Beavan, Low-Impact Man; Jon Krakauer, "Into the Wild," Outside Online (January 1993); Google Books Search: Thoreau and Newspapers; Adam Cohen, "Walden at 150: What Would Thoreau Think of the 24-Hour News Cycle?," New York Times, August 22, 2004; Times Topics: Henry David Thoreau

Background information for Unit 2

3. Anti-Slavery: The Roots of the Civil Rights Movement

General Themes: Non-Resistance and Civil Disobedience; The Legacy of Frederick Douglass; The Legacy of John Brown; The Legacy of Booker T. Washington; The Legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois; The Quick Rise and Slow Fall of Jim Crow; Desegregation and Resegregation in the 20th Century; The Black Power Movement

Topics and Sources:  Library of Congress: African American Odyssey (Browse for specific topics and events.); Library of Congress: Brown v. Board at 50; Kendra Hamilton, "A Timeless Legacy: Celebrating 100 Years of the Souls of Black Folk," BNET; Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement (Browse for specific topics.); MXP: The Malcolm X Project at Columbia University; Michael A. Cohen, "What Does Obama Have in Common With Frederick Douglass?," Campaign Stops Blog, New York Times; "Achieving Equality in the Age of Obama," Martha's Vineyard Forum, sponsored by Harvard University, 2009 (Video); Birmingham Civil Rights Institute; About the 1963 Birmingham Bombing, Modern American Poetry; Birmingham Bombing (1963), Digital Library of Civil Rights; Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Ture; 60's Project: Primary Document Archive    

Background information for Unit 3

4. Equal Rights for Women: Work That's Never Done?

General Themes: The Relationship between the Women's Rights and Civil Rights Movements; Legal Responses to Sexual and Domestic Violence; The Regulation of the Female Body; The Intersections among Race, Class, and Gender; Racism and the Women's Rights Movement; The Political Economy of Gender Inequality; Privacy and Gender; Gender Roles in a Consumption-Based Economy; Women's Rights and the Cult of Domesticity;

Topics and Sources: Women's Suffrage, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (Browse articles for specific topics); Susan E. Gallagher, Be It Every So Humble: The Making of the American Home, 1873-1930;    The History of Private Life, Digital History; Betty Friedan, "The Feminine Mystique" (1963); Gloria Steinem, "Women's Liberation Aims to Free Men, Too," New York Times, June 7, 1970; Roe v. Wade; Roe v. Wade Summary; Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill; Rostker v. Goldberg; Times Topics: Women at Arms; The Shriver Report: A Women's Nation Changes Everything (2009);

Background information for Unit 4

5. Industry & Empire: The Return of the Robber Barons?

General Themes:  Social Darwinism; Possessive Individualism; Gilded Age; Myths of Free Markets; Selected Topics in Labor History; Progressivism; Class in America; Economic Inequality and Civil Rights

Topics and Sources: "Panics, Depressions, and Crises Prior to 1930," HistoryBox; Industrialization and the Working Class, The Rise of Big Business, Digital History; William Graham Sumner, "Labor and the Theory of Evolution"; Progressivism, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History;  "1873: America's Mortgage and Banking Meltdown," Motley Fool; The Progressive Era, Digital History; Times Topics: The Great Depression; Class Matters: A Special Section from the New York Times; Inequality.org (Browse links for specific topics); Times Topics: Credit Crises; Google Timeline: History of Unions in the U.S. - Google Search; Race, Class, and Economic Justice, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; Walter Benn Michaels, "Mind the Income Gap," Guardian UK (Good source on inequality in the age of Obama); Dara Strolovitch, Dorian Warren, Paul Frymer, "Katrina’s Political Roots and Divisions: Race, Class, and Federalism in American Politics," Social Science Research Council (June 11, 2006); G. William Domhoff, "Who Rules America? Income, Wealth and Power," Sociology Dept., University of California, Santa Cruz (faculty page).

Background information for Unit 5

6. Commercialization, Mass Communications, and the Cult of Domesticity: Perspectives from the 20th and 21st Centuries

General Themes: The Evolution of Communications Technologies; The Rise of Advertising; The American Obsession with Home Ownership; The Problem of Privacy in the Modern Age

Topics and Sources: The Evolution of Communications Technologies in the U.S., articles from the New York Times; The Rise of Advertisement and American Consumer Culture, University of Maryland; American Advertising: A Brief History, History Matters; Susan E. Gallagher, Be It Every So Humble: The Making of the American Home, 1873-1930;  William J. Collins and Robert A. Margo, "Race and Home Ownership in Twentieth Century America: The Role of Sample Composition," IDEAS; Thomas J. Sugrue, "The New American Dream: Renting," Wall Street Journal, August 14, 2009; Susan E. Gallagher, "A Man's Home: The Cult of Domesticity in the 20th Century;"

Background information for Unit 6