Write a 3 page paper addressing the prompt below. Your essay should be double-spaced, with one inch margins. Please be sure to use Times New Roman font. Your essay must have an introduction with a coherent argument as well as a conclusion. I will expect you to use direct evidence from the book as well as contextual information from the textbook, podcast, and lectures. Be sure to use citations where needed! Footnotes or in text citation are acceptable. Papers submitted without citations will receive a zero!
In the preface to Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War, Ari Kelman and Jonathan Fetter-Vorm note that “some 65,000 books have been written about the Civil War. If one had been published every day since the war ended, we’d still have ten thousand or so left over. Clearly there is something about this moment in American history that continues to fascinate and confound readers” (Fetter-Vorm, p. x). Based on your reading of Battle Lines! do you find that you have a clearer understanding of the Civil War or are you still confounded (confused) by it? In your answer provide no less than three specific examples from separate chapters of the book to help make your case. As you assess your understanding of the period, consider whether the graphic history format of the book helped or hurt your comprehension.
Criteria for Success: While there are many different ways to approach this prompt, there are certain things that I am looking for in your papers.
1. I expect that you will use complete sentences with proper grammar. This is an essay and a formal assignment, so you want to take the time to turn in a polished finished product. Proofread carefully AND use your spell checker.
2. I expect that you will use evidence from the Battle Lines!, lectures, and other readings or podcasts.
3. That evidence MUST be properly cited.
4. Provide a clear argument and show me how you are going to prove it in your introduction.
5. Provide a clear conclusion showing me how you have proved your point throughout your essay.
6. I expect you to show me you’re thinking. I have read this book and thought about it for a long time, but I don’t know what you are thinking. I don’t know how you are processing the information. Give me a little insight into your intellectual world. This does not necessarily mean writing your essay in the first person, but it means taking a clear position on why this document is important for understanding this period in history.
