Please follow instructions exactly. Refer to readings specified in each question. All readings attached. Only use these to develop the argument.
End of Term Questions
Please respond to the four questions below. These are challenging questions in that each requires that you develop and state your own reasoned approach to responding to the problem presented. Consider: what factors must be taken into account? What are the essential points of comparison, and why?
Instructions
• NOTE: due date 5 p.m., Tuesday, May 3 is firm
• Your best answers will engage with relevant materials from our sessions and will make use of the readings listed in the question.
• Provide a direct answer to each part of each question, supporting your positions with specifics. Please refer to specific readings for each question
• Suggested 800 words per response
• Single space submissions
• No quotations (state your own points in your own words; cite sources as appropriate )
• Parenthetical citations [ format = ( Author, date, page ) ]
Evaluation
• Essay responds successfully to each element of the question posed
• Essay makes energetic, accurate, thoughtful use of session materials and course readings
• Analytic structure of the response is clear, coherent, and thorough
• Insights or conclusions reached go beyond the superficial to engage with fundamental aspects of the material
Questions
1. In the aftermath of the jolting transformations wrought by the Civil War, Americans faced the challenge of accomplishing what we have referred to as a “Greater Reconstruction” of the nation. Among the tasks of this GR was that of establishing a governing order. This entailed distinct challenges, which were addressed with a variety of approaches, in the rapidly populating West, the “New South”, and the industrial North. Using materials from our sessions and course readings, provide a comparison of the challenges and approaches experienced in the West ( Ostler, Drago ), the South ( Woodward, Hahn, Ayers ), and the North ( Porter, Arnesen ). What conclusions do you draw ?
2. The outlines of core principles of American philosophies of governance can be read in the na-tion’s legal and political ideologies and in its methods of public administration. Using materials from our sessions and course readings, provide a comparison of the principles of governance that animated “laissez-faire legalism” ( Urofsky & Finkelman ), the “free labor” ideology ( Richard-son ), the practices of machine government ( Reichley, Mohl, Riordan ) and of the New Deal ( Conkin ). What conclusions do you draw ?
3. During our period, wars abroad altered the place of the United States in the world and reshaped American life at home. Using materials from our sessions and course readings, provide a compari-son of the domestic impacts of U.S. activities abroad in the period of the War of 1898 ( Higham ), World War I ( Kennedy 1980 ) and World War II ( Kennedy 1999 ). What conclusions do you draw ?
4. One element of the health of the American system is its ability to generate and grapple with ro-bust dissent. Using materials from our sessions and course readings, provide a comparison of the critiques of American society and politics offered by progressives ( Roosevelt ), radical labor ( Kornbluh ), the civil rights movement ( Carmichael & Thelwell ), and the right ( Goldwater, Kabaservice ). What conclusions do you draw ?
