Final Reflection Content
Rather than me giving you a series of questions designed to test your knowledge of American History, I would much rather read
about the things you learned and what you will take with you now that you’ve spent a semester (or twol) learning and reading about
America’s past.
How does your new knowledge about the History of the United States since 1877 inform your sense of personal and social responsibility?
And why do you think it’s important to know about the history of this country?
In other words, what did you learn in this class about the meaning of what it is to be an “American” and how might it affect your life
moving forward and/or what you want to contribute to society over the course of your life.
This does not mean making a list of “civic duties.” Our course hasn’t dealt with why you should pay your taxes, why you should show
up for jury duty, and why you should obey laws. Rather, I think it would be more interesting and more reflective of your time in this
course if you chose 2-4 specific examples that we discussed this semester that made you see things from a new perspective or
solidified your beliefs.
In your response you need to use AT LEAST two primary sources in the service of answering this question. You may choose any
of the primary sources from this semester. But my advice is to choose the ones that are meaningful to you, ones that resonated
with you or challenged you.
Don’t be afraid to stretch yourself a bit here. After all, I didn’t make you study for an exam!
Your essay needs to be a full three pages in length.
Like the other writing assignments, I have enabled the class conversations feature. You may discuss this with your peers. You may
also send me questions in a course message or to jhevert@epcc.edu.
It was an absolute pleasure having you in my class. I hope that you learned something new and feel more confident with reading,
analysis, and writing as you continue your college career. Let me know if I can ever help you in the future!
