Assignments Core 191

Scarboro

Fall, 2010

Paper            Due December 10th (8-10 Pages Total)

Your larger writing assignment is due in its final form on December 10^th.  This paper, totaling between 8-10 pages, will be much like a longer, more in depth, microtheme.  You are to take any of the primary sources and place them in historical conversation with one another.  Like the microthemes, you should seek to answer the meaning of the primary sources: what argument or worldviews were the authors/artists seeking to put forward?  How was this a product of the time and place in which they were living?  Importantly you are also to relate the sources to one another.  How do these sources help us understand global history of the past century?  What problems and opportunities do they articulate?  What larger issues are they wrestling with?  You are free to chose any two sources from the course—you may find it easiest however, to chose two within a similar theme (i.e. "Westernization and its Discontents" or "Creating 'Americanness'" etc.). 

Importantly, you will need to ground your interpretation of your primary sources within the framework of historical scholarship.  Roughly speaking your paper should consist of two sections—the first reviewing the historical scholarship on your topic and the second placing your own interpretation of the primary sources within this discussion. 

This paper is to take place in several stages to facilitate the development and integration of these two parts of your paper: 

These papers are all to be turned in both in paper form (in class) and electronically via turnitin on the course moodle site.

Microthemes

Five times during this semester you will be responsible for writing a 1-2 page microtheme on the assigned primary source material covered during that time.  These microthemes are intended to allow you the opportunity to analyze and write about these sources historically and should consist of two parts: first, you should summarize the argument of the sources—you should ask and elucidate what the author, director or artist was trying to say.  Second, you should place the piece and argument within the larger context of global history of the past 450 years.  What themes and trends is the artist or author tapping into?  How does it relate to larger issues in the class?  How are we to make sense of the work historically?  You will need to chose one primary source to write on that deals with the material we are covering in class.  Please check the list below for due dates and sources.

Due dates and sources for Microthemes:

First Microtheme Due    Sept. 22nd

Sources: 

1) Chapters 1 and 2 from the Book of Genesis, and Charles Darwin, The Origin of the Species, <<Course Moodle Site>>

2) Said, “Knowing the Oriental” from Orientalism, 1979 <<Course Moodle Site>>

3) 1889 Japanese Constitution <<http://history.hanover.edu/texts/1889con.html>>

4) Rudyard Kipling, The White Man’s Burden, 1899 <<http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/Kipling.html>>

5) William Jennings Bryan, Cross of Gold Speech, 1896 <<http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/>>

6) Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” 1893 <<http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/TURNER/>>

7) World War I Poetry << http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1914warpoets.html>>

Second Microtheme Due    Oct. 8th

Sources:

1) Atatürk, Speech on the 10^th Anniversary of the Republic of Turkey, 1933  <<http://www.theturkishtimes.com/archive/02/11_01/f_speech.html>>

2) Lenin, State and Revolution, 1918 (excerpts) <<http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/lenin-staterev.html>>

3) Tzara, Dada Manifesto, 1921 <<http://www.ralphmag.org/AR/dada.html>>

4) W.E.B. Dubois, Souls of Black Folk, (excerpts) <<http://www.bartleby.com/114/1.html>>

5) Stalin, Dizzy with Success: Concerning Questions with the Collective Farm Movement, <<http://www.dur.ac.uk/a.k.harrington/dizzy.html>>

Third Microtheme Due    Oct. 27th

Sources:

1) Mussolini, What is Fascism? 1932 << http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/mussolini-fascism.html>>

2) Bauer, Trust not a fox on his Green Heath, 1936 <<Course Moodle Site>>

3) Jaegermann, Memories of My Childhood in the Holocaust, 1985 <<http://remember.org/witness/jagermann.html>> and

4) The Jager Report, 1941 << http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/Resource/document/DocJager.htm>>

5) Khrushchev, The Secret Speech to the 20^th Party Convention (excerpts), 1956 <<Course Moodle Site>>

6) Chinese Posters <<Course Moodle Site>>

7) Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, 1928 <<Course Moodle Site>>

8) Khushwant Singh, Train to Pakistan, 1956 <<Course Moodle Site>>

9) Khruschchev, Speech to the RFSR Teacher's Congress, 1960 <<http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1960khrushchev-cuba1.html>>

10) Kennedy, Lessons of Cuba, 1961 <<http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1961-kennedy-cuba1.html>>

Fourth Microtheme Due     Nov. 15th

Sources:

1) William J. Ganz Co., Journey to Banana land, 1950 << http://www.archive.org/details/18225Banana>>

2) Amíclar Cabral, National Liberation and Culture, 1970 <<Course Moodle Site>>