History 479

Devine

Spring 2007

 

Essay #1 (Option B)

 

This essay is due Sunday April 15th by 11:59 pm.  If you did not submit an “Option A” essay, you must do this assignment.  You may email your essay to me as an attachment (the preferred method), turn it in to the History Department office (Sierra Tower 610), or hand it to me in person. When you email your essay, send a “CC” copy to yourself so you will have proof of the time you sent the email if, for some reason, I do not receive it.

 

DIRECTIONS

 

·         Essays must be 1500 words. If you use MS Word and you want to see how many words your essay is, pull down the “File” menu and choose “Properties,” then click on the “Statistics” tab.

 

·         Essays should be typed and double-spaced with one inch margins all around. To set the margins with MS Word, pull down the “File” menu and choose “Page Setup…”

 

·         Essays should have page numbers. To insert page numbers with MS Word, pull down the “Insert” menu, choose “Page Numbers,” and click “OK.”

 

·         Make sure you are citing properly. If you are quoting directly from a source (in other words, using the author’s exact words), cite the author and page number in parentheses within the body of the text, i.e. (Nasaw, 47). All direct quotes MUST be in quotation marks and must be cited. Paraphrases or summaries of ideas drawn from the readings MUST also be cited, even if you are not quoting directly, i.e. (Nasaw, 28-32]

 

·         Don’t forget to put your name and an appropriate title (something more telling than “Essay 1”) at the top of page 1 of the essay before you email it. (People actually forget to do this.)

 

·         If you have any questions or are in any way unsure about what you are being asked to do, be sure to speak with me via email or in person.

 

THE ASSIGNMENT

 

Choose ONE (1) of the following questions:

 

 

  1. “The differences between Robert LaFollette, Woodrow Wilson, and Theodore Roosevelt, though considered significant in 1912, were more rhetorical than real.  If one looks closely at their views on corporations, their attitudes about the proper role of government, and their commitment to return political power to the people, all three men were putting forward essentially the same political platform.”

 

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

 

[Hint: The primary sources in the Brett Flehinger book will be helpful regardless of what side of this question you decide to argue.]

 

  1. As the United States prepared to enter World War I in 1917, some progressives maintained that, from the reformer’s perspective, U.S. participation in the war might be “a blessing instead of a curse.”  To what extent were they right?  From the point of view of a reformer trying to advance a progressive social, political, and economic agenda was the war a blessing instead of a curse?

 

[Hint: In answering, you will want to do three things: 1) lay out what the progressives’ agenda was; 2) demonstrate why, from their perspective, wartime mobilization might help to advance that agenda; and 3) assess to what extent the war really did (or did not) advance the progressive agenda.]

 

 

  1. Drawing on the arguments laid out in Jim Powell’s FDR’s Folly and the essays by Anthony Badger and Ronald Radosh, explain why one might say that in implementing economic policy, the New Deal produced many unintended consequences.  To what extent should FDR and the New Dealers be blamed for these unintended consequences?

 

[Hint:  In answering the first part of the question, you will need to recount in specific terms how certain policies produced unintended results. For the second part, you will need to make a case for why you believe the New Dealers deserve (or don’t deserve) blame for the outcomes of policies they pursued.]