Note….the
topic should be women…when stuck just ask me

Background: When World War
I ended in 1918, Americans welcomed what they hoped would be a return to
normalcy. The decades that followed, however, are ones which would rarely be
described as normal in comparison to what came before or after. After World War
I ended and through the 1920s, a struggle ensued within the American nation
regarding how best to define the nation’s essential character. Groups like the
revived Ku Klux Klan fought a rearguard action to define nationhood solely in
terms of white skin and Protestant religion against secularists, Catholics,
flappers, “New Negroes,” and others who challenged the traditional order.
Immediately thereafter, the New Deal implemented in response to the Great
Depression revolutionized the role of the federal government in lives of the
American people, in ways that many Americans believed violated the basic tenets
of the Constitution—and others believed were not radical enough. Taken
together, the decades from 1920 to 1940 may have transformed the American
nation more than any other comparable time period.

Required sources:

• Credibility:
  Critical Thinking in the Films on Demand database in the Ashford
  University Library
• Primary Source Analysis Tool.

Primary sources:

• Flapper Jane
• Taking the Hand Off the Cradle
  to Catch Devil-Fish: How Modern Woman Is Delving Into the Sacred Precints
  of Male Occupation and Is Now Found in the Role of Bandit, Judge,
  Bricklayer, Hunter, and Race(pp. 2-3)
• “The New Negro”: “When he’s hit,
  he hits back!”
• Should a Catholic Be President?:
  A Contemporary View of the 1928 Election
• Elise Johnson McDougald on “The
  Double Task: The Struggle of Negro Women for Sex and Race Emancipation”
• “Shut the Door”: A Senator
  Speaks for Immigration Restriction
• U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Thind. 

Recommended sources:

• The Twentiesin
  the Films on Demand database.
• Proletarians
  of the North: A History of Mexican Industrial Workers in Detroit and the
  Midwest, 1917-1933.

Pick an event from World
War I through the 1920s and a corresponding primary source* that you can use in
your Final Paper. Use theCredibility:
Critical Thinkingvideo
and the Library of Congress primary source analysis tool to help you as you
think about the primary source. Explain in at least 250 words

• Why you think
  the event was important and how it relates to your Final Paper topic.
• What the
  primary source you chose tells you about this topic.
• What it does
  not tell you.

*Note: Remember that a
primary source is an artifact or document created at the time of an event or by
someone who personally witnessed the event. You may choose a primary source
from this list or you may find one on your own.
Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Support your claims
with examples from the required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources,
and properly cite any references.

Reference point

Final Paper Preparation is due Wednesday.
This assignment will prepare you for the Final Paper by
initiating the research process and helping you map out specific events and
developments, which you will explore in depth in your paper. Review the
instructions for the Final Paper laid out in Week Five before beginning this
project. Note that for the Final Paper you will need to discuss at least six
specific events or developments related to your chosen topic

For this assignment, you will choose a specific group (Native Americans,
African Americans,women,
or immigrants) and six (or more) related events and developments that affected
their lives. Three of these events/developments must be from the years
1865-1920 and three of these events must from the years 1920-present. You will
then find at least two primary sources and four other sources for a total of
six sources in addition to your textbook. A maximum of two of your sources can
be videos. Any sources that are not primary sources or videos must be scholarly
sources from the Ashford University Library.

Please remember that primary sources are documents or artifacts that were
created at the time of a historical event or by someone who personally
experienced a historical event. Primary sources can be newspaper or magazine
articles, books, letters, speeches, photographs, oral histories, paintings, or
any other record of a historical event.

For this assignment:

• State your
  thesis.*
• Write one
  page identifying and explaining the events that you plan to discuss in
  your Final Paper.
• Create an
  annotated bibliography with a short (one to two paragraphs) annotation for
  each source.**
• You must use at
  least six sources other than the textbook to support your claims.
• You must use
  at least two primary sources.
• You may use
  no more than two videos.
• Properly cite
  your sources within the text of your paper and on the references page.
• Be three
  pages in length and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the
  Ashford Writing Center.

*Thesis statement: Your thesis should be a one- or two-sentence
summary of the main conclusions that you drew while researching your topic and
that you will support in your paper by constructing a logical argument based on
evidence (sources).

**Annotated Bibliography: To create an annotated bibliography, list each source
in full APA reference format. Then, beneath each source write a one- or
two-paragraph explanation of the important information in the source and how
you plan to use it in your paper. The annotations must be in your own words. It
is not acceptable to copy and paste the abstract or any other text. You must
have annotations for all six sources.

The paper must be three pages in length and formatted according to APA
style.

Final
Paper is due in two weeks
Understanding
history can be more difficult than many people imagine. Historians concern
themselves not only with what happened but with why it happened. They analyze
and assess a variety of sources, including primary sources (ones created during
the time period the historian is examining) and secondary sources (ones written
by other historians after the period), to create their own interpretations of
the past. For the Final Paper, students will not only learn about the past, but
also experiment with the interpretive, analytical methodologies of the
historian.

Choose from one of the topics below and review its history from 1865 to the
present. Select six specific events or developments that span the years covered
by this course, based on their impact on the topic and write a thesis. Your
thesis should summarize the main conclusions that you drew while researching
your topic and that you will support by creating a logical argument based on
evidence (sources). In your paper, make sure to connect each of the events or
developments you have chosen back to your main thesis

For example, a paper about African Americans might choose the Harlem
Renaissance and the Black Power Movement as two of its events. In that case,
the paper would provide basic information about the two movements. It would
explain what each one revealed about the role of African Americans in broader
American society in, respectively, the 1920s and the late 1960s, explain how
and why the roles of African Americans in the 1920s differed from their roles
in the late 1960s, and explain how events in the 1920s may have contributed to
developments in the later decade.

Choose one of the following topics:

• Native Americans
• African Americans
• Immigrants
• Women

The paper must be four to five pages in length and
must be formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing
Center. The paper must include an introduction, a thesis statement, and a conclusion
that synthesizes and summarizes the findings of the body paragraphs. You must
use at least six scholarly sources other than the textbook to support your
claims. Of the six scholarly sources, at least two must be primary sources and
at least four must be from the Ashford University Library. Many sources have
been provided for you throughout the course; feel free to use those in your
paper. Cite your sources within the text of your paper and on the reference
page. For information regarding APA, including samples and tutorials, visit the
Ashford Writing Center.

The paper

• Must begin with an introductory
  paragraph that has a succinct thesis statement.
• Must address the topic of the paper with
  critical thought.
• Must end with a conclusion that
  reaffirms your thesis.
• Must use at least six scholarly
  resources, including a minimum of two primary sources (such as those
  within the course). You may use a maximum of two videos.
• Must document all sources in APA style.
• Must include a separate reference page,
  formatted according to APA