Modern America Cooke Essay Assignment: The Nifty Fifties?

Transcription

1 Modern America Cooke Essay Assignment: The Nifty Fifties? Name: The media generally portrays the 1950s as a time of peaceful prosperity and unprecedented wealth a time when all Americans, weary from years of war and economic hardship, were able to enjoy life. If you look past the outside perfection of people s lives in the 1950s, however, there were other issues hiding under the surface. Although life in the 1950s is often shown as being perfect, or pleasant, in reality, if you dig a little deeper, life was more complicated. Please take a position on the following statement and support your response with evidence from the unit and the attached primary documents: Life in the 1950s was not really as perfect as it seemed on the outside. Paper Requirements: The paper should be 2-4 pages in length, typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman (or comparable), size 12 font. You must use footnotes. Your citations, one for each piece of evidence, should be drawn from class notes and the documents provided to you in class. Remember to support your argument with a blend of quotations and specific historical examples and analysis. You must use AT LEAST ONE quotation in each paragraph. All told, you should make use of AT LEAST 5 separate primary documents (at least 3 direct quotes & at least 2 specific references). These primary sources should include the attached documents but may also include primary documents examined in class as well. Deadlines: In-class work days: Feb. 10th & Feb. 13th-14th Thesis statement due: Friday, Feb. 10th Papers due: Wednesday, Feb. 15th 1

2 MORE INFORMATION ON WRITING A DBQ The essay question you have been given is a document-based question. This means that you will read and analyze a series of documents, and use these documents to answer the essay question. This section of the essay handout is meant to help you learn how to approach and use the documents effectively. We will have time in class to review the documents and do brainstorming work that will help you answer the question. Step 1: Reading and Analyzing the Documents Carefully read the question and think about what you already know about this topic. Write down any notes or ideas that will be useful in your essay. Examine each document and underline key phrases or quotes that you will later use as evidence in your essay. Basically you want to find quotes that will support the argument you are making. Be prepared to explain what the significance of your underlined passages is. Prepare a detailed outline for your essay. (optional) Step 2: Writing the Essay 1. Introduction: Give some background information about your topic (set the historical stage). Make sure you give your reader enough information so that he or she knows what you are talking about. End your introduction with your thesis statement. I repeat: The last sentence in your introduction should be your thesis. Make sure your thesis addresses the fundamental question of the essay (see page 1); if you choose, you can elaborate and/or put it in your own words, but your thesis should definitely address the question. 2. Body Paragraphs: Each body paragraph (AT LEAST THREE) needs to start with an analytical topic sentence. Your topic sentence needs to make an argument that supports your thesis. Use quotations and references to support the argument. ALWAYS remember to analyze, or explain, how the quotations and evidence you use support your thesis. At the end of each paragraph, you should explain how the evidence you presented in that paragraph AS A WHOLE connects back to your argument. NOTE: When using evidence from the documents, do not refer to them as documents. Rather, refer to them by their title (if available) or the author. Always make sure to properly introduce the document before you quote from it. For example: Hugh Hefner argued that Blah blah blah. Despite evidence to the contrary, Betty Freidan maintained her argument that blah blah blah. According to Beat writer Alan Ginsberg, Blah blah blah. Remember to use AT LEAST ONE quotation in each paragraph. All told, you should make use of AT LEAST FIVE separate documents (at least 3 direct quotes and at least 2 specific references). 3. Conclusion: Here is where you spend one paragraph summarizing your findings without being blatantly repetitive. You will need to re-emphasize your thesis as well as your main pieces of evidence without writing them exactly the same way over again. After you do this, you need to give your reader some additional insight into the topic. For example, explain why these issues are important in the long run, or elaborate on the historical significance of these particular issues. 2

3 Pre-Writing Directions: To get you started on your essay, please begin brainstorming below. Be sure to include more than the general points for either side. Consider the various documents we ve studied in class thus far and begin considering which of these documents you could use to support your case on either side. The 1950s were pleasant and peaceful. The 1950s were complicated and not perfect. Documents to support this argument: Documents to support this argument: 3

4 The Documents DOCUMENT ONE: Truman s Loyalty Program ( Citation: Harry S. Truman, Federal Employee Loyalty Program, 1947.) PRESCRIBING PROCEDURES FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF AN EMPLOYEE LOYALTY PROGRAM IN THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF THE GOVERNMENT Whereas each employee of the Government of the United States is endowed with a measure of trusteeship over the democratic processes which are the heart and sinew of the United States; and Whereas it is of vital importance that persons employed in the Federal service be of complete and unswerving loyalty to the United States; and Whereas, although the loyalty of by far the overwhelming majority of all Government employees is beyond question, the presence within the Government service of any disloyal or subversive person constitutes a threat to our democratic processes; and Whereas maximum protection must be afforded the United States against infiltration of disloyal persons into the ranks of its employees, and equal protection from unfounded accusations of disloyalty must be afforded the loyal employees of the Government PART I, -- INVESTIGATION OF APPLICANTS There shall be a loyalty investigation of every person entering the civilian employment of any department or agency of the executive branch of the Federal Government An investigation shall be made of all applicants at all available pertinent sources of information and shall include reference to: Federal Bureau of Investigation files. Civil Service Commission files. Military and naval intelligence files. The files of any other appropriate government investigative or intelligence agency. House Committee on un-american Activities files. Local law-enforcement files at the place of residence and employment of the applicant, including municipal, county, and State law-enforcement files. Schools and colleges attended by applicant. Former employers of applicant. References given by applicant. Any other appropriate source. Whenever derogatory information with respect to loyalty of an applicant is revealed a full investigation shall be conducted Harry S. Truman The White House, March 21, 1947 DOCUMENT TWO: Dwight D. Eisenhower, "Address Before the General Assembly of the United Natio Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy (Citation: Dwight D. Eisenhower, "Address Before the General Assembly of the United Nations on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, New York City," December 8, Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project.) On July 16, 1945, the United States set off the world's first atomic explosion. Since that date in 1945, the United States of America has conducted 42 test explosions. Atomic bombs today are more than 25 times as powerful as the weapons with which the atomic age dawned, while hydrogen weapons are in the ranges of millions of tons of TNT equivalent. Today, the United States' stockpile of atomic weapons, which, of course, increases daily, exceeds by many times the explosive equivalent of the total of all bombs and all shells that came from every plane and every gun in 4

5 every theatre of war in all of the years of World War II. But the dread secret, and the fearful engines of atomic might, are not ours alone. The secret is also known by the Soviet Union If at one time the United States possessed what might have been called a monopoly of atomic power, that monopoly ceased to exist several years ago. Therefore, although our earlier start has permitted us to accumulate what is today a great quantitative advantage, the atomic realities of today comprehend two facts of even greater significance. But let no one think that the expenditure of vast sums for weapons and systems of defense can guarantee absolute safety for the cities and citizens of any nation. The awful arithmetic of the atomic bomb does not permit of any such easy solution. Even against the most powerful defense, an aggressor in possession of the effective minimum number of atomic bombs for a surprise attack could probably place a sufficient number of his bombs on the chosen targets to cause hideous damage. Should such an atomic attack be launched against the United States, our reactions would be swift and resolute. But for me to say that the defense capabilities of the United States are such that they could inflict terrible losses upon an aggressor--for me to say that the retaliation capabilities of the United States are so great that such an aggressor's land would be laid waste--all this, while fact, is not the true expression of the purpose and the hope of the United States My country wants to be constructive, not destructive. It wants agreements, not wars, among nations. It wants itself to live in freedom, and in the confidence that the people of every other nation enjoy equally the right of choosing their own way of life. So my country's purpose is to help us move out of the dark chamber of horrors into the light, to find a way by which the minds of men, the hopes of men, the souls of men everywhere, can move forward toward peace and happiness and well being. The United States knows that if the fearful trend of atomic military buildup can be reversed, this greatest of destructive forces can be developed into a great boon, for the benefit of all mankind. The United States knows that peaceful power from atomic energy is no dream of the future. That capability, already proved, is here--now--today. Who can doubt, if the entire body of the world's scientists and engineers had adequate amounts of fissionable material with which to test and develop their ideas, that this capability would rapidly be transformed into universal, efficient, and economic usage. DOCUMENT THREE: Montgomery, Alabama, Code on Segregation ( Citation: Code of the City of Montgomery, Alabama, (Charlottesville: Michie City Publishing, 1952).) Sec. 10. Separation of races Required. Every person operating a bus line the in the city shall provide equal but separate accommodations for white people and Negroes on his buses, by requiring the employees in charge thereof to assign passengers seats on the vehicles under their charge in such manner as to separate the white from the Negroes, where there are both 5

6 white and Negroes on the same car.... DOCUMENT FOUR: Folk Song: Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds ( Citation : "Little Boxes," folk song, Words and music by Malvina Reynolds, Schroder Music Co.) Little Boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky tacky, Little Boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same, There's a green one and a pink one, and a blue one and a yellow one, And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same. And the people in the houses all went to the university, Where they were put into boxes and they all came out the same, And there's doctors and lawyers, and business executives, And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same. And they all play on the golf course and drink their martini dry, And they all have pretty children and the children go to school And the children go to summer camp and then to the university, Where they are all put in boxes and they all come out the same. DOCUMENT FIVE: Quotation from a Suburban Housewife (Citation: Mrs. Klerk, quoted in Barbara M. Kelly, Expanding the American Dream: Building and Rebuilding Levittown, (Albany: State University of New York, 1993).) "We were all in the same boat... We shared everything; we shared tools and cars, minded each other's kids, passed play-pens and high-chairs from house to house everything. It was at least to us a Paradise." DOCUMENT SIX: Excerpt from The Affluent Society, by John Kenneth Galbraith ( Citation: John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society, 4th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984), 254.) Poverty grim, degrading, and ineluctable is not remarkable in India. For few, the fate is otherwise. But in the United States, the survival of poverty is remarkable. We ignore it because we share with all societies at all times the capacity for not seeing what we do not wish to see. Anciently this has enabled the nobleman to enjoy his dinner while remaining oblivious to the beggars around his door. In our own day, it enables us to travel in comfort by Harlem and into the lush precincts of midtown Manhattan. But while our failure to notice can be explained, it cannot be excused. "Poverty," Pitt exclaimed, "is no disgrace but it is damned annoying." In the contemporary United States, it is not annoying but it is a disgrace. DOCUMENT SEVEN: Excerpt from The Other America, by Michael Harrington ( Citation : Michael Harrington, The Other America, (New York: Scribner, 1962), 1-2.) 6

7 There is a familiar America. It is celebrated in speeches and advertised on television and in the magazines. It has the highest mass standard of living the world has ever known. In the 1950s this America worried about itself, yet even its anxieties were products of abundance. The title of a brilliant book was widely misinterpreted, and the familiar America began to call itself the affluent society. [ ] In all this, there was an implicit assumption that the basic grinding economic problems had been solved in the United States. In this theory the nation s problems were no longer a matter of basic human needs, of food, shelter, and clothing. Now they were seen as qualitative, a question of learning to live decently amid luxury. While this discussion carried on, there existed another America. In it dwelt somewhere between 40,000,000 and 50,000,000 citizens of this land. They were poor. They still are. To be sure, the other America is not impoverished in the same sense as those poor nations where millions cling to hunger as a defense against starvation. This country has escaped such extremes. That does not change the fact that tens of millions of Americans are, at this very moment, maimed in body and spirit, existing at levels beneath those necessary for human decency. If these people are not starving, they are hungry, and sometimes fat with hunger, for that is what cheap foods do. They are without adequate housing and education and medical care. The Government has documented what this means to the bodies of the poor But even more basic, this poverty twists and deforms the spirit. The American poor are pessimistic and defeated, and they are victimized by mental suffering to a degree unknown in Suburbia The millions who are poor in the United States tend to become increasingly invisible. Here is a great mass of people, yet it takes an effort of the intellect and will even to see them. How to Use Endnotes/Footnotes 1. Footnotes should be written in the form of traditional number symbols (1, 2, 3, 4). 2. Each citation should have a different number, regardless of whether you are using the same source multiple times. 3. Footnotes should NOT be written in by hand they should be integrated and typed into the text using the instructions provided below. 4. Footnotes should be incorporated in the paper after the following scenarios: a. After using a direct quote from a text, person, or other resource. b. After including important specific information, ideas, or arguments obtained from another resource or text (i.e. statistics, factual information, author s interpretation of an event, etc.) c. As a general rule, it is better to over-cite than to under-cite and risk plagiarizing. 5. Format for footnotes: a. For books, textbooks, other secondary sources: i. First and last name of author, Title of book, (city of publication, state: publisher, year), page number where the information was found. b. For primary documents: i. (If possible) First and last name of author, Title of document, (year written), page number (if possible). c. For handouts/notes used in class: i. Modern America, Name of handout, (date of class if known). 6. How do you insert a footnote or endnote into the text of your paper? a. Place the cursor at the end of the sentence (after the period) and go to Insert on the toolbar at the top of the screen. b. In the drop down menu, select footnote. c. A number should be magically inserted into the text where the cursor was. You will now be dropped down to the bottom of the page (or the end of the paper if you are using endnotes) where you will fill in the details for the source (author, etc.) 7

8 RUBRIC Modern America Name: Cooke 1950s Essay Feedback Introductory Paragraph: Excellent Good Needs Work Does the paper have an interesting title? Do the first 1-2 sentences of the introduction generally introduce the reader to the topic/time period? (Contextual statement) Does the introduction as a whole set the stage for the topic? Is the thesis of the paper clearly stated? (reasonably narrow, supportable, strongly stated) Content & Supporting Evidence: Does each paragraph contain at least three pieces of detailed evidence? (quotes, statistics, example, etc.) Does each piece of evidence have an in-text citation? Are quotes from primary sources used? Are the evidence and quotes smoothly introduced and integrated into the paper? Is the supporting evidence explained, restated, and/or tied back to the topic for clarity? (ANALYSIS) Does each paragraph close with a transition sentence? 8

9 Are the thesis and argument well-developed? Conclusion: Do you restate your thesis? Do you restate your main points? Do you answer so what? Writing Mechanics and Communication of Ideas: Does each body paragraph begin with an argumentative topic sentence? Do the body paragraphs clearly support the purpose statements? Are there transitions between ideas and/or supporting details, as well as between paragraphs? Is it logically organized? Is it written clearly and concisely? The paper met the following requirements: The paper is NO LESS than 2 pages in length & NO MORE than 4 pages in length. The paper is typed, double-spaced, in 12-point font. The paper is spell checked and proofread The paper has footnotes/endnotes Content Grade (depth of evidence, specificity of examples, use of evidence): Style Grade (strength of thesis/topic sentences/concluding sentences, effectiveness of analysis, clarity of writing): 9

10 10 Overall Grade: