Post WWII: America’s Great Identity Crisis
Topic: The mid-20th century marked a period of great upheaval and disruption as the United States recovered from a devastating Second World War and faced the looming spectre of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. As a result, Americans began challenging what it means to be an American at unprecedented levels and attempted to reshape the American image to fit the true diversity of the populace. For your final paper, I want you to examine the struggles for identity and recognition in American history during the latter half of the 20th century by answering the following questions: Which three social movements had the greatest impact on developing our modern image of what it means to be an American? For this paper, you should address the various movements we discussed in class and examine their goals, achievements, and lasting impacts on modern American society. As with the last paper, you must underline your thesis statement on this paper. As with the last paper, you must provide multiple pieces of evidence to support your arguments from lecture, the textbook, and the primary-source readings. You must cite both lecture and either the textbook, primary source, or extra credit readings multiple times in your paper.
Length: These papers are designed to be an in depth examination of course material up to this date. As such, the first papers should be between 1000 and 1500 words long, double-spaced, and have one-inch margins on all sides. Papers that are shorter than 1000 words will be subject to an automatic penalty and will undoubtedly suffer from their brevity. Papers longer than 1500 words will also receive points off, so learn to be more concise if this is an issue for you.
confirming your submission. If you do not get a receipt- your paper is not submitted, and late penalties will apply.
Citations: You must include footnote citations in your paper. DO NOT use parenthetical citations, you will be marked down if you do. Any evidence taken from lectures or readings, whether they be direct quotes or paraphrasing, should be cited. This is done so I can go through your papers and trace back your research path if need be. Your citations do not need to be ornate, simple examples are below:
Citing from the book: Davidson, # Citing from the reader: Document title, # Citing from lecture: Lecture Title
You are not allowed to use outside sources on these papers. Using outside sources is considered a form of academic misconduct and your paper will automatically receive a 0 and you risk being reported to the Dean’s office for further disciplinary action.
