Term Project

The Term Project will be a serious attempt  to deal with a historical problem chosen by each student. It will count for 30% of the overall grade. [Papers with D and F grades may be resubmitted if submitted on time.]

Here are some links to pages which will help you write a paper well. For both option I and option II you must follow the Stylesheet on how to lay out a paper; and you must use footnotes or in document citation.

• Stylesheet - how to lay out a paper
• How to Write a Paper - suggestions on method
• How Papers Are Graded - what grades mean

You have three choices for your project:

• OPTION I: A course-reading based paper
• OPTION II: A traditional research paper
• OPTION III: To research/create a web page on an aspect of the Shaping of the Modern World

It is possible to earn an A in the course whatever choice you make, but since Options II and III require more work, only students who choose one of them will be eligible for A+ or H designations. [These have no impact on GPA, but look good on transcripts!]

OPTION I: Course-reading based paper

• Proposed Subject Choice, with explanation of why, (1 page), due Feb 26 [by email]
• Paper (6-7 or more pages), due Apr 16 [delivered in hard copy to my mailbox at History Dept]

In this option you write a paper which uses the documents and reading in a given section page to answer one of the following questions.

What is the difference between absolutism and constitutionalism? Illustrate with reference to France and England in the seventeenth century.

What makes a state "constitutional"? Using your answer, explain when and why England became a "constitutional state".

Assess the role of propaganda in the reign of Louis XIV.

Why were astronomy and physics at the center of the Scientific Revolution?

Why did Rousseau's political ideas appeal later to both democratic and totalitarian thinkers?

How did Locke and Rousseau's views on the "social contract" differ?

Compare the aims and actions of the National Constituent Assembly and the Committee of Public Safety. Which better achieved its goals?

"The Industrial Revolution could only have originated in Great Britain". Discuss this statement in evaluating the causes of the Industrial Revolution.

How did nationalism develop in the 19th century? What wider social and political changes does its development reflect?

Who was more representative of nineteenth-century nationalism, Mazzini or Bismarck? Why?

Discuss the intellectual origins of the ideas of Karl Marx. Is he primarily a philosophical or political thinker?

Compare and contrast the contribution of Karl Marx and trades unionism to the history of socialism in the nineteenth century?

"First, Darwin dethroned God, and then Freud dethroned human reason".
What has been the impact of either Darwinism or Freudian psychoanalysis on modern ways of thinking?

Discuss and evaluate the relative importance of imperialism, the Alliance System and the Eastern Question in the origins of the First World War.

Who was more responsible for the Bolshevik takeover in Russia, Tsar Nicholas II or Lenin? Why?

What reasons did the Nazis give for their oppression of minority groups? What do you think were the real reasons? Discuss with reference to Jews, homosexuals or Gypsies.

"After the World War I the Allies punished Germany as a nation, after World War II they punished individuals".
Is treating the losing side in a war as "guilty" justified? Discuss with reference to the Treaty of Versailles or the Nuremburg trials.

"Modern social movements in Europe offer new solutions to problems deeply rooted in the past".
Discuss with reference to one of the following social/political movements and explain how the issue they face is rooted in the past and what is new about their solution:- feminism; gay liberation; Irish nationalism; the ecological movement/the Greens.

• Proposed Subject Choice, with explanation of why, (1 page), due Feb 26 [by email]
• Six-eight item Bibliography and thesis statement and 1-2 page Outline, due Mar 21 [by email]
• Research Paper (10-12 or more pages), due Apr 23 [delivered in hard copy to my mailbox at History Dept]

Each of the topics below suggests a general subject and a number of specific aspects of the subject. Your job is to choose one of these, do some research, and the create a thesis statement that will be the basis of your paper.

The Thesis Statement (due March 22)

A thesis statement (the word means "idea") is not

• a) a statement of the topic [e.g. "This paper is about Louis XIV and absolutism"],
• b) a statement of intention [e.g. I will look at the issue of Louis XIV and absolutism"],
• c) a statement of a blindingly obvious truth [e.g. "Louis XIV was a French king who advocated absolutism"].

Rather a thesis statement seeks to summarize in one or two sentences the argument you will make in your paper, e.g. "Louis XIV's policies advanced royal power at the expense of the nobility both by expanding the scope of state power and by giving over the administration to bourgeois state officials".

Your paper would then consist of arguments to defend this thesis and to refute objections. 

To summarize:

You have a THESIS, the thesis is backed up by a number of ARGUMENTS, the arguments are supported by FACTS, the facts, especially important ones, are reinforced by CITATIONS AND NOTES.

Bibliography (due March 22)

You also need to develop a bibliography of six to eight items for the project. These can be books or webpages (but you must have at least four books on your list, not including the textbook). Look for suggestions for books in your class texbook. Try not to use any book written before 1960. Remember that you have access to the Brooklyn College Library.

If you use webpages, you MUST provide an evaluation of each website you use with the Guidelines on How to Evalute Web Data in mind, and by using the Checklist.

Suggested Topics

• Absolutism: success or failure? (in France, or Austria, or Russia, or England, Cardinal Richelieu's Political Testament)
• Trade and Empire in the early modern period (Spain, India, Chinese response to the West, W. Africa, Brazil)
• Faith and reason during the Scientific Revolution
• Rousseau on (the family, property, "rights")
• Origins of Nationalism (Herder, Rousseau, folklorism)
• Political Nationalism in (Italy, Czech lands, Ireland, Japan)
• Industrialization and urbanism (poverty, disease, mass culture)
• Scientific politics? (social Darwinism, racism, imperialism)
• Creativity of capitalism (railways, cartels, assembly lines)
• Marxism & gaining workers' power (Marx, Lenin, Bernstein)
• Different liberalisms (feminism, gay rights, civil rights movement)
• Women's public power (suffragism, prohibitionism, Schafly)
• The crisis of western culture (Freud and the Enlightenment, Dada, Wilfred Owen, industry and environment)
• The nature of mass culture (French revolution festivals, modern newspapers, Hollywood & capitalism, suburbia)
• Religious traditionalism and modernity (Marian Apparitions in 19C, Radical Shi'ism, John Paul II, Lubavitchism, fundamentalism)
• Impact of the colonized on the colonizers (foodstuffs, cultural relativism, ideal of "noble savage", American Buddhism)
• Resistance/accommodation to the West (Africa & Islam, Ho Chi Minh, national salvation fronts, Philippines, non-aligned mov't)
• Collapsed dreams? (new soviet man, Capitalist economy since 1973, New World orders, Arab national unity, Zionism)

• Proposed Subject Choice, with explanation of why, (1 page), due Feb 26 [by email]
• Annotated Bibliography, statement and 1-2 page sitemap, due Mar 21 [by email]
• Web Project - on an IBM compatible disk, due Apr 16 [delivered to my mailbox at History Dept or sent via email]

You can only do this if you already know how to use the HTML markup language. Repeat: this option is only for those students who know HTML - the markup language used to create web sites. Students choosing this option will have to do just as much work as other students, but will have the opportunity to present the results as a multimedia, multi-page website.

Bibliography (due March 22)

You need to develop a bibliography of six to eight items for the project. These can be books or webpages (but you must have at least four books on your list, not including the textbook). Look for suggestions for books in your class texbook. Try not to use any book written before 1960. Remember that you have access to the Brooklyn College Library.

If you use webpages, you MUST provide an evaluation of each website you use with the Guidelines on How to Evalute Web Data in mind, and by using the Checklist.

Topics

The topics you choose for this subject need to be connected to the subjects in this course, and to involve more than just a "paper on the web".  You should try to add multimedia aspects (sounds, or pictures). You need to have something like:

Main Index Page
     Two to four solid development pages
     A couple of linked "small point" pages
     A Bibliography page
     A Links page

Suggested topics

• The US Consitutional model and separation of powers in New York City government.
• Modern Art and Industrialization
• The WPA in New York
• History of New York Labor Unions

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created 9/11/1998 : revised 2/20/1999