History 1200
Main Themes in American History
Instructor: Gregory Miller
Weekly Assignment #1
Due Date: September 2, 2011
The Black Robe, although a work of fiction, is based upon events that actually happened—as chronicled in a popularly known as Jesuit Relations. You can find an electronic version of part of this series at this link: http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/relations/relations_01.html, or from the link on the class blog (http://themesinamericanhistory.blogspot.com). After reading the section entitled “The Conversion of the Savages Who Were Baptized in New France,” compare it with the conversion account in Black Robe. What are the points of similarity, and what are the differences? “The Conversion of the Savages …” is what historians call a primary source, while Black Robe is a work of fiction. Which one do you think is a more accurate depiction of the past—and why?
Your answer should fill at least 2 machine produced pages, using a conventional font, twelve-point type, and one-inch margins all around the paper. This should be handed in at the beginning of class on Friday, September 2.
History 1200
Main Themes in American History
Instructor: Gregory Miller
Weekly Assignment #2
Due Date: September 8, 2011
Describe the dramatic expansion of the British empire in North America in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. What role did the South Atlantic System play? Your answer to this question should cover at least two full pages, with conventional 12-point font.
History 1200
Main Themes in US History
Instructor: Gregory Miller
Written assignment #3
Date due: September 16, 2011
History 1200
Main Themes in American History
Instructor: Gregory Miller
Weekly Assignment #4
Due Date: September 23, 2011
The lectures and readings this week emphasized both the freedom created by the American Revolution, and the restrictions on freedom put in place as the revolution ended, and a new government was put in place. Was the United States a more free society after the Revolution? Who enjoyed the greatest freedoms—and who had the fewest freedoms. Please give specific examples from the class lectures and from your readings for the class
History 1200
Main Themes in American History
Instructor: Gregory Miller
Weekly Assignment #5
Due Date: September 30, 2011
The lectures, the documentary Tecumseh’s Vision, and the readings this week emphasized both the freedom created by the opening of the West, and the conflicts with Native peoples that continued white settlement created on the “frontier.” Was this conflict inevitable? Was the result (white victory, Native defeat) inevitable, as well? Please give specific examples from the class lectures and from your readings for the class. Your essay should fill at least 2 (and possibly 3) pages of printer paper, with conventional 1 inch margins, and is due at the beginning of class on September 30, 2011
History 1200
Main Themes in American History
Instructor: Gregory Miller
Weekly Assignment #6
Date Due: February 24, 2011
How did Douglass make effective use of the Declaration of Independence to confront white Americans with their shortcomings? What sort of imagery did Douglass use, and how effective do you think his speech was?
History 1200
Main Themes in American History
Instructor: Gregory Miller
Weekly Assignment #7
Date Due: October 7, 2011
Historians have long debated whether conflict between the two American societies, North and South, was inevitable, or that could have been avoided. Many of the arguments about inevitability maintain that the two societies had too many differences not to come into conflict, while those who maintain that conflict could have been avoided argue that political compromise had maintained peace since the nation had been established. Which side of the argument do you believe is more valid? Why?
History 1200
Main Themes in American History
Instructor: Gregory Miller
Written assignment #8
Due date: October 28, 2011
What was the purpose of Reconstruction? Why did Reconstruction go through several different phases? Was one phase more successful than others—and was one phase less successful than the others? Why was this so?
The answers to the questions posed above should be addressed in a 2-3 page paper, double spaced in a 12-point font, with conventional 1 inch margins. This assignment is due at the beginning of class on Friday, October 28
History 1200
Main Themes in American History
Instructor: Gregory Miller
Written assignment #9
Due date: November 4, 2011
Much of the focus of the changes in work life concentrate upon men, but women began working outside of the home in larger numbers during the time after the American Civil War, as well. After reading the excerpt of the essay “Studies of Factory Life: Among the Women” from volume 62 of the Atlantic Monthly (courtesy of Google Books), discuss what this account of female workers’ lives reveal about the lives of their children in a 2-3 page paper, double-spaced, with conventional 1 inch margins and a conventional 12-point font, due Friday, November 4.
History 1200
Main Themes in American History
Instructor: Gregory Miller
Written assignment #10
Due date: November 9, 2011
Your answer should fill at least two pages of 8 1/2 x 11 paper, in a conventional 12 point font, with one inch margins. This assignment is due on Wednesday, November 9, at the beginning of class.
History 1200
Main Themes in American History
Instructor: Gregory Miller
Written assignment #11
Due date: November 18, 2011
For weekly assignment 11, read the excerpt from Robert S. and Helen M. Lynd's Middletown ( by clicking on the link), and then answer the following question.
Cars, movies, and advertising--were the residents of Middletown right to feel uneasy about the changes in their community? Why or why not?
History 1200
Main Themes in American History
Instructor: Gregory Miller
Written assignment #12—Plus a bonus
Due date: November 18, 2011
Although the New Deal did not end the Great Depression, the policies it promoted about the use of government spending to "prime the pump" of the economy is the reason that government spending on the war effort did. Why was there so much resistance to spending on domestic programs, but no resistance to spending on the war effort? You should find more than one answer for this question.In addition, you may choose to substitute (or add) this assignment. With the Thanksgiving holiday, and the time away from school, many choose to spend the time in front of the television or at the movie theater (the reviews of Clint Eastwood's new film J. Edgar have been very good, I hear). If you intend to do either, and choose to write a review of the movie that places it in its historical context, you may hand that in sometime before the end of the semester. You may want to consult this list of 100 movies reviewed by historians before venturing to the video store or checking your Netflix queue.
History 1200
Main Themes in American History
Instructor: Gregory Miller
Written assignment #13
Due date: December 2, 2011
Was the Vietnam War necessary? Was it a tragic blunder, a noble cause, or a disguised form of anti-democratic imperialism? How did it affect the American people and the American presidency
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