American history isn’t just one narrative, but is made up of many different stories. We often focus on wars and presidents, but there are also other events and people that contribute to important changes and developments in American history. In your final exam, pick a theme in American history from the list below, and find five events that you think are important for understanding that theme in American history. Pick at least one event in the each of the following centuries: 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s. Depending on your theme, you may also want to include an event from the 1500s or 1400s. Then name the event (the passing of a particular law, a battle, the publication of a particular magazine, the invention of the cotton gin or steel plow or some other important thing), and explain what happened in that event, when it was, why it is important. Write a paragraph for each event, and an introductory paragraph explaining why you picked the theme and what it means to you and a conclusion that sums up your essay.
Approach each event as a story; first tell the story of the event and then explain why it is significant to your theme in history. See the example below (which is an example for my 102 class, so it does not fit your timeframe). This example explains just one event, it is not the example of the entire assignment.
You have access to the internet, your book, and all our course materials, so provide details! Include dates, names, and locations (if the location is relevant). You may include events in American history not covered in our class, as long as they happen before 1877, but you do not have to find events that are not in your course materials unless you want to. I would caution that some themes may require a little more outside research than others (medicine in history, for example, may require a little more outside reading). If you are looking at the 1500s and 1600s, you may include an event that happens in Europe, Africa, or Latin America (for example, if you’re following religious history, the English Revolution may be important, or the Glorious Revolution, because each of them impacts immigration to the colonies motivated by religious reasons). All of your topics should connect back to the United States and its development and history in some substantive way.
Please upload your response in a typed document, double spaced, 12 point font, Times New Roman, and indents beginning each new paragraph. You may use the word “I” more often than in most formal writing, but do treat the assignment as formal in other ways; use complete sentences, well-developed paragraphs organized around a main idea, and other conventions of formal written English.
Make sure you cite any outside sources, including your textbook, videos, and lecture. I will not be able to accept this assignment late–it has to be in by 11:59 pm May 13.
Themes:
Native American history, religion, politics and government, medicine, women’s history, African American history, the economy, technology, exploration
Example: This is how one of your “important events” paragraphs might look. It fits the theme of medical history in America since 1877.
While penicillin was discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming, it was difficult to produce. This meant that it often had to be rationed. Not everyone with an infection could get the drug. This need increased further after World War II, as the need for penicillin greatly increased in war time. This led the British government to seek out (American) Pfizer scientists to enlist them in the search for a way to mass produce the drug. After some experimentation, March 1, 1944, Pfizer opened a plant in Brooklyn, New York, created to mass-produce penicillin. This event is one of the most important developments in modern medical history. After penicillin became readily available, it contributed greatly to a significant drop in deaths due to infection, and deaths due to chronic disease such as cancer and heart disease outpaced infection as the most common causes of death. Scientists at Pfizer also learned enough from developing the mass production technique to shape the development of additional antibiotics. Overall life expectancy rose throughout the developed world in the latter twentieth century, in no small part due to the wide availability of penicillin and other antibiotics.