21H.102: The Emergence of Modern America, 1865 to the Present
Paper #3

Length: 10 pages, double-spaced

Due date: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 by noon in E51-288

Choose one of the questions below and write a ten-page essay. Some of the questions are more focused than others are. But regardless of which one you pick, you must consider broader, long-term historical developments. As always, you must also support your argument with evidence.

1) Was the Vietnam War inevitable?

2) Did Ronald Reagan's victory in 1980 signal a new era in American politics and if so, how and why?

3) Why did the civil rights movement succeed?

4) George Orwell once wrote that “No advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality a millimetre nearer.” In the United States, has reform in the twentieth century brought Americans any closer to social equality?

5) In the Atlantic Charter of 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill described “certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base[d] their hopes for a better future for the world.” In the twentieth century, have American leaders acted in foreign policy to create a “better future for the world”?

You may also propose one of your own questions. If you choose that option, then you must submit your question in writing and get approval by November 21.