21H.102: The Emergence of Modern America, 1865 to the Present
Paper #1

Length: 5 pages, double-spaced

Due date: Monday, October 3, 2005 (in lecture)

Choose one (1) of the following questions to answer in a clear and cogent essay:

1) What was done to protect the freedman—politically, economically, and physically? What more could have been done? How might "forty acres and a mule" have helped the freedmen?

2) What explains the rise and persistence of political machines and boss rule in American cities?

3) How and why did progressives attempt to free government and politics from the domination of political parties?

4) In what ways did Theodore Roosevelt transform the role of the presidency and the national government? How did conservation fit with his and Gifford Pinchot's political and personal backgrounds and with general progressive ideas?

5) Compare the experiences of a freed slave living in the South under Congressional Reconstruction with those of an immigrant laborer living in a tenement slum in New York City. Who was better off? Why?

Please note that you are required to substantiate your argument with evidence from the assigned readings.