This document supersedes the original assignment in your syllabus. The new assignment is designed to meet supply difficulties and changed circumstances since the original assignment. The structure of the take-home midterm remains the same. Your paper is limited to 1200 words (five pages, typed, double-spaced). Your essay should provide context, argument, and evidence–in clear, vigorous prose. This is not a research paper, though you should cite your sources (up to six printed and internet sources to supplement specific course texts pertinent to question you choose. See original syllabus assignment for other major instructions. This assignment is due at class on Thursday, November 8. Note the date carefully, as there was an error in the original syllabus.

Please write on one of the following questions:

1. Major Reference–Lynn Dumenil, Modern Temper, and Geoffrey S. Smith, To Save a Nation

In a comparative essay, contrast the basic contexts which influenced American conspiracy theories in the 1920s and 1930s.

2. Major Reference–Dumenil, Modern Temper

In what ways, if at all, do the 1920s lend themselves toward understanding conspiracy theories and accusations in our own times (roughly since 1980–your time!)?

3. Major Reference–Smith, To Save a Nation

In what ways have conspiracy theories that emerged between 1929-1941 influence American politics and culture in the ensuing decades?

4. Major Reference–Robert J. Bresler, Us vs. Them

Write an essay explaining why binary analytical categories (Us vs. Them) helped and hindered Americans in coping with the Cold War.

5. Major Reference–Barry Glassner, The Culture of Fear

SHALOM ET SALAAM!

PEACE, GSS

You will be limited to 1200 words, five pages, typed (word-processed!) -- an essay that provides comparative context, makes an argument, and - most important - makes analytical points clearly and well. No, you do not have much space, hence, yes, you will have to make choices in your paper. My admonition on this, as with all writing assignments is: focus, focus, focus! Again, limit your essays to five or 6 pages, with end- or footnotes and bibliography. The key in notes is consistency, and the professor prefers the MLA Guide or the Queen's term paper guide, available from the English Department. Two copies of the essays, with student name, student #, and #1 and #2 noted on respective copies of the essay, fall due at beginning of class on November 8.

Key points to remember in researching, organizing, and writing essay:

1. understand author definitions and arguments
2. focus in your argument
3. your use of the evidence to build your argument
4. linkages across culture and time to related materials that illuminate your argument
5. a reasonable number of good sources
6. good introduction and conclusion, and creative title
7. good writing

If there are questions, please e-mail Prof. Smith at smithgs@post.queensu.ca.

If you have not already done so, please refer to the department booklet on writing essays, available for a small sum in the department office. What follows summarizes my own biases and prejudices about good writing.

1. Clear organization and structure assure good essays. Clear writing reflects clear thought (see esp. George Orwell's essays written in the 1930s -- they reside in Stauffer Library). Good writing stands on its own -- with lean, sinewy sentence structure, nouns and active verbs, simple declarative sentences. Exorcize adjectives and adverbs wherever possible -- these introduce ambiguity, just as variations on "to be" produce vagueness on the matter of agency.
   
   
2. Essay Presentation: Locate your problem both historically and historiographically in your introduction. Define key terms. State your overall thesis in non-mechanical, flowing prose (no good history paper should include phrases like "this paper will show that..." "this essay will demonstrate..." "I will explain..."). These figures detract from history (and the perpendicular pronoun will never appear in your essays). The trick? Simple. Write history!

   State hypotheses and working arguments, with evidence; re-hypothesize on basis of your reading of evidence, if different from the author's reading, or if you possess other sources. Always buttress your generalizations with evidence, and if possible, address contrasting interpretations and arguments in your paper.

   In your conclusion, you should restate your thesis, summarize the argument, suggest possible weaknesses with your argument, and indicate what questions remain. Ultimately, what makes your questions important? Why do the questions you raise qualify as the big questions?

   Another helpful reference: Strunk and White, The Elements of Style.