Your essay should provide an answer and evidence to prove your answer (main idea or thesis) to one of the set of questions below. Make certain you utilize at least FIVE primary sources to prove the validity of your thesis (main idea).
Q1: What did it mean to be a minority in the US during 1865-1921? What is US diplomacy during 1865-1929? Where did race relations domestically and US diplomacy intersect during 1865-1921?
Q2: How did reconstruction fail? How did it succeed?
Q3: How did science and technology change American cultural, diplomatic, political, and/or religious ways in the period from 1865 to 1921?
Q4: How does “race” explain US policy domestically from 1865-1921? How does “race” explain US policy internationally 1865-1921?
Q5: Discuss how the United States became a world power in the period from 1877-1916?
Q6: Define the nature of US relations with Cuba, Philippines, Hawaii, and/or China from 1877 to 1921?
[Note here are some themes to ponder as you begin to brainstorm. Consider the failures and successes of reconstruction; and/or how did science and technology change American cultural, diplomatic, political, and/or religious ways; how did ideas of “race” influence US policy domestically and/or how did ideas of “race” explain US policy internationally; consider Native American relations with US settlers in western territories and the federal government; how did the United States become a world power in the period from 1877-1921; define the nature of US – imperialism – relations with Cuba, Philippines, Hawaii, and/or China during the late 19th and early 20th century; and what were the experiences of eastern and southern Europeans in the United States during the progressive era.]
Q7: What problems did the “police state” (for example, Prohibition, immigration restriction and censorship) create in the United States, during the 1920s? How did a “consumer society” resolve these problems, during the 1930s onward?
Q8: How did the concepts of totalitarianism and democracy influence the course of the Cold War and the political and social climate of the United States?
Q9: How did ideas of nationalism and internationalism change from the era of Reconstruction to the end of the Cold War in the United States?
Q10: How did the politics of the Cold War intersect with the politics of the civil rights movement?