History 427
Spring, 2001
Professor Jules Tygiel
INTERNET RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT
Documents from the Library of Congress American Memory Page
The Library of Congress has placed several
collections of historical documents online at their American Memory Website. Many of these documents relate to the era that we
are studying. These collections include:
California Gold:
Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties.
The New Deal Stage:
Selections from the Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939 (not searchable at
this time)
American Life
Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940
America from the Great
Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA and OWI, ca. 1935-1945
Southern Mosaic: The
John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip
American Leaders Speak:
Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election
Prosperity and
Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
Voices from the
Dust Bowl: the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection,
1940-1941
Using documents from the American Memory
Website for research, write a 10-12 page (2500-3000 word) paper on a topic of
your choice discussing how that topic is reflected in one of these collections.
Be forewarned. Some of these collections are easier to use than others. While
all have search engines that will help you to narrow down your topics, many of
the collections consist primarily of images or recordings which are harder to
manipulate for note taking and often more difficult to analyze. Do not select a
collection that will make it impossible for you to complete this assignment.
All students are required to complete this assignment. The research may be
carried out on your home computers if you have access to the World Wide Web or
in any of the many campus laboratories that enable you to access the Internet.
Please observe the submission deadlines for each stage of this project. This
will help you to complete this assignment in a timely fashion. If you are
having problems completing any stage of this assignment, please consult with me
as soon as possible.
By far the easiest of the collections
to work with is The American Life Histories Web Page.
Most students should select this option. The
following instructions are based on The American Life Histories Page. If you
wish to select one of the other options, please see me. The process will be the
same, but you will have more difficulty taking notes and working with the
sources.
The American Life Histories Web Page
The Library of Congress has placed 2900
manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project of the Works' Progress
Administration online and provided a search engine which enables students and
scholars to search these documents for particular topics or themes. According
to the American Life Histories Web Page, "These life histories were
written by the staff of the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers' Project
for the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) from
1936-1940. The Library of Congress collection includes 2,900 documents
representing the work of over 300 writers from 24 states. Typically
2,000-15,000 words in length, the documents consist of drafts and revisions,
varying in form from narrative to dialogue to report to case history. The
histories describe the informant's family education, income, occupation,
political views, religion and mores, medical needs, diet and miscellaneous
observations."
You may link to this page through the
History 427 web page or directly at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html. It is a good idea the first time that you go to
this page to read the information under the link, "About This
Collection." You also should look at
the link entitled "States," which gives you a breakdown on which states are
represented (California, for example, is not included) and how many documents
there are for each state.
Selecting a Topic
(Deadline, March 6)
Depending on your creativity and
imagination: there are almost an infinite number of topics that you may choose
from to write about. You might select an individual from the 1930s: Franklin
Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Adolph Hitler; a political issue: the New Deal,
social security, a specific New Deal agency, labor unions; a social issue: race
relations, religion, immigration; or a cultural issue: radio, movies, sports.
You might select a particular occupation, industry, or agricultural product:
coal mining, cotton, wheat. Some topics will yield hundreds of items; others
will produce only a few. In some cases it will be necessary to narrow down your
search; in others you might have to expand it.
It is probably a good idea to
experiment with the search engine and a variety of topics, before you select a
final topic. Be sure to check out the link "Search Tips" located under the search panel for suggestions. If
you come up with a relatively small number of references, you might think of
alternative ways to phrase the topic (i.e., socialists and radicals for
communists, or Mrs. Roosevelt for Eleanor Roosevelt). If you have a very large
number of references you might narrow it down by specifying a specific state or
some other qualifying phrase. Even if you have a large number of
"hits," it may turn out that there is little valid material here for
a paper and you may have to change topics. Since it is likely to take a
while to select a good topic and you may have a few false starts, you would be
wise to begin this assignment early in the semester. All students must select a
topic by March 7. You may submit these topics via e-mail or in writing. Your
proposal should include a discussion of the topic and a list of the Internet
sources (the “hits”) that you will be using.
Collecting the Evidence
(Deadline, April 5)
Once you have selected a topic and
identified the relevant documents, you must collect and organize the data.
Remember that everything in these files can be copied directly into a Word
document. Have a Word document open while you are working on the American Life
Histories Web Page. Highlight the information at the beginning of the WPA
interview identifying the interviewee, date, etc. Select "Copy" on
the Edit Menu. Use the Alt and Tab keys simultaneously to switch to the Word
Document. Select "Paste" from the Edit Menu to paste it into your
research notes.
Next, locate the relevant section of the
interview for your subject. Use the "FIND" facility on your web
browser to locate where in the interview the person discusses this subject.
Highlight this section of the interview and copy it to your research notes in
the Word document. Keep in mind that it will be necessary to understand the
context in which the person is making these comments. Thus it will be necessary
to read and, perhaps, copy larger sections of the interview. Also remember that
a person may discuss this topic more than once in the same interview. You
must submit a complete copy of your research notes by April 5. (Since these
notes may be quite extensive, please single space and use smaller fonts
when you hand them in.)
Writing the Paper
When all of the relevant information has
been amassed it is necessary to write a paper summarizing the data. It is not
sufficient to just list the quotations. You must analyze and evaluate them. You
must develop a central theme and support that theme with examples from the
interviews. Arrange the evidence in a logical fashion, discussing similar or
related responses together. Avoid simply stringing quotes one after another or
using mostly long block quotes. Be sure to identify clearly who is speaking.
Relate your findings to the course readings wherever possible. Follow the
guidelines in the handout, "Writing Papers."
In writing your papers keep in mind some of
the limitations of these documents. This is not a random sample of the American
population and is not representative of the views of all Americans. Do not over
generalize or overstate your conclusions. The opinions of the interviewees are
just that, opinions, not facts. Try to be alert to the biases and shortcomings
of those you are quoting.
All papers must be annotated properly. You may use footnotes or endnotes, but not
parenthetical references. The purpose
of footnotes is to allow readers to find the materials that you are referring
to. They must therefore be as explicit
as possible. When referring to books
please use the style outlined in any of the guides suggested in the handout, "Writing Papers." When
referring to materials on the Internet, you must refer to the site where the
materials are found. For example, documents taken from the American Life
Histories, should be annotated as follows:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html.
You should also include the specific
document title in the note. Do not use
a search URL. Thus for a document entitled “Just Hanging
Around,” the appropriate reference would be:
“Just Hanging Around,” http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html
The following reference,
however, would be incorrect:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?wpa:5:./temp/~ammem_VKZM::
If all of your documents
come from the same data base, the following note would be adequate:
Unless otherwise indicated, all references are from, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html.
Nonetheless, it is still necessary
to indicate the document name in each subsequent footnote.
Graduate Students: Graduate students must relate their findings to at
least three books on their topics not assigned for this course. Graduate
papers should be from12-15 pages long and include a historiographical section.
Research papers are due on the final day of class (May 17).
All research papers submitted by May 3 will receive a bonus of one-third of a
grade.