Taking Sides: Were the 1920's an era of social and cultural rebellion

Taking Sides: Were the 1920’s an era of social and cultural rebellion

Project description
Read pages 203-206 in the book: (Taking Sides clashing views in United States History volume 2 Fifteenth edition)
Pick one of the historians that you want to represent, and write taking on their persona as if you were them on a panel of historians. the first half of the paper summarize your argument the next half of the paper should be a point by point attack on the other historians argument and why it is flawed compared to yours.

Issue 9 Assignment Sheet:   Were the 1920s an Era of Social and Cultural Rebellion?
You are going to be taking on the persona of a historian in this paper.  For our purposes, we are going to pretend we are at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association on a panel discussion concerning the 1920s.  You will represent one of the two historical points of view and you will argue with the other “historian” that your ideas are better than the other viewpoint.
Step by step guide for this paper:
1.    Read the entire assignment (Issue 9 in the Taking Sides Book, pages 203-226) so you know what is expected of you as you read through everything
2.    Pick one of the historians (either Ostrander or Shannon) that you want to represent.  The other will be your opponent.
The Assignment:
Your paper will be a way to prepare you for taking on your role as the historian that you are representing.  In this paper, you should do two things.  First, summarize the argument of your particular author in one or two paragraphs.  This should be concise—you are going to be using this to briefly state your position.  Be clear about exactly how your historian would answer the central question of this reading:  Were the 1920s an Era of Social and Cultural Rebellion?
The second part of your paper should be a point by point attack against the other historian’s argument.  Thus, you need to fully understand how each historian is creating their argument.  For instance, if you chose to be Shannon, then the second section of your paper will be an attempt to prove that the other author, Ostrander, provides an understanding of the time period that is not as complete or not “correct.”  In a sense, since you are taking on the identity of Shannon, you are going to be challenging the other author with your (meaning Shannon’s) own ideas.  You NEED TO SHOW that you can identify the other historian’s argument and use your own ideas to counter her ideas.  This should be roughly a page long and not only showcase that you have understood the other readings’ argument but that you can connect your historian’s argument with it.

Technical Requirements:  ***IMPORTANT***
All papers should be double spaced using Times New Roman 12 point font with 1” margins all around.  MS Word defaults to 1.25” so you have to make sure to go in and change the margins. Papers must be between 1 and 2 pages in length.
When you start the paper, you will need a header.  For a header, put your name and the date the paper is due, single spaced, in the upper left hand corner.  Then, press “enter” twice and start your paper, double spaced, there.  What this does is prevent the half-page headers and titles.  Your paper should also be stapled.  Any deviation from these instructions will result in a TWO point deduction from your paper grade

Grading Guidelines:
What I am essentially looking for in these papers is your ability to clearly and concisely extract the author’s main argument from the reading.  For this paper, 50% of your grade is based on part one of the paper.  The other 50% is based on part two.  In that section, I am looking for you to display an understanding of the other reading and how that author’s argument intersects with your author’s.  This takes a lot of thought on your part—it isn’t a memorization game.  You need to figure out what each author is arguing and then really think about how those arguments, on the same event, are similar or different.  An “A” paper will clearly display knowledge of each author’s argument and how the author’s arguments relate to each other, showing how one diverges from the other or acts in tandem in certain regards.

Information on Citations/Works Cited:
If you are talking about a generally known historical fact, something like “World War II ended in 1945” you do not need to provide a citation for that since it is general common knowledge.  That does not mean that you can copy directly word for word from a textbook or internet site about World War II.  You need to talk about these commonly known historical facts in your own words.

If you want to use a specific idea from one of our sources, let’s say an author’s interpretation of how notions of race were created, that is not common knowledge, the author brought this stuff to light through historical investigation and published it.  You need to give him or her credit for that idea.  You give credit by providing a citation after the quote or at the end of the paragraph (if you are not using a direct quote) by putting (Author last name 132).  That shows me that I can find that idea on page one hundred and thirty-two.  You should NOT use any outside sources for this paper other than those we read.  You also do NOT need a works cited page.
IMPORTANT:  For this paper, you must cite every direct quote (those that you pull directly for another source) with a citation (Author 132) right after the end of the sentence where the quote is.  If you are using the ideas without a direct quote and aren’t directly using the author’s words, you MUST put a citation at the END of the paragraph.  EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE CITED!  It does not matter if you aren’t using exactly what they said:  if you benefited from reading some source in writing a particular paragraph, you have to cite it at the end of the paragraph.

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