In an essay of about 1800 to 2200 words, answer one of the two essay prompts below.
You may choose to write either on a particular person (Option 1), or to develop a
comparative statistical analysis that allows you to discuss a particular proposition about
how societies “worked” in the 19th and 20th centuries (Option 2).
Your essay should present a clear and interesting argument, an insight that is the product
of careful reading, analysis, and thought. Do not summarize the life of the person whose
biography you read; do not simply record the statistical pattern you have discerned. The
structure of your essay must be dictated by the structure of your argument; its content
must focus on the specific issues that you are examining.
The thesis of your essay—the argument, the insight you want to present, the product of
your analysis of the readings—MUST be stated within the first three sentences of the
essay. Where this is not the case, the essay will be returned to you and considered late
until it is resubmitted with the thesis stated clearly in the first three sentences. You
should not include ANY historical background or context in the introduction to or body
of your essay. In the case of Option 1, obviously, your main task is to relate the life of
the person involved to the broader historical context; but keep the balance of emphasis on
the biography of that particular person, rather than on a broad factual description of that
context. In the case of Option 2, you should not waste a word in introduction or body
explaining why the proposition in question is important; just take that as a given.
There is a guide to writing essays—to the genre, the literary form we call “essay”—in the
document “Writing History Essays,” on SmartSite. The basic rules of essay writing can
be summed up as follows: 1) An essay presents an argument, an insight, the “case” for a
particular point of view. That means it is focused from the outset on a thesis statement.
2) The body of an essay presents the analytical steps that lead the author to the argument
that the essay presents. That means that the body of the essay has a coherent, articulated
structure designed to lead the reader through a series of logical steps, each step supported
by evidence. 3) The claim of any essay should be that the insight it presents is important.
The concluding passages of an essay, therefore, should not only summarize what has
been said, what it has argued; they should also reflect on what the broader implications of
that argument. This means that the conclusion is the ONLY place in your essay where it
is appropriate to address the broader historical context.
Remember: an essay is focused on a SINGLE insight. It does not present a list of three or
four “aspects” of the issue (in this case, different broader developments that the life you
are examining reflects, or two or three different statistical patterns you have discovered)
without explaining how they are all related to the central argument, the thesis, of the
essay.
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In the case of Option 1, this means that your essay should not simply explain how the life
of the person you read about reflected two, or three, or four major trends in global history
in this period, without explaining how those trends can be seen to be related in her
biography. Consider for example Ruth St. Denis, about whom I spoke at some length in
one lecture. It is easy to see that her biography reflects both the history of mass
migration in the nineteenth century (her father was English, she was born in New Jersey)
and the history of the growth of racial thought (she played on racial stereotypes in some
of her performances). But how are these two things related? It makes good sense that
her life reflected both patterns, because imperialism, mass migration, and the creation of
settler societies had a constitutive impact on racial thought.
In the case of Option 2, take the example of the proposition “High taxes stifle economic
growth.” Now suppose that you discover that in one country taxes have been high, while
economic growth has been robust, whereas in another taxes have been high, but
economic growth has been desultory. A preliminary conclusion is, obviously, that high
taxes do not stifle growth in every case. But the next question is obviously this: was the
structure of taxation in these two countries different? For example, perhaps high taxes on
profits stifle growth, but high taxes on incomes do not? Or was the economic structure of
the two countries different? Perhaps high taxes stifle growth in economies dominated by
services, but not in economies dominated by manufacturing?
Essay Topics:
Option 1: Biography in Historical Context:
Choose one of the figures listed below, and read the recommended biography here (it will
be on reserve in Shields Library). Write an essay explaining how that person’s life
reflects broader trends in nineteenth and early twentieth-century global history. Relate
the biography you have raised to at least two of the trends listed below.
Global Trends, 1800-2000:
mass migration
settlement, expropriation, and genocide
the scientific-technical revolution
the emergence of a global economy based on commodity extraction
imperialism and resistance
the rise of racial thought
cultural globalization
religious innovation and conflict
the “global revolutionary moment,” 1910-1923
wars for world domination, 1914-1945
decolonization
the rise of the welfare state
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the Green Revolution
rise of the New Left
rise of the New Right
the global triumph of democracy in the 1990s
“financialization”
Biographies:
Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah: P. M. Holt, The Mahdist State in Sudan (1958/1970)
DT108.3.H6.1970
or Fergus Nicoll, Sword of the Prophet (2004) not at Shields
Muhammad Abduh: Mark Sedgwick, Muhammad Abduh (2009) BP80.M8 S43 2010
Jamal ad-Din al Afghani: Nikkie Keddie, Sayyid Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani (1972)
BP80.A45.K43
Nana Asma’u: Beverly Mack and Jean Boyd, one Woman’s Jihad (2000)
PL8234.A85.Z77.2000
Mustafa Kemal “Ataturk”: M. Sükrü Hanioglu, Atatürk: An Intellectual Biography
(2011) DR592.K4 H36 2011
Samuel White Baker: Michael Brander, The Perfect Victorian Hero (1982)
DT107.2.B16.B7.1982
Bambata: Jeff Guy, Remembering the Rebellion: The Zulu Uprising of 1906 (2006)
DT1875.G895.2006
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky: S. L. Cranston, HPB (1993) BP585.B6.C73.1993
Norman Borlaug: Nick Cullather, The Hungry World (2010) HD2056.Z8 C85 2010
Dietrich Brandis: Sharad Sing Negi, Sir Dietrich Brandis (1991), not at Shields
Edgar Rice Burroughs: Erling B. Holtsmark, Edgar Rice Burroughs (1986)
PS3503.U687.Z737.1986
Richard F. Burton: Diane Kennedy, The Highly Civilized Man (1999)
G246.B8.K46.2005
Andrew Carnegie: Joseph Wall, Andrew Carnegie (1970) CT275.C3.W33
or David Nasaw, Andrew Carnegie (2005), but this is not at Shields
Jean-Baptiste “Pomp” Charbonneau: Susan Colby, Sacagawea’s Child (2005) Special
Collections F592.7.C43.C65.2005
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Chiang Kai-shek: Jay Taylor, The Generalissimo (2009) DS777.488.C5.T39.2009
John Colenso: Jeff Guy, The Heretic (1983) BX5700.6.Z8.C654.1983
Joseph Conrad: Chris Fletcher, Joseph Conrad (1999) PR6005.O4.Z656.1999
Rubén Darío: Charles Dunton Watland, Poet-Errant (1965) PQ7519.D3.Z955
or Rubén Darío, Autobiografia (1920) PQ7519.D3.Z5.1920
Porfirio Diaz: Paul H. Garner, Porfirio Diaz (2001) F1234.5.D5.G17.2001
W. E. B. DuBois: David Levering Lewis, W. E. B. DuBois (1994/2001) E185.97.D73
L48 1993
Albert Einstein: Walter Isaacson, Einstein (2007) QC16.E5.I76.2007
Marcus Garvey: Colin Grant, Negro With a Hat (2008) E185.97.G3.G73.2008
Emma Goldman: Martha Watson, Emma Goldman (1987) HX843.7.G65.E425.2004
Charles George Gordon: Brad C. Faught, Gordon: Victorian Hero (2008)
DA68.32.G6.F37.2008
Mohammed Abdullah Hassan: Abdi Sheikh Abdi, Divine Madness (1993)
DT404.M38.S54.1993
William Dudley “Big Bill” Haywood: Peter Carlson, Roughneck (1983)
HD6509.H3.C37.1983
“Mata Hari”/Margaretha Zelle-McLeod: Julia Keay, The Spy Who Never Was (1987)
D639.S8 Z456 1987
Taha Husayn: Taha Husayn, The Days (2001) RJ864.A35.D39.2001
Kita Ikki: G. M. Wilson, Radical Nationalist in Japan (1969) DS503.4.H37 no. 37 course
reserves
Ishiwara Kanji: Mark Peattie, Ishiwara Kanji and Japan’s Confrontation with the West
(1975) DS855.5.I77.P4 reserves
Inayat Khan: Elisabeth de Jong-Keesing, Inayat Khan (1974) BP80.I55.J66131
Rudyard Kipling: David Gilmour, The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard
Kipling (2002) PR4858.P6 G55 2002
5
Jiddu Krishnamurti: Pupul Jayakar, Krishnamurti (1986) B5134.K754.J39.1986
Li Hongzhang: Samuel Chu, Li Hung-Chang and China’s Early Modernization (1994)
DS761.2 .L5 1994
Yuan Shih-K’ai: Ernest P. Young, the Presidency of Yuan Shih-K’ai (1977)
DS777.2.Y681.1977
Francisco Madero: Stanley R. Ross, Francisco I. Madero (1977) F1234.R84.1977
Miriam Makeba: Miriam Makeba, Makeba ML420.M16.A3.1987
José Mariátegui: Jesús Chavarría, José Mariátegui and the Rise of Modern Peru (1979)
HX222.M38.C45 or J. Octavio Obando Moran, José Carlos Mariátegui la Chia:
La Revolucion Socialista in el Perú (2009) F3448.M28.O33.2009
José Martí: Christopher Abel, José Martí (1986) F1783.M38.J67.1986b
Katherine Mayo: Mrinalini Sinha, Specters of Mother India (2006) DS480.45.S563.2006
Lise Meitner: Ruth Levin Sime, Lise Meitner (1996) QC774.M4.S56.1996
Ho Chi Minh: William Duiker, Ho Chi Minh (2000) DS560.72.H6.D85.2000
Jawaharlal Nehru: Judith Brown, Nehru (1999) DS481.N35.B76.1999
Sylvia Pankhurst: Mary Davis, Sylvia Pankhurst (1999) HQ1595.P34.D3.1999b
Gifford Pinchot: Charles Miller, Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern
Environmentalism (2001) S926.P56.M55.2001
John Reed: Eric Homberger, John Reed (1990) HX84.R4.H66.1990
George W. Romney: David Cross, A Striking Likeness (2000) ND1329.R64.C76.2000
Candido Rondon, Todd A. Diacon, Stringing Together A Nation (2004)
F2537.R66.D53.2004
Michael Joseph Savage: Barry Gustafson, From the Cradle to the Grave (1986) not at
Shields
Olive Schreiner: Ruth First, Olive Schreiner (1980) PR9369.2.S37.Z64.1980
Sun Yat Sen: Marie-Claire Bergere, Sun Yat Sen (1998) DS777.B47.1998
Jan Smuts: Bernard Friedman, Smuts (1975) DT779.8.S6.F74.1975
6
Bertha von Suttner: Brigitte Hamann, Bertha von Suttner (1996) JX1962.S8.H3613.1996
Nikola Tesla: Margaret Cheney, Tesla: Man Out of Time (1980), Engineering Library
TK140.T4.C47
Ivo Thord-Gray: Ivor Gray, Gringo Rebel (1961) F1234.T484.1961
Jim Thorpe: Kate Buford, Native American Son (2010) GV697.T5 B84 2010
José Vasconcelos: Ilan Stavans, José Vasconcelos, the Prophet of Race (2011)
F1234.V3.S73.2011
Booker T. Washington: Louis R. Harlan, Booker T. Washington (1972/1983)
E185.97.W33.H37
Garnet Woseley: Halik Kochanski, Sir Garnet Wolseley: Victorian Hero (1999)
DA68.32.W7.K63.1999
Hong Xuiquan: Jonathan Spence, God’s Chinese Son (1996) DS758.23.H85.S64.1996
Zeng Jifen: Testimony of a Confucian Woman (1993) CT1828.T688.A3.1993
Option 2: Comparative Historical Statistics
Choose one of the following propositions. Using statistics from sources in the list below,
discuss this proposition. You do not have to reach a definite or complete answer; but you
do need to move a definite, if partial step toward an answer. In your essay, you must
address a minimum of two countries, and you must use at least two statistical series that
both cover a period of at least 30 years. You must construct your own statistical analysis;
statistical analyses drawn from scholarly studies, histories, blogs, magazines, books, or
any other source do not count. (This means you will need to be able to use some form of
spreadsheet software.)
You may also develop a topic of your own in consultation with your TA or with Dr.
Dickinson, and subject to Dr. Dickinson’s approval.
Propositions:
1. More than half the rise in per capita GDP over the past century is accounted for by two
related changes: the fall in fertility, and women’s entry into the paid labor force.
2. High taxes stifle economic growth.
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3. High taxes stifle technological innovation.
4. Either rich societies innovate, or innovative societies get rich; we don’t know which.
5. Crime trends are determined above all by demographics and policing.
6. Crime trends are explained best by the breakdown of the family.
7. A large government sector stifles economic growth.
8. Economic growth is powered by savings.
9. Asian, African, and/or Latin American countries are now passing through a process of
modernization that Europe and North America passed through about 70 to 100 years
earlier.
10. The history of genocide in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was
demographically and economically irrelevant.
11. High fertility makes poor societies poorer, and rich societies richer.
12. Higher education is an engine of economic growth.
13. Making things and selling them once made societies rich; today, financial services
make societies rich.
14. High interest rates stifle growth.
15. Economic growth in the nineteenth century depended on demographic expansion;
economic growth in the twentieth century depends on containing demographic expansion.
16. High taxes on business stifle economic growth; high taxes on incomes fuel it.
17. Military spending stifles economic growth.
18. Fertility falls when women enter the paid labor force.
19. “Tourism” is a feature of the culture of the North Atlantic region.
20. More religious societies are less technologically innovative.
21. Societies that communicate more innovate more.
22. The automobile is a development choice, not a development indicator.
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Statistical Sources:
General Historical Statistics:
B. R. Mitchell, ed., International Historical Statistics (Palgrave MacMillan, multiple
editions and volumes), library reference, reference section for most recent edition
but 2000 edition on reserve
HA4675 .M55 2003 (Africa, Asia, Oceania)
HA1107 .M51 2003 (Europe)
HA175 .M55 2003 (Americas
Angus Maddison, The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective (OECD, 2001/2004);
HC21.M285.2001 or available electronically from any campus computer; some
top level figures from this book at
http://www.theworldeconomy.org/statistics.htm, and in Excel format at
ggdc.net/Maddison/Historical_Statistics/horizontal-file_03-2007.xls
Peter Flora, State, Economy and Society in Western Europe, 1815-1975: A Data
Handbook in Two Volumes (1983) HA1107.F6.1983 reference
http://data.worldbank.org has limited historical data on a whole range of topics
(education [see below], health, environment, etc.)
http://data.un.org/DataMartInfo.aspx has some very limited historical data (mostly since
the 1990s)
Taxes:
OECD tax database:
Tax Policy Center database:
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/ (mostly USA, limited historical international
data)
Labor Force:
International Labor Organization, LABORSTA labor statistics database:
http://laborsta.ilo.org/
Education:
http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/ed-stats
Inflation:
http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/inflation_rate/historicalinflation.aspx
(USA only)
Opinion:
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Pew Global Attitudes Project:
http://www.pewglobal.org/
Patents:
WIPO Statistics database:
http://www.wipo.int/ipstats/en/statistics/patents/ (downloadable in Excel format)
OECD patent databases:
.
htm
Economic Trends:
UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, World Economic and Social Survey:
http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wess/index.shtml
Tourism:
UN World Tourism Organization historical database:
Elections:
The International Almanac of Electoral History, ed. Thomas T. Mackie and Richard Rose
(1974/1991) JF1001.M315.1991
Elections in Asia and the Pacific: A Data Handbook, eds. Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz,
and Christoph Hartmann (2001) JQ38.E44.2001
Elections in Africa: A Data Handbook, eds. Dieter Nohlen, Michael Krennerich, and
Berhard Thibbault (1999) JQ1879.A55.E44.1999
Elections in Western Europe Since 1815 ed. Daniele Caramani (2000), not at UCD
Elections in Europe: A Data Handbook, eds. Dieter Nohlen and Philip Stöver (2010), not
at UCD
Elections in the Americas: A Data Handbook, ed. Dieter Nohlen (2005), not at UCD
Finance:
http://www.global-rates.com/
(limited historical data on interest rates)
IMF, International Financial Statistics, 1948-present, HG3881.I626, available on CDROM
on reserve, HG3881.I577 CD ROM
Calculating historical values and growth rates:
http://www.measuringworth.com/growth/
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