Choose 4 of the below essays, and write page and a half for each question. Note that complete essays will demonstrate a proficient mastery of course materials. They must draw from all of the assigned Course Texts and the upload papers. (for this essays: approximately 1929 to 1974).
Course Texts:
- Susan Strasser, Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash
- David Howard-Pitney, ed., Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights
- Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s: A Brief History with Documents
- James A. Henretta, et al., America: A Concise History, Volume 2: Since 1865 (Optional)
NOTE: Any edition will do, but syllabus is based on 6th ed.
Essays Questions:
1. After 1930, in what ways did communism and the fear there of shape American domestic and foreign policy, popular culture, political activism, and other social relations and institutions?
2. How did women’s roles, expectations, rights, and privileges change since 1929?
3. How did race and ethnic relations shape social, political, economic, and legal developments in the United States since 1929?
4. Why did the United States enter World War II? What were the short-term and long-term social, economic, political, and diplomatic implications of its entanglement in the war?
5. Trace the developments of the American welfare state since 1929. Why and in what ways did government policies increasingly aim to directly or indirectly support and uplift the economic and social well-being of the American people?