Research Paper:
Using only the sources specified below for a single year between 1945 and 2000, write either an analysis of events in the country of your choice (e.g. China, Cuba, Israel, Korea, Nigeria, Iran) or relations between that country and the United States. Caveats/ restrictions: 1. You must choose a non-western country (not the U.S., Britain, Europe, the Soviet Union, Canada, Australia, New Zealand), i.e. a country in Central or Latin America, Africa, Asia, or the Middle East. 2. You must choose a year for which there is no secondary literature about your country or lots of historiography. So no papers on South Korea in 1950, Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, Vietnam in most years between 1954-1975, Mexico in 1968).
Sources:
Use 15 or more articles from a combination of newspapers and magazines, with a minimum of five different sources. Be sure to pay attention to differences in political perspective.
Newspapers: New York Times or Washington Post (available from 1961 on) or Christian Science Monitor or London Times, all of which are indexed and available at the UMBC Library. They may also be found on-line in Lexus-Nexus, generally only since 1977. Do not use other on-line sources without permission.
Magazine articles: Use the indices from the Reader’s Guide to Periodic Literature for the relevant year. At least half of articles used should be from magazines other than Time or Newsweek. Especially useful magazines are The Atlantic Monthly, Commentary (available from 1960 on), The Economist (available from 1939 on), Foreign Affairs (available from 1922 on), Harper’s, The Nation, National Review (available from 1955 on), NewRepublic. If no date is indicated after the title, magazine issues since 1919 are available. Dr. Simpson may, at his discretion, post some very limited acceptable online sources for you to use.
US Government Documents: If you choose to write your paper on U.S. relations with your country in the year you have chosen you may use declassified government documents from the following online sources. Note: not everyone's topics will have online documents available.
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Books: This nonprofit research organization uses the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to declassify documents relating to U.S. foreign policy and make them available to the public. Their website has a list of publications, many of which cover countries (Cuba, Philippines, Iran, Nicaragua, El Salvador) that are relevant to this course.
US Department of State FOIA Electronic Reading Room compilation of online declassified State Department documents. Very incomplete, but punch in your country and year and see what comes up - or if you are researching a topic in the 1973-1975 period run a search and you will find plenty.
CIA FOIA Reading Room - compilation of online declassified CIA documents. Very incomplete, but punch in your country and year and see what comes up.
Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS): This is a standard source for primary documents relating to the history of U.S. foreign policy. FRUS attempts to cull representative selections of the most important documents for different countries, regions, issues (foreign economic policy, nuclear weapons). FRUS is not definitive. It must be taken for what it is, an edited volume with documents selected by historians with their own biases. But it is a good place to start, generally well organized. Documents are available through the early 1970s. You might find political analyses from the State Department or Central Intelligence Agency concerning your country and year. They are pretty easy to look through but ask me if you have questions.
You must choose a country and a year. Topics will be approved on a first-come, first-served basis. Only one student may write on a topic. Sign up with Professor Simpson. You will choose your topic by the third week of class and by week 8 I will ask you to submit a preliminary bibliography with at least 15 articles from 5 or more sources.
Students are expected to read sources thoroughly and write an account of events in the country of their choice or of that country’s relations with the United States in that year. What were the issues? What happened? What was important? Why? Make sure to make an argument. Don't simply recite a narrative of the events from that year. What challenges did the country face economically, in its relations with neighbors, the great powers? How was it affected by the forces of what we now call globalization?
Papers will be 5-7 pages (excluding bibliography), typewritten, double-spaced and annotated. Use the History Department’s Style Sheet for the appropriate form for footnotes or endnotes and your bibliography.
Grades will depend on 1) thoroughness of research; 2) quality of analysis; 3) quality of writing. All sources must be cited in endnotes or footnotes and listed in a bibliography. Papers without citations will not be accepted. Quote only when the language in unique; otherwise paraphrase. Plagarism, submitting someone else’s work as your own, will result a grade of F for the assignment and may subject you to disciplinary action.
Paper is due TUESDAY November 27. Late papers will be accepted, but discounted one letter grade per school day or part thereof delayed.