History
407
Guidelines for Paper #1: The Revolutionary War
The first paper assignment is a 5-7
page paper that answers some basic question about a particular aspect of
the Revolutionary War. You will select one of the questions below and then
find scholarly books and journal articles that address that question.
Your paper will develop a THESIS which captures the answer (or answers)
you discover in the secondary sources. The body of your paper should work to
PROVE the THESIS with specific examples and quotations taken from
those sources. You must use and cite at least FOUR
sources that are scholarly works published on the topic. This can
include academic monographs (books by a single author on a particular topic),
essays from edited collections, and journal articles. When you find one book
that answers the question (the more current the better) you can look in the
footnotes to find additional works that cover the topic. You may NOT use
encyclopedia entries, citations from general reference works, or online sources
like Wikipedia. Such reference sources can sometimes prove helpful in finding
secondary sources. They often, however, will lead you to dated scholarship. I
would also like you to rely more on recent scholarship so that you can get a
sense of the current state of the field. To that end, beware of using Google
books. It’s a great tool, but it largely includes materials which are in the
public domain, which generally means old works that have almost always been
superseded by new scholarship. That’s fine if your paper looks at changes in
how historians have answered a question over time. It is not, however, a good
thing for all your sources to be pre-1970s scholarship. If you disregard these
directions and use inappropriate sources like reference works or all of your
sources are dated, I will dock your paper at least one letter grade.
Grading:
Your grade will depend on the secondary sources you compile
and how well you use them to answer the question. I will grade your paper based
on the quality of your sources, the clarity of your main thesis and individual
points, the depth of your analysis, the strength of your evidence, your use of
evidence, and the persuasiveness of your argument. I also expect you to use
proper format for your citations and bibliography. If you do not properly
footnote your sources and include a bibliography, you will lose points.
For those of you who find yourself shooting for the
minimum page-length: the bibliography does NOT COUNT as page 5; nor does the
title page count as page 1. And, this may come as a shock, but it’s obvious
when students tweak the side margins, headers, and footers to make a 4 page
paper look like a 5 page paper—or when they increase font size or word spacing
or any number of other pathetic gimmicks.
Click here for Dr. Bouton's Advice
for Improving Your Papers.
Questions:
You will select the questions in class (I will pass around
a sign-up sheet). No more than six people will be able to sign up for any
particular topic to ensure coverage of each question (and because there are
limited sources for each question).
1)
At the start of the war in
1775, the colonies defeated
2)
In 1776, the colonies
seemed unable to win. Why were they suddenly losing so much?
3)
The tide of the war turned once
again in 1777 to colonies’ favor. What explains the colonies’ success in 1777
and afterward?
4)
What was the militia? What were its strengths
and weaknesses? Why did it succeed or fail? (Give specific examples to back
your point)
5)
What was the Continental Army? What
were its strengths and weaknesses? Who served as Continental regulars? How and
why did kind of people who served in the army change over time?
6)
Despite performing better militarily in 1777,
the colonies still faced serious problems waging war. What were the FOUR most
significant problems?
7)
What were the FOUR most
important mistakes
8)
What was
Citing
Sources:
You MUST cite you sources according to the “History Style Sheet”
on the History Department webpage. This sheet
provides examples of citations in the format used by academic historians. If
you do not properly cite your sources, you will lose points.
http://www.umbc.edu/history/style.html
Provide a bibliography at the end of your paper with the full
citations listing all the sources you used. The bibliography MUST be in the
proper format.
Starting Your Research:
For this paper, you will
need to use books and/or journal articles. What follows is advice about using
journal articles and list of books that will help you get started in your
research. PLEASE NOTE THE LIST OF BOOKS ON RESERVE AT THE LIBRARY ON THE BOTTOM
OF THE PAGE!
Journal Articles:
Use the following database search engines to locate journal articles relevant
to your topic (there are others you can use, but this one is most relevant).
To use the databases, you must be connected to the internet on campus. If
you are off campus, you can still connect by going through UMBC’s research
port. To do this, go to http://researchport.umd.edu
and then follow the links to UMBC and enter the information from your
university ID. You can also use a VPN client. Here is a link to the library’s
page about connecting to campus either through the research port or VPN client:
http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/services/remoteaccess.php
To reach the databases, click here: http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/subjectguides/HISTGEN-SG/index.php
Searching this database (or any other database) will produce a list of journal articles,
some of which will contain hyperlinks which you can click to download a PDF of
the article. For the non-hyperlinked entries, you will have to check with the
library’s serials holding to see if we carry paper copies of the journal at
UMBC. To do this, click this link: http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/serials/serialsearch.php
which will give you a search engine box where you can enter the name of the
journal and check to see if UMBC has it on the shelves and, if so, the run of
years we carry.
Books:
Use the following list as a starting point for your research
for Paper #1. To find additional sources, I suggest looking up the following
books and then searching on library shelves for nearby books that may deal with
the same topic. I would also advise looking through the footnotes of these
books to get references to additional books and articles.
PLEASE BE GOOD ABOUT SHARING THE BOOKS WITH OTHER STUDENTS
WORKING ON THE SAME TOPIC. I have included a master list of who is working on
what topic along with email addresses.
For an excellent short overview of the Revolutionary War, see
James Kriby Martin and Mark Edward Lender, A Respectable Army: The Military
Origins of the Republic, 1763-1789.
For the militia, see Mark V. Kwansny, Washington's Partisan
War; Steven Rosswurm, Arms, Country, and Class; Don Higginbotham, Daniel
Morgan: Revolutionary Rifleman; Michael McDonnell, “The Politics of
Mobilization in Revolutionary Virginia: Military Culture and Political and
Social Relations, 1774-1783,” Journal of American History 85, no. 3, (1998):
946-981; Michael McDonnell, The Politics of War: Race, Class, and Conflict in
Revolutionary Virginia; Paul David Nelson, "Citizen Soldiers or Regulars:
The Views of American General Officers on the Military Establishment, 1775-1781,"
Military Affairs 43, no. 3, (1979): 126-132; Jeffry J. Crow and Larry E. Tise,
eds., The Southern Experience in the American Revolution; W. Robert Higgins,
ed., The Revolutionary War in the South: Power, Conflict, and Leadership;
Robert Gross, The Minutemen and Their World.
For the Continental Army, see Charles Royster, A Revolutionary
People at War; Charles Neimeyer, America Goes to War; James Kirby Martin, A
Respectable Army; Benjamin Quarrels, The Negro in the American Revolution;
Joseph Plumb Martin (edited by James Kirby Martin), Ordinary Courage; Hugh F.
Rankin, The North Carolina Continentals; John Resch, Suffering Soldiers (first
few chapters); Robert K. Wright, The Continental Army; Ronald Hoffman and
Joseph Albert, eds., Arms and Independence; Sidney Kaplan, "Rank and
Status Among Massachusetts Continental Officers." American Historical
Review, 56 (January 1951), 318-326; Richard H. Kohn, "The Inside History
of the Newburgh Conspiracy:
For American problems during war, see E. Wayne Carp, To Starve
the Army at Pleasure; E. James Ferguson, The Power of the Purse; Richard Buel,
In Irons; James Kirby Martin, A Respectable Army; Erna Risch, Supplying
Washington's Army; Ronald Hoffman and Joseph Albert, eds., Arms and
Independence; Jonathan Gregory Rossie, The Politics of Command in the American
Revolution
For the military history of the war, see Ronald Hoffman, ed., Arms
and Independence; Don Higgenbotham, War and Society in Revolutionary America
and The War of American Independence; Marshall Smelser, The Winning of
Independence; Burke Davis, The Campaign that Won America; Jonathan Dull, A
Diplomatic History of the American Revolution; Richard Buel, Jr., Dear Liberty;
Piers Mackesy, The War for America; Richard Ketchum, The Winter Soldiers; Dave
Palmer, The Way of the Fox: American strategy in the War for America; Willard
Wallace, Appeal to Arms; James Kirby Martin, A Respectable Army
For British difficulties, see Paul David Nelson, "British
Conduct of the American Revolutionary War: A Review of Interpretations,"
Journal of American History 65, no. 3 (1978): 623-653;R. Arthur Bowler,
Logistics and the Failure of the British Army in America; Piers Mackesy, The
War for America; James Kirby Martin, A Respectable Army; Paul H. Smith,
Loyalists and Redcoats: A Study in British Revolutionary Policy; George A.
Billias, George Washington's Opponents; Ira D. Gruber, The Howe Brothers and
the American Revolution
For the southern strategy see Ronald Hoffman, ed., An Uncivil
War: The Southern Backcountry During the American Revolution; Ronald Hoffman,
"The 'Disaffected' in the Revolutionary South," in Alfred F. Young,
ed., The American Revolution, 273-316; Rachel Klein, Unification of a Slave
State: The Rise of the Planter Class in the South Carolina Backcountry; Harry
M. Ward, Between the Lines: Banditti of the American Revolution; Jeffry J. Crow
and Larry E. Tise, eds., The Southern Experience in the American Revolution; W.
Robert Higgins, ed., The Revolutionary War in the South: Power, Conflict, and
Leadership. See also books on individual states during the Revolutionary War.
Of the sources
that are listed above, the following are one 1-day
reserve.
Bowler, Arthur. Logistics and the Failure of the
British Army in
Carp,
Crow, Jeffrey J., Tise, Larry. The Southern Experience
in the American Revolution.
Hoffman, Ronald. An Uncivil war : the southern
backcountry during the American Revolution.
Kwasny, Mark V..
Martin, James Kirby. A respectable army : the
military origins of the Republic, 1763-1789.
Mayer, Holly A.. Belonging to
the Army: Camp Followers and Communit.
McDonnell, Michael A.. The politics of war : race, class, and conflict in revolutionary
Neimeyer, Charles Patrick.
Royster, Charles. A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Arm.
Seymour, William. The Price of Folly: British Blunders.
Rosswurm, Steven. Arms, Country, and Class, The