The purpose of your final assignment is to allow you to display skills which you will be developing in this course through in-class discussion, research activities assigned as homework, and assigned readings.

The skills I want you to show you have developed are:

the ability to select an historical topic, identify its significance, and make a plan of research for that topic;

the ability to identify significant secondary literature regarding that topic, and trace the historiography of that topic;

the ability to critique the historiography and identify a perspective to prove or disprove;

the ability to identify and locate primary (first-hand) sources concerning the topic you have chosen;

the ability to present a thesis, based on research in both secondary and primary literature and sources;

the ability to defend that thesis and make a clear and cogent argument in its defense.

In order to show these skills, students will prepare an essay of fifteen pages (2000-3000 words) plus endnotes or footnotes, including an introduction, a statement of the thesis, a brief review of the historiography of the topic (including significant paradigm shifts in the field), an argument in support of the thesis based on the use of secondary and primary source materials, and a conclusion. Documentation should be provided with footnoting.

Your final result should be of such high quality that the department will immediately beg you to allow its inclusion in the Departmental Journal, The Phoenix.