- Use of 3 different themes and 3 different subjects or topics
- Vetting of sources within the essay
- Proper notation of and use of quoted materials to support content argument
- Proper formatting of citations for all quoted materials
- Works Cited with proper sections listing Primary Documents and Secondary Sources
- Full bibliographic information provided in Works Cited
- Name and class information provided
- For each theme you discuss, you need to quote your textbook OR an outside secondary scholarly source of your choosing once and ONE primary document found either in your ebook or from an outside source. (See further details about your sources below). Use a different primary document for each theme and history you write on. You must include a properly formatted Works Cited at the end. These assignments will help you learn to see history in terms of these themes.
- For each Themed Essay Assignment, you will write a minimum 750-word entry (CONTENT ONLY – Works Cited DOES NOT count towards minimum word count)
11. The Effects of Education on History ~ “I know something you don’t know . . .”
Education is one of the five hallmark institutions of society, along with political institutions, economic institutions, family institutions, and religious institutions. Indeed, education is experienced from the time you are born and you learn language and other cultural skills from your family. The development of a writing system is one of the hallmarks of civilization, which enables a society to record and preserve their thoughts, beliefs, ideas, inventions, innovations, etc. and pass them forward in time. Education also allows for concepts and ideas to pass from culture to culture, via trade, or migrations, or even conversions. When the European Crusaders journeyed through the Byzantine Empire of their way to the Holy Land, they picked up new ideas, new skills, new thoughts and concepts, which eventually lead to the intellectual rebirth of Europe called the Renaissance ~ an era in which backwater Europe would propel itself within 100 years to the top of the global food chain of civilizations.
12. Individualism vs. Communalism ~ “the need of the one” or the “need of the many”?
Human beings need each other, it is that simple. Men hunted wild game in packs and women birthed and nurtured their families in packs. We are communal creatures – so when and why did the concept of individuality begin? We were for centuries defined by our gender, or our class, or our professions, or our utility to a society – but seldom were we defined by our unique qualities, unless we were the few and the fearless who aspired to greatness above the masses. And here is where the occasional person or people emerge who place more value on the unique ability of the individual, then on the herding instinct of the masses. Art became a way for the one to differentiate themselves from the many, as it expressed a part of them in a public setting. For example, the communalism of an army was always led by the individuality of a general and his art of military tactics. Athens is a good example of a society that stressed the power of the individual with the creation of Athenian Democracy that granted all citizens, males over 18, a voice in the politics of the city-state.
13. WAR ~ “What was it good for?”
War is the most constant theme in history ~ it has been occurring and reoccurring in every age of human existence and while it is easy to recount the horrible effects of war there is also a case to be made for the positive outcomes of war. An obvious positive outcome of war is the independence won in the American Revolution and the eventual creation of the unique Democratic Republican government outlined in our U.S. Constitution.