History Take Home Essays
Please choose one topic from below and write a 3-5 page paper on it. Your essays should be typed, double-spaced with one inch margins in a reasonable font. Page suggestions are guidelines only. More is certainly acceptable. It might be difficult to cover a topic adequately in less than 3 or 4 pages.
1. "During the 1960's, the student radicals of Berkeley made an important stand to gain and secure the rights of dissent and freedom guaranteed to all Americans in the Constitution. Despite their portrayal as drug-crazed fiends, these idealistic young people rendered an important, patriotic service to their country even as they protested against their nations policies."
Do you agree or disagree with this interpretation of the Student Movements of the 1960's? Based on your readings, your lecture notes and the films we saw, please discuss the nature of the student protest movement, the counterculture, and young people in the sixties in general.
2. Imagine the date is Dec. 7 of this year. Knowing that you are a keen student of California History, you have been chosen to deliver a speech to the Pearl Harbor Survivors veteran's group. Your topic is "Japanese Internment and Civil Rights". Please write a 3-5 page speech on this topic which is accurate, but also sensitive to your audience.
3. "Thanks the Civil Rights Movement, America has achieved a complete victory over racism. Now is the time to fulfill King's dream of a country where people "will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the quality of their character." Having defeated racism, Californians were wise to do away with the "Affirmative Action" policies that still tied us to racism."
Do you agree or disagree? Please attack or defend all or parts of this quote. Then, based on your readings and your lectures as well as any movies you may have seen, please discuss the natureof race relations in California today. Have we achieved a "color blind" society? Do we still need corrective policies?
4. "If he had just shot Moscone, Dan White would've gotten life in San Quentin. Back then people used to think that if you killed a gay guy, you were doing the community a service. And people feel the same way today." Jim Elliot, Union Activist.
Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Please discuss the life and death of Harvey Milk. What contributions, if any, did Milk make to San Francisco, California or the United States? Have things changed, or was Harvey Milk's life and death largely insignificant in the larger scheme of things?