Posted: May 28th, 2015

Communism Paper Assignment

Communism Paper Assignment

Instructions

This paper is designed to have you work with primary sources.  Primary sources are the material that historians work with when trying to reconstruct the past.  Primary sources are any text, document, or artifact that was created during the period under study.  In the book, The Age of MacCarthyism,  pages 1-106 contain modern analysis of the Cold War period by the author, Ellen Schrecker.  Pages 109-274 contain a variety of primary sources dealing with the Cold War period.

For this paper, you need to examine at least 4 of the primary source documents and cite them as evidence to support your argument in your paper.  You can use simple parenthetical citations for page numbers for citations. [Example: “J. Edgar Hoover argued that the goals of HUAC and the FBI were the same (127).]   At the end of the paper, please give a list of which primary sources you have used.  You do not need to use a formal citation system; simply list them with author, title, and page numbers.

Since the first portion of the book gives background information on the cold war, you should have no need for any other outside sources.  I suggest reading the beginning portion of the book first and then skimming over the primary sources to find ones of interest to you.  Then read those primary sources in more detail.

The assigned paper topics are:

1.    Do you think the response to communism during the Cold War was justified?  Were the communists a real threat?  Why or why not?

OR

2.    What do you think motivated the anti-communist forces?  What motivated the communists?  Which group do you find more sympathetic?

Your paper should be 1000-1250 words in length (4-5 pages in length, double spaced, typed, in 12 point font, with margins of normal size).  As you write your paper, please be sure that it has a clearly stated thesis and that you support that thesis in the body of the paper using evidence from the primary sources.

The paper is worth 12 points.

Grading rubric:

Lacks a clear thesis or argument: -4 points
Less than 1000 words: -3 points
Not written in college level English: -3 points
Uses less than 4 primary sources: -1 per primary source not use

This paper is designed to have you work with primary sources. Primary sources are the material that historians work with when trying to reconstruct the past. Primary sources are any text, document, or artifact that was created during the period under study. In the book, The Age of MacCarthyism, pages 1-106 contain modern analysis of the Cold War period by the author, Ellen Schrecker. Pages 109-274 contain a variety of primary sources dealing with the Cold War period.
For this paper, you need to examine at least 4 of the primary source documents and cite them as evidence to support your argument in your paper. You can use simple parenthetical citations for page numbers for citations. [Example: “J. Edgar Hoover argued that the goals of HUAC and the FBI were the same (127).] At the end of the paper, please give a list of which primary sources you have used. You do not need to use a formal citation system; simply list them with author, title, and page numbers.
The assigned paper topics are:

1. Do you think the response to communism during the Cold War was justified? Were the communists a real threat? Why or why not?

OR

2. What do you think motivated the anti-communist forces? What motivated the communists? Which group do you find more sympathetic?
Your paper should be 1000-1250 words in length (4-5 pages in length, double spaced, typed, in 12 point font, with margins of normal size). As you write your paper, please be sure that it has a clearly stated thesis and that you support that thesis in the body of the paper using evidence from the primary sources.
Grading rubric:

Lacks a clear thesis or argument: -4 points
Less than 1000 words: -3 points
Not written in college level English: -3 points
Uses less than 4 primary sources: -1 per primary source not use