Can someone recommend a thesis for my 100-level American History class?

[fuzzybabybunny]

Here's my v.0.1 thesis statement

"After the Civil War, hundreds of thousands of settlers poured into the west in pursuit of new lives and new opportunities. The very image of the American West was defined by a new technology, photography, and it was photography that united the budding Western frontiers with the rest of the United States through vision and in soul. "

Anything that I should change? I feel it may be a bit vague. I want to show that the West was defined by photography because after photography had been invented, people could finally see what the West was like. This ability to see this new land piqued peoples' interest in the land, people, and opportunities of the west, and greatly helped unite the infant US.... ok am I just BSing here?

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From my instructions sheet:

You get to choose the topic for your paper; it can be anything connected to American history since the end of the Civil War. But the topic must be appropriate to a 5 or 6 page length; I have never seen an excessively narrow topic. You cannot write a paper on "the Depression"; try women in southern Ohio during the Depression instead. Be creative?this is your paper, so choose a topic that is interesting and meaningful to you. Internet sources will not count for this paper; try the library instead.

Be creative, interesting and fun with your topics! Writing on something odd is encouraged. I will not accept papers on Jackie Robinson or the JFK assassination. Write about something you don?t know about!

Example of a weak thesis statement: ?This paper is about the status of blacks after the Civil War.? This thesis statement is weak because it does not make an argument or answer a question. Example of a strong thesis statement: ?After the Civil War, many of the freed black slaves believed that their children would have substantially better lives and greater opportunities than they had had as slaves. However, their hopes for their children were not fulfilled; in the 1880s, the lives of most blacks were not much better than those of their parents.? The thesis statement ?in the 1880s the lives of most blacks were not much better than those of their parents? makes an argument (readers can agree or disagree with it). A good thesis statement can be rephrased as a question. In this case, the question is ?Were the children of ex-slaves much better off than their parents?? Or ?How much difference did the Thirteenth Amendment make in the lives of most African Americans???

Recommend anything. My worst subject has always been history, and unfortunately, I don't think I know enough about the details of American History to find a thesis to "prove."

TIA!

 

[yllus]

Post-Civil War? That sucks, so many interesting things went on before it.

Okay...how about this. One of the major causes of the Civil War was the way the country was fragmented politically, with no national parties being able to legitimately claim that they represented the entire nation (I might embarassingly get this wrong, but IIRC the Democrats represented the South and that's it, and the Republicans just the North). So, thesis: What was required to make both parties inclusive of the entire United States again?

 

[mundane]

Philadelphia project? Roswell? Do something weird, something fun. The Great Sardine Avalanche of ought-6.

 

[apinomus]

Write a paper on how the world might be like if the South had won.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389828/

 

[Tobolo]

There are a lot of things you could write on.
The Manhattan Project. Text
Maybe Three Mile Island. Text
The urban sprawl of the '50s.
The evolution of American music since Civil war (That would be hard to do in 6 pages, but a lot of sources.) Pick a genre from the early 1900's and roll with it.
The effect of the Irish Imigration on America during the potato famine. Text

Ill post more as I think over the day.

EDIT: Added Links

 

[rudder]

Use the photography angle. Maybe how war has been documented with pictures.

 

[Zach]

Effects of Standard Oil on the railroads in the mid-west?

 

[nageov3t]

the american socialist movement, starting in the depression with major subversive figures like john steinbeck and woodie guthrie, and through the red scare / mccarthyism?

 

[pinion9]

The subjugation of the black man following the release of Boyz in Da Hood.

 

[acemcmac]

I wrote a paper on how the industrial revolution couldn't have happened without 3 or 4 key technological advancements immediatley following the civil war

 

[rise]

write it about how the educational system has failed students as they are asked to be creative, yet need to come to ATOT to ask for ideas.

 

[ATLien247]

The decline of the steamboat industry...

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: yllus
Post-Civil War? That sucks, so many interesting things went on before it.

Okay...how about this. One of the major causes of the Civil War was the way the country was fragmented politically, with no national parties being able to legitimately claim that they represented the entire nation (I might embarassingly get this wrong, but IIRC the Democrats represented the South and that's it, and the Republicans just the North). So, thesis: What was required to make both parties inclusive of the entire United States again?

what do you mean? so many interesting things happened after it! right after the civil war was a major time in the west. write about some famous outlaws and lawmen. tons of info can be found about the old west.

 

[yllus]

Just personal preference. I found the pre-Civil War period much more interesting to read about.

 

[IAteYourMother]

Originally posted by: yllus
Just personal preference. I found the pre-Civil War period much more interesting to read about.

I found the Cold War fascinating

 

[theknight571]

Here are some topics that came to mind... you could report on various aspects of them...

Gold Standard

Wounded Knee Massacre

Effect of air travel on the presidency

Prohibition

Flying Tigers

Birth Control Pill

Sputnik's effect on the US Space Program

Lowering of the voting age to 18

Canadian Caper and/or Iran Hostage Crisis

 

[Jawo]

If I were writing the paper I might choose a topic like "Did the airplane revolutionized warfare" or "Is space exploration worth the expenses" or "The effect of RADAR on WWII" or something along the aeronautical lines (one of my interests)

EDIT: the Space Race also has a great plethora of paper topics.

5-6 pages is pretty short especially if you are required double space. Pick any of the above topics and you could find a plethora of information on it. If your school has a subscription to LexisNexis its even easier!

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Westward expansion
Spanish American War
The Annexation of Hawaii (An interesting side effect of the S/A War)
The purchase of Alaska from the Russians
WWI
Birth of the airplane

 

[SirStev0]

How bout,

US relationship (vendetta) against cuba spanning from spanish-american war to bay of pigs clusterfuck to embargo to current events (castro's sudden illness and bush's threat to invade)

If you don't know about it, We have been pis sed at Cuba since they refused to join the US after the spanish-american war. They were too popular (cared about) world wide to invade and just attempt to take over, see philippines, so instead we've acted like a little bully who got yelled at by the teacher and sulked and picked on them ever since. Look it up, it is highly written about by historians outside the US and that crazy US historian, i think it was Noam Chomski. I had a sweet entry to american history class that was usually a class that gave tests and papers, instead the teacher made it discussion based.

I bet there is a crazy repub who is so made he could spit right now because of damn liberal teachers spreading their message of hate in our colleges, but he was actually very open to discussion. A good amount of his philosophies were conservative in nature and He was hardcore Liberterian and anti-imperilism. Hated Bush, but had a hardon for most other Republicans. We spent a lot of time on the imperialist tendencies of America. Great teacher, and sweet class.

 

[badmouse]

"Was Rutherford B. Hayes really the worst US president ever?"

Lots of material at the library - easy to research.

 

[mugs]

Transcontinental railroad - how it affected the United States economically by allowing goods to be moved quickly and inexpensively from west to east (and people from east to west).

 

[Horus]

Wow, that's gonna be a hella-detailed thesis. Write on something interesting...maybe something from WW1? Maybe something like "The delay of the United States into the First World War was based on a lack of motivation from the people, cowardess from the government and an attitude of the war being a "European issue" from the other side of the Atlantic"

 

[WildHorse]

"Dust bowl migrants leave midwest, flood to California"

This is what they left behind!

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Oklahoma, in the last year, has recognized this really happened.
The reason it happened...Black business was doing much better than white farmers.

http://www.toptags.com/aama/events/okriot.htm

...Galvanized

 

[chambersc]

the south's stranglehold on the Democratic party coming to an end?