Due Jan 24

Preliminary Findings

Reading HW Read the shaded sidebars on pp. 36-39 and pp. 47-48 of the introduction to Halliwell’s American Culture in the 1950s. These case studies on Disneyland and on Brown v. the Board of Education illustrate the kind of scholarship I’m looking for in your written report on the 1960s: a brief account of a particular aspect of history and culture. As you read these two passages, watch out for the following elements:

• Narrative: how might you sum up the story he’s telling in one sentence?
• Authorities: what claims does Halliwell back up with secondary sources? what claims does he leave unsourced? what can you learn about Halliwell’s research from looking at the details in his endnotes?
• Fragments from the Past: where does Halliwell use primary sources? What function do they serve?

Research HW Read about the topic you selected for this unit (selections here) in Wikipedia and other easily accessed resources. Make sure to read around your topic, trying to find a broad range of articles that bear on it.

Note that there may be no article that focuses specifically on your particular, so be inventive and look for articles that reference or relate to your topic in some way.

Writing HW Paste into the Comment Field, below:

• A list of TEN key individuals, organizations and events, ranked in order of significance. If you're covering a movement, consider including not just movement activists, but political opponents and enemies.
• A paragraph written by you providing a basic outline of what you’ve learned. Your paragraph should briefly sum up the "story" of what happened in your topic during the 60s. You may also want to note which topics from our course are most closely connected to yours. If possible, conclude your ¶ with a question motivating further research: What would you genuinely like to know more about? What strikes you as odd or in need of further explanation?
• Following the ¶, list any 2 or 3 leads on secondary sources (authorities). These should be published sources, not mere websites. You'll find these leads at the bottom of each wikipedia article, under the headings "References," "Further Reading," and "Bibliography."

Fragments HW Now that you've familiarized yourself with your topic by reading wikipedia and the like, search for references to your topic in Google's Life Magazine archive (instructions for searching the archive here). Then pick an article or advertisement that strikes you as particularly vivid or revealing and post it as a Fragment of the Past (instructions for posting screenshots here). In your comment, explain why you think this fragment is worthy of notice. Then add a link to the particular page in the magazine (for prettier links use bit.ly or goo.gl to create short urls.)

In class Finding books at Mugar Library: Attila’s guide to bibliographic plunder (Farber & Bailey handout). Difference between books and journal articles. What to make of an “article anthology” bound as a book. Using Google Books to preview materials.

Handout the Bibliography from David Farber and Beth Bailey, The Columbia Guide to America in the 1960s.