ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW
In the first assignment you examined primary sources, the raw material that historians use to interpret the past. In this assignment you will analyze secondary sources: articles written by historians. Scholarly historical articles are based on a historian’s interpretation of primary sources and other secondary literature. With this assignment you will evaluate and appraise two secondary sources written by historians. Your appraisal should compare and contrast the ways the authors present their arguments, the themes they use, and their interpretations.
ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES
Choose one of the sets listed below and read the articles carefully. Formulate a critical analysis of the two articles, identifying and comparing their main arguments, the sources they use, and the major themes they develop to support their argument. The articles are available on UM Learn.
Some questions to consider:
- What is each author’s main argument/thesis?
- What do the article sets tell us about the overarching theme (gender and the Depression OR race/ethnicity and health)?
- What main themes does each author use to develop and support their thesis?
- What primary sources does the author analyze and are they evaluated properly?
- What links can you make between the two articles? Are there differences or similarities in the interpretations? Is one stronger than the other?? Do they complement each other?
- How and why are these articles significant?
ARTICLE SETS
Article Set One: Gender and the Great Depression
Strikwerda, Eric. “Married men should, I feel, be treated differently: Work, Relief, and Unemployed Men on the Canadian Prairies, 1929-32.” In Left History 12, 1 (Spring-Summer 2007): 30-51.
AND
Julie Guard, “The Politics of Milk: Canadian Housewives Organize in the 1930s.” In Franca Iacovetta, Valerie Korinek, and Marlene Epp eds., Edible Histories, Cultural Politics: Towards a Canadian Food History (Toronto: UTP, 2012): 271-285.
Article Set Two: Race, Ethnicity, and Health
Megan Sproule-Jones. “Crusading for the Forgotten: Dr. Peter Bryce, Public Health, and Prairie Native Residential Schools.” In Canadian Bulletin of the History of Medicine 13 (1996): 199-224.
AND
Kristin Burnett. “Race, Disease and Public Violence: Smallpox and the (un)making of Calgary’s Chinatown, 1892.” In Social History of Medicine 25, no. 2 (2012): 362-379.
REQUIREMENTS/FORMATTING
- Essay should be 4-5 pages (1000 – 1250 words) long
- Include a title page (not part of the page count) which includes your first and last name as well as your student number
- Number your pages
- Essay should be a word document not a pdf, pages, or any other format
- Create either footnotes or endnotes using the Chicago Manual of Style (notes and bibliography format.) This means do not use in text parenthetical citations, Ibid. or op. cit., etc. as shortened forms of citation.
- Upload finished assignment to UM Learn; do not email the assignment to the instructor
GRADING
Late assignments will be graded, but corrections and comments for improvements may not be given. Late assignments will also be penalized by half a letter grade per business day.
Please see the rubric on UM Learn for the detailed grading scheme.
DUE DATE
This assignment is worth 10% of your final grade. It is due during week 16. Consult the Course Calendar on UM Learn for the specific due date.
