U.S. History Essay Topic

[fdgsgds]

I am a senior in high school and was wondering if you guys could give me any cool U.S. history theses that I could write about and I thought this would be the perfect place to come to . Have you guys written any cool thesis papers on U.S. history? I would love to know.

Anyways, the paper only has to be seven pages so it's not too long, so the thesis shouldn't be too complicated.

 

[Cutlass]

There are 1000s of topics you could cover. Pick one you already know something about and use that as a starting place.

 

[fdgsgds]

Well, I already see stuff on here like, Was Harry S Truman a war criminal? That's interesting. I'm bad at coming up with ideas =\

 

[Dachs]

Comparison between Federalist (1789-1800) and Republican (1801-1815) foreign policy with respect to France, Britain, and Europe, up to and including the Treaty of Ghent, and why the Republican foreign policy sucked donkey balls.

 

[schlaufuchs]

Like Cutlass said, it's a huge amount of crap to think about. Why don't you narrow it down a bit? What time period are you interested in? Any region of the US you want to cover in particular? Are you doing political history? Social history? Economic history? Religious History? Comparative History? Military History? How much time do you have to write this? What kind of access to resources do you have/how much outside research are you planning on doing for this essay? Are you planning on using any primary sources or is it going to be your high school textbook with maybe a few outside secondaries/tertiaries thrown in? What kind of essay do you want to do? You're in high school so you really don't have to try very hard. A simple compare/contrast would do, but by history's standards those are usually considered pedestrian and amateurish. You could also do a narrative, although you have to be a pretty damned good writer to pull that one off. Change over times can be interesting, and are very easy to pull off. Usually history papers these days revolve around investigations into a specific theme or idea, say "Political legitimization and the church in Anglo-Saxon England", "Popular Reaction to the Münster Rebellion" or "Women and Urban Space in High Medieval Tuscany". So before we can give you suggestions we're going to need to know more about what you want to do.

 

[ParkCungHee]

If you want to be a hipster (or just breath a breath of fresh air) and discuss Truman's obscure war crimes, I can point you towards some primary documents on the Korean War.

 

[fdgsgds]

I think I just came up with an idea: comparing the 1929 stock market crash and the depression in the 30s with the recession today. Thing is, I need to turn it into a thesis, such as: "Not enough it being done today to prevent huge financial disasters that have occurred in our past." What do you think of that, and do you know of any good sources/primary sources?

 

[Joecoolyo]

I'm no economic expert, but besides for the general theme of a depressed economy, are the two situations all that similar?

 

[Cutlass]

I'm no economic expert, but besides for the general theme of a depressed economy, are the two situations all that similar?

As you should expect, there are both similarities and differences. There is, of course, no direct sameness. We had Gilded decade, we had way overpriced housing, we had too high stock market, we had too much manipulation and profit in finance, we had reckless finance, we had unregulated finance, and then we had finance so self-damaged that it could not support the economy. And then we had a government that is barely going through the motions of getting the economy back on track.

Biggest difference, the Fed screwed up by the numbers both at the start of the GD and through most of the length of it. Now the Fed has been too conservative, but hasn't been a major cause of the problem.

 

[Quackers]

My advice is to go for any era which interests you. If you can get excited about it; you will research more and try harder = better grade.

 

[Traitorfish]

Write something about industrial unionism. Fun thing about syndicalism is that there's tons of literature it available freely on the internet- libcom.org is a good place to start- and although it's not necessarily of the highest quality from an academic standpoint, you'll be able to find plenty that'll do for high school. Plus, it's a slightly obscure topic, so it'll look like you put more thought into it than you actually did, a tactic that has always served me well.

 

[Antilogic]

Write something about industrial unionism. Fun thing about syndicalism is that there's tons of literature it available freely on the internet- libcom.org is a good place to start- and although it's not necessarily of the highest quality from an academic standpoint, you'll be able to find plenty that'll do for high school. Plus, it's a slightly obscure topic, so it'll look like you put more thought into it than you actually did, a tactic that has always served me well.

Heh, I read Philip Dray's work to learn more about the history of unions in the United States. It's an utterly depressing subject.

 

[sydhe]

I think I just came up with an idea: comparing the 1929 stock market crash and the depression in the 30s with the recession today. Thing is, I need to turn it into a thesis, such as: "Not enough it being done today to prevent huge financial disasters that have occurred in our past." What do you think of that, and do you know of any good sources/primary sources?

The depressions of 1873 and 1893 make interesting comparisons, including the length of time it took the economy to recover. There was a sharp depression right after World War I that didn't last very long, and I'd love to know why. (Why the recovery was swift, that is, not why there was a depression.)

 

[ParkCungHee]

The depressions of 1873 and 1893 make interesting comparisons, including the length of time it took the economy to recover. There was a sharp depression right after World War I that didn't last very long, and I'd love to know why. (Why the recovery was swift, that is, not why there was a depression.)

From what I understand, they created a bubble that passed the institutional problems off to the Great Depression.

 

[Masada]

That kind of causality is unlikely at best.

 

[schlaufuchs]

Besides, broad-form compare/contrast topics like that are usually low hanging fruit that don't result in interesting or meaningful (beyond the superficial) conclusions.

 

[Lord Baal]

The depressions of 1873 and 1893 make interesting comparisons, including the length of time it took the economy to recover. There was a sharp depression right after World War I that didn't last very long, and I'd love to know why. (Why the recovery was swift, that is, not why there was a depression.)

European nations, particularly Germany, began borrowing money from the US at an unprecedented rate, creating a boom which offset the depression the ceasing of wartime spending had briefly resulted in.

 

[Millman]

I hope this isn't a bombshell but how about the purpose of the U.S. I think that has been discussed before.

And even before the U.S. existed murder is illegal, yet we still have it year/day/week/ect., around. Something like 'Freedom hasn't changed one's lust for power.'

 

[Gucumatz]

One of my favorite papers I wrote in my IB History of the Americas in High School was a comparison of rural outlaws and standing up against the Homeguard of the confederacy during the Civil War. I found Henry Berry Lowry there - Who is an awesome character (Basically a Lumbee Robin Hood who had the largest bounty placed on his head ever in American history of any civilian who was never caught).

Some of the stuff he did, or the reporters and the Homeguard claim he did is insane. He supposedly took out half a squadron of Homeguard troops by floating a camouflaged canoe through the swamps of Robeson county and using it basically as a turret.

The Lumbee case during the Civil War was an interesting one. The confederates didn't have enough labor so they basically forced many Lumbee into almost slavery status and seized the land/killed anyone who resisted.

 

[Antilogic]

I hope this isn't a bombshell but how about the purpose of the U.S. I think that has been discussed before.

And even before the U.S. existed murder is illegal, yet we still have it year/day/week/ect., around. Something like 'Freedom hasn't changed one's lust for power.'

Doesn't this pre-suppose that the U.S. has an unifying purpose?