Checklist - Your Essay Must Have:

• primary sources
• 2-3 secondary sources
• footnotes formatted in Chicago Style
• a length of 7-10 pages
• introduction, with thesis statement–your main point
• several paragraphs providing evidence in support of your main point
• conclusion

Topics and Resources

Any period:

The Historical New York Times

Political Cartoons

Historical Film and TV Footage

FBI Electronic Reading Room

McCarthyism: Remembering McCarthy

The Sixties: The Sixties Project

Civil Rights: Black Thought and Culture

Antiwar Movement: Kent State May 4 Archive

Vietnam: The Soldiers’ Experience

The Nixon era: The Watergate Tapes

Iran Hostage Crisis: Materials from Jimmy Carter Library

September 11, 2001: September 11 Digital Archive

YouTube documentary footage

History Matters: search for primary sources and for websites containing primary sources

Secondary sources:

Concordia Clues Catalog

Article databases (look for such journals as American Historical Review, Journal of American History, American Quarterly): Academic Search Premier (EBSCO), JStor, Project Muse, History Cooperative, University of Chicago Press Journals

Wikipedia “Further Reading” and “External Links” Sections

YouTube excerpts from documentaries