HHS 414: Industrial America
Spring 2012
This semester you will design and conduct a research project to take a closer look at some aspect of industrial America. The project should include original primary source research; a consideration of the relevant secondary literature; a lesson plan to teach your classmates about your topic; and an essay that summarizes your research. There are four project deadlines:
1. February 8th: Choose a topic.
Students can choose any topic, so long as it is related to the themes of the course, broadly construed. As we have discussed in class, your topics might include:
- Deindustrialization
- Innovation and Industrial America in the 21st Century
- Industrial Hoboken
- Industry-specific studies (the finance industry, music industry, steel industry, etc.)
- Technological unemployment: are we inventing ourselves out of jobs?
- Fordism, Taylorism, and their international applications
- What can we learn from failure, failed firms, and failed industries?
- A specific entrepreneur or individual, firm, sector, or geographical region (such as the European Union)
- A specific national "system of innovation"
- The making of the American middle class
- Everyday life in industrial society
- Can Americans revive old industries or create new manufacturing jobs by creating new industries?
- Efforts to replicate the success of Silicon Valley
- etc.
You should send me an email to indicate your choice of topic no later than 9 pm on Tuesday, February 7th. You may also propose a different topic. In your email, please clearly indicate your topic and write at least one paragraph to describe the scope of your study, major questions you will pose and hope to answer, and any primary or secondary sources you have identified.
For help with primary sources, see the webpage created by Valerie Forrestal, Stevens Librarian, the Stevens Library Guide for Historical Research.
2. March 21st: Annotated Bibliography and Outline due.
As you explore primary and secondary sources that inform your topic, you should develop an bibliography with annotations (2-5 sentences) that describe the source and indicate its value and relevance for your project. Your bibliography should include at least 8 entries, including at least 4 primary sources or 4 secondary sources. For more information on annotated bibliographies, see the Purdue OWL.
Once your annotated bibliography takes shape, you should begin to think about the structure of your project, the ways you plan to integrate your sources, the argument you plan to make, and the evidence you plan to use. Your outline should be in roman numeral form, and fill at least 1.5 pages.
3. April 11, 18, and 25: Class presentations.
The goal of your class presentation of your research project is to teach the other students in the class – as well as your professor – about a topic that you have researched in depth and they have not. Your presentation will be successful if your fellow students are engaged and feel as though they have learned something.
Your presentation (no powerpoint allowed) should take 5-8 minutes and address the following questions:
The schedule of presentations is posted in Moodle. Please note that students who are not scheduled to present should instead submit a reading response to the class reading for that week; students who are scheduled to present do not need to do a reading response.
4. April 25th: Project Essay due.
Your final essay should advance an original interpretation of your topic, based on your research in primary and secondary sources. It should consist of a clear thesis, supported by evidence and situated within the existing secondary literature. Your essay should be 8-12 pages (2000-3000 words), not including the bibliography and notes.