Category Archives: Reading Questions

Rosa Parks Questions

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This week, your reading assignment is from Danielle McGuire’s book, At the Dark End of the Street. Read through Page 134 of the book, and also read an article by Jeanne Theoharis about Parks in the Washington Post. (Optionally, you may also be interested in listening to this interview with Claudette Colvin in which she cites another of our “legendary Americans” as an inspiration for her decision not to give up her bus seat.)

Montgomery Branch of the NAACP, 1947

Please be forewarned that this week’s readings contain often disturbing and graphic descriptions of violence and sexual assault. Because of the nature of history, studying the past often means confronting painful and distressing subjects and events. In this case, remembering incidents of rape and anti-rape activism in the American South, as well as talking about why those incidents have been forgotten, are crucial to the scholarly arguments that Danielle McGuire and Jeanne Theoharis are making.

After you’ve done the reading, choose one of the following prompts and respond to it in your Google Doc. Before writing, you may want to have a look at the Google Doc we created to help you focus on the rubric. Remember to use specific evidence to support your positions, and also to think broadly about which of our previous readings might also help you to make your case.

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John Henry Reading Questions

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While you’re working through Scott Reynolds Nelson’s book this week, you may enjoy listening to some versions of the John Henry ballad available at NPR, including the earliest recorded version by Fiddlin’ John Carson, which is discussed in the book on pp. 138-141. You can also see one of the earliest printed versions of the lyrics here. For your reading response this week, use ONE of the following questions. But also be prepared to talk about all of these questions this Thursday.

  1. This is one of the first books we’ve read that relies heavily on songs, which Nelson calls “documents without paper” (p. 27), as primary sources. Are songs reliable historical sources?
  2. The short Disney film that we watched depicts Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation as a dramatic turning point, after which John Henry is freed from his chains, able to marry, and work for the promise of his own land. After reading the Nelson book, is this an accurate representation of the post-emancipation South?
  3. Are you convinced that Nelson found the real John Henry in “John Wm. Henry”? Does it matter to his larger story whether he did or not?
  4. The John Henry story is now often remembered as a heroic triumph of a hard-working man over machine that saved workers’ jobs and showed that human beings can accomplish anything. (Or, as James Earl Jones put it in the video, it shows that the American spirit is “indomitable.”) Based on evidence presented in the book, would the earliest keepers of the John Henry story would have viewed the story this way?

Though I don’t want you to use them for your writing response, here a couple of other things to think about:

  • Nelson argues that different groups of people–miners, prison convicts, railroad workers, twentieth-century “folk” musicians, and white Southern mill workers–all developed their own distinctive versions of the John Henry story and song. What were the key differences between the versions of these different groups? Can their versions of the song shed light on the way these various groups viewed the world?
  • Why did the John Henry ballad appeal to Communists in the 1930s? Why would he appeal to liberals and official American propagandists in the 1940s? Were the reasons for John Henry’s appeal the same in both cases?

If you want some more music, why not head over to YouTube to listen to Bruce Springsteen, Mississippi John, and Woody Guthrie singing about John Henry?

Image credit: “John Henry Building a Railroad,” by Fred Becker (1935), available at Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Tubman Reading Questions

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Hope you all had a good Spring Break! This week’s reading, listed on the schedule, is about Harriet Tubman. Be sure that you download both of the Sernett PDFs from OWL-Space. (Please note that I’ve slightly amended the syllabus, so you are only required to read the Sernett articles.)

Here are the reading prompts: pick ONE and write a response to it in your Google Doc for this week. I’d encourage you to revisit the Learning Rubric and the Google Doc we made collaboratively before the break (see links in the sidebar) to refresh your memory of what to work on in your responses!

  1. Milton Sernett argues that what a society chooses to tell its children about the past offers one of the best measures of what that society values and/or thinks worth remembering. Do you agree? If so, what does children’s literature about Tubman reveal about us?
  2. Sernett quotes Michael Kammen as saying that “what history and memory share in common is that both merit our mistrust, yet both must be nevertheless nourished” (p. 8). Do you agree with that generalization? If so, what parts of the histories that have been written about Tubman or her times merit mistrust? Which parts of the public memories of her merit mistrust? Which parts of the history or memory about her must nevertheless be nourished?
  3. How much influence did Tubman have over the making of her own legend?
  4. How many excursions did Tubman make back into the South to rescue slaves, and how many slaves did she ultimately help to escape North? Does getting the figures exactly right matter?
  5. Which image of Tubman do you think is more well-known today: Tubman as “Moses” or “General Tubman” the rifle-toting Civil War scout? Based on your reading of the material in Sernett, what accounts for the relative popularity or prevalence of these images?

Image credit: Photograph of Harriet Tubman, 1860s-1870s, from the Documented Rights exhibit at the National Archives.

Writing Assignment for Feb. 25

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Before writing in your Google Doc this week, be sure to complete the reading assignments. Then you’ll be ready to write this week’s writing assignment.

For that writing assignment, I want you to develop a position of your own on some question that has arisen so far in this course. I’m giving you greater latitude in terms of topic than I’ve given you before, but you should not forget to keep the learning rubric in mind as you write.

After you’ve developed a position that you’d like to take, you can craft an essay for ONE of the following scenarios:

  • Imagine you are submitting a 700-word op-ed reader essay to the Houston Chronicle.
  • Imagine you are writing an email home to one of your high school American history teachers.
  • Imagine you are addressing a letter to your elected representative on the Texas State Board of Education.

Put your assignment in your Google Doc as usual.

Also, here are some reading questions that I’d like you to consider. You are not required to use them to frame your writing assignment, but they and the other reading questions we have discussed this semester may help you form your position.

  1. Do you agree with James Loewen that “heroification” in American history textbooks is a problem? If not, be sure to respond directly to his arguments and show why you think they are faulty. If you do agree with Loewen’s analysis of “heroification,” what are some possible solutions? Be sure to use examples and evidence from Loewen’s article when answering this prompt to demonstrate that you understand his argument, whether you agree with it or not.
  2. Based on evidence presented in this week’s readings, how much of a role do you think textbooks, schools, and educators play in Americans’ sense of history and the past? If Americans have a distorted or selective view of the past, are teachers and schools the primary culprits? Or are there other causes that you can point to?
  3. Both Sam Wineburg and Michael Frisch report on experiments they have done that are very similar to the exercise we conducted on our first day of class this semester. What do you think their findings tell us about the way American students view America and its history? Be specific in your discussion of their findings, and notice that the articles are separated by about twenty years.
  4. Do you think there are hidden costs to society or national unity if “heroes” are “debunked”? Based on your evaluation of the costs and benefits of dispelling legends about the past, do you think the goal of teachers of history be to represent the past as faithfully as possible, warts and all, or do you agree with social conservatives on the Texas Board of Education that history teachers should represent America as positively as possible?

Writing Assignment for Feb. 18

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Next week’s reading and writing assignment will depart slightly from our usual practice.

Before beginning the assignment, you should still complete the assigned reading, which is Camilla Townsend’s Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma. But I won’t be giving you specific reading questions this time, so to prepare for our discussion, you’ll have to use the reading skills you’ve gained this semester, as well as your understanding of the Three Big Questions and related issues we’ve raised, to think about what we will likely discuss.

Your writing assignment will also be different. Instead of giving you specific questions to respond to, I’m going to give you some “real world” writing scenarios (listed below). Though the assignment is different, my expectations about it are not: you should still use the rubrics on position-taking and effective communication when writing.

Choose TWO of the following scenarios and complete the task associated with each. Put your work in your Google Doc as usual.

Scenario 1: Recently the Treasury Department has announced its intention to put a woman on $10 bill. Imagine that the Department were to announce that it has selected a representation of Pocahontas for the bill, sparking a controversy pitting supporters of the bill against opponents. Your task is to develop your own position, and then imagine that you have decided to create a petition to the White House using its online portal. You should write the text of the headline and description that you will use for your petition on that site, as well as the text of an email you plan to send to your friends and family explaining why you want their support for the petition. Both must draw on the available evidence from this course and the understandings and expertise you’ve gained so far in “Legendary Americans.”

Scenario 2: Imagine that students at one of the colleges on campus have announced plans to host a new themed public party called “Colors of the Wind.” From the marketing for the party, you have learned that the organizers planned to encourage attendees to costume themselves as Native Americans; the poster features an image of Pocahontas. Controversy has ensued over the college’s plans, especially after the University has announced that it will not allow the party to take place because of the theme. Your task is to write a letter to the Rice Thresher staking out your own position on the controversy. The letter must draw on the available evidence from this course and the understandings and expertise you’ve gained so far in “Legendary Americans.”

Scenario 3: Imagine that the HISD School Board is reevaluating the movies that it keeps stocked in its elementary schools. One of the movies up for discussion at the Board’s next meeting is Disney’s Pocahontas. Your task is to write a statement that you will read to the School Board, following its guidelines for addressing Board meetings. The statement must draw on the available evidence from this course and the understandings and expertise you’ve gained so far in “Legendary Americans.”

Important Notes: Regardless of the scenarios you choose, you will need to practice Audience Awareness, the fourth of our Four Capabilities in this class. That may mean you need to do some research about the real-world expectations and requirements for each of these writing scenarios. Whichever you choose, you should also keep in mind that you have a broad base of evidence, readings, and insights to draw on from this course, and so you should use those available materials as fully as possible. Don’t hesitate to use applicable points or evidence from earlier weeks’ readings and discussions if it will help you defend your position. While you may use the same points or evidence in your responses to both scenarios, that may not always be advisable; keep in mind that some evidence that may be especially powerful for one audience may not be as powerful for the other.

Crisp Reading Questions

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Next week’s reading assignment is James E. Crisp’s Sleuthing the Alamo. Before you jump to Chapter 1, be sure that you read “Pride and Prejudice: A Personal Prologue” (pp. 1-25). I think you’ll discover that every single one of you has something interesting in common with Dr. Crisp.

As you read the Crisp book, here are some questions to consider. You should write a response to one of these prompts in your Google Doc as usual.

  1. Why doesn’t Crisp think that “Anglo racism” is a sufficient explanation for the causes of the Texas revolution for independence? Do you agree with him that “racism” was not the “core explanation” (p. 45) of the Texas Revolution?
  2. Crisp believes, unlike Bill Groneman, that the De la Pena diary is both authentic and reliable. Do you agree on both counts? (Note that these debates attracted attention from national newspapers like The New York Times when they happened in 1998.)
  3. How did Davy Crockett die? (Be sure to use specific evidence and arguments from the book to support your answer.)
  4. Why do you think Crisp’s critics (discussed in Chapter 4) care so much about the way Davy Crockett died? Do you think it matters how he died? (Again, use specific evidence from the books to explain and support your answers.)
  5. In the afterword, Crisp discusses Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s theory that making history can be broken down into several “moments”: the creation of facts, the assembly of facts, retrieval of facts, and the delivery of facts. Does this view mean it is impossible for historians simply to get to “the facts” of the matter without their own perspectives getting in the way?
  6. Crisp begins and ends his book by talking about a family photograph that has been cut in half. He believes it is important to point out that figures like Juan Seguin and Jose Enrique de la Pena have been cut out, so to speak, of our pictures of the Texas Revolution. Should we put such figures back into the picture when we teach children about the Texas Revolution?

Image credit: “Crockett at the Alamo,” from The Idle Hour Book, or Scrapiana; Being a Nerve-Worker, Care Destroyer, and Genuine Countenance Disturber . . . Containing all the Information Necessary to Raise a Laugh at the Shortest Notice. . . . New York: Turner & Fisher, ca. 1848. Texas Collection Library, taken from this online exhibit about the De la Pena diary at the University of Texas. The whole exhibit is worth a look if you’d like to see some images and historical sources about the Texas Revolution, the Alamo, and the diary.

Daaaaavy, Daaaaavy Crockett! Questions

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Today in class we watched clips from Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier. This week’s readings will touch on the 1955 Crockett craze that the movie inspired.

As you do the readings, here are some questions to think about. You should also choose ONE of the questions and write a response of 300-500 words in your Google Doc.

  1. The first part of the Roberts and Olson article focuses on what the author’s call Walt Disney’s “worldview” (p. 233) in the 1940s and 1950s. Drawing on evidence and examples in the text, describe Disney’s worldview and the events that shaped it. Then, think about the clips from the movie we watched last week, and make a case for or against the view that the film was an expression of Disney’s personal political ideas.
  2. In this week’s readings, a variety of reasons are given for the incredible popularity of the Crockett movie in 1955, which amounted to a merchandising “craze.” Among the possible reasons for the “craze” include: (a) a simple fad for which there is no good explanation, (b) a desire among audiences for escapist entertainment, (c) the power of television and marketing to manipulate consumer taste, and (d) the rich historical symbolism of the Crockett “frontier” character, which provided both Disney and his audiences with a “usable past” (Roberts and Olson, p. 237) that had political implications in the present. Which of these factors (if any) best explains the Crockett craze? What evidence from these readings or others we have done support your explanation?
  3. As the readings show, the Crockett craze eventually sparked controversies about the historical accuracy of Disney’s movie. Based on the evidence in the readings, do you think the defenders and critics of Davy Crockett, the man, in 1955 really disagreed more fundamentally about who should be authorized to write or represent history? If so, what were some of the major positions on that question, and which of them do you agree with?
  4. Was Walt Disney essentially a twentieth-century version of Parson Weems? Why or why not?
  5. Using internal evidence in the entries, as well as the articles by King, Roberts and Olson, assess the reliability of the American National Biography and Wikipedia entries on Crockett. Do you consider one of the two sources better than the other, and if so, why?

Image credit: Davy Crockett movie poster, from IMPawards.com

Washington Reading Questions

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For next Thursday, you’ll be reading most (but not all) of the Francois Furstenberg book. (See the schedule for full details.)

Below are the questions you should use to prepare for our discussion. You should also choose ONE prompt as the basis for your reading response, which you will write on a new page in your Google Doc.

  1. For Furstenberg, what was the fundamental “problem of U.S. nationalism” in the early decades of the United States? Did widespread veneration of George Washington solve that problem?
  2. One reason some Americans become “legendary” is because they represent or symbolize popular values or ideals. But Furstenberg also suggests that looking at the legends surrounding Washington can tell us a great deal about what Americans most feared during the nation’s early decades. What did Americans most fear in these years, and how did those fears influence portrayals of Washington? Do you think “fears” continue to play a role today in the way Americans remember the past?
  3. One of the concepts that Furstenberg frequently uses in his book is that of “civic texts.” Based on his definition of that concept in the book and in Appendix 1, are there any “canonical” texts (like speeches, books, or famous documents) that continue to function as nationalist “civic texts” today? Since Furstenberg also uses early American schoolbooks as one example of “popularizing” civic texts, do you think your own past textbooks or books you were asked to read in high school (for summer reading, for example, or in preparation for an AP test) can be described as “civic texts”?
  4. Is there good historical evidence for the story, told by Weems, Thayer, and others, that Washington chopped down a cherry tree and later confessed to it? If not, what accounts for the origins and continuing popularity of that story?
  5. After reading Furstenberg’s book, do you think that George Washington should be remembered as a “proto-abolitionist”?
  6. One of Furstenberg’s arguments is that “nationalism” has a lot in common with “religion.” In what ways was that true in the early national period, based on the evidence in the book? Where do the similarities end, in your mind?

After reading the assigned text for this week, you might enjoy this brief op-ed piece that Furstenberg wrote for the New York Times several years ago on the Fourth of July. In it, he makes the case that men like Mason Locke Weems were as much the “founding fathers” of the nation as men like Washington, since they popularized and glorified the legacies of the nation’s first leaders. After reading about Weems in detail in the book, would you agree with that assessment?

Image credit: This painting of Washington, depicting him as almost godlike, appears on the dome in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Building. The photograph of the painting displayed here was posted on Flickr by “H4NUM4N.”

Sacagawea Reading Questions

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[Please note that the reading assignments for next Thursday, which you will need to do in order to answer the questions below, are listed on the schedule. The schedule is where you will always be able to find the complete list of what you are required to read each week.]

To whet your appetite for this week’s reading assignments, you might want to check out the U.S Mint’s page on its Sacagawea dollar gold coin. It includes a brief description of Sacagawea’s role in history that you might want to compare with some of the information you find in the assigned readings.

As you read the assigned texts, here are some questions that will help you focus on the important parts of the readings and prepare for our discussion next Thursday. It is important to think about all of the questions, but you must also select one of these prompts and write a brief response of around 300-500 words (or one single-spaced page) in your Google Doc by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday.

  1. Using evidence provided in the assigned articles, construct a persuasive answer to the following question: Given the relatively small number of times that Sacagawea is mentioned in the journals of Lewis and Clark, why did she become so famous?

  2. If Donna Barbie is right that “Sacagawea’s proponents fashioned an idealized woman, according to their own definition” (Barbie, p. 60), then historians might be able to use stories about Sacagawea to understand how different Americans in the past defined the “ideal woman.” Drawing on your readings for this week, select one or two stories or legends about Sacagawea and analyze what they reveal about definitions of the “idealized woman” at the time when these stories or legends were popularized.

  3. Based on the historical record discussed in these articles, what word or phrase would you use to best describe Sacagawea’s role in the Lewis and Clark expedition? Was she primarily a guide, an interpreter, an intermediary, the wife of a hired member of the expedition, a useful symbol of peaceful intentions, some combination of these roles, or some other role entirely?

  4. There are two different theories about when Sacagawea died, both of which are discussed most fully in the Thomas P. Slaughter article. Which of these theories do you find most convincing, and why?

  5. After reading Scott Casper’s article on the American National Biography, do you agree with the editors of the ANB, quoted on pp. 452 and 453, that it is important for a nation to have a “national biography”–a compendium of the nation’s important figures?

  6. Do the differences between the Dictionary of American Biography and the American National Biography, as summarized by Casper, reveal larger changes in the way that American historians think about the nation and the past? What are some of these changes?

Some optional resources you might find interesting:

Many of this week’s readings make reference to the Journals of Lewis and Clark, which happen to be available online. If you are interested, you can even use the names index to the online edition to browse quickly through all of the pages that mention Sacagawea, either in the original text or in the editors’ footnotes.

The assigned readings also mention an historical novel by Eva Emery Dye, called The Conquest (1902), that contributed to the rise of Sacagawea’s fame in the twentieth century. That novel is also available online through Google Books, and if you are interested, you can easily click through to some of the sections that talk about Sacagawea.

Image credit: “Sacagawea,” sculpted by Alice Cooper, in Portland, Oregon; available on the Wikipedia entry on Sacagawea, which contains a list of other statues of Sacagawea around the country.