ASH 3002y Approaches to American Culture, 1607-1865
Project #1 Assignment

Due April 12 --  Publish a digital presentation or submit a traditional essay in which you critically compare a secondary account of this period (1607-1865) in one of the pre-1967 "classics" in American Studies with a secondary account written more recently and in keeping with the "new" American Studies

Requirements:

• Choose two accounts of the period that are related in some way, for example by topic or theme.
• Read both, comparing their arguments and approaches.  For this purpose, you'll want to pay particularly close attention to the texts' introductions, which will often lay out central concerns and operating assumptions.  Consider as well the kinds of evidence being marshaled in each book.  For example, does the author draw primarily on textual evidence, or does he or she use illustrations and/or statistical material as well?   Evaluate the effectiveness of the evidence.  How convincing a case does each author make?
• In the process of comparing these texts, pay attention to ways in which these texts reflect the development of American Studies as a field.  To what extent do the differences between the texts' approaches reflect changes in the field as a whole?   To help you address this question, you may want to look at Elaine Tyler May's article "‘The Radical Roots of American Studies’: Presidential Address to the American Studies Association, November 9, 1995" (American Quarterly 48.2 [June 1996]: 179-200), which is available on reserve and via the web.
• Present your comparison of these texts on in a well-analyzed and well-written comparative review which you publish on your website.

Options:

• Though this project should be approximately equivalent of four typed pages, you may choose to type those pages in traditional essay format, or to present your review in a hypertext variation on the traditional essay.

Cautions:

• Whether you present a traditional or a non-traditional essay, you are responsible for the analytical rigor of your argument and for the stylistic correctness of your writing.   This includes proper acknowledegement of sources, which should be done in Modern Language Association format.  (See the style manual that you bought for first-year English, or pick up a guide to the preparation of papers in the Barnard English department offie.
• Feel free to talk to me at any point in the process.  I may be able to help both with the selection of your texts and with questions that arise in the course of your analysis.