Assignments::
1) Historic Site Critique: For this assignment you will visit a local historic site and critique it as a public history site in a 3-5 page essay. You may choose any site that you wish, but it should be open to the public. Your critique should include the following:
- Name and location of site
- Hours and days of operation (is this sufficient?)
- Target audience and ability to serve this audience
- Mission statement and ability to meet the mission statement
- Narrative description of the site and any significant exhibits (keep this brief)
- Assessment of the quality and quantity of the presentation and whether the site meets its stated goals
I suggest the following sites:
Sutter’s Fort
Governor’s Mansion
Folsom Power House
Fountain-Tallman Museum (Placerville)
Old Sacramento
Golden State Museum
California Indian Museum
California State Railroad Museum
2) Book Review / Article Review: A book review should include the following elements:
- Title (your own – not the book’s)
- Full citation of the book reviewed on the first page (including total pages, and cost)
- introductory paragraph that states the theme of the review and the importance of the review
- body should address the book’s thesis, methodology, sources and audience
- conclusion which addresses the book’s overall effectiveness
3-5 pages, typed, double spaced.
Potential books for review include:
Michael A. Bernstein, The Great Depression: Delayed Recovery and Economic Change in America, 1929-1939 (1988)
Peter Temin, Lessons from the Great Depression (1989)
William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940 (1963)
Paul Conkin, The New Deal 3rd ed. (1992)
Theodore Rosenof, Dogma, Depression, and the New Deal: The Debate of Political Leaders Over Economic Recovery (1975)
Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s (1980)
Harvard Sitkoff, Fifty Years Later: The New Deal Evaluated (1985)
Roger Biles, A New Deal for the American People (1991)
Douglas L. Smith, The New Deal in the Urban South (1988)
JoAnn E. Argersinger, Toward a New Deal in Blatimore: People and Government in the Great Depression (1988)
Mark I. Gelfand, A Nation of Cities: The Federal Government and Urban America, 1933-1965 (1975)
William N. Mullins, The Depression and the Urban West Coast, 1929-1933: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle (1991)
Charles H. Trout, Boston, The Great Depression, and the New Deal (1977)
Potential articles for review include:
Udo Sautter, “Government and Unemployment: The Use of Public Works Before the New Deal” Journal of American History, vol. 73, no.1 (June 1986), 59-86.
Roger Biles, “The Urban South in the Great Depression” Journal of Southern History, vol. 56, no. 1 (Feb. 1990) 71-100.
Roger Biles, “The New Deal in Dallas” in Raymond Mohl’s The Making of Urban America (1997)
Final Project: Your grade for this portion of the class will be based on your ability to work with your other group members and to integrate your research into the class database. In addition to your raw data and photographs, you will write a 15-20 page essay summarizing your research findings and conclusions about the role of the New Deal in Sacramento history.
I suggest the following sources on local history:
Joseph McGowan’s History of the Sacramento Valley
Steven Avella’s Indomitable City
Sacramento Bee
Sacramento Union
Oak Park Ledger
Private papers of local residents
School Board Records
Sacramento Northern Records
Southern Pacific Records
Livermore family records
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california
state university, sacramento
