Category: History

The 2000 word Research Essay should respond to one of the two essay prompts: 
Look at one of the Turning Points covered in this topic and explain the most important historical circumstances that caused it to happen when it did. 
Look at one of the Turning Points covered in this topic and explain the most important short and long-term consequences of this event. 
While teaching staff will not read drafts, the topic coordinator is happy to provide feedback and guidance on assignment plans. A sample marking rubric for the Research Essay is here.Download Research Essay is here.

Assignment Instructions for Final Essays:
Objective:
For this assignment, For this assignment, we are required to complete two essays, selecting one topic from Prompt A and another from Prompt B. Each essay should be between 750 and 800 words.
Structure and Selection:
1. Prompts: You have three topic choices within both Prompt A and Prompt B. Select one topic from Prompt A and one from Prompt B to write each of your essays.
2. Separate Files: Submit each essay as a separate document. Label each file clearly with the prompt and topic choice (e.g., “Prompt A – Topic 1” and “Prompt B – Topic 2”).
Content Requirements:
1. Analysis of Primary Sources: Focus your analysis on the primary sources relevant to the topic you have chosen. Include at least three primary passages from these sources to support your argument.
2. Identification of Passages: Clearly identify the passages you are analyzing at the beginning of your essay. This can be done by quoting a brief excerpt or describing the passage succinctly.
3. Thesis Development: Construct a solid thesis statement for each essay, supported by evidence from the primary sources.
4. Citations: Employ footnotes for citations, emphasizing the primary sources. Refrain from additional research as it is discouraged.
5. Quotations: Utilize direct quotations effectively and sparingly. Ensure they add value to your argument without overwhelming your word count.
Additional Guidelines:
• Ensure your analysis is thorough, focusing on depth over breadth. Each paragraph should clearly support your thesis.
• Maintain a coherent structure and logical flow of ideas in each essay.
• Adhere to the word limit to keep your writing concise and focused.

Question: How were the pyramids built? Although it is clear that the Egyptian pyramids
were manmade, not everyone agrees (anyone seen Ancient Aliens?). How would you
convince a skeptic otherwise, with an evidence-based approach? Don’t focus only on how
the stone blocks were lifted into place – build a broader argument based on how the
Egyptians utilised natural resources, manpower and engineering knowledge. Include one or
two sentences stating why you think it is important to counteract ‘pseudoscience’.
Instructions: Prepare an essay of 1,750 words (+/- 10%) on one of the topics provided in the document below.  Ensure that you reference your work correctly (essays that do not include correct in-text citations and a reference list of all works cited will not be eligible to pass).
Generative AI tools cannot be used in this assessment task
In this assessment, you must not use generative artificial intelligence (AI) to generate any materials or content in relation to the assessment task.
Citations: To cite modern scholarly source materials, follow the Chicago manual of style 17th edition using the
Author-Date system as outlined.  For Archaeology and Ancient History essays you should always provide page numbers for your in-
text citations even if you are paraphrasing the original work. In rare cases, the page number can be
omitted if you are truly discussing the entire work (e.g., “In her seminal article, Winter (1987)
changed the way scholars thought about Assyria”). Otherwise follow this format:
Prentice (2010, 10) analyses the ambivalence of indigenous peoples in capitalist nation
states.
The political dimensions of cultural exchange are enacted in fiction by Aboriginal and Maori
writers (Prentice 2010, 13-15).
Prentice (2010, 40) asserts a need ‘to examine the complicity between representation and
commodification’.
We require you to provide a link to your sources in your bibliography. This is to achieve one of
the important goals of accurate referencing: to allow your reader to check your sources. The vast
majority of sources that you will access for your assignments will be available to you online, via
online journals, scholarly databases (JSTOR, ProQuest) or as eBooks in the Library
collections. To tell your reader where to find your source, you can place a link at the end of your
bibliographic reference, following the examples provided for you below.

my topic is the chapter I am choosing for this assignment, please just follow the instructions. i only need one source and it is given in the directions from my instructor please do not use any other source and again I am to only write about the chapter that I chose.

Read the questions carefully. Think about what is being asked. Be original!  DO USE ALL THE RESOURCES AVAILABLE FOR THE COURSE: PRIMARY SOURCES, TEXT BOOKS, LECTURE NOTES, AND SESSION DISCUSSIONS.  DO NOT USE WEB SITES UNLESS IT IS FOR THE DOCUMENTS. YOU MUST MAKE REFERENCE TO THE PRIMARY SOURCES ASSIGNED FOR THE COURSE AND TO THE ARGUMENTS MADE IN YOUR SECONDARY TEXTS.
It may be useful to provide some chronological reference, i.e., the trial of Urbain Grandier took place towards the middle of the seventeenth century, the Malleus Maleficarum was written in the late fifteenth, etc.  Provide examples from your readings.  Refer to specific texts in the course reader. Please do well! We want you to do as well as possible. Use page number. 12 Font Times Roman, double spaced. 1 inch margins throughout. Write the question you are answering on the text (single space).
In your take home final exam, your answers should not exceed a total of eight typewritten pages (double spaced), THAT IS EIGHT PAGES FOR A COMBINED  BOTH questions.  It can certainly be shorter than that (but not too short). The exam is due on Monday 10 June through Turn It In. The system closes at 6 PM and submissions cannot be uploaded after that time. If many of you submit around 6 PM, the system will crash. PLEASE DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. You may submit your exam before if you finish it earlier. 
Part I:  Choose One
After reading Natalie Z. Davis’ The Return of Martin Guerre, seeing the movie, and reading the original account of Jean de Coras what can you say about the lives and beliefs of French peasants in a specific part of France in the sixteenth century? What was their work like? What were their beliefs? What was the nature of peasant popular culture? How does the book compare to the movie and to the original account? What is different in the book? How different and why?
In either of Carlo Ginzburg’s great two books (optional for this class), Night Battles, and The Cheese and the Worms, we see the encounter between ancient peasant beliefs, peculiar ideas, and inquisitors. Select one of these two books: What is the book all about? What are Ginzburg’s main points? What do you think of the book and why?
The Italian Renaissance ushered a revival of classical culture, humanism, and extraordinary artistic production. It also led to the reception of ancient mysteries and esoteric doctrines. What was the nature of this knowledge? Why was that type of knowledge and what was its impact on the development of later European civilization? You may focus on one city. This question requires outside research from the books assigned in class or lectures. One good way to begin is Edgar Wind, Pagan Mysteries of the Renaissance, Francis Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, or/and Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. Do not tackle this question unless you know what you are doing. This question will receive additional credit.
Walter Benjamin in one of the opening excerpts on the website states that “there is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.” Considering the themes of this course, the documents you have read, and the lectures you have heard, do you agree or disagree? Provide evidence for your answer from the sources.
Reflecting on the assigned readings and on the course lectures, discuss the development of the construction of the “Other” in late medieval Europe. How was this “Other” defined? Who fell into this category? What social, economic, political, and cultural forces contributed to this construction? What purposes did such construction serve? How did this play out in historical events? Be sure to provide specific examples from the assigned readings to support your argument. This “Other” here means old women, Jews, lepers, Muslims, and other religious, ethnic minorities, ill or older people who became scapegoats in the transition from late medieval to early modern.
Reflect on the performative aspects of inquisition trials, thinking in particular about the witchcraft cases on the website. To what extent can they be seen as performances? How might this affect the way you use inquisition records as historical documents?
What is the millennium? Discuss Norman Cohn’s description of millenarian movements in general and examine one of the movements he describes in his book in close detail.
Part II. Choose one
We are doing something different and adding a question to part II with a focus on the events of the last few weeks. You could choose this question instead of one of those listed for Part II. Rather than a partisan statement, we invite you to reflect on what happened (it could be personal) and to link it to what you have learned about Western European society in the late Middle Ages and early modern period. Here is the question: 
You are a historian, writing and analyzing the events at UCLA and other universities (as well as conflicts elsewhere), twenty years into the future. Is there  anything in this dark period of European history  we have studied that teaches us anything about the world in which we live? About the uses and misuses of power? About the representations of “others”? About the contradictory nature of those sharing in high culture while practitioners of violence? Does knowledge of the past help you locate the violence we experienced on campus and the turmoil within a larger historicalframework? It could be personal and a diary of your experiences and response(s).
Other questions:
1.  Choose one of the witch trial discussed in your course reader/web site. In light of Levack’s book and the lectures, what do these documents tell you about the witch craze. Please note the nature of authorship. Who is telling the story? Why? For which audience?
Outline briefly the main characteristics of witchcraft and in detail the development and history of the European witch craze. What are the explanations provided by Levack and in class?  Do you agree or disagree?  You must offer evidence taken from the documents in the Course Reader to discuss the nature of witchcraft and its evolution from the central Middle Ages to the early modern period. References to the Malleus Maleficarum must be included prominently.
You are a sixty-five year old woman/man from a small rural village in late sixteenth-century southern France. Under torture, you have just confessed to the local Dominican inquisitor your acts of necromancy and witchcraft. Tomorrow, since you are a relapsed witch/wizard you will be burned. In these last moments, what would you say about the society that has condemned you? About your own life? Give specific examples. Cite documents. Do not —- —-!
4.  When heresy trials died down, witch hunts increased. Keeping in mind the social, cultural, economic, and especially religious changes in Europe, discuss why this was the case. Provide specific references to your readings
.
Discuss the beginning of anti-witchcraft, anti-magic discourses, and discussions of the devil from Thomas Aquinas to the writing of Guazo’s Compendium Maleficarum, emphasizing the height, and decline of the witch craze. How did these phases differ geographically? Drawing from the documents and from Levack, make sure to give time periods and specific characteristics for each phase, and connect them to events occurring in the larger historical context of Europe.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was a Civil rights organization founded in 1957. The (SCLC) mission was to “redeem the soul of America”. Also, the (SCLC) moved the national conscience to support civil rights initiatives. The (SCLC) motto was “Not one hair of one head of one white person shall be harmed”. The (SCLC) was known for being a major participant in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Also, the (SCLC) was an offshoot of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). Cause of that (SCLC) successfully staged a 381-day boycott of Montgomery Alabama’s segregated bus system. The (SCLC) was founded in 1957 by Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin, Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, and other protest groups in the South. Some challenges that the (SCLC) faced were leadership battles, financial troubles, internal fends, and shrinking memberships. Charles Steele Jr. was the president during this time when the (SCLC) had happened. An accomplishment that the (SCLC) did, was help promote the civil rights March on Washington in 1963. Also, the (SCLC) organized large, nonviolent protests in places like Birmingham and Selam.
Not only that the (SCLC) had a less well-known component called the Citizenship Education Program (CEP), which provided a voter education program for potential black voters. One thing that Martin Luther King Jr. did to help the (SCLC) was lecture in all parts of the country and discuss race-related issues with religious and civil rights leaders. The (SCLC) ended shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, so Abernathy into the organization’s presidency. Since Abernathy could not match King’s leadership talents like King’s speech, he had difficulty with fundraising, which led to the (SCLC) marked decline in influence.

A close reading of The Terror of History. What is the book all about? How does it fit into the topics of this course? What do you think? Do not be afraid of being critical. This assignment is not a summary of the book, but an attempt to read it critically. THE PAPER SHOULD BE A MAXIMUM OF FIVE PAGES. 
https://ucla.vitalsource.com/reader/books/9781400839421/epubcfi/6/2[%3Bvnd.vst.idref%3Dhtml-cover-page]!/4/2/4%4050:2

instructions, the text and essay sample are in the docs attached
please do not use AI when writing the essay

For Discussion Board #4, write three (3) posts where you address any of the following five questions. Here are the questions you can address:
Who is your favorite figure from Modern World History? What is appealing for you about this person? An extraordinary monarch or emperor? A brilliant scientist or thinker? A trailblazer of new ideas or breaking cultural/social norms? A literary or artistic genius? An outstanding military figure? Or even an unsung, little recognized figure never given his or her proper acknowledgement? Be sure to build your case with the person’s story and reasons for your admiration.
Recommend for your classmates any literary novels OR paintings to view from any period of Modern World History (1500 to the 21st century). Your geographic range may include Europe, Asia, Africa, or the Americas. For a novel recommendation, after a brief plot synopsis, describe what is engrossing, influential or thematically significant about the novel. Does the novel say anything significant about a famous figure, event, or era from Modern World History? For paintings, identify the work or art and the artist and describe the captivating appeal the painting holds for you. Does it have a way of portraying a famous figure, event, or era from Modern World History? You may also if you wish, cut and paste a Google image of the painting in your answer.
The Age of “New” Imperialism marked a decisive era in Modern World History. For better or worse, Western values, ideas, technology and economic systems spread globally and shaped our present world. Still highly controversial and politically charged, many criticize this period as doing great harm to the world with exploitation and sometime cruel treatment of native subjects, land appropriation, seizure of natural resources, and extinguishing native traditions. But others point out that while acknowledging imperialism’s dark side, this era also brought modernization, technology, education, modern political systems, and reshaping economies that in time would bring colonies (eventual independent nations) wealth and stability. Write your views where you stand on the historical legacy of “New” Imperialism – overall more benefit than harm, condemnation, or something in between. One of the major events shaping and defining the modern world was globalization, the process of now knowing the full geographic world, connecting previously isolated continents and peoples, and creating a fully integrated and interactive world. Features and institutions such as transportation, communication, economies/trade, ideas/information, relationships, love/hate, war, disease, and even terrorism have a global reach. Write your views on what you believe (you can address one or several) are the greatest triumphs, advantages/disadvantages, challenges or even tragedies of living in the Age of Globalization. Throughout this course we have learned how specific forces and events shaped the direction of Modern World History. Based upon your understanding and reflection of such topics like the Age of Exploration, Scientific Revolution, Age of Enlightenment, French Revolution, Napoleonic Era, Industrial Revolution, and “New” Imperialism do you believe either 1) individuals, 2) technology, or 3) ideas have exerted the greatest impact upon shaping Modern World History. You may argue one choice or rank and discuss all three. Here are your instructions and criteria for this Discussion Board:
You must have three (3) separate posts. Each post is worth five (5) points each for a total of 15 points for Discussion Board #4.
Provide insightful and well-reasoned support in your posts. Show serious reflection of thought. Each written post should be between 75-150 words. You may write more, but don’t be excessive; don’t write less than this word minimum; this word range should be enough to develop your ideas concisely.
Remember don’t copy and paste material from the internet. Your posts must be your own original writing.
Remember to follow the rules of civility and proper academic conduct in your posts. Avoid vulgarity, rudeness, and insensitive language.

identify and describe 5 terms (terms attatched on file)
answer 2 of the following (attatched on file) questions in complete essay format ( not long)
see file for more details