Choice of Questions

Columbus

v Did Columbus discover America?

v Why is Leif Ericson not credited with discovering America?

v Was Columbus one of history’s great heroes?

v Was Columbus one of history’s worst villains?

v What impact did Columbus’s “discovery” have on European history?

v What impact did Columbus have on America’s indiginous population?

v Did Columbus get lucky?

The Puritans

• Were Puritans bigots, obsessed with ridding themselves of the “other?”
• Were the Puritans consensus minded-community builders?

• Were the Puritans pious idealists concerned mainly with maintaining their special Protestant way of life?
• Were the Puritans practical-minded pioneers, simply seeking to make their way and establish viable settlements in the New World?

• Were the Puritans part of a conservative social and religious movement dedicated to stability at all costs?
• Were the Puritans part of a radical movement that needed the institutional vacuum of the New World to realize its potential for religious and intellectual innovation?

• Was Puritanism as a cultural movement restricted to its own time in terms of its influence?
• Did Puritanism give rise to a New England myth and later a national myth of manifest destiny?

• Was Puritan devotion repressive in its effect on daily life?
• Was Puritan devotion essentially progressive in its effect on daily life?

Salem Witchcraft

• Were socioeconomic tensions responsible for the witchcraft hysteria in Salem?
• Were physical illnesses responsible for the witchcraft hysteria in Salem?
• Did the Indian Wars have any impact on the Salem witchcraft hysteria?
• Were there actually witches in Salem?
• Was the Salem witchcraft hysteria a result of a sham on the part of adolescent girls?
• Did the criminal justice system in Salem contribute to the spread of the witchcraft hysteria?
• Was an outbreak of food poisoning a cause of the witch hysteria?
• Why were most of the individuals charged with witchcraft women?

The Origins of Slavery

• Why did Europeans enslave Africans?
• Did Europeans think blacks inferior and therefore deserved slavery?
• Was slavery initially motivated by the enormous profits to be made from exploitation, and did the brand of inferiority follow?

• Did the profits from the slave trade create the capital that financed the Industrial Revolution in England?
• Was the slave trade marginal to the growth of the English economy?

• Did Africans profit in the slave trade?
• Were Africans simply victims of European exploration?

• How many Africans were actually taken into slavery?
• From which ethnic groups were African slaves taken?
• Where did African slaves end up? How did this affect their history in the New World?

The American Revolution

• Was the American Revolution “revolutionary” at home?
• Was the American Revolution a conservative movement?
• Was the Revolution limited to gaining independence from an increasingly oppressive British monarchy?

• Was the Revolution largely a social phenomenon?
• Was the Revolution largely an ideological phenomenon?

• Was American society truly democratic during the colonial period?
• Was American society undemocratic during the colonial era, thus resulting in a dual revolution – a struggle to see who would rule at home as well as a fight for home rule?

• What was the true nature of the Revolution?
• Was there a radical ideological change in the ideas that most American held regarding their image of themselves and of their institutions?
• Did most of the changes take place within the political and social sphere rather than in the world of ideas?
• Was the “republican synthesis” with its emphasis on republican ideology, a convincing interpretation of the American Revolution?

• What were the results of the American Revolution for women?

• Were the men who went off to fight in the Revolutionary War motivated by materialism?
• Were the men who went off to fight in the Revolutionary War motivated by idealism?

The Constitution

• Were the proponents of the republican synthesis correct in believing that American shared a basic ideological consensus?
• Was the idea of a republican synthesis a generalization that failed to describe the diverse people of the new nation?

• Was the Constitution a fulfillment of the ideals of the Revolution expressed in the Declaration of Independence?
• Was the Constitution a repudiation of the ideals of the Revolution expressed in the Declaration of Independence?

• What was the nature of the Constitution?
• In what ways did the Constitution’s framing reflect the developments in political thought during the 1780s?

• Were the differences that divided those who favored and those who opposed the Constitution based more on ideology?

• Were the differences that divided those who favored and those who opposed the Constitution based more on interests?
• Was the Constitution an undemocratic document - the work of a political and propertied minority who drafted it as an instrument to suit their own purposes?

• Were the Antidfederalists tradition-minded classical republicans?
• Were the Antidfederalists enterprising protoliberals who glimpsed the future of America?

The Expanding Nation

• At what point in the rapid economic development of the early nation did people’s values shift from communal to individualistic?
• Were westward migrants pioneers seeking to escape involvement in the market system?
• Were westward migrants planners seeking ways to involve themselves in the emerging market system?

Antebellum Reform

• Was the reform movement of the 19^th Century a unique event?
• Was the reform movement of the 19^th Century part of a long term trend or pattern?

• Were the reformists narrow-minded and bigoted zealots seeking to impose their own moral code upon the rest of society?
• Were the reformists well-intended individuals aiming to help the powerless change their unfortunate conditions?

• Were the reformists trying to promote social order by keeping people in their place?
• Were the reformists trying to promote social order by helping people develop characteristics that might admit them to the middle class?

• Did most reformists embrace the idea that the reforms should be confined to private endeavors?
• Did most reformists regard state intervention as an absolute necessity?

• Why was it not until the emergence of a capitalist order that a powerful abolitionist movement was able to excite the revulsion of people toward an institution that had existed throughout history?

• Were the reformists successful in accomplishing their goals?
• Were the reformists largely unsuccessful in accomplishing their goals?

Slavery and Slave Culture

• How much autonomy were slaves able to retain?
• Were slaves able to construct a culture of their own? If so, was it largely African or American?
• Did the experience of slavery obliterate the slaves’ connections with their African past?

• Did slaveowners treat slaves well?
• Did slaveowners treat slaves badly?

• Did slavery create a damaged black psyche?
• Have blacks been able to overcome the pervasive evils of slavery?
• Was slavery profitable?

The Civil War

• Was the Civil War a “repressible” or irrepressible conflict?

• Have historians overemphasized the slavery issue as a cause of the Civil War?
• Were economic differences the main causes of the hostility between North and South?

• In what ways was the South responsible for causing the war?
• Did the North share responsibility for causing the war?

• Was the outcome of the Civil War of such a nature that it should be criticized, if not condemned?
• Was the outcome of the Civil War of such a nature one that merits uniform praise?

Reconstruction

• Were the revisionists correct in suggesting that the major issue during Reconstruction was economic?
• Were the neo-revisionists justified in insisting that the major issue during Reconstruction was moral in nature?

• Did the particular structural form of state and national politics preclude effective governmental action in dealing with the problems growing out of emancipation?
• What should have been the proper policy for both the federal and state governments to follow with regard to black Americans?
• How were the voices of blacks to be heard during policy formation and implementation?

• Was the American experience dissimilar or similar to that of other nations that also experienced the transition from a slave to a free society?
• Was Reconstruction a meaningless experiment after which the Southern elite resumed business as usual complete with white supremacy?
• Was Reconstruction a “splendid failure?”
• Was Reconstruction a brave but shortlived attempt to fashion real democracy in the South – one that would lay the groundwork for the civil rights movement one hundred years later?
• How did the juggernaut of postwar capitalism affect the terrain on which Reconstruction was being attempted?

The Triumph of Capitalism

• How was wealth produced?
• How evenly was wealth distributed?
• How much social mobility took place between classes?

• Was the impoverishment of certain groups of laborers exceptional?
• Was the impoverishment of certain groups of laborers endemic to industrial capitalism?

• Did labor unions and regulatory legislation represent a democratic restraint on capital?
• Did labor unions and regulatory legislation represent a way to buy off radical protest?

• Was class conflict an aberration produced by greed and bad policy?
• Was class conflict a permanent feature of industrial capitalism?

• Was corporate capitalism an achievement?
• Was corporate capitalism a betrayal of American democracy?

American Imperialism

• Did the Unites States go to war to resolve basic contradictions within its economic and social systems?
• To what extent was American foreign policy a response to the diplomacy of other nations and events beyond its control?
• Did business and strategic thinkers direct the U.S. thrust toward world power status?
• Did the U.S. stumble toward its new status as a world power without plan or conscious purpose?

• To what degree did moral sentiments play a role in the diplomacy of the 1890s and thereafter?
• To what degree did religious sentiments play a role in the diplomacy of the 1890s and thereafter?
• To what degree did humanitarian sentiments play a role in the diplomacy of the 1890s and thereafter?

• Was the acquisition of an overseas empire a cause of war?
• Was the acquisition of an overseas empire an effect of war?

• Did the US create a new form of “open door” imperialism through the use of its economic power?

• To what extent were the consequences of American policy harmful to those who experienced it as an intrusion?

The New Deal

• Was the New Deal simply an extension of the Progressive tradition of piecemeal reform?
• Did the New Deal involve a radical departure from the mainstream of American political history?

• Did the New Deal usher in the era of big government and the “imperial presidency?”
• Did the New Deal create an effective and efficient state to handle the needs of a 20^th Century society?

• Did the New Deal save capitalism?
• Did the New Deal pave the way for an American version of socialism?

• Did the New Deal co-opt the struggles of workers and other have-nots for democracy and social equality?
• Did the New Deal confirm the triumph of the struggles of workers and other have-nots for democracy and social equality?

The Cold War

• Did the Cold War commence at the end of WWII?
• Did the Cold War commence at the beginning of WWII?
• Did the Cold War’s roots stretch back to WWI or even earlier?

• Was the Soviet occupation of eastern Europe the realization of a centuries-old Russian dream of a sphere of influence?
• Was the Soviet occupation of eastern Europe a reaction to the more recent devastation sustained during the Nazi invasion?
• Was the Soviet occupation of eastern Europe an advance in the revolutionary strategy of an international communist movement?

• Has the course of American diplomacy since the Spanish American War been committed to the defense of a global status quo?
• Has the course of American diplomacy since the Spanish American War been committed to the aggressive pursuit of hegemony?

• To what extent were the ever-expanding foreign markets necessary for the survival of American capitalism?
• What effect did the belief in the necessity of ever-expanding foreign markets have on the actual making of American foreign policy?

• Was America’s containment policy aimed at checking a Soviet plan to spread communism throughout the world?
• Was America’s containment policy aimed at subjugating weaker nations to the purposes of American capitalism?

• Was the Cold War “our” fault?
• Was the Cold War “their” fault?

The Civil Rights Movement

• Was the Civil Rights movement a top-down movement?
• Was the Civil Rights movement a bottom-up movement?

• Was Martin Luther Kin indispensable to the Civil Rights Movement?
• Was Martin Luther King simply one of many possible leaders that the movement offered?

• Did the Civil Rights movement begin with the Brown decision?
• Did the Civil Rights movement begin with Rosa Parks?
• Did the Civil Rights movement begin in Tuskegee in 1941?

• Was segregation the best way for African-Americans to make it into a hostile white society?
• Was integration the best way for African-Americans to make it into a hostile white society?

• Did the Civil Rights movement destroy itself in a push for economic rights?
• Did the Civil Rights movement abandon larger issues on the threshold of progress?

• What was the relationship between grassroots activism, leadership, and organizations such as the NAACP, SCLC, CORE, and SNCC?

The Women’s Movement

• Are the needs and interests of women different from those of men?
• If so, do these needs and interests need fighting for?
• Is there a reason to explore women’s history and recapture it if it were not importantly different from men’s?
• Can American history be written as women’s history?
• Do women represent an essential historical strand – but nothing more?

Sources

Billias, G., et al. (2000). Interpretations of American History: Patterns and Perspectives (Volume I & II). The Free Press, New York, New York

Davidson, James West & Lytle, Mark Hamilton (1982). After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection. Knopf. New York

Nash, Gary et al. ( 1998). The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc. New York.