Pick one of the following:
- Ask any American over the age of forty to describe the first presidential event that he or she can clearly remember (e.g., FDR’s Pearl Harbor speech, the JFK assassination). Then “go back in time” to contemporary press reports and documents. How did the event look then? What accounts for differences between memory and the printed record?
- Find a recent (2013-2014) speech that invokes Washington, Lincoln, FDR, or JFK in order to make points about current politics. Why does the speaker or writer use this comparison? Is it historically accurate? How well does it apply to current politics?
- Pick any president between Washington and Bush 43. If Milkis and Nelson were to give four more manuscript pages to that president, what should they say? That is, what key aspects of this presidency did they downplay or overlook?
- Whichever essay you choose, do research to document your claims. Do not write from the top of your head.
- Essays should be typed, double-spaced, and no more than four pages long. I will not read past the fourth page.
- Cite your sources with endnotes, which should be in a standard style (e.g., Turabian or Chicago Manual of Style). Endnote pages do not count against the page limit.
- Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you.
- Turn in essays to the class Sakai dropbox by 11:59 PM, Monday, September 29. Late essays will drop a gradepoint for one day’s lateness, a full letter grade after that. I will grant no extensions except for illness or emergency.
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