HIST 2221: US History II 

Article Annotation Assignment 

 

All topics must be from the time period of our class, approx. 1877-2020 and focus on AMERICAN history.  Remember that more recent topics are going to be more challenging because scholars have only started researching those topics.

 

Here is a list of POSSIBLE topics you could use as a search query when you’re looking for an article -- these are in no particular order and can supplement any lists of ideas you've made thus far.

 

  1. Influenza epidemic during World War I 

  1. Execution of the Rosenbergs for treason 

  1. Elvis 

  1. Woody Guthrie (folk singer; prominent in the Great Depression) 

  1. USSR launches Sputnik (beginning of US Space Race) 

  1. Birth control pill approved by the FDA, 1960 

  1. Bob Dylan (focus on his music in the 1960s) 

  1. Scottsboro boys arrested in  Alabama, 1931 

  1. Cuban Missile Crisis 

  1. Barry Goldwater nominated for President, 1964 (rise of Conservatism) 

  1. Cesar Chavez/United Farm Workers begin Delano grape strike, 1965 

  1. Ralph Nader publishes Unsafe at Any Speed 

  1. Cuyahoga River catches fire in Cleveland, drawing attention to massive environmental problems, 1969 

  1.  Woodstock, 1969 

  1. Scopes trial, 1925 (teaching evolution in schools) 

  1. The Consumer’s League (Progressive Era organization) 

  1. Samuel Gompers (labor organizer) 

  1. Mary Elizabeth Lease (“raise more hell and less corn”) 

  1. Louis Armstrong (musician) 

  1. Ella Fitzgerald (musician) 

  1. Passage of the 19th Amendment (woman suffrage) 

  1. American Indian Movement seizes Wounded Knee, 1973 

  1. Huey Long (critic of FDR during the Depression) 

  1. Memorial Day massacre of striking steelworkers, 1937 

  1.  William Jennings Bryan (populist politician) 

  1. Eleanor Roosevelt 

  1. Immigrant group to the United States (choose one) 

  1. The rise of the eugenics movement (early 20th century) 

  1. Invention of ENIAC (widely credited with being the first digital computer) 

  1.  William Randolph Hearst (“yellow journalism”) 

  1.  The Harlem Renaissance 

  1. The Beat Generation (writers critical of 1950s conformity) 

  1. Pearl Harbor 

  1. Iran-Contra scandal 

  1. Debate over the ERA in the 1970s 

  1. Polio vaccine 

  1. Indian boarding schools in Minnesota 

  1. John Muir; founding of Sierra Club 

  1. Supreme Court Miranda decision, 1964 (“You have the right to remain silent”) 

  1. Supreme Court Gideon V. Wainwright, 1963 (right to a free attorney) 

  1. Margaret Sanger (birth control advocate) 

  1. Jackie Robinson (broke baseball’s color barrier) 

  1. AIDS first recognized in 1981; discuss response by the Reagan administration 

  1. Gone with the Wind (film) 

  1. The Wizard of Oz (book and film) 

  1. Apocalypse Now (film) 

  1. Citizen Kane (film) 

  1. Dr. Strangelove (film) 

  2. End of the Cold War

  1. The Grapes of Wrath (book and film) 

  1. Apollo 11 Moon Landing, 1969 

  1. 1963 March on Washington (behind-the-scenes planning) 

  1. Tulsa Race Riot, 1921 

  1. Lindbergh makes solo transatlantic flight 

  1. Tuskegee Airmen  

  1. Tuskegee syphilis experiment 

  1. Famous battle during WWI (name the battle you would like) 

  1. Famous battle during WWII (name the battle you would like) 

  1. Japanese-American military service during WWII 

  1. Famous battle during Vietnam (name the battle you would like) 

  1. Vietnam Veterans Against the War 

  1. Famous battle during Korea (name the battle you would like) 

  1. Presidential campaign tactics (choose an election year) 

  1.  1968 protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago 

  1. Wilmington, NC racial insurrection (related to the end of Reconstruction) 

  1. Marcus Garvey, the Universal Negro Improvement Association 

  1. WPA and/or PWA projects in Minnesota 

  1. Prohibition 

  1. Government scandals called Teapot Dome, 1923-24 

  1. CIA coup in Guatemala, 1954 

  1. Impact of GI Bill on colleges, 1940s and 50s 

  1. HUAC anti-communist investigations 

  1. Stonewall Inn uprising; birth of modern gay rights movement 

  1. First Earth Day 

  1. Rise of the Religious Right 

  1. President Eisenhower’s farewell address 

  1. Gloria Steinem 

  1. Rise of the KKK during the 1920s 

  1. Title IX (collegiate women’s sports) 

  2. Roe vs. Wade

  3. September 11

  4. Rise of social media

  5. Legalization of gay marriage