American History Paper

In Assignment 2, we ask you to choose one of two topic choices listed below on the subject of economic change and innovation in the period of the late 1800s and early 1900s, then use the Writing Guide provided in Blackboard to write a paper on the subject. One topic is on the individual level of pioneering entrepreneurs of the period, who developed distinctive strategies for the production and marketing of very different parts types of products. The other topic is on the macro level, exploring successful and unsuccessful government attempts to shape and regulate the changing industrial economy of the period.

As you prepare and brainstorm your paper, first read and review what our Schultz textbook covers on the subject. Then, consider the other sources listed with each topic below. It is important that you review these sources carefully because you must use a minimum of three sources (from the list below) to write your paper.

Be sure to review the other help (documents or video) provided by your instructor. For information on the SWS format, see the “Strayer Writing Standards” tab on the course menu.

TOPIC CHOICE ONE: Innovative Entrepreneurs - Walker and Ford

Here you will focus on the business approaches of Madame C. J. Walker and Henry Ford. Both developed innovative and successful approaches in a time of rapid economic change. You will compare them in the way they started their respective businesses and the key innovative features that made each successful. One might find virtues, problems, and successes associated with both. You might see elements of each in strategies of later leaders and related issues even today.

Sources: Schultz, p. 396-7 (only Ford is discussed in our textbook). For Madam C. J. Walker (1867-1919), see https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/100-amazing-facts/madam-walker-the-first-black-american-woman-to-be-a-self-made-millionaire/. For Henry Ford, see https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/henry-ford.

TOPIC CHOICE TWO: Government Economic Policies - Hits and Misses

Here you will choose two historical examples from the following list: Prohibition; Hawley-Smoot Tariff; Sherman Antitrust Act; Pure Food and Drug Act; Federal Trade Commission; Civilian Conservation Corps; Agricultural Adjustment Act; the Wagner Act, and the Social Security Act. These are examples of government economic intervention or economic policy in the long period from 1870 to 1940. These might be thought of as burdensome government interference or as needed government regulation, depending on the example and one's thinking on those things. For your paper, you will explore and describe each of your two examples, its historical context, and the reasons it arose. One might find virtues, problems and successes associated with both. You might see elements of each in examples in our current economy today.

Sources: Schultz, p. 362-4, 367, 401-2, 417, 425-9, 432. Besides the textbook, use any two of these sources that you think relevant to your paper: http://college.cengage.com/history/wadsworth_9781133309888/unprotected/ps/impact_factory.htm

http://college.cengage.com/history/wadsworth_9781133309888/unprotected/ps/attack_meatpackers.htm and https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1884hdlloyd.asp.