Reference no: EM132287937

There will be one 5 page paper for the course

We will be discussing these ideas in class and during class discussion so you will have many ideas to work with by the time you write your paper. However if you have any concerns about how to write this paper PLEASE come talk with me during office hours or over email.

This paper will ask you to be a historian by considering how our primary sources from the past help us to better understand the people and societies we study. You will think about how letters, speeches, memoirs, books, poetry, etc can be a reflection of their societies or even a critique of them.

Because they give us such insight into the past, these sources are valuable material for historians trying to understand what life was like in a certain time and place. For this paper you should write about. You must choose from our discussion day pieces: Absolutism, You will use the documents from this discussion day to explore what life was like during this period in history.

(You can use one, some, or all of the documents depending on what you need for your paper-you can also mention some of our daily readings if they help your paper but do not emphasize these as much as you do the discussion pieces) Think about how the pieces give readers some insight into the society in which they were written: ie What do they tell you about this time period? What was important to the people? What did they value?

What events shaped their lives? What insight does it provide into religion, government, social structure, daily life, beliefs, and attitudes? Do you see an effort to provoke a change in the existing society?

To write your paper, begin with an introduction and a thesis statement that summarizes and outlines the purpose of your paper. The thesis

a) explains that you will be analyzing X document in order to gain insight into the time period and

b) indicates you will be looking for how these authors used their writing to promote change in their society.

Be sure you are clear about which pieces you are analyzing and which period it reflects.

The body of your paper should begin with a brief summary of the time period you are exploring. This summary discussion should not be more than half a page. You can then begin the real purpose of your paper: to use passages, characters, quotations, etc from the documents to help describe/analyze/give insight into the period in which it was written and try to identify an effort to change the status quo. The successful analysis will not be a straight summary of the history of the time period nor will it be a straight summary of the documents.

Instead it will be a thoughtful look at values, ideas, and events of the time and efforts to provoke change through the lens of the letters, poems, documents, etc. So you are writing about the history of a period as we learned about it in lecture and from the textbook, but you are making constant reference to the documents as your evidence. Organize the paper around the themes you discovered in the document.

End with a conclusion that discusses more broadly how this document provides you with some understanding of what life was like during the period. Can you see the piece as trying to provke change in society? Consider how this society's values will be challenged or changed by those who come after them.

Be sure that your paper is well organized, clearly written, and that arguments are firmly backed up with evidence from both the primary documents and from the textbook and/or lectures. Use direct quotations, summarize, and paraphrase from the document in order to provide evidence for your analysis. Ie what particular lines or statements in the document make you think X about the society? You may use footnotes MLA notation but must cite your sources every time you quote or paraphrase.

Discussion

1-How Richelieu contributed to the foundation for French absolutism

2-How Russia sought to combine centralization of power with westernization of culture and politics.

3-How Prussia sought to centralize power for its kings in ways that were both similar to the strategies of Louis XIV and also different.