Modern U.S. History and Sociology
John P. Davis- “A Black inventory of the New Deal” 1935
Complete a primary source analysis of the appropriate document for each assignment. It is important that your paper include both a summary and analysis of the primary source selected. Discuss and analyze both the content of the excerpt and the larger significance of the work from which it is taken. What do the excerpt and the work as a whole tell readers about the society and culture from which the work originated? Where applicable, discuss what the passage and the work reveal about social, cultural, political, and gender relationships in the society from which the work arose.
- Who is the author? Based upon your textbook/document, what is the personal background of the author? What are the goals of the author? Summarize in your own words the main points of this primary document.
- Analyze and explain what this document tells us about attitudes in society during the time period it was written and published.
- Who do you think is the intended audience of this document? Why? What impact do you think this document had on society? Why?
- Keep in mind the “four W’s” when analyzing a primary source:?Who: Who wrote the document? A journalist, an activist, a president, a priest? Two different people can often have different interpretations of events.
- What: What is the document? It is a legal government document, a private diary entry, a popular magazine article? All of those have different audiences and different purposes.
- Where/When: Where and when was the document made? Both are incredibly important to the message of the source.
- Why: Why was the document written? This is probably the most important and sometimes the most difficult to answer. The motive can be obvious, but often you should think about the hidden reasons a document is written. Is there some kind of implied message or propaganda involved?
- If they critically evaluate and analyze the primary source, what can students of history learn from this source? How and why is this a useful and important historical source?
- Include a works cited/bibliography page following MLA, APA, or Turabian/Chicago Manual of Style format.