Historical Essay I

Complete by: Friday 11 Oct., at class time.

The Prompt

Write an essay in which you relate one or more contemporary (primary) print (or video) sources (advertisement, newspaper article, newsreel, etc., 1945-1985) to the history we are reading in Computing or in the other essays in the “Enabling Technologies” Unit. For example, find an advertisement for a business machine in a popular magazine from the 1970s (like Business Week), and write about how the advertisement reflects the history, social phenomena, etc., detailed in a text discussed in class during this Unit, like Ceruzzi’s book Computing. Another way to approach this assignment is to decide about an event you are interested in, such as the 1952 presidential election, the introduction of IBM System/360 or 370, or the first GUI/WIMP computers, and find one or more articles about the topic in the popular press of the time.

The Details

The essay should have four paragraphs: an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. In this essay, you are responsible for your own introduction strategy and thesis. Develop an interesting angle on the topic that is based in your own reflection upon the material. Focus each body paragraph on a specific connection you find between your primary source, and the information in the readings we have covered in class. This means that each paragraph will talk about BOTH a text from class, and a library source that relates to it in some way.

To develop a thesis, you will need to think carefully about what our course readings say about your topic and what your primary source says about the same topic. A good thesis makes a clear historical argument; is specific, focused, and precise; and answers the question “so what?”. For more on coming up with a thesis, see this guide from UCLA’s history department.

The Research

For this essay, you must find a primary source using the library’s online databases. Here is a link to the LibGuide for our class.

Your primary source should be from the same time period as the technology, event, or phenomenon you’re writing about. For example, if you’re writing about the ENIAC, your primary source should be from the 1940s or 50s. If you’re writing about the idea of the hyperlink, your article might be from the 1950s (i.e. around the time of Vannevar Bush’s article) or it might be from the 1980s (i.e. around the invention of the Web).

Your primary source must be about one of the 20th century computing technologies, events, or social phenomena that we will cover in Unit 2. This period is roughly from the 1940s through the 1990s. This means you can’t write about something like the telegraph (too early) or ChatGPT (too recent). If you’re wondering whether your chosen topic is in the right time period, just ask me!

Requirements:

  • Submit your essay to the assignment on Sakai.
  • 4 paragraphs, 450-900 words
  • Include the wordcount in the header of your paper
  • One source chosen from our readings, and one library source you found on your own
  • Several integrated and correctly cited quotes from your sources
  • Double-spaced, readable font
  • MLA Format & Citations
  • PDF format (not a Word doc or other file type)

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