HIS 245- Milestone Two

HIS 245 Milestone Two Guidelines and Rubric

Prompt

In this milestone, you will submit the rough draft and a bibliography of your final paper. In the accompanying bibliography, you will itemize your sources, listing your primary sources first and then secondary sources. Sources should be broken up further by type. For further guidance, please view the sample bibliography in the Assignment Guidelines and Rubrics section of the course.

The final product rubric will be used to provide feedback and a grade as if this were your final draft. However, this is to be submitted for instructor feedback and you will be graded. You must score evident on each critical element to earn the points for that row. This assignment is worth a total of 100 points.

In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:

Demonstrate an advanced knowledge of the development of American society since World War II

Critically analyze ideas from both primary and secondary sources

Develop arguments based upon primary and secondary sources and articulate those ideas in the written and spoken word

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

Background: Identify the aspect of Cold War history that will frame your essay. This must be a major event, trend, or development that shaped the history of American society since WWII. Is the major event political, military-diplomatic, social, economic, or cultural in nature?

Historical Argument: Narrow your focus by creating a manageable question. Propose an argument that answers the question you have derived about the major event. This is your thesis statement and it must also be connected to historicalevidence.

Historical Analysis

Factors: What are the factors that influenced this event? Include the policies of the time period as well as any key confrontations and clashes.

Individuals: Assess the role of the individual(s) involved in the event. This might be involve leaders or other nations. Who is the protagonist? The antagonist? What significant actions did the central figure(s) take? Why did they do so? What was the response to such actions taken?

Trends: What trends did this event influence? Which new policies came about? What effect did these policies have? What themes originated—or were repeated—as such policies were enacted?

Impact: What impact did this event, the individual(s), and resulting policies have on Cold War era history? Who significantly benefited from these events and moments? How? Who dramatically suffered from these events and moments, and how?

Source Analysis: You must select sources to support your thesis statement. Ideally, you will include a mix of primary and secondary sources. Critically examine the resources in context with your essay topic. Remember this is not based on opinion, but rather this is your analysis of the historical content and context. Your source methodology supports your thesis statement.

HIS 245: Sample Itemized Bibliography
Primary Sources
Archival Resources
Refer to the archival guide for referencing. For instance, if you consult the Library of Congress website, it
will instruct you on how to cite sources taken from its records.
Newspaper Articles
Marshall, Tyler. “200th Birthday of Grimms Celebrated.” Los Angeles Times, March 15, 1985, sec. 1A, p.
3.
Books (If you have a book that is a primary source, such as a memoir, then it should be listed under
primary sources)
MacArthur, Douglas. Reminiscences. New York: Crest Books, 1965.
Web Resources
United Nations. “Human Rights.” https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/human-rights/
(accessed May 29, 2013).
Secondary Sources
Journal Articles
Sánchez, Raúl. “Outside the Text: Retheorizing Empiricism and Identity.” College English 74 (2012):
234–246.
Books
Berman, Larry. Lyndon Johnson’s War: The Road to Stalemate in Vietnam. New York: W.W. Norton,
1989.
Website
Same as above if it is a website that you are using as a secondary source.
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HIS 245- Milestone One Proposal
Cherelle Pratt
HIS 245- U.S History Since 1945
May 23, 2024
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The Space Race During the Cold War
In the Cold War’s ideological and technological competition aspects, the Space Race,
which was between the Soviet Union and the US, played a key role. While it was ostensibly
outlined as a peaceful attempt to propagate scientific knowledge, the Space Race was steered by
nationalism as well as the wish to proclaim ideological superiority internationally (Erickson,
2018).
The central argument of this paper is that the Space Race traversing the 1957 Sputnik
launch all the way to the 1970s Apollo missions was driven by both propagandistic and
nationalistic intentions rather than pure scientific drives by the Cold War superpowers (Kallen,
2019). Achieving national pride and looking like a technologically powerful country was very
important because it was believed that whoever dominated space could impress the world by
choosing between communism and capitalism.
In support of this argument, this paper will seek to unravel the nature of the American and
Soviet leadership’s rhetoric, like those of Kennedy and Khrushchev, that associated space
achievements with national competitiveness (Muir-Harmony, 2017). It will also look at how each
superpower committed massive financial resources and mobilized its technological personnel to
space activities, even at the expense of basic needs. This will demonstrate the symbolic nature of
the Space Race. It will also evaluate the global response and perception regarding significant
space events such as Sputnik, Gagarin’s orbit, and the Apollo moon landing (Muir-Harmony,
2017).
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Sources
Erickson, A. S. (2018). Revisiting the U.S.-Soviet space race: Comparing two systems in their
competition to land a man on the moon. Acta Astronautica, 148(12), 376–384.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2018.04.053
Kallen, S. (2019). Nationalism, Ideology, and the Cold War Space Race. Constellations, 10(2).
https://doi.org/10.29173/cons29377
Muir-Harmony, T. (2017). American Foreign Policy and the Space Race. In Oxford Research
Encyclopedia of American History. Oxford University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.274
Muszyński-Sulima, W. (2023). Cold War in Space: Reconnaissance Satellites and US-Soviet
Security Competition. European Journal of American Studies, 18(2).
https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.20427