DOCUMENT ANALYSIS Short Essay

10 POINTS

DUE SEPT 18

First, do all of the assigned secondary reading (Gillon) for today, so that you will be better informed when approaching the primary sources.

Choose one of the 7 primary sources assigned for today (Hoover, HUAC-Reagan, HUAC-Maltz, Congressmen discuss gays, McCarthy, Smith, or Michigan law) and write 1 to 1 ½ pages analyzing the source based on the inquiry suggested below. The assignment may be handwritten or typed. Be prepared to talk about it in class.

After reading the document carefully, think about the following questions as you re-read it[1]:

• Who created this document? From this document, what can we tell about the perspective and biases of the author(s)? What does the document tell us about the author(s)’ opinion of the views of other people? Does the document suggest that the author(s)’ point of view was widely shared, or was it controversial and confined to a few people?
• When was this document created? “How does the document reflect the time when it was written or created? What does it say about the events underway at the time? What does it suggest about how that particular time was perceived by the author(s)?” by other people?
• Why was this document created? What is its purpose?
• “Who is the intended audience? How did the audience shape what the author(s) says?” “How would the intended audience be likely to read the document? How would people who were not among the intended audience be likely to read it?”
• Think carefully about the choice of words and the tone of the document. “How do the words in the document reflect the author(s), the time, and the intended audience? Would the same words have different meanings to other people at that time? Does the author(s) choice of words reveal covert assumptions . . . along with an overt message?” Read between the lines!
• Comparison to other sources: How are the tone, perspective, and purpose of this document similar to or different than others I have read on this topic?

Some of these questions apply better to some documents than others. Choose the questions (it could be several) that you think can best be used to analyze and reveal the meanings of your document. You may choose to answer questions by asking more questions. I suggest beginning your analysis by identifying and interpreting/analyzing authorship and when the document was created – get the basic contextual information down first before you proceed.

As for your tone when writing, stay fairly detached, objective, and historical. You may use first person (“I”), but this is not meant to be a personal reaction essay, nor should you focus on making comparisons/contrasts to the present day. (e.g. the significance of the document is not, for instance, how it demonstrates the similarity between the today’s Patriot Act and the McCarthy era.)

This is not meant to be a summary of the document. Nor is it meant to be a personal reaction essay. I’m not interested in whether you agree with the document’s message or not.

Instead,

I want to see that you have read and thought about the document and are able to apply the kinds of questions that historians use when confronting an artifact from the past. Be a detective; consider this document a “clue.” Read between the lines. Try to say something meaningful about the document’s significance – how it adds to our understanding of this particular episode of history.

SAMPLE DOCUMENT ANALYSIS

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[1] I am indebted to Michael P. Johnson, editor of Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents, Vol II (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), for devising these questions for interrogating primary documents.