Cold War
Format: MLA
sources: 4
Pages: 6
Spacing: Double spaced
Topic: Cold War
Details: Text book “Give Me Liberty! AN AMERICAN HISTORY” Fifth Edition
a documented research paper ( approx. 6-8 pages double-spaced, 12-point font).
The paper should support a thesis statement with information gained from research or investigation.
The paper will not be just a report presenting information but will be a paper that carefully examines and presents your own historical interpretation of the topic you have chosen and your interpretation of the information you have gathered.
The paper may include consideration of problems and solutions, define key terms, or refute arguments against your thesis statement.
Approach this assignment with an open and skeptical mind, then form an opinion based on what you have discovered.
You must suspend belief while you are investigating and let the discoveries shape your opinion. (This is a thesis-finding approach.)
Once you have found your thesis, write the paper to support it.
You will use some of the following critical thinking skills in this process:
Choosing an appropriate topic, limiting the topic
Gathering information, summarizing sources
Analyzing and evaluating sources
Defining key terms
Synthesizing information, comparing and contrasting sources
Testing a thesis, making a historical argument, using refutation
Amassing support for a position
Documenting sources
Because this may be a longer paper than you have written before and a complex process is involved, it is recommended that you complete this paper using the following steps:
Choose a topic related to U.S. History after 1877 (Chapters 16-28) that you would truly like to explore and that you are willing to spend some time on. Your chosen topic should be focused. Pose a question that you really want to answer. You may want to begin with more than one topic in mind.
Do some preliminary reading on the topic(s). You may begin with the textbook, then further explore the information available. Refine your topic. Summarize your topic, your interest in the topic, the questions you want to answer, and a hypothesis you want to test.
Gather information from a variety of sources. Use a minimum of four sources for your paper, and at least one must be a primary source.
Examples of primary sources are ones that are used in our discussion forums 2-8.
They are sources that are contemporary to the times under investigation.
An example of a secondary source is our textbook, though the textbook also contains excerpts of primary sources, which you may use as a source in your paper.
Outline the results of your research and the plan for your paper (you are not required to submit the outline).
Write the final draft and be sure to include a Works Cited List, and use the correct MLA documentation style.
Solution Preview
Cold War
The post-war period between was characterized by a war of the nerves between the US and Soviet Union allies. The period between 1945- 1990 was a time of a tense peace where the two superpowers possessed weapons of mass destruction that threaten to wipe a large number of individuals at one go. Out of fear of a nuclear holocaust, these superpowers and their supporters devised a silent war that was fought on the political, economic and propaganda fronts (Aybar 1). The conflict arose from an ideological difference between the two systems as to whether the world should conform to either communism or capitalism. George Orwell was the first writer to term this period as the cold war as there was neither firing of bullets nor loss of blood (Mearsheimer).
(1,815 words)