COMMON PROBLEMS IN THE PROSPECTUS

1.     CHOOSE WORDS WISELY:

Literally, but yet, lots of, stepped up to the plate

2.     RUN-ON SENTENCES:

3.     HOW CAN A COLON MAKE A FRAGMENT?

The subjects I will study will be: art, history, and music.

                                                (fragment)

The subjects I will study will include: art, history, and music.

                                                (fragment)

            The subjects I will study will include the following: art, history, and music.

4.     EDIT MORE THOROUGHLY:

Silly errors on final drafts are not acceptable.

            Two ideas may help you edit more carefully:

A.     Read your essays aloud;

B.     Bring me a draft.

           

5.     TOPIC FOCUS:

The topics are far too broad. You cannot write a good ten page paper on all of World War Two, for instance. There was not enough evidence that research had begun in earnest.

How do you narrow your research focus?

            …History of Medicine

…Medicine in the 19^th century

…Medicine in Europe in the 19^th Century

--ALL OF THE FOLLOWING, HOWEVER, WOULD WORK…

…Birth of the germ theory

…Pasteur and the Role of Invention in Medicine

…Mesmer and Medical Abuse in 19^th Century Vienna

…relationship between Industrialization and Medicine

History of Middle East

History of Islam

Medicine in Early Islam

--ALL OF THE FOLLOWING, HOWEVER, WOULD WORK…

…Bedside Manner and Al Razi

…Recent Scholarship on Ibn Sina

…Role of Zakat in Establishing Hospitals in the 9^th Century Muslim World

…Educating Doctors in Early Islam

FILM AND HISTORY ASSIGNMENT... DUE October 23

Watch a movie (a feature film) that is set in the past. Take notes as you watch the film. Write a formal essay of 3-4 pages regarding the history portrayed in that movie.  This essay must be typed (and double-spaced), carefully written, and thoughtful in its comments.

Pay special attention to the way the film treats the history. Use our textbook to give you ideas about how history is conceived in different ways. You should also cite other sources. The number and type is up to you.
Critique the way the filmmakers presented and used the historical context as a background (or foreground) for the action in the movie.

**Use quotes and scene descriptions from the movie to illustrate your arguments**

This film review is a critique essay. Follow these guidelines while preparing this essay:

1. In one paragraph, summarize the premise and plot of the movie briefly in your paper.  In what

time period does the film take place? What civilization or part of the world is the film portraying? If you turn this paper into a description of the film, there will be dire consequences!

2. Following the summary paragraph, there are various ways to approach your critique:

A.  Is the film historically accurate? Are the “facts” about historical events correct?  Or do the filmmakers play with cause and effect, the actual historical order of events?  Is the film anachronistic? Are there things like costumes and technologies that actually didn’t exist in that era (or place)?

B. Is the movie an allegory about the filmmaker’s own time? Can you detect elements of the time that the movie was made in the message of the movie? Films made about same historical subject will differ substantially if one is made in 2014 and one in 1950.

C. Would the film be useful in a history class? If so, consider ways of incorporating this film into the teaching of a social studies class.

D. What is the central message or purpose of the movie? What central theme was the director trying to convey?

E. Analyze the film within its genre. Is it a gangster film? If so, how does it stack up to others?

You may also come up with your own approach to the film. In fact, I encourage you to present an original way of viewing the film you choose. While you watch the movie, be ready to stop the action and start the writing if a brilliant idea comes to mind.

A Short List of Suggested Films:

Ancient

300 (2006)

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)

Alexander (2004)

Ben Hur (1959)

The Egyptian (1954)

Gladiator (2000)

The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)

HBO: Rome (2005-2007)

Ifigeneia (1977)

King of Kings (1961)

Land of the Pharaohs (1955)

Jesus of Nazareth (1977)

The Mummy (1999)

The Robe (1953)

Spartacus (1960)

The Ten Commandments (1956)

Troy (2004)

16th Century
Elizabeth (1998)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2005)
The Return of Martin Guerre (198x)
Queen Margot (1994)
Aguirre: Wrath of God (1972)
Apocalypto (2006)

17th Century
The Three Musketeers (1993)
The Last Valley (1971)
Seven Samurai (1954)

18th Century
The Madness of King George (1994)
Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Amadeus
Mutiny on the Bounty
The Mission (1986)

19th Century
Master and Commander (2003)
Out of Africa
Mountains of the Moon Zulu! (1964)
Zulu Dawn (1979)
The Deceivers (1988)
Anna and the King (2000)
Jose Rizal (1998)

20th Century
Apocalypse Now

The African Queen
Ghost and the Darkness
A Passage to India (1985)
Gandhi (1982)
Seven Years in Tibet
The Last Emperor (1987)
M*A*S*H!
The Quiet American
Painted Veil

Motorcycle Diaries !
Evita!
Dr. Zhivago (1965) 

Asia

Jing ke ci qin wang (The Emperor and the Assassin 1999)

Kakushi-toride no san-akunin (The Hidden Fortress 1958)

Miyamoto Musashi (Samurai I of the Samurai Trilogy 1954)

Ran (1985)

Shi mian mai fu (House of Flying Daggers 2004)

Ying xiong (Hero 2002)

HISTORY FILM REVIEW EXAMPLE

The Patriot: Movie Review From the Journal of American History vol. 87, no. 3, on-line version: 

http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/87.3/mr_2.html

The Patriot, directed by Roland Emmerich for Centropolis Entertainment, Columbia Pictures, and SONY Pictures Entertainment, is a stirring account of a little-known campaign of a war that has been largely ignored by Hollywood. It tells the story of Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson), a South Carolina planter and widower with seven children. His horrific experiences in the French and Indian War make him unwilling to take up arms against the British when South Carolina votes for independence in 1776, though his eldest son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), joins the Continental army. Martin is forced to take sides when the war literally comes into his front yard and British troops harm his family and burn his home. He assumes command of the local militia and becomes the scourge of the British, cutting their supply lines and attacking their outposts. Martin and his men pay a heavy personal price for their patriotism, but they persevere and play a key role in defeating the British army in South Carolina. After Gen. Charles Cornwallis surrenders, Martin and his men return to South Carolina to rebuild in their independent country.
This film is a well-told, well-acted, and handsomely photographed historical epic, and accolades must go to Emmerich and Gibson for tackling a subject that is certainly less than familiar to the average summer movie patron. Adding more credibility to the historical accuracy of this film was the participation of historians from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History as consultants. The sets and scenery show much attention to historical detail. Colonial Charleston, the plantations, villages, and taverns—all convey an atmosphere of period authenticity. The Fort Carolina set is especially well done; the British built a number of such forts by constructing earthwork and palisade fortifications around plantation houses.
However, much of The Patriot is not historically accurate in the interpretation of broad themes or in specific details of the campaign in the South and of warfare in the American Revolution. Gibson acknowledged, "If one were to adhere to historical accuracy all the way, you'd probably have the most boring two hours on earth, but firstly it's entertainment and we've taken license with history to make it more compelling."
Mel Gibson's character is a composite of several partisan leaders, most notably Francis Marion, Thomas Sumter, and Andrew Pickens. Like Marion, Martin makes his headquarters on an island in the middle of a swamp. Both Sumter and Pickens took up arms after their plantations were burned by the British. Aside from those facts, Benjamin Martin has little in common with his real-life counterparts.
The most serious deficiency of The Patriot is its almost complete omission of the Loyalists. A significant segment of the population of the Carolinas and Georgia remained loyal, and much of the fighting there was a civil war between Tories and Whigs. Though Loyalist provincial and militia units constituted one-half of the British army in the South, the film portrays only one Loyalist soldier, Captain Wilkins (Adam Baldwin) in Colonel Tavington's (Jason Isaacs) dragoons. Tavington is based on Banastre Tarleton, who commanded the British Legion, a Loyalist provincial regiment. The film gives the impression that Tavington's regiment is British and that Captain Wilkins is the only Loyalist in its ranks. No other Loyalist soldiers appear in The Patriot.
The atrocities committed by Colonel Tavington and his troops are highly exaggerated. Benjamin Martin first encounters this bloodthirsty officer after he has opened up his home to treat the wounded of both sides. Tavington has the British wounded removed, then orders the execution of the wounded Continentals and the burning of Martin's plantation. When one of Martin's sons tries to intervene, Tavington fatally shoots him in the back. Tavington and his men subsequently murder slaves who refuse to cooperate with them and go on a farm-burning spree in which they kill the wife and child of one of Martin's men. The culminating atrocity occurs when Tavington descends on the village of Wakefield, which is home to a number of Martin's guerrillas, and has the entire population locked inside the church, which he then sets ablaze.
Though the real-life Banastre Tarleton was a ruthless and brutal officer, he never committed atrocities of the sort depicted in The Patriot. The most notorious episode associated with Tarleton was the Waxhaws Massacre on May 29, 1780. In that engagement Tarleton and his legion attacked a regiment of Virginia Continentals. The Virginians fired only one volley before the Tory horsemen broke their line. They then tried to surrender, but a killing frenzy took hold of the Loyalists and most of the helpless Continentals were mercilessly cut down. Three-quarters of the Virginians were killed or so badly wounded that Tarleton left them on the field. An American officer who saw the wounded after the battle estimated that the average number of wounds per man was sixteen.
Tarleton enthusiastically burned the farms of suspected Patriots and summarily executed suspected guerrillas—on several occasions in front of their families. Dastardly as Tarleton's actual behavior was, it pales in comparison to that of The Patriot's Colonel Tavington. There is no evidence that Tarleton executed wounded Continentals, nor that he killed women and children. The British had a very practical motivation for not killing their Continental captives, as it would invite retaliation against British prisoners. The Waxhaws Massacre occurred in the heat of battle and was exacerbated by the intense animosity between Tories and Whigs. In an interview, Gibson acknowledged, "Some of the worst crimes were committed between the Loyalists and the Rebels, the colonists themselves." However, when Tavington is preparing to incinerate the church with the villagers inside, Captain Wilkins, a Tory, is the only one of his men to express any reservations.
The portrayal of African Americans and slavery in the movie has also been a subject of much controversy. Benjamin Martin is a prominent planter in South Carolina and thus would have owned slaves. In order not to stigmatize the film's hero, Martin does not own slaves but employs free black workers, probably the only such labor arrangement in colonial South Carolina. Later, Martin takes his family to a "maroon" community of fugitive slaves on the coast to hide them from the British. In reality, those slaves were hiding from the Patriots. Thomas Sumter often used slaves seized from Tory owners to pay his militiamen.
The military details of uniforms, equipment, and tactics also reveal inaccuracies too numerous to list here. All British soldiers did not wear red uniforms, and very few Continental soldiers had blue coats and white trousers. This latter fact was more accurately depicted in A&E's The Crossing, in which audiences see little uniformity in the attire of the Continentals. In the southern campaign most of the American army was militia, and the Continental contingent had no tents and had trouble acquiring clothing or provisions of any kind. The Patriot misses an excellent opportunity to show the true depth of suffering and deprivation that the Continental regulars endured for independence. The climactic battle in the film also bears little resemblance to the actual Battle of Cowpens, upon which it is based. Finally, the field artillery available to both sides could not fire exploding shells.
In conclusion, The Patriot is a very entertaining film that uses the American Revolution in South Carolina as a backdrop to tell a story about the way the war affected a fictional family. "This is not historically accurate," said Mel Gibson. "In the broad strokes, yes—on other levels, it is sheer fantasy. It's a good thing that historians are going to harangue this and say, 'It's not accurate.' Good. It'll make somebody pick up a book."

William Ross St. George Jr. Wilmington, North Carolina 

TURNITIN

The class id is 8830466 and the password is history.

WALLS AND FENCES...

Walls and Fences: (10%)

This is our first assignment and is due rather quickly, so do not dilly dally. You must choose an historical wall or fence. Here is a brief list of some possibilities:

Antonine Wall                                                                   Aurelian Walls

Berlin Wall                                                                                    Botswana-Zimbabwe Border

Ceuta and Melilla Borders (Spain-Morocco)             Dingo Fence

Emmitsburg Road Fence                                              Fence around Manzanar Camp

Fence at Buckingham Palace                                      Great Wall of China

Great Zimbabwe Walls                                                  Green Monster

Hadrian’s Wall                                                                 Indo-Bangladeshi Barrier

Intramuros                                                                                    Kremlin Wall

Kuwait-Iraq Barrier                                                          Long Wall of Quảng Ngãi  (Vietnam)

Red Snake (Iran)                                                             Sacsayhuaman (Peru)

San Diego Border Fence                                               The Atlantic Wall

The Communards' Wall                                                            The Korean Wall

The Lennon Wall (Prague)                                            The Peace Lines (Belfast)

The Walls of Constantinople                                        Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall

Wall of Jericho                                                                 Walls of Ávila 

Walls of Babylon                                                             Walls of Dubrovnik

Walls of Troy                                                                    West Bank Separation Barrier

Western Wall

You will do some simple research on your wall/fence, using google, google scholar, and google books. You are allowed to go to the library for this but a library visit is not required. Your short essay will be 2 pages long (double-spaced) and will place the wall or fence into its historical context. How, when, and why did this wall/fence come about? Who does it separate from whom? Was it successful in creating a separation?

9/25  Thu         Walls and Fences Due

…TYPED AND AT THE START OF CLASS

…future assignments will be cited in Chicago Manual of Style and judged by exacting standards. For this assignment, you may use a common sense method of citation. FOLLOW ALL RULES OF ACADEMIC HONESTY. If it is a quote or idea you are using from someone else, leave it in quotes or cite it with a common sense method. What does that look like? Here is an example:

In TC Boyle’s Tortilla Curtain, the character Kyra states, “Immigrants are the lifeblood of this country.” (page 74) IN the New York Times article “Pilgrim of Topanga Creek,” Scott Spencer writes that Mr. Boyle deftly portrays Los Angeles's Topanga Canyon, catching both its privileged society and its underlying geological and ecological instability…An undocumented Mexican couple struggle for survival in the interstices of society and in the canyon itself, even as an affluent Anglo couple live their fearful, selfish existence behind the dubious protection of a walled development called Arroyo Blanco Estates. (http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/08/home/boyle-tortilla.html)