Opinion Essay Topics
American History

Semester One

Directions:

• This is an "opinion" essay. It must include your opinion, backed up by facts.
• Must have traditional essay structure: Introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion
• Refer to the Essay Rubric I've given you (also at http://jdelarme.freeservers.com/rubrics.htm)
• Length (Approx. 650 to 1,500 words)
• If typed, at least two and no more than five pages. (Double space with reasonable margins)
• If handwritten, at least three pages (front and back) and no more than six (front and back).

Due:  Wednesday December 17^th

Value: 60 points

Sources:

• 2 sources minimum (not including your textbook, though you may use it)
• At least one source should be a book on the topic.
• The other can be a magazine article, interview, documentary, or reputable website
• Include a bibliography for the sources you use.

TOPICS:

1. Why was the Bill of Rights necessary? What 3 rights would you have added?
2. Why did President Jackson force Native Americans from the Southeast? What would you have done if you were president in the 1820s?
3. Was the War with Mexico necessary?
4. What should America have done with the freed slaves after the Civil War?
5. Was Abraham Lincoln a true abolitionist?
6. Was the Lincoln assassination a conspiracy?
7. How did the Battle of Wounded Knee scar the United States Government?
8. Were the effects of the New Industrial Age positive or negative for the working class American?
9. How did industrialists such as Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, and Carnegie define “progress?”  How did workers and Populists define “progress?” How did their visions of what constituted the “good society” differ?
10. How were children and people your age involved in the new industrial age? Was it a negative or positive experience for them?
11. Why do some think that Unions and the Government are incompatible?
12. Did immigrants at the turn of the century have a harder time than today’s immigrants?
13. What motivated Theodore Roosevelt to be a Progressive President?
14. Did the United States make an active push to become a world power or was this a responsibility thrust on the country because of outside forces?
15. What did reformers during the Progressive and New Deal eras hope to accomplish and how were their strategies for achieving their goals similar or different? How did each group measure whether they had achieved success?
16. How did America become such a dominant world power? Is America's dominance a good thing or a bad thing?
17. Could Britain and France have won World War 1 without the help of the United States?
18. Could the Stock Market Crash of 1929 have been avoided?
19. Was the New Deal a “good deal” for all Americans? Whom did it benefit? Whom did it not benefit?
20. Do you support F. D. Roosevelt's plan for reforming the Supreme Court? Why?
21. Is there a valid comparison between the failure of prohibition and the country’s current attempt to ban drugs? Why or why not?