102 Research Assignment, Center Fall 04

Sources for Research Paper—English 102        Search by title or by editors as authors

 

To be used with Patricia Nelson Limerick’s “Haunted America” in Ways of Reading. 

 

We can think of history as a story (or narrative) that gives one possible version of events.  Any particular history is a story in the sense that it offers a theory that explains events (not in the sense that it is fiction).  There is always more than one story to explain a particular historical event, more than one way of looking at the history.  We tend, however, to restrict our understanding to one story and to ignore the evidence that doesn’t fit that explanation. 

 

For this paper, you will try to uncover and discuss more than one story that explains the historical event, seeking to complicate a simple, one-story explanation. 

 

Choose one of the topics on the list of sources for a research paper using primary sources (first-person accounts or reports of first-person accounts).  You must do new research for this paper.  In the library, locate sources representing multiple points of view and copy excerpts. You should use a minimum of 3 book sources (chapter or story) or Internet sources from my list (or other books from the same section of the library, subject to my approval), depending on their length.  You can supplement these with other Internet sources or sources from other classes. 

 

 

 

1. The Vietnam Conflict—What are the stories of the participants in this war?  

 

Santoli, Al. Everything We Had: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Thirty-Three

American Soldiers Who Fought It.

Branfman, Fred.  Voices from the Plain of Jars. 

Adler, Bill.  Letters from Vietnam.

Appy, Christian G. ed.  Patriots:  The Vietnam War Remember From All Sides.  Viking, 2003. 

 

* Niven, Douglas.  Another Vietnam.  National Geographic

*Hess, Martha.  Then the Americans Came.  New York:  Four Wall Eight Windows, 1993.

* Price, Brian J. Vietnam: Our Story One on One, VV Publishing1991

* Terry, Wallace. Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans. 

 

All Things Considered.  NPR. August 2, 2004. “Remembering the Gulf of Tonkin Incident 40 Years Later.” This interview with Walter Cronkite can be accessed through a Lexis-Nexis guided search for

News Transcripts on National Public Radio. 

 

Vietnam Online. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/

 

Americans and the Vietnam War. http://www.pbs.org/vietnampassage/Resources/

 

 

 

2.  Central Park Jogger Case—What does this crime and its aftermath reveal about race and justice? 

 

Must copy and read:  Didion, Joan.  “A Sentimental Journey.”

 

Dwyer, Jim and Kevin Flynn.  “New Light On Jogger’s Rape Calls Evidence Into

Question.” New York Times.  1 December 2002. [background]

Bowser, Betty Ann.  “Central Park Justice.” News Hour with Jim Lerher. 

www.pbs.org. 24 December 2002.

“It’s Time.” ABC News.  hppt://abcnews.go.com/sections/primetime/DailyNew/central

park_rape_02926.html. 

Sullivan, Timothy. The American Lawyer February 2003, February 2003, 1915 words,  

“Presumption Of Uncertainty.”

Hancock, Lynnell. Columbia Law Review. January, 2003, February, 2003,  Pg. 38,  3889

words,  “WOLF PACK; The Press and the Central Park Jogger.”

Central Park Jogger Case Panel Report

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/dcpi/executivesumm_cpjc.html

* Meili, Trisha.  I Am the Central Park Jogger: A Story of Hope and Possibility

interview with Meili on Dateline http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3080126/

 

3.  The War on Terrorism—What are the stories of the participants in the prison abuse?  What are the stories that are told to justify or to object to this war?

Prison abuse:

Buncome, Andres and Justin Huggler.  “The Torture Victim.” The Independent.  May 2004.

Dodd, Vikram.  Comment & Analysis:  Torture By the Book.” The Guardian.  May 2004.

Saletan, William.  “Situationist Ethics” and Situationist Ethics Revisited.”  Slate Magazine.  May

2004.  at www.slate.com or www.msn.slate.com

Zimbardo, Phillip G.  The Stanford Experiment.  Slide show at www.prisonexp.org

links on Iraqi prisons at www.prisonexp.org including:

Army Report at http://www.npr.org/iraq/2004/prison_abuse_report.pdf

CNN.com Shock, Outrage over Prison Photos May 1, 2004

Hersh, Seymour. New Yorker.  May 10, 2004

Many more article available in Lexis Nexis

* Mackey, Chris.  The Interrogators. 

 

War:

http://www.lib.ecu.edu/govdoc/iraq2.html

Sifry, Micah L. and Christopher Cerf.  The Iraq War Reader : History, Documents, Opinions

Clark, Wesley K.  Winning Modern Wars : Iraq, Terrorism, and the American Empire

Exum, Andrew.  This Man's Army : A Soldier's Story from the Front Lines of the War on Terrorism

* Franks, Tommy.  American Soldier

* Wright, Evan.  Generation Kill. 

 

4.  Japanese internment in World War II—What are the stories of the participants in this event?  What stories about Japanese-Americans justified this action?

 

Noda, Kesaya.  “Growing Up Asian in America.”  Making Waves : An Anthology of

Writings by and About Asian American Women Ed. Asian Women United of California.

Boston: Beacon Press, 1989.

Wakatsuki, Jeanne Houston & James D. Houston.  Farewell to Manzanar; a true story of Japanese

American experience during and after the World War II internment

Inada, Lawson Fusao. Only What We Could Carry: the Japanese American Internment Experience.

O’Brien, David J. and Stephen S. Fugita.  The Japanese American Experience.

Myer, D.S. WRA: A Story of Human Conservation

 

A More Perfect Union.  Smithsonian National Museum of American History. 

www.americanhistory.si.edu/perfectunion

Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco http://www.sfmuseum.org/war/evactxt.html

• Internment of the Japanese During World War II — 1942
• Instructions to All Persons of Japanese Ancestry — 1942
• Excerpts from Gen. DeWitt's Final Report on the Evacuation of the Japanese — 1942

 

*Gesensway, Deborah and Mindy Roseman.  Beyond Words:  Images From American’s Concentration

Camps.  Cornell University Press 1987.

* Weglyn, Michi.  Years of Infamy:  The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps. 1976.

 

 

 

 

5.Sites of genocide— What are the stories that explain how and why genocide happens? 

Choose a specific place in which genocide has occurred or is occurring.

General sources: 

Web Genocide Documentation Centre.  http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide.htm

Power, Samantha.  A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide

Human Rights Watch.  www.hrw.org.  Amnesty International www.amnesty.org

 

Rwanda:

Barnett, Michael.  Eyewitness to Genocide. 

Kuperman, Alan J. Limitations of Humanitarian Intervention. 

Power, Samantha.  “Bystanders to Genocide:  Why the US Let the Rwandan Tragedy Happen.” The

Atlantic.  September 2001.  www.theatlantic.com

Destexhe, Alain.   Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. 

*Mamandi, Mahmood.  When Victims Become Killers.  Princeton University Press, 2001. 

Ghosts of Rwanda.  Frontline.  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/

Also available at the Frontline site:  Merlino, Doug. After the Genoicide

www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/fellows/rwanda1103/and The Triumph of Evil

www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/ and Valentina’s Nightmare www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rwanda/

Witness to Genocide.  http://www.papaink.org/gallery/home/picture/display/2974.html

 

Cambodia: 

Cambodia:  Pol Pot’s Shadow.  Frontline.  This site also has good links and good general information about genocide.   http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/cambodia/genocide.html

Chandler, David.  Voices from S-21.   University of California, 1999. 

 

Darfur

Power, Samantha.  “Dying in Darfur.” New Yorker.  30 Aug. 2004. 56-73.

O’Keefe, Ed and Jeffrey Marcus.  “Crisis in Sudan.”  9 September 2004. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com.

Documenting Atrocities in Darfur  (US State Department) http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/36028.htm

Darfur: A Genocide We Can Stop www.darfurgenocide.org

Sudan Tribune www.sudantribune.com

Since this is a current genocide, there will be many articles on Lexis Nexis