Historians analyze primary sources in order to construct interpretative stories of the pasthistorythat are relevant to the contemporary world. Historian Marc Bloch even asserted that if the past has no relevance to the present, then the past is not history. This connection of the past and present is the so what that makes history. These interpretations must address what people of the past thought and believed, why they thought and believed what they did, and how these thoughts and beliefs influenced their actions and worldviews. The means historians gain this understanding is through the analysis of primary sources, which are artifacts produced by the people studied by historians. This essay assignment calls on you to be historians and assert an interpretative story of immigration during the latter nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that is relevant to the contemporary world.
This exercise will test: (1) whether you are able to distinguish between primary and secondary sources, (2) your ability to analyze primary sources, (3) your ability to support and develop assertions with textual evidence from primary sources, and (4) your understanding of connecting the past with the present.
The Assignment
Read the primary sources on immigration in this packet. Note that the readings from the packet contain both primary and secondary sources. The secondary sources–which are written by the editors of the anthology from where these documents are taken–are in the form of an introduction to late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century immigration and header notes to individual primary sources.
After you have read and cogitated on the primary sources, write a double-spaced typed essay in three to five pages that: (1) Addresses why many Americans in the latter nineteenth and early twentieth century were anxious about immigration, (2) Compares and contrasts their perceptions of immigrants, and/or immigration, with those of Americans in the contemporary United States, and (3) Explains why contemporary historians should specifically study late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century immigration.
Be sure to support all your assertions with quotes from primary sources in the packet. Your essay must have at the very minimum three quotes from three difference primary sources.
You may want to review the following readings from the module "What is History" prior to writing your essay
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