Scholars interpret history through the research of primary sources, or what individuals of the time period wrote and said about the world as they experienced it. History textbooks such as de la Teja’s Texas: Crossroads of North America are often at quite a remove from this initial contact with the historical record, as they compile the conclusions made by myriad historians. The book review assignment gives you an opportunity to be a historian in your own right with a memoir travelogue, an academic monograph, and a collection of contemporary essays to interpret and contextualize.
1. Cabeza de Vaca’s Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition due 9/7
2. Dwonna Goldstone’s Integrating the 40 Acres due
3. Elizabeth Engelhardt’s Republic of Barbecue due 11/28
Write a 2 ½-4-page double-spaced paper on each that summarizes and contextualizes the document within our larger course of study. Your paper will be due on Canvas before the beginning of class on the date in which we cover the reading.
In the short paper, you are to:
• In the title of the paper, identify the author and title of the text.
• In the opening paragraphs, summarize the document. What is it? Who wrote it and why? Outline the basic argument or narrative set forward in the piece.
• Next, do research to learn more about the author or subject of the document and relay interesting secondary information that informs your understanding of it. Use Turabian or Chicago style to cite one outside, relevant source with an identifiable author (Wikipedia, History.com, biography.com, etc. excluded).
• Finally, contextualize the document in the larger scope of our course. With what events or personalities in the textbook or lecture does it intersect?
