Final Paper Guidelines The final paper requires a minimum of three primary documents and 5 secondary sources. The assignment is to take topic of history in the 1920s and examine how that topic was interpreted over time. You can begin with primary sources from the decade, and then use your secondary sources to analyze the historiography of the subject. You can think broadly about your topics and primary sources. Primary sources include letters, personal diaries, and other written material by the person you’re studying. It can also include public records, organizational records, and statistics. In addition to text based sources, in some cases primary documents may include newspapers and photographs, if they are the object of your study. Photographs might include images of fashion and public space (bicycles, cars, roads, or architecture), amusements and violence. Other primary materials might include examples of music, cinema, or art from the 1920s. Secondary sources are single author books or articles that discuss or interpret your primary sources (or topic) from the 1920s over time. In choosing your secondary sources, try to find books that were written, for example, in the 1940s, 1960s, 1980s, 2010. These differences in era will show you how authors have re-interpreted the 1920s, based on what came before and their own interests. All papers must include both foot or end notes and bibliography according to the Chicago Manual of Style. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html Papers should be between 7 and 10 pages, excluding footnotes and bibliography. As with your midterm, I expect the writing to be careful with regard to spelling, grammar, and punctuation. The final paper should be in traditional essay form: introduction and thesis statement, evidence, conclusion. Use the Benjamin book, A Student’s Guide to History, to review all the aspects of writing an excellent essay. 2 HISTORY 101 Name: Muslum Onur Yildirim Course: History 101 Instructor: Roberta Wollons Date:03/05/2015 Question 1 Back to normalcy must have been the title used since it was in the time when the war ended and the people were trying to get back to their normal lifestyles. As said in the book, the people still took to the streets to celebrate even though they had done so four days ago on the basis of a wrong alarm. The people were so determined to see an end to the war and, therefore, the cause of the jubilation. It was time for the people to rebuild their countries. They were against anyone who had, for some reason, been seen to be instigating the war. That was the reason why some shops were closed reading that they were attending Kaiser’s funeral. Just as the case would be with any other community, the Americans were happy that their brothers, fathers, sons and other family members who had left for Europe to fight would come back home. The end of the war brought both benefits and losses to many of those who were somehow involved ...

1. Final Paper Guidelines
The final paper requires a minimum of three primary documents
and 5 secondary sources. The assignment is to take topic of
history in the 1920s and examine how that topic was interpreted
over time. You can begin with primary sources from the decade,
and then use your secondary sources to analyze the
historiography of the subject.
You can think broadly about your topics and primary sources.
Primary sources include letters, personal diaries, and other
written material by the person you’re studying. It can also
include public records, organizational records, and statistics. In
addition to text based sources, in some cases primary documents
may include newspapers and photographs, if they are the object
of your study. Photographs might include images of fashion and
public space (bicycles, cars, roads, or architecture), amusements
and violence. Other primary materials might include examples
of music, cinema, or art from the 1920s.
Secondary sources are single author books or articles that
discuss or interpret your primary sources (or topic) from the
1920s over time. In choosing your secondary sources, try to find
books that were written, for example, in the 1940s, 1960s,
1980s, 2010. These differences in era will show you how
authors have re-interpreted the 1920s, based on what came
before and their own interests.
All papers must include both foot or end notes and bibliography
according to the Chicago Manual of Style.
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
Papers should be between 7 and 10 pages, excluding footnotes
and bibliography. As with your midterm, I expect the writing to

2. be careful with regard to spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
The final paper should be in traditional essay form: introduction
and thesis statement, evidence, conclusion. Use the Benjamin
book, A Student’s Guide to History, to review all the aspects of
writing an excellent essay.
2
HISTORY 101
Name: Muslum Onur Yildirim
Course: History 101
Instructor: Roberta Wollons
Date:03/05/2015
Question 1
Back to normalcy must have been the title used since it was in
the time when the war ended and the people were trying to get
back to their normal lifestyles. As said in the book, the people
still took to the streets to celebrate even though they had done
so four days ago on the basis of a wrong alarm. The people were
so determined to see an end to the war and, therefore, the cause
of the jubilation. It was time for the people to rebuild their
countries. They were against anyone who had, for some reason,
been seen to be instigating the war. That was the reason why
some shops were closed reading that they were attending
Kaiser’s funeral. Just as the case would be with any other

3. community, the Americans were happy that their brothers,
fathers, sons and other family members who had left for Europe
to fight would come back home.
The end of the war brought both benefits and losses to many of
those who were somehow involved in the war. For instance,
President Woodrow Wilson could be termed as one who
benefited from the war, or at least on his trip to Europe. It was
after the war that he left for Europe and the reception he
received was enough to make him feel like a god. According to
the book, he felt invincible as there had never been any other
foreigner who received so much recognition on the British soil.
To him, it was a sign that he was an ideal leader.
Normalcy has been used as the title of the chapter but a lot
happens that shows that all was everything but normal. After his
trip to Europe, Wilson came back home to find that the senate
was not ready to be ever again involved in European affairs.
However, in a treaty he had signed while on his trip, it was
everything but what the senate had been advocating for.
Americans had been tired of being involved in a war that they
had not bargained for. As the case would be with any other
individual, they had grown skeptical of everything that would
remind them of the war. As such, the use of the title back to
normalcy was ironic. Things were far from normal in the United
States and the political climate was about to take a turn for the
worst for the President.
The title normal was not meant for the American people as they
were not really living normal lives since they were reeling from
the troubles of coping with the aftermath of the war. Normal
could be taken to mean struggle for power. On the way to the
meeting in which the Treaty of Versailles was signed, some
leaders were keen to plot how they would use the end of the war
for personal gain. Everything was, therefore, back to normal
where political supremacy was the order of the day, the same
case applied in the United States where the senate was
constantly working to lobby leaders to support exit from
European affairs. Everything was back to normal, nothing had

4. changed, and nothing had improved.
Question 2
The red scare is part of both social and political history. There
are various factors that culminated to the scare that leave it to
be both political and socially aligned to the extent of entering
the books of social and political history. The Americans lived in
constant fear of a revolution and the fact that they experienced
war not so long before them made the scare even more real.
There were various incidences in the country that further
increased the people’s fear of a revolution in their country. As
the president arrived from his trip in Paris, there were some
fighters who paraded with weapons enough to set vast areas of
the country on fire. Basically, the scare was real.
The scare was politically instigated as a way to control the
people. For instance, there was one time, as described in the
book that a parcel, addressed to a mayor, contained an explosive
in it. The question to ask in this case would be why the parcel
was addressed to the mayor. It could be taken to have been
made to have the mayor clear the way for another person to take
charge of the office or could have been a way to show the
people that no one was really safe. If the same happened in the
modern day world, there would be a lot of critique as regards to
the security detail of the affected individual and public outcry
about the safety of citizens.
In addition to the political aspect of the red scare, there came a
social aspect as well. The administration, in many countries was
rather skeptical of what the citizens were doing. The doubts
were founded on the fact that there was a lot of propaganda
circulating among the citizens as regards to the administration.
For instance, there were theatres in Russia that posed danger to
the administration due to their seemingly propagandist themes
in their shows. In other places, before publication of any kind
took place, the informative media had to be scrutinized to
ensure that there was nothing that would cause any potential
harm to the reader in terms of the reader’s ideologies. As such,
the freedom of expression and the general climate had changed.

5. The changes may have been a result of the experiences during
the war and the people lived in constant fear of what may have
happened. The dint not understand what the future held for
them, and especially because of the constant wars and this made
their fear even worse. There was constant struggle for change in
the society as the people did not want the society to remain the
way it had been before the war. The fact that things went back
to the way they were before the war made the people want some
change. As such, the said propagandas were a result of the
people wanting to experience change. Fear of war among the
people, was something social while the result of the fear on the
political environment was something to qualify as a political
history aspect.
Question 3
Fashion and technology is seen to dominate throughout the book
by Allen. The fact that there is a lot of reference to the same
means that the various forms of technology then, including the
radio, movies and auto, were widely used then. The question,
however, is why the domination. In the case that a new
technology is discovered in the modern world, a lot of people
would use it and, consequently, it would be widely used as a
means of communication. For instance, if some historic
occurrences were to happen in the current era and the same
written in historical books, there would be a lot of reference to
the social media in the written books. The reason is not that
there is a lot of information as regards to the occurrence on
social media but because the same has become an important part
of the lives of people in the modern world.
In historic times, historians used to write occurrences that
occurred during their lifetime. There was little to no reference
on what happened at another time when they were not present.
As such, they relied on sources of information such as the radio
in the case that they did not witness the same happen. Further,
during the post-war period, there was a large improvement in
radio and automotive industry. The fact that that is the time
covered by the book left Allen no choice but to constantly

6. mention them in the publication.
The postwar period saw the development of the theatre and
movie industry. It was one industry in which people expressed
their dissatisfaction with the leaders and aired their views on
what they would have wished altered to better suit the people.
As such, it was inevitable for the movie industry to be
mentioned in the book. Movies serve as ways of communicating
to people. They can be informative or provocative. They can
also be used for education purposes and, therefore, lead to
enlightening of the masses.
Mobility at the time was mainly through the use of automobiles.
It was then that they began taking root in the society. Owning a
car was prestigious and was a sign of wealth among the
aristocrats. Only the rich would have the privilege of enjoying
such luxuries. The president has to travel in an entourage which
would have been a sign of the wealth of the place he leads.
There was no way that such details would be left from a book
that talked about history. In a modern day situation, there is no
way a historical event could be recorded without mentioning the
allies to the president that were present at the occasion and how
the information was passed. The use of things that the reader
can relate to improves the authenticity of the information in any
given publication. In the case of Allen, the technology in the
book relates to the technology at the time covered in the book
and, therefore, improving how authentic the information in the
book is.
Question 6
Allen’s presentation of President Warren G. Harding is more
political. In the presentation, a lot is talked about the
president’s prosperity in office and how he got things done. In
addition, there is a lot as pertains to the president’s ability to
help and interact with people more than any other American
president before him had done. The most spectacular fact about
his reign is that when he passed on, the author says, the whole
of the country was sad at the loss. This is because of the manner
in which he interacted well with the people, and everyone felt

7. that he deserved to lead them. All the people were mourning not
only because of the loss of a great leader, but also a president
who was more of a friend to all people. They had lost a man of
the people. The description of the president’s death is not as
that Woodrow Wilson was. The case is a testament that Warren
G. had a way of interacting with people and winning the
affection of his supporters, just because of the good
interpersonal relationship that he had created.
The epitome of the political aspect is the clarification of the
circumstances that the people had supposed to have caused his
death. Some argued that his friends had led his administration
into deep graft. The explanation is one that describes the
president’s downfall and how he may have been wrong in
appointing who was to be in his administration. Had he been a
little bit wise and involved in the affairs of the country, his
reign would not have been tainted as it was when the truth
finally surfaced about various steps that had been undertaken in
his term as president of the United States.He was a man of the
people but, politically, he was a failure. He had won the support
of the people as he knew what it was that they wanted but did
not know how to efficiently run the office. His political choices
leaved a lot to be desired.
On the other hand, the presentation of Calvin Coolidge is not
political. There are a lot of changes that have been talked about
by the author as having happened in the course of his tenure.
For instance, the improvement in the country’s economy has
been a subject in the presentation of Coolidge’s time in office.
According to the author, the radio manufacturer and the
automobile manufacturer were treated as equal entrepreneurs
during his time. According to Allen, Coolidge’s policies were
the salvation of the American economy. The presentation makes
Coolidge fall into the category of social history.
Economics is a social science as it deals with the lives of a
particular society. In particular, economics tries to explain a
people’s way of life and factors that contribute to the said
people said way of life. As such, in contrast to Warren G.’s

8. presentation of a leader with poor choices, Coolidge was wise
enough to improve the American’s way of life.
Reference
Allen, Frederick Lewis. 1997. Only yesterday: an informal
history of the 1920's. New York: Wiley