FALL
SEMESTER 2016
HISTORY
300/012: HISTORY OF FASCISM
Professor
E. A. Sanabria
First
Writing Assignment
You
are to write a 5-7 page, double-spaced, printed, essay due in class on Tuesday,
September 27th. Remember that
late papers will be docked a third of a grade for each day they are late, so a
paper that would have been an A- if turned in on time, will garner a B+ if
turned in on the 28th, and a B- if turned in on the 29th, and so on. Add a bibliography page to the back of your
essay.
Your
essay is based on your reading and response primarily
to the primary documents in the Griffin and Stone collections of sources on
Fascist Italy. These are, of course, primary documents or first-hand sources
that are produced at the time of an even or an era, and written by direct
participants or observers. You may
choose several documents in the book in order to select have sources rich
enough to sustain an entire essay. Choose one (1) of the following prompts for your paper:
A.)
Prepare an essay in which you make and defend a
claim about some element of the Fascist violence. What role, for instance, did
it play in how Fascists gained political power and to silence dissent? What
role, for instance, did violence play in the consolidation of Fascists and
other Italians, such as World War I veterans (the Ras)? In what ways were
intimidation, fear, and violence used to coerce Italians into submission? Make
sure to refer and use examples from the primary texts to support your claims.
B.) Prepare an essay in which you
make and defend a claim about what Italian Fascists saw
as
the appropriate roles for women in society. What policies and programs did the
regime
create to establish the notion of a good Fascist mother and wife and to make it
appealing
to women? Make sure to refer and use examples from the primary texts to
support
your claims.
C.) Based on your reading of the
before, during, and after of Italian Fascism, prepare an
essay
in which you make and defend a claim about what enabled Fascism to take
off. In
other
words, make and defend a claim about what “ingredients” (these can be
intellectual
currents, economic realities, political developments, etc.) were
in place in
order
for the Fascist movement to win over enough support to make a significant
splash
in
their specific national contexts. Make
sure to refer and use examples from the
primary
texts to support your claims.
Documentation
Style
Because
this is an upper division History course, I would be remiss if I didn’t require
you to document your sources using the style used by the historians’ profession:
Chicago Manual of Style footnotes or endnotes. In general, the first citation of a book or
article should be complete. For example:
²
Subsequent
references to that book can look like this:
³Payne, 22.
Here’s
an example of an article citation:
¹Bruce
Any
library reference section should have a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style
for you to consult, or simply Google “Chicago Manual of Style” to find examples
of
Because
so many of our primary sources come in edited collections, here’s an example of
how to cite from the
³Joseph
Goebbels, “Christ-Socialism,” in Fascism,
Roger Griffin, ed. (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1995), 119-120.
Or
from Stone:
³Benito
Mussolini, “The Twentieth Century:
Inauguration Speech Given at the Opening of the First Novecento Exhibition.
February 15, 1926,” in The Fascist Revolution in Italy: A Brief History with Documents, Marla
Stone, ed. (Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s,
2013), 129.