What are the lessons of history from the post WWII years to present (1950s to now with a focus on 1950 to 1990s) in regards to maintaining a thriving democracy? What historical lessons can we apply to today? Choose four topics to address (the topics are listed below and the topics you choose should be addressed as different topics, not as the same topic with different topic titles). Address the topics by looking at the specific history. You can look at events today in light of history, but the vast majority of your essay should be focused on history (3/4 of your essay on the histories we’ve covered in this class). You must use with depth the following: Lectures and Readings (your choice from Part III of this class), White Rage (chapters 3 and 4), and the following documentaries (Berkeley in the Sixties, Revolution ’67, and one documentary of your choice from part III of this course). Sources that you cite from part III of our class that are not listed here will only strengthen your grade.

Here are topics you can choose from. Remember, your focus is democracy, and to focus on your chosen topics to write about how we “maintain a thriving democracy.”

• incarceration
• violence
• race
• equality before the law
• equal rights
• voting rights
• labor rights
• gender
• housing
• education

You are to incorporate what you wrote for your discussion (History Lesson Discussion post). When you do that, make sure to cite yourself. If you are quoting yourself, you need to put your quote into “quotation marks”.

Remember, you are free to take any perspective. This will only be measured by how accurately you use history. That means you are free to hold any position but you must use factual information. You can measure those facts by using the skills you learned in how to vet digital information. So you cannot use information that is found by reliable sources to be false. For example, denying the holocaust is not considered factual. Although you can reference some of the problems today, the majority of your writing should be on the past, what lessons we learn from them, and how we move forward as a nation. In other words, you are now actively seeking and providing answers to our problems today by using the lessons of history (within the period of post WWII and Reagan).