In the themes essay, I want to see how you have related the story you are developing about your site to a major theme/aspect of urban history. This theme can be taken from course themes and/or discussions (industrial development, immigration, migration), from a secondary source material that you have identified on your particular topic, and/or a theme from a scholarly article and/or book that we have read (i.e. Alison Isenberg’s Downtown America or James Grossman’s Land of Hope.) Remember that you are responsible for all course readings on the syllabus, even if we divide reading assignments into groups. on some aspect of urban history and consider how your site contributes to understanding that facet of urban history.
Your paper should consider the relation between your site and that theme. For example, if you are writing about mid-town, where there was a huge influx of African Americans from the 1920s through the 1950s, you will want to consider how your site is related to the topic of the Great Migration. If you are writing about Detroit-Shoreway, relevant themes might be immigration and/or urbanization. If your site is near to downtown, from CSU to Public Square, you could easily talk about the transformation of downtowns in American urban history with reference to Isenberg or Fogelson. The point, though, is for you to make connections between your site and broad themes in American history.
You will want to do this carefully, referencing the readings thoughtfully and using appropriate primary source materials. For example, if you are writing about the Great Migration, you will want to think about the hopes and expectations of migrations–Grossman is very helpful in framing those issues for you. At the same time, you will need to document that migration mattered in your particular community/area, which you can do using census data. At the same time, you might want to examine relevant secondary materials about Cleveland that are relevant to your topic. This need not be a long essay; it should be 3-5 pages. BUT, it should be thoughtful and make meaningful use of scholarship.
Some questions that you might ask and answer in your paper. Consider what has primacy: economics, social and demographic considerations, culture, politics, environment, or perhaps the physical place/location? Which of these factors matters most and why? Use examples from the reading to create a rich portrait of two or three different causal possibilities. Then argue for the primacy of one factor in shaping the development of place in American urban history and your site.
This paper will also require you to hand in a final bibliography, annotated for your site. That bibliography should have three secondary sources that are related to your site and that you use in your essay. A list of primary sources is helpful, but not required. This should be a continuation of what you did for the previous paper. How do you do this? An annotated bibliography includes a brief description (one word to several sentences) of how the source relates to your project.
A strong essay will possess references to secondary materials that are thoughtful and integrated with primary research about your site. Your papers should also possess an argument about the relation between your site and urban history writ broadly (evident in the literature/course themes.)
A possible topic/introductory paragraph might possess sentences that possess the following types of information: [Your site] [reflects/was untouched by] [theme] that shaped cities in the period from [year to year]. This [statement of change/continuity/thesis] finds expression in several ways, including the following: [detail key points of your argument].
Good luck and you can always email me.