Here are a few directions I might go in. I know it's really broad, but I definitely plan on honing in on something more precise once I do a bit of research:
1. Political identity as a function of race or class identity: how do racial/class/social backgrounds or communities influence political identity. Can political identity be considered a part of a racial/class identity? How do certain individuals reconcile seemingly contrary political and social identities (ex. Gay Republicans) ?
2. Revolutionary War Propaganda: To what extent was British oppression fabricated or exaggerated by American revolutionaries, who was behind revolutionary war propaganda, and why? What methods were used, why were they effective?
3. Religion in post revolutionary America: did the unique government/social structure of post revolutionary America through the early 19th century shape the religious character of Americans?
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Hi Matt,
ReplyDeleteAll three of these are really fascinating topics - I enjoy Revolutionary history and think an exploration of American propaganda is something that doesn't always get a lot of attention. But I particularly like your first topic, though it would be a challenge to limit the scope of your research, because I can already think of a lot of social identities that (at least stereotypically) might clash with political identities in addition to your example, such as wealthy Democrats and Catholic Democrats. There are a lot of interesting questions contained in this topic, including how political identity can become a part of social identity, both historically and currently - for instance, during the Revolution, political Loyalists became a despised social class after the Revolution. Anyway, I look forward to seeing what you decide!
Hey Matt,
ReplyDeleteI really like your first topic—I find it broadly applicable as well as something that can concentrate on a very particular aspect of conflicting identities. Gay republicans and dealing with the contrast between fiscal liberalism which passes over orientation, and social conservatism which challenges it, would be a great topic, although there are many different applications within the race and class differentiations you mention at the beginning. I know that both here and at my high school in Palo Alto, political identity and its public display had huge social impact both during 2004 and 2008—at my high school, Republicans were a drastic minority, and so even some students whose families were Republican refrained from bringing it up publicly, while students from democratic households flaunted their political allegiance. I think this topic, however you choose to apply it, would be really interesting!
Hi, Matt,
ReplyDeleteThese are interesting topics! Your first one particularly might make for interesting case studies. Your second one might also generate some interesting primary sources that could be fun to work with. You might also consider looking at how the "British oppression" played out in the wake of the Revolutionary War, and if that's any different from how propaganda looked during the war
Matt -
ReplyDeleteYou've really found some gold mines! Your first topic is interesting but you'd probably need to narrow it down so the wealth of information doesn't overwhelm you! The second topic could incorporate some pretty interesting forms of media and articles - I feel like Revolutionary War Propaganda is something we rarely discuss in history classes, but there is probably a wealth of information on it to help write a research paper. As for the third topic, religion is always an interesting thing to talk about in America, especially because Americans are more religious today than any other time in our history. Perhaps you could consider taking a compare/contrast approach with that one, comparing two time periods and how Americans treated religion
Matt--
ReplyDeleteAll three of those topics could definitely be fleshed out into a full project and they're all really interesting. The first one, I think, is a very interesting question but also by far the most difficult to tackle. There's a lot of psychology involved in what you're proposing but that added layer does make the subject a little more compelling. I think your second topic is clearly the most focused and I think it sounds like it probably interests you the most (based on your detail) at this point as well, which is important. The third topic I personally find incredibly interesting and you might consider looking at it as a two way relationship between politics and religion in the post-revolutionary period and look at how religion and politics played off each other.
Hey Matt,
ReplyDeleteI really like your first topic. You might be able to tie in religion here as well: in addition to contradictory political identities, you could look at religious identities as well--- how about Evangelical Christians who are gay? This might be really interesting to look at.
As for looking at religion in America in the way you discussed in your third idea, I would highly recommend sitting in on a few of Jonathan Herzog's classes on Religion in American Society (History 154A). It's an incredibly interesting class, and even just looking at his syllabus would give you a lot of primary and secondary sources to use.
-Sylvie