Revised Jan2008
Sophomore Research Paper Topics
1. Immigration Restriction Movements (1890-1930): were they necessary to protect our
borders?
2. Sinking of the Maine (1898): was it a justifiable reason for war?
3. Muckrakers: journalists in search of sensational publicity or genuinely concerned with social
reform?
4. The Eugenics Movement: Progressive-Era attempt to correct social ills or an effort to control
minorities, immigrants and the impoverished?
5. The motivations of Teddy Roosevelt: "Bully Pulpit" or principled bully?
6. President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909): trustbuster looking after the welfare of the
American people or friend of big business?
7. Panama Revolution (1903): Panamanian independence or American imperialism?
8. Roosevelt Corollary (1904): neighborly act or imperialism?
9. Billy Sunday: was he an opportunist?
10. Marcus Garvey: inspirational leader or demagogue?
11. Eugene V. Debs: was his radicalism dangerous or genuinely patriotic?
12. Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the Chicago Trial (1917): was the national
security at stake?
13. Senator Robert La Follette: genuine patriot or dangerous obstructionist?
14. Leo Frank Case of 1913: Flawed judicial structure or quest for justice?
15. Sinking of the Lusitania (1915): atrocity or justifiable?
16. Zimmermann Telegram (1917): genuine threat or mass hysteria?
17. William Jennings Bryan: genuine neutral or naïve secretary of state?
18. America's Entry into WWI: inevitable result of events in Europe or U.S.?
19. Literature of WWI: did it shape American attitudes toward foreign policy?
20. Wilson's Fourteen Points: naïve idealism or practical plan for peace?
21. Versailles Treaty (1919): seeds of WWII or set of necessary compromises?
22. Chicago Race Riot (1919): did official and press actions control the situation or inflame it?
23. Nineteenth Amendment: to what extent was it the result of the work of the Woman's
Suffrage Movement?
24. A. Mitchell Palmer and the Red Scare (1919-1920): was there a genuine threat to national
security or was it a sensational witch-hunt?
25. Prohibition Movement of the 1920's: "noble experiment" or destructive project?
26. Early Motion Picture Industry: Mirror of American life or a force for shaping new values?
27. Early NAACP (1911-1945): was it an effective organization for change?
28. The American Federation of Labor: was it the true voice of the American labor movement?
29. Ku Klux Klan in the 1920's: fringe movement or potent force in American life?
30. Race Riots in the first half of the 20th century: how widespread and significant? (Ex: E. St.
Louis 1917, Chicago 1919, Harlem 1935, Detroit 1943, Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots 1943)
31. Sacco and Vanzetti (1920-1927): common criminals or victims of intolerance?
32. Scopes Trial (1925): what did it reveal about the conflict between modern and traditional
values in America in the 1920's?
33. Role of Women in the 1920s: superficial or genuine strides towards equality?
34. Did popular music of the 1920s reflect contemporary social conditions?
35. Teapot Dome Scandal and other political scandals of the 1920s: were the links between
government and business corrupt?
36. Harlem Renaissance: an expression of discontent or racial pride?
37. Fundamentalism: recurrent strain in American thinking or an isolated historic movement?
38. U.S. Communist Party in the 1920s and 1930s: pawns of the Soviet Union or effective
agents for social change?
39. A. Philip Randolph: opportunist or civil rights pioneer?
40. Third Parties (1900-1944): how significant an instrument for change? (Progressive,
Socialist, Communist, etc: Limit by parties or election years)
41. The South and the Democratic Party (1900-1944): dictatorship or democracy?
42. Washington Naval Conference (1921-1922): was the agreement successful?
43. The trial of Leopold and Loeb (1924): justice or bought verdict?
44. The Election of 1928: did cultural bias or economic issues determine its outcome?
45. Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928): naive agreement or genuine pact to outlaw war?
46. The Stock Market Crash (1929): was it preventable or inevitable?
47. Did popular music of the 1930s reflect contemporary social conditions?
48. Anti-Semitism: how deeply did it permeate American society and politics in the 1930s and
1940's?
49. Scottsboro Boys: to what extent a reflection of race relations in the South?
50. Bonus Expeditionary Force (1932): entitled veterans or dangerous radicals?
51. Lindbergh kidnapping: was justice served?
52. National Recovery Administration (1933): how significant was its role in promoting
economic recovery?
53. Eleanor Roosevelt’s expansion of the First Lady’s role: appropriate or unwarranted?
54. Role of women in the 1930s: did the Depression change their role and status?
55. Sit-Down Strikes of the 1930s: industrial blackmail or essential tactic?
56. FDR in Latin America (1933-1945): how successful was the Good Neighbor policy?
57. FDR's Supreme Court Plan: necessary reform or power grab by the executive branch?
58. Social Security Act (1935): to what extent a genuine safety net?
59. Works Progress Administration (1935): was it a legitimate use of tax dollars?
60. FDR's policies toward blacks: upheld Jim Crow and the social status quo or genuinely
promoted equitable treatment and civil rights?
61. Huey Long: serious reformer or demagogue?
62. Panay Incident (1937): national humiliation or judicious decision?
63. Charles Lindbergh: American patriot or Nazi dupe?
64. Pearl Harbor Attack (1941): was conflict with Japan inevitable?
65. Japanese American internment in WWII: reasonable reaction to a real threat or expression of
racial prejudice?
66. Minorities in the U.S. Armed Services in WWII: tokenism or genuine participation?
67. Role of women in the 1940s: did WWII change their role and status?
68. Home front during WWII: was this a time of unity or did racial, class and gender
69. conflict signal deep divisions?Did popular music of the 1940s reflect contemporary social
conditions?
70. Fall of the Philippines (1941): valiant struggle or disgraceful debacle?
71. General George Patton: did his personality make him more of an asset or a liability?
72. Dwight D. Eisenhower: politician in uniform or military genius?
73. Port Chicago Mutiny of 1944: Necessary wartime discipline or miscarriage of justice?
74. Battle of the Bulge (1944-1945): how did it change the outcome of the war?
75. Atomic Bomb: necessary or not to end the war?
76. Decision to use the Atomic Bomb: based on military necessity, domestic politics or
international relations?
77. The American response to the Holocaust: based on ignorance or prejudice?
78. Yalta Conference (1945): did the agreement reflect genuine cooperation or a naïve trust in
Stalin’s word?
79. Potsdam Conference (1945): Truman's success or failure?
80. Select any one of the women below and answer the following questions:



Why was this person controversial?
How significant were her contributions during her lifetime?
Were they ultimately of value to American society?
o Margaret Sanger
o Frances Perkins
o Jane Addams
o Clara Barton
o Margaret Mead
o Jeannette Rankin
o Mary McLeod Bethune
o Dr. Alice Paul
o Lillian Wald
o Emma Goldman
o Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
81. Select any one of the "artists" below and answer the following questions:



Why was this person controversial
How significant was his/her impact on his/her field
How significant was his/her impact on American society?
o
o
o
o
Paul Robeson
Martha Graham
Marian Anderson
Billie Holiday
o Josephine Baker
o D.W. Griffith
o Charlie Chaplin
82. Choose any one of the writers below and show how he/she either endorsed or challenged the
values of his/her age:
o Mark Twain (Samuel L.
Clemens) 1835-1910
o Kate Chopin 1851-1904
o Stephen Crane 1871-1900
o Sinclair Lewis 1885-1951
o Edgar Lee Masters 1868-1950
o Willa Cather 1873-1947
o Sherwood Anderson 18761941
o Katherine Anne Porter 18901980
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
F. Scott Fitzgerald 1896-1940
Ernest Hemingway 1899-1961
William Faulkner 1897-1962
John Steinbeck 1902-1968
Eudora Welty 1909-2001
Robert Frost 1874-1963
Edna St. Vincent Millay 18921950
o Sara Teasdale 1884-1933
o James Thurber 1894-1961
o Jack London 1876-1914
African American Writers:
o W.E.B. DuBois 1868-1963
o Paul Laurence Dunbar 18721906
o Richard Wright 1908-1960
o Langston Hughes 1902-1967
o
o
o
o
Jean Toomer 1894-1967
Countee Cullen 1903-1946
James W. Johnson 1871-1938
Zora Neale Hurston 18911960
Note: You may suggest a new topic to your teacher, but may not do it without his or her approval.
Your teacher will consider your proposed topic carefully to ensure it can lead to the successful
completion of the research paper project. Particular attention will be paid to the availability of
resources and the significance of the underlying historical debate for the topic.