Research Paper Questions
1. How did England’s earlier experience in Ireland influence the English colonial efforts in the New World?
2. Might there never have been an American Revolution if George III had followed William Pitt’s advice concerning
colonial policy?
3. When Benedict Arnold’s plot to seize West Point for the British was revealed his reputation was destroyed. But has
history unfairly forgotten his earlier contributions? Was he somewhat justified in the resentments he harbored?
4. Was the American Revolution England’s “Vietnam”?
5. Should George Washington be considered a great general of the Revolutionary War or is his reputation over-rated?
6. Although the Battle of Saratoga transformed the war, should the Battle of Cowpens be considered the turning point of
the Revolutionary War?
7. What were the key elements to Nathaniel Greene’s great success as a general in the Revolutionary War?
8. John Adams is generally considered to have been a middling president. Is this justified?
9. In what sense, if any, is the idea of a “Revolution of 1800” justified?
10. In a survey of historians conducted by C-Span, Thomas Jefferson was ranked as one of the top ten presidents. Was
this justified?
11. Do the inscriptions inside the Jefferson Memorial accurately instruct visitors about the real Thomas Jefferson?
12. Has Aaron Burr been unfairly vilified by history?
13. Although he was president for only thirty days, should William Henry Harrison be considered a great American in light
of his accomplishments before he was elected?
14. When the supporters of Andrew Jackson formed the Democratic Party they emphasized their party's historic
connection to Jefferson and the Democratic-Republican Party. How might Thomas Jefferson have assessed Andrew
Jackson’s presidency?
15. Should Andrew Jackson be vilified for his policy toward the Native Americans?
16. Should James K. Polk be considered one of our greatest presidents?
17. Was the Mexican War an immoral war?
18. Why in the 19th century did the science of medicine, in an era of rapidly expanding technological and scientific
advances, lag behind?
19. How justified were Lincoln’s wartime abridgements of civil liberties?
20. To what degree did Britain get involved in the American Civil War?
21. Was the impeachment of Andrew Johnson justified?
22. Was Reconstruction (1865-1877) a complete failure?
23. Was Cornelius Vanderbilt a “Robber Baron” or “Captain of Industry”?
24. Was John D. Rockefeller a “Robber Baron” or “Captain of Industry”?
25. Was J.P. Morgan a “Robber Baron” or “Captain of Industry”?
26. Considering his numerous contributions, was Frederick Winslow Taylor one of the greatest, and unjustifiably
forgotten, men of the late 19th century?
27. Why did the labor movement make such few gains in the last decades of the 19 th century?
28. Should the Carlisle Indian School be honored or criticized for what it did for/to Native American children?
29. Should pragmatism be considered the quintessential American philosophy?
30. Why is the Philippine-American War the least well remembered war in United States history?
31. Was the decision to take possession of the Philippines good policy?
32. History has emphasized the post-Civil War racism of the South. To what degree do the existence of the “Sundown
Towns” indicate that racism was every bit as rampant in the North and the West?
33. Would Booker T. Washington have agreed with the majority opinion in Pless yv. Ferguson? Would W.E.B. Dubois?
34. In a survey of historians conducted by C-Span, Theodore Roosevelt was ranked as one of the top ten presidents. Is
this justified?
35. Who should take most of the blame for the failure of the Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles?
36. In a survey of historians conducted by C-Span, Woodrow Wilson was ranked as one of the top ten presidents. Is this
justified?
37. Were the seeds of the Cold War planted when Woodrow Wilson intervened in Russia in 1918? What were Wilson’s
intentions?
38. Why did Prohibition fail?
39. In a survey of historians conducted by C-Span, Herbert Hoover was ranked in the bottom ten. Is this justified?
40. What were the origins of jazz music of the 1920s and what cultural values were reflected?
41. To what extent was Franklin Roosevelt’s approach successful when it came to dealing with the Great Depression?
42. Did Americans listen to the radio in the 1930s to be informed about important social and political issues or for
escapism?
43. Franklin Roosevelt once said that Huey Long was one of the most dangerous men in America. Why might Roosevelt
have believed this about Long?
44. What cultural values tended to be expressed in the movies of the 1930s?
45. Was the majority opinion in Korematsu v. United States well reasoned?
46. From the Japanese point of view, was the Pacific war inevitable?
47. Given what was known at the time (1933-1945,) was the American government response toward Jewish refugees,
and toward the Holocaust generally, an adequate response?
48. Did the United States’ policy toward China in the 1940s contribute to the success of the Chinese communist
revolution?
49. Did President Truman’s Cold War policies heat up or temper the Cold War?
50. Did President Eisenhower’s Cold War policies heat up or temper the Cold War?
51. Did President Kennedy’s Cold War policies heat up or temper the Cold War?
52. Has too much attention been focused on Jackie Robinson’s baseball career and not enough on his actions when he
was twenty-five-year-old lieutenant in the army?
53. Should the United States have supported the creation of Israel in 1948?
54. Did the United States deal effectively and fairly with Egypt in the 1950s?
55. Why have labor unions declined in membership since the 1950s?
56. Was President Truman right to fire Douglas MacArthur when and how he did it?
57. Was the decision to end the Korean War by leaving Korea divided into two parts a good decision?
58. In a survey of historians conducted by C-Span, Dwight D. Eisenhower was ranked as one of the top ten presidents. Is
this justified?
59. Were there any legitimate concerns behind the “red-hunting” anticommunism of the late 1940s and early 1950s?
60. What was it about Elvis Presley that made him so outrageously popular?
61. What were the origins of the rock ‘n roll music of the 1950s and what cultural values were reflected?
62. Why did the Russians pull ahead in the space race in the 1950s?
63. To what extent is it true that the African American community forced desegregation on the federal government?
64. Was Brown v. Board of Education an activist decision?
65. The FBI’s response to the civil rights movement was a national disgrace. To what extent is this an accurate
statement?
66. In a survey of historians conducted by C-Span, John F. Kennedy was ranked as one of the top ten presidents. Is this
justified?
67. Why was the Bay of Pigs a failure?
68. How was Lyndon Johnson able to pass the major Civil Rights bill of 1964?
69. Were the violent protests of the civil rights movement more successful than the nonviolent protests?
70. What actually happened in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 2, 1964? Was President Lyndon Johnson’s outrage justified?
71. Why did an antiwar movement become so strong in the United States/?
72. Why did the United States lose the Vietnam War?
73. Was President Johnson knowingly dishonest with the American people concerning Vietnam?
74. Was the containment policy ultimately successful in Southeast Asia?
75. Has history focused too much on the hippies, flower children, and war protesters of the 1960s? To what degree was
the 1960s a conservative decade?
76. Although the Energy Crisis in the 1970s illuminated the problems of over-dependence on foreign oil, Americans have
not developed significant alternatives. Why?
77. Could any of President Richard Nixon’s achievements in office compensate for his Watergate crimes? What should
history say about the Nixon presidency?
78. To what degree has the War on Drugs launched by the United States government in the 1980s been effective?
79. What were the origins of rock music of the 1960s and what cultural values were reflected?
80. What cultural themes were expressed in Jimi Hendrix’s music and what are the historic origins of his music?
81. What cultural themes were expressed in the Rolling Stones’ music and what were the historic origins of their music?
82. What cultural themes were expressed in Bob Dylan’s music and what are the historic origins of his music?
83. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson became one of the most controversial books of the 1960s. Were the responses
ultimately taken by the United States government justified?
84. Should the immigration policies established by the Immigration Reform Act of 1965 be reconsidered?
85. To what extent was the movie Easy Rider the ultimate 1960s movie?
86. To what extent was the movie The Graduate the ultimate 1960s movie?
87. Why did things go so terribly wrong at the 1968 Democratic Convention?
88. Was the cost to land a man on the moon money well spent?
89. Was the majority decision in Griswold well reasoned?
90. Why did President Gerald Ford pardon Richard Nixon? Was it the best choice?
91. A frightening accident on Three Mile Island produced a popular movement to halt the further development of nuclear
power. Was this an overreaction? Should more nuclear power plants be built?
92. In a survey of historians conducted by C-Span, Ronald Reagan was ranked as one of the top ten presidents. Is this
justified?
93. Did Ronald Reagan select the best option when he sent troops into Grenada?
94. Should President Reagan be given credit for winning the Cold War?
95. What conclusions can be drawn from the Iran-Contra scandal?
96. Was the impeachment of President Clinton justified?
97. Are racial affirmative action programs justified?
98. Was it a good decision to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”?
99. Should Title IX be repealed?
100.
In 2000 the Supreme Court ruled in George Bush’s favor in Bush v. Gore. Should the Court have taken this case?
Did they make the right decision?
101.
Why did al Qaeda attack the United States on September 11, 2001?
102.
Was the 2003 invasion of Iraq justified?
103.
Select a president: Examine his campaign platform and determine whether or not or to what degree he altered his
positions once he became president.
104.
Become an expert on a significant Supreme Court Case. Take a position on whether it was well or poorly
reasoned.
105.
What factors contributed to the decline of the American automobile industry in the last decades of the 20 th
century?