The purpose of History 222 was to analyze the political, cultural, diplomatic, and societal forces from 1877 to modern times. This class had an emphasis on the use of primary and secondary sources to examine different historical perspectives. Throughout the semester we watched Crash Course videos, historical films, and annotated documents to gain insight of this period historical significance.
I enjoyed this class so much that I was inspired to get a minor in History so that I could take more class and become better educated in the history of the United States. When class first started I found analyzing and discussion guides challenging. Discussion guides were challenging because the author does not always specifically state his thesis so I had to look beyond the document sometimes to find the purpose or the significance of why the author wrote that article. However, as the semester continued I found analyzing and filling our discussion guides became easier. I was surprised to find that the Professor wanted us to speak up and contribute to class discussions as much as possible. I found that this was the easier part of the class by simply answering questions or providing my insight to the discussions. I also enjoyed how this class did not focus on just writing history papers, instead we were able to take our class notes, lecture materials, secondary sources, primary sources, discussion guides, and film notes to craft a argument and use all of our resources to justify the argument. I learned a lot about myself in this class. I mostly learned about my love of historical places, cultures, ethnicity, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
I have provided the link to my final exam in this class. The importance of this assignment is that I was able to pick a topic thoroughly covered in class and showcase how it has been portrayed throughout history from 1877 to modern times by using all the resources provided to me throughout the semester.
Cierra White, “7 Ways that studying US History 1877 to Modern Times shapes the way you think about Inequality,” December 11, 2019.