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American History
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American History is one of the most widely studied subjects across academic disciplines, appearing in courses ranging from survey-level undergraduate history classes to advanced seminars in political science, sociology, and cultural studies. The field examines how the United States developed as a nation — its conflicts, institutions, social movements, and transformations over time. What makes it academically compelling is the tension between competing narratives about power, identity, and belonging, as events like the Civil War, Japanese American internment during World War II, and landmark legal decisions such as Roe v. Wade reveal deep contradictions within American society. Figures like John Brown and frameworks like Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis further illustrate how individuals and ideas have shaped national identity in contested ways.

Student papers on this topic take a wide variety of approaches. Some focus on specific turning points or conflicts, such as the causes of the Civil War or the political consequences of the French and Indian War. Others adopt case-study formats, examining events like the Tulsa Lynching of 1921 or Japanese American internment through ethnographic or social lenses. Critical and comparative analyses also appear frequently, including film critiques, book reviews, and essays applying sociological theories to historical patterns of discrimination and federal power expansion.

A strong essay in this area begins with a focused, arguable thesis rather than a broad claim about an entire era. Evidence drawn from primary sources, court records, or well-documented historical events carries the most weight. The most common pitfall to avoid is treating American history as a single unified story — the strongest essays acknowledge complexity, contradiction, and the experiences of groups whose perspectives have often been marginalized.

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Thesis Undergraduate

England\'s North American Colonies and the Development of the Atlantic World

History is full of events that have shaped the destiny and the current events in America. This study focuses on events that took place in colonial British America and how the events were beneficial to the development of the Atlantic Region. The role of slaves cannot be underestimated especially in the economic expansion of the region.

Paper Doctorate

Slavery, Disease, and Mercantilism in Colonial America

Colonial America – Issues and Answers Questions ONE & TWO: Did race determine whom the colonists, would enslave, or was it coincidental that the majority of the enslaved population would be a certain group? Contrast the slavery issues in Chesapeake with the slavery in South Carolina and Georgia. In the book Slavery in Colonial America, 1619-1776, author Betty Wood delves deeply into the dynamics of the work that needed to be done in Virginia – and who would do that work – beginning in Roanoke in the 1580s (but that community vanished, never to be heard from). Meanwhile, before British settlers left Europe for the New World it was known that Spanish galleons "laden down with gold and other precious metals" were making their way back to Europe from the Americas. Hence, the desire for other Europeans to settle the Americas and find some of that gold and silver was great. The English wanted to emulate the Spaniards, and so in 1606 they established the Virginia Company, thinking that this would be a money making project. Initially the blueprint for the Virginia Company did not involve enslaving any humans to get the work done. The Spaniards and Portuguese had used "racially based systems of slavery that involved large numbers of" African slaves and Native American slaves to carve out profitable colonies in Latin America and the Caribbean, but the British didn't think they needed to enslave people.

Research Paper Doctorate

Dropping the Atom Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

During World War II, a mid-20th-century conflict that involved several nations, the United States military dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Wikipedia, 2005).

Research Paper Undergraduate

Race and Revolution Book Critique

Nash, Gary. (1990). Race and the Revolution. New York: Madison House Publishers, Inc.

Paper Undergraduate

Strategic Compensation: History, Design, and Global Practice

¶ … historic process by which strategic compensation arose.

Research Paper Doctorate

John Quincy Adams: life and political career

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS was the sixth (1825-1829) President of the United States. He was the son of President John Adams and the first President whose father was also President (Wikipedia, 2004).

Paper Undergraduate

Master of Public Administration: overview and career paths

Affirmative action is a fair method of achieving equal employment opportunity for minority groups and women.

Essay Doctorate

Fall of the Soviet Union the United

Although the United States has emerged as a world power this has not always been the case. Prior to the Second World War American foreign policy was largely one of isolation. This article traces the history of this isolation and how America adjusted to various events that caused it to come out of its isolation only to quickly return. The current status of the U.S. as the only remaining super power is also reviewed.

Research Paper Undergraduate

Online versus standard classroom instruction in history

¶ … population, data collection, dependent and independent variables and assumptions. There were six sources used to complete this paper.

Research Paper Undergraduate

The Bloody Lane

¶ … Battle of Antietam, and the Bloody Lane. The Bloody Lane is only one station in the hellish Battle of Antietam, but it is one of the most memorable because so many men fought and died here.

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