PaperDue

Essay Topic Hub

Legacy
Essays

1,879+ paper examples, study guides & outlines

1,879 papers

UG & Grad levels

Free to browse

What is Legacy?

Legacy refers to what individuals, institutions, cultures, and civilizations leave behind — the lasting impact of their actions, creations, and ideas on future generations. It appears across disciplines including history, political science, literature, music, architecture, and education, making it a genuinely cross-curricular subject. Students engage with it because it asks a fundamental question: how do the choices made in one era shape society today? The topic invites analysis of figures and institutions as varied as Roman civilization, Aristotle's philosophy of education, the Negro Baseball League, and architect I. M. Pei, grounding abstract ideas about influence in concrete historical and cultural cases.

The papers collected here approach legacy from several distinct angles. Historical analyses trace how past events and institutions — such as the Nineteenth Century's influence on the Great War or the enduring structures of Roman civilization — continue to resonate in contemporary life. Other essays take a biographical or cultural focus, examining how figures like John Coltrane or Sundiata shaped music and storytelling traditions. Some papers use case studies of specific organizations, such as the Girl Scouts or Smith and Wesson, to explore how institutional identity evolves over time. Reflective and policy-oriented approaches also appear, connecting personal development to broader historical and social legacies.

A strong essay on legacy stakes out a clear, arguable claim about why a particular inheritance matters and to whom. Evidence drawn from historical context, cultural impact, or documented outcomes carries the most weight. Writers should resist simply cataloguing achievements; instead, the analysis should explain the mechanisms by which influence transfers across time. The most common pitfall is treating legacy as uniformly positive — the strongest essays acknowledge tension, unintended consequences, or contested interpretations.

1,879 papers

Sort by:

Essay Doctorate

The case for maintaining United States-Afghanistan alliance

While it might seem counter-intuitive to the average American, it would be beneficial to the United States to remain allies with Afghanistan. The most passionate argument against this opinion is generally one which recounts the events of September 11th, and which argues that given the pure evil that was waged on U.S. soil and the lives that were lost, not to mention the sense of safety and security that was forever damaged, no possible alliance could ever be possible between the U.S. and Afghanistan. Such an opinion does have its validity in some perspectives, but more than anything, such a perspective fails to keep in mind that it was not the nation of Afghanistan which condoned such savage attacks on the US; it was renegade forces within this country known as the Taliban. A brief history of Afghanistan is useful at this point.

Essay Doctorate

J.C. Penney's origins and impact on American department stores

JC Penny Makeover Background on U.S. Department Stores and Background on J.C. Penney Dr. Robert Tamilia (Marketing professor at the University of Quebec at Montreal) explains that the department store in America not only "…revolutionized the retail store," and the shopping experience, and the available of products and promotional techniques, the department store contributed in a major way to the evolution of "...hiring practices and inventory control procedures" (Tamilia, 2002, p. 3). Moreover, Tamilia writes that the department store was one of society's more "democratic institutions" and besides offering customer services that had previously been unheard of (restaurants, restrooms and reading rooms) the department store in America "…liberated women and gave women their rightful place in society."

Essay Doctorate

President George W. Bush's judicial appointments and selection process

An Examination of President George W. Bush's Judicial Appointments

Paper Undergraduate

Leadership and ethics in Michael Hoffman's the Emperor's Club

¶ … Emperor's Club: A Study in Leadership and Ethics

Research Paper Undergraduate

Homer's influence on Western civilization through the Iliad and Odyssey

Homer is the famous Greek poet and author who is believed to have written two famous plays entitled "Iliad" and "Odyssey."

Research Paper Undergraduate

Sherman's March to the Sea as strategic and psychological victory

In September, 1864, when Atlanta fell into the hands of the Union's General William T. Sherman, the march to the coast, especially the last five miles of that march, would prove the most difficult faced by Sherman's…

Paper Undergraduate

Claude C.H. Williamson's critique of Hamlet's critical interpretation

William Shakespeare's Hamlet has long been lauded as one of the greatest -- if not the greatest -- work of literature in English or perhaps any other language. As such, it has also produced some of the most criticism,…

Research Paper Undergraduate

Norway's reluctance to join the European Union

When Norway gained its independent from Sweden in 1905, (the country having been ceded to Sweden by Denmark in 1814) creating its own monarchy and political governing body, the mood of the Norwegian people was really…

Research Paper Undergraduate

Industrialization and technology in shaping post-1877 America

Impact of industry and technology in the shaping and making of America since 1877

Paper Doctorate

Joseph Thomas's project management failures in the GPS-GO case

Moreover, though he arguably had the clout to do so, Thomas did not attack the behomouth paperwork and sign-off problems that were a legacy of the Tinker-Toy process development process. Processes were stuck onto the each other for reasons that were no longer apparent to anyone engaged in the production. Addressing these issues are a reasonable long-term goal for Thomas and his team as the archaic processes are a drain on productivity and resources. For the company to be competitive in GPS manufacturing, it will need every possible cost-related advantage. Thomas needs to do a better job of connecting the dots for his boss and for the leaders of the other teams. Dolce and Thomas can produce visuals that clearly delineate the market issues that the company must address. Moreover, Thomas must stand by those projections and stand up to Scott, insisting on the changes that he sees as critical to the success of the current products and to the long-range reputation of the company.

← Prev 1 2 3 … 79 188 Next →