Essay Exam 2 Instructions Instructions The Essay Exams are designed to get you to think analytically and critically about the material and present your assessment in an organized and coherent manner....

Essay Exam 2 Instructions
Instructions
The Essay Exams are designed to get you to think analytically and critically about the material and present your assessment in an organized and coherent manner. It is also important to incorporate information from as many of the assigned reading assignments and video lectures as possible so as to exhibit a depth and
eadth of knowledge on the topic.
Click HERE (Links to an external site.) to watch a useful video on how to organize your essay before you get started.
Below are two questions. Only one of your essays will be chosen and assigned a grade. Because you do not know in advance which essay will be chosen, it is important to prepare high quality essays for both questions.
Please submit both essays as one document.
Questions
1. What is Gordon S. Wood’s argument and what is Howard Zinn’s argument on the nature of the American War for Independence and what evidence do the two historians present to support their interpretations? Who do you think presents the better case? (See contextual information in the textbook, any relevant assigned primary documents, the Howard Zinn and Gordon Wood Articles and Zinn v. Wood Video Lecture).
2. What were the three most important problems Andrew Jackson faced as President of the United States? How successful was he at addressing those problems? (See contextual information in the textbook, any relevant assigned primary documents [such as Andrew Jackson on Indian Removal], and Andrew Jackson Video Lecture).
Expectations
You will find ample information to address these questions in video lectures, the textbook and primary documents. Essay responses should show a thorough understanding of the readings and be college level (clear, organized, without typographical e
ors, logical, etc.)
Your essay should have an introduction with a clear argument, a well-developed body with ample supporting evidence, a conclusion that provides some final analysis, and be between five and seven paragraphs (paragraphs should be at least five sentences in length but often longer). Your argument is your
ief answer to the question while the body of the essay is used to provide detailed historical examples to support your argument. Although analysis of the material should be woven into the body of your essay, the conclusion is where you will be able to show that you have thought about the material in a critical and analytical way (rather than simply regurgitating information). Also, remember that any information included in your essay should be pertinent to answering the question asked of you.
Citations
For the purposes of this essay, you can use parenthetical citation. Please only use information from within the confines of this class, such as video lectures, the textbook, primary documents, and any other assigned readings.
· Example for Video Lecture citation: (Chesapeake 2 Video Lect.) or (Slave Trade Video Lect.).
· Example for Textbook citation: (Foner, 45).
· Example for Primary Document citation: (Frethorne, 2).
· Example for A People's History of the United States citation: (Zinn, 55).
Important Tips
· Remember, only one of your essays will be chosen and assigned a grade. Because you do not know in advance which essay will be chosen, it is important to prepare high quality essays for both questions.
· Because you have the questions in advance, your essays should not have any grammatical e
ors or typos, should be written in fluid prose and indicate a clear command of the material.
· Turnitin, a plagiarism detection software, is used for this assignment. Please see the Course Syllabus for details regarding academic dishonesty.
· If you have any questions, please contact me through CANVAS.
 
Ru
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Ru
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    Ru
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    Criteria
    Ratings
    This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeIntroduction and Thesis Statement
Introduction contains relevant contextual information and a clear thesis statement?
    
    This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeOrganization and Body of Essay
Quality and quantity of evidence is sound; sequence logical.
    
    This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeHistorical Analysis
Thorough and perceptive recognition of historical significance.
    
    This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeConclusion
Conclusion effectively summarizes the main points of the essay and provides a final summation of the significance of the topic.
    
    This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeInstructions Followed
All instructions were followed.
    

Zinn vs. Wood
ViEWPOINT I
'1t seems that the rebellion against British rule
allowed a certain group of the colonial elite to replace
those loyal to England. give some benefits to small
landholders. and leave poor white working people and
tenant farmers in very much their old situation."
The War for
Independence Was Not
a Social Revolution
Howard Zinn (1922-)
Howard Zinn is professor emeritus of political science at Boston
University. He was also a civil rights activist and opponent of the
Vietnam War. Zinn's books include Disobedience & Democracy and
Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology.
His 1980 book A People's History of the United States was nomi­
nated for an American Book Award. The tome surveys American
history from colonial times to America's bicentennial from the
point of view of blacks, Native Americans, women, and other mi­
norities and disadvantaged classes. Among the events Zinn ex­
amines from this perspective is the American Revolution.
Zinn argues that the American Revolution had little positive
impact on the everyday lives of most Americans. He writes that
most of the leaders of the Revolution were members of the colo­
nial elite who wished to preserve their wealth and power. They
used the war for independence from Britain as a way "to create a
consensus of popular support" for their continued rule and to
prevent l;uge-scale internal changes in America's society. In this
242
sense, Zinn concludes, the American Revolution was really a suc­
cessful effort to preserve America's status quo.
Around 1776, certain important people in the English colonies
made a discovery that would prove enormously useful for the
next two hundred years. They found that by creating a nation, a
symbol, a legal unity called the United States, they could take
over land, profits, and political power from favorites of the
British Empire. In the process, they could hold back a number of
potential rebellions and create a consensus of popular support for
the rule of a new, privileged leadership.
When we look at the American Revolution this way, it was a
work of genius, and the Founding Fathers deserve the awed trib­
ute they have received over the centuries. They created the most
effective system of national control devised in modem times, and
showed future generations of leaders the advantages of combin­
ing paternalism with command.
Many Rebellions
Starting with Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia, by 1760, there had
een eighteen uprisings aimed at overthrowing colonial govern­
ments. There had also been six black rebellions, from South Car­
olina to New York, and forty riots of various origins.
By this time also, there emerged, according to Jack Greene, "sta­
le, coherent, effective and acknowledged local political and so­
cial elites." And by the 1760s, this local leadership saw the possi­
ility of directing much of the rebellious energy against England
and her local officials. It was not a conscious conspiracy, but an
accumulation of tactical responses.
After 1763, with England victorious over France in the Seven
Years' War (known in America as the French and Indian War), ex­
pelling them from North America, ambitious colonial leaders
were no longer threatened by the French. They now had only.two
ivals left: the English and the Indians. The British, wooing the
Indians, had declared Indian lands beyond the Appalachians out
of bounds to whites (the Proclamation of XXXXXXXXXXPerhaps once the
British were out of the way, the Indians could be dealt with.
Again, no conscious forethought strategy by the colonial elite, but
a growing awareness as events developed.
With the French defeated, the British government could turn its
attention to tightening control over the colonies. It needed rev­
enues to pay for the war, and looked to the colonies for that. Also,
243
....
~
the colonial trade had become more and more important to the
British economy, and more profitable: it had amounted to about
500,000 pounds in 1700 but by 1770 was worth 2,800,000 pounds.
So, the American leadership was less in need of English rule,
the English more in need of the colonists' wealth. The elements
were there for conflict.
The war had
ought glory for _the gener~, death to the pri­
vates, wealth for the merchants,_11n~J!LP~Qym~-9_t_for.J:he poor.
Tnerewere-25;000 peO-ple living in New York (there had been
1;000 in 1720) when the French and Indian War ended; A newspa­
per editor wrote about the growing "Number of Beggers and
wandering Poor" in the streets of the city. Letters in the papers
questioned the distribution of wealth: "How often' have our
Streets been covered with Thousands of Ba
els of Flour for trade,
while our near Neighbors can hardly procure enough to make a
Dumplin to satisfy hunger?" ·
Gary Nash's study of city tax lists shows that by the early 1770s,
the top 5 percent of Boston's taxpayers controlled 49 percent of
the city's taxable assets. In Philadelphia and New York too,
wealth was more and more concentrated. Court-recorded wills
showed that by 1750 the wealthiest people in the cities were leav­
ing 20,000 pounds (equivalent to about $2.5 million today).
In Boston, the lower classes began to use the town meeting to
vent their grievances. The governor of Massachusetts had written
that in these town meetings "the meanest Inhabitants ... by.their
constant Attendance there generally are the majority and outvote
the Gentlemen, Merchants, Substantial Traders and all the better
part of the Inhabitants." ·
What seems to have happened in Boston is that certain lawyers,
editors, and merchants of the upper classes, but excluded from
the ruling circles close to England-men like James Otis and
Samuel Adams-organized a ''Boston Caucus" and through their
oratory and their writing "molded laboring-class opinion, called
the 'mob' into action, and shaped its behaviour." This is Gary
Nash's description of Otis, who, he says, "keenly aware of the de­
clining fortunes and the resentment of ordinary townspeople,
was mi
oring as well as molding popular opinion."
Using the Lower Classes
We have here a forecast of the long history of American politics,
the mobilization of lower-class energy by upper-class politicians,
for their own purposes. This was not purely deception; it in­
volved, in part, a genuine recognition of