Causes of the Cold War and its Impact on American Society in the 20th Century
Assignment Instructions
Choose one of the following prompts and answer all questions as thoroughly as possible in a historical essay at least four full pages in length. Use our course texts and required readings, and please cite work in Chicago format.
Formatting:
The Essay will be at least four full pages in length, double-spaced, using 12-point font.
Please include the following information on a cover page: your name, date the essay is due, the class section, and an indication of which essay option you have chosen. Cover page is not included in the page count.
No Works Cited or Bibliography page necessary. Use Chicago footnotes and endnotes instead.
How to submit:
Upload a copy to the Final Essay folder by clicking the link in the top-right corner of this assignment instruction page.
An “A” essay will:
Be cited in Chicago format.
Answer the chosen essay prompt as fully and completely as possible, and within the time frames stipulated.
Include a main thesis, or argument, which the rest of your essay will successfully refer to and strengthen.
Use detailed and appropriate evidence from the course’s required readings.
Utilize a mix of both primary and secondary source material.
Include body paragraphs that a) support your thesis, and b) are organized using transition sentences.
Be at least four full pages in length.
**Pay attention to the dates and periods mentioned in the prompts. Neglecting these dates or the instructions will result in a lower grade. **
Please note that the "twentieth century" (or "20th century") is the same as saying "the 1900s." We are in the 21st century, or the 2000s. Children born today will likely see the 22nd century, or the 2100s.
Prompt Option 1: Describe patterns and policies of immigration between the 1920s and the 1990s. Keeping within the same time period, what were the American attitudes and responses to immigration? Discuss why the 1960s represented a turning-point in US immigration policy. How does 1990s multiculturalism compare to the "melting pot" ideas of the early 1900s?
Prompt Option 2: Describe American foreign policy since World War I. Confine your answer through the early 2000s War on Terror (and more concretely, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq). What similarities do you see between the home front experience of World War I and the War on Terror, especially in war propaganda and challenges to American freedoms? How did World War II affect American foreign policy with regards to the US’s vision of its own role in the world? Remember Henry Luce’s “American Century”—was he correct in his forecast?
Prompt Option 3: To what extent were the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1950s and 1960s a continuation of the urgent demands made by black Americans since the Reconstruction era? Why, given the success of the Civil Rights Movement, were black Americans still being discriminated against and violated as late as the 1990s?
Prompt Option 4: Describe the causes of the Cold War and its impact on American society in the 20th century.
The Cold War
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Prompt Option 4
The Cold War emerged after World War II from simmering tensions between the capitalist West, led by the United States, and the communist Soviet Union. Its origins lay in disagreements over the post-war order in Europe, conflicting ideological visions of state economies, disputes regarding borders and spheres of influence in Eastern bloc countries, and an accelerating arms race dynamic, including nuclear proliferation. This unleashed a geopolitical standoff that profoundly influenced American politics for over four decades. Specifically, containing Soviet communism became a consensus priority across U.S. government institutions, laws, and national identity. Domestically, this manifested through rapid militarization, benefiting defense sectors and enabling conformity by curtailing dissent and civil liberties. Overseas, an emboldened intelligence apparatus and military-industrial complex emerged. The imperative of competing technologically drove political, economic, and educational investments in defense research and development. Ultimately, the Cold War dramatically reshaped America's strategic priorities alongside its economic, political, cultural, and academic landscapes – leaving a legacy of global military commitments, government secrecy, and suspicion of radical ideologies that continue reverberating today. The essay critically evaluates the causes of the Cold War: tension between capitalism and communism, Disputes over post-war borders and influence zones, Arms race instigation and nuclear proliferation and its impact, political conformity, and monoculture education.
The conflict's causes were inherent and resurfacing tensions between the capitalist economic ideology underpinning the West and communism shaping the Soviet Union. While briefly allied against Nazi Germany, fundamentally opposed visions of property rights, resource allocation, and social organization ensured latent systemic rivalry.. Capitalism’s model of free markets, private ownership, and limited state