English 205 Research Project-Spring 2014

Assignment (adapted from Ways of Reading, AW 1) One way to work on Patricia Nelson Limerick’s essay, “Haunted America”, is to take the challenge and write history—to write the kind of history, that is, that takes into account the problems she defines, the problems of myth, point of view, fixed ideas, simple narrative selective storytelling, misery. You are not a professional historian, you are probably not using this text in a history course, and you don’t have the time to produce a carefully researched history, one that covers all the bases, but you can think of this as an exercise in history writing, a mini-history, a place to start.

Consider the following as a place to start: Go to your college library or, perhaps, the local historical society, and find two or three first-person accounts of a single event, ideally accounts from different perspectives. Or, if these are not available, look to the work of historians, but historians taking different positions on a single event. (This does not have to be a history of the American West.) Even if you work with published historians, try to include original documents and accounts in your essay. The more varied the accounts, the better. Then, working with these texts as your primary sources, write a history, one that you can offer as a response to “Haunted America.”

Suggestions for writing: Stage the work out into several drafts, writing first from one position or point of view and then from another and then, perhaps, adding an overlay to indicate patterns you’ve detected (following Limerick’s example). Or, consider examining your research for patterns (either using Limerick’s patterns or developing patterns of your own) and drawing conclusions about what these patterns suggest. Or, write the project in sections (following Limerick’s lead) with an