Italian Fascism: Creating a New Roman Empire

DOCUMENT ANALYSIS (20%)
In the first assignment we had the opportunity to hone our analytical skills with respect to a secondary source. In the Document Analysis Assignment, we will go one step further, by completing an analysis of a primary historical document from the course textbook.
Primary evidence is the basic building block of historical interpretation. ‘History’ as we know it can be understood as a construct built up by historians and other commentators. The shape and character of the construct will depend on the evidence from which it was derived, just as the nature of a building is a function of the materials used in its construction. It almost goes without saying, then, that historians must be expert interpreters of primary evidence.
The objective of this assignment is to select and evaluate a primary source drawn from the Documents provided towards the end of each chapter in the 4th edition of Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources. Important: Only the written primary sources provided in the following list are suitable for this assignment:
16.2 A British Conservative’s Critique of the Universal Rights of Man 16.3 An English Cartoon’s Reaction to Revolutionary Violence
16.4 The French National Assembly and Slavery
16.5 Imagining Women’s Suffrage
17.2 Socialism in Song
17.3 Socialist Perspectives in Art: The Present and the Future 18.1 Competition and Conquest
18.3 From Cape to Cairo
18.5 Empire Building in North Africa
18.6 An African American Voice on the Scramble for Africa 19.2 Resistance to Change
19.4 Cutting the Queue
19.5 Toward Revolution -1910 China
19.6 The Chinese Revolution of 1911
20.1 Italian Fascism: Creating a New Roman Empire
20.3 Nazi Anti-Semitism
20.5 Japanese Imperialism
21.1 Revolution in Long Bow Village
21.2 A Vision of the New China
21.3 Socialism in the Countryside
21.4 Women, Nature, and Industrialization
21.5 The Cult of Mao
21.6 Experiencing the Cultural Revolution
22.1 Western Feminism in the 21st Century
22.2 Black American Feminism
22.3 Communist Feminism
22.4 Islmic Feminism
22.5 Mexican Zapatista Feminists
23.1 A Secular State for an Islamic Society
23.2 Toward an Islamic Society
23.3 Two Images of Islamic Radicalism
23.4 The Sufi Alternative
23.5 Progressive Islam
23.6 Debating the Burqa
Please note that all of the above documents are found in the “Working with Evidence” section at the end of each chapter in Strayer. Some documents from the text will not be found on the list and cannot be used for the assignment.
Citing the Documents: Many of these primary “documents” are visual sources that include posters, paintings, cartoons, or photographs. In your essay, use your first footnote to identify the source of the original document, adding that it is from Strayer’s Ways of the World, with your footnote also clearly indicating document and page numbers from the text.
To prepare for your assignment, read the introduction from the text that accompanies the document. In your essay, provide referenced historical context for the document from the course text and articles to explain the events, issues, and opinions that the document portrays, as well as to show opposing viewpoints. There is no simple formula for the task of analyzing a primary document because evidence comes in many forms. However, students should consider the following questions when writing their Document Analysis:
How ‘primary’ is the primary source? In other words, how close in time to the actual event was the source created? Who created the source? Why was the source created? Is it official or personal? Was it classified or public?
Can the creator be taken at face value? In other words, should we believe what it says? What is the meaning or significance of the evidence?
What questions can we use this source to help answer? Or, to put it another way, what does the source tell us?
What other primary or secondary sources are required to help interpret this one? (Hint: You will want to draw upon relevant secondary sources to help inform your analysis of the primary source, starting with the course textbook and scholarly journal articles.)
For a more in-depth discussion of how to analyze a primary source, please refer to the section of Ways of the World entitled “Working with Written Documents”.
As you craft your analysis, remember that evidence does not necessarily speak with a single voice. Rather, the impact of the
evidence is often a function of the historian who handles it. One source can be interpreted in many different ways depending upon which questions the historian asks. This explains, in part, why no historical narrative is set in stone. It is always possible that another historian may come along and reinterpret the evidence entirely differently than his or her predecessors. Remember: do not use up valuable space with extended summary of the source’s content – focus instead on analysis and interpretation.
While the primary sources provided for this assignment may vary in length from one page to about four or five pages, do not assume that shorter sources are ‘easier’ to interpret. Sometimes the less a document says, the more difficult it can be to interpret. As much care is need with the shorter sources as with the longer ones.
Once you have selected your document, write a 4-page essay that addresses the questions listed above. Whenever possible, try to relate your selected document to other materials you have read or viewed as part of your course readings.
Enclose any passages you cite in quotation marks (if quoted word for word) and indicate the source of the reference (author’s name, title, and page number) in a footnote or endnote. You will find more information in the Chicago Style Citation Guide link on the course site. Please note that properly formatted Chicago Style footnotes are a course requirement. To use Chicago-style footnotes, choose “Insert Footnotes” from the References tab in Microsoft Word, and include the exact page used in each citation.
Present your essay in typed, 12-point font, double-spaced format. Avoid exceeding the specified length. Your essay will be graded on content (your understanding of the reading/article), presentation, and writing (grammar, syntax, etc.).