Need DU Help: Homework as in Daughter-History Class

[BeHereNow]

Okay DUers, here is the deal-
My 16 year old daughter, in an advanced high school program,
returned to the fall semester of school to a history assignment.\
Due Wednesday- September 10th.
(1960's History)
She wants to tackle something ORIGINAL for her paper-
-No Martin Luther King or Civil Rights
-No Rosa Parks
-No Vietnam War- (She made a documentarty of that in 8th grade)
-No JFK

States that she wants to do the paper on:
"Something original, that she can learn something new from researching..."

Your suggestions are appreciated!
Tell us what you know!

BHN

[BigMcLargehuge]

1. How about the Sino-Japanese War?

Featruring such horrific events as The Rape of Nanking, Biological and chemical warfare... 25 million Chinese dead?

I can offer plenty of sources as I've spent time researching out of personal curiosity.

[Scaramouche]

21. I don't think that happend in the 1960's...

Which I believe is the period of history being considered...

:silly: :silly: :silly:

[BigMcLargehuge]

24. Duh... LOL I thought that was one of the topics in the post

sheesh...

damn eyes and attached brain!!!!

I retract my suggestion.

[Maple]

2. American history

or world history?

[BeHereNow]

35. American History...

Hard to do without the subjects she has rejected!
BHN

[TheZoo]

3. How about the Beatles?

Their influence on music, movie and life in general from 1964-1967?

[cherryperry]

4. Tough to do 60's History w/o those subjects, but

http://www.questia.com/Index.jsp?CRID=1960s_america&OFFID=se1

please check out the above site...maybe they have something of interest to her..hope so!

[SoCalDem]

5. This might give her a few ideas..

She could google any year and get some pretty neat ideas.. I chose 1966


http://www.ourgeorgiahistory.com/year/1966

[Sticky]

6. What about

the onset of illegal drugs?

I think it would be fascinating research.

[MountainLaurel]

7. Let's see

the War on Poverty

Cold War policies that still impact us today

the feminist or black power movements

attempts at communal living, and the "back to nature" movement

the early volleys in the War on Drugs

Stonewall

the Watts riots

industrial disasters and public policy

[Catch22Dem]

8. Cold War

Espionage tactics used by both sides. Tactics, Lubyanka Prison, etc...

[DoveTurnedHawk]

9. Third World Strike!

There is a lot of rich history on the Third World Strike at Berkeley and SFSU, it's a really interesting story.

BTW...hi BHN!

:hi:

DTH

[Wwagsthedog]

10. If it is American History?

Teddy Roosevelt's era is something a student could really get her teeth into. He was progressive for his time but also there were real parallels to what is going on today.

[BeHereNow]

27. Yes! It is...

American History-
I have a wonderful book on Roosevelt, but she
sneered at it...she wants to look at the sixties...
Argh.
BHN

[ropi]

11. Research Info

Hello, I am new here. After reading this query, the first thing that came to my mind was the Jane Collective. If reproductive rights are an interest, the Jane Collective would be a wonderful topic to explore. Moreover, not many history teachers would be aware of the Jane Collective and your daughter's research topic may inform the teacher too.

Cheers,

Ropiopr

[Bossy Monkey]

15. Welcome ropipor!

And a nifty suggestion too

[ropi]

18. Jane Collective info:

http://www.fwhc.org/jane.htm
http://www.wm.edu/FAS/ws/
http://www.feminist.com/askamy/repro/rr17.html
http://www.itvs.org/search/ataglance.htm?showID=211

a lot of these links are redundant....

[BeHereNow]

32. Thanks!

And welcome to DU!

BeHereNow

[Pobeka]

12. Hey, you're here

Checked your PM lately?

[BeHereNow]

29. So sorry-

Not much as a mater of fact-
we had a really bad thing happen in our
family- I have been pretty focused on that.
someon raped and beat my brother's kid and left her
for dead...
I've been completely gone on that one...
BHN

[Pobeka]

34. No need to be sorry -- I saw your post down below

Geeze, focus your energies on your life. I'll send some energies through the ethers your way to help. :hug:

[BeHereNow]

37. Break out your guitar...

I receive those frequencies most readily!
AND, you should be playing/writing!
tha's how I am coping with all of the insanity...
but, then, we have already discussed this.
As far as the math/music connection?
they are inseparable in my book.

BHN

[Pobeka]

40. I've been gettin' back up on the curve.

But, the main focus has been, are you ready for this?

Irish button accordion.

NO ACCORDION JOKES DU'ers.

Incredibly hard instrument to play -- like 2 harmonicas stacked on top of each other, tuned 1/2 step apart. Very, very cool sounding when played by a master. I'll master it in, hmmm, about 20 more lifetimes.

[BeHereNow]

42. I feel the same way about

THE BANJO!
Got one in the studio that just TAUNTS me.
The kid picked it up and was playing rolls
that I spent twenty years trying to learn in thirty minutes.
and she doesn't care to play even!
GOD, I hate when that happens....
BHN

[roughsatori]

13. I've always admired Angela Davis

Or she could write about Pop-Art: the idea of high-art and consumer society and leisure commingling. Good Luck. And don't be like my sister in law and do all the kid's homework yourself.

[LSdemocrat]

14. Some suggestions . . .

-Compare and contrast RFK as Attorney General vs. Senator/Presidential candidate
- Early attempts at arms control (US vs. USSR)
- Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign and the conservative movement (interesting oppo research)
- Malcolm X or black power movement (non-mainstream civil rights)

[Maddy McCall]

17. and Stokely Carmichael...

Black Panthers. Deacons of Justice. These are just a few militant groups that gave up on trying to change the system through traditional channels.

[thom1102]

51. Ooooh... Goldwater's presidential campaign and

how it has affected the current political climate. That has great potential.

[Maddy McCall]

16. Some suggestions:

and I think that it is a shame that she equates Martin Luther King with the civil righs movement, because he was representative more of a national level. What is most intriguing about the CRM is the grassroots part of it.

But if she doesn't want to do civil rights---and she only has TWO days left to "tackle something original"--why not let her look at the Weathermen or SDS? Does she know anything about them? Is that not original enough?

I could suggest some REALLY original topics, but if she only has two days left to research and write--well, she can't possibly do it.

Why not look at white people who assisted in the civil rights movement? Even as a historian, I will tell you that this is a facet of the CRM that is almost completely ignored. Will D. Campbell's story is fascinating...should be some stuff available on the net, or in his many primary source books.

Of course, there is the development, and subsequent fragmentation of the feminist movement into three or four different pushes. And the later conservative backlash.

Was not the pill a sixties thing? The sexual revolution?

She could dispell myths like "bra burning" in her paper.

James Meridith's attempt to integrate Ole Miss?

The Conservative Citizen's Council developing after Brown v. Board, the WCC was also known as the "uptown klan."

The American Indian Movement and the legislation it fought for, and why. (AIM)

Well, these are just some of my suggestions...she really needs to get on the ball to get this adequately researched and written.

Give her my best wishes. :hi:

[Bossy Monkey]

19. Suburbanization, growth of Interstate system, environmental side effects,

permanent oil dependence, etc. Or just cut to the chase and talk about the birth pangs of the environmental movement (Silent Spring was published 1962).

The obverse of the civil rights movement is the conversion from the Solid South (Democratic) to the Solid South (Republican) that started after the Civil Rights Act of '64 with Thurmond's jump to the Republicans. Maybe too depressing a topic, though.

All this assuming that this is a US History course, naturally.

[Maddy McCall]

20. JFK's fiasco known as "Urban Renewal/Revitalization"

which was supposed to staunch "white flight" by tearing down HISTORIC buildings and replacing them with nice new buildings. Urban Renewal was an UTTER failure, and it's grandest effect was the loss of historic buildings, city centers, etc.

[ropi]

22. 2nd Wave Feminism --1960's -- NOW

Why not Betty Friedan and the organizing of the National Organization of Women (NOW).

If you're close to a college or university, call up the women's studies department and ask a student worker or a professor to recommend a good women's studies book that would outline 2nd Wave Feminism. You can also find a wealth of information on the web.
http://www.feminist.org/
http://www.thirdwave.com/
http://www.NOW.org/

[Scaramouche]

23. The Patty Hearst Kidnap...

And the SLA forcing the Hearst owned grocery stores to give out free food to the poor.

[Bossy Monkey]

31. 1974 (n/t)

[Maddy McCall]

25. American Indians seizing alcatraz island in 1969...

This is such a great story. American Indians formed a panindian group that seized alcatraz and held it for months, if I am not mistaken.

Wilma Mankiller's family was a part of this, and her autobiography gives great detail of it.

Basically, American Indians argued that since manhattan had been seized by Europeans for a few strands of beads and some rum, they would take alcatraz, and give the city of San Francisco a few strands of beads and some rum...the speech by the "mayor of alcatraz"--can't remember his name (Oakes maybe?) is so sarcastically beautiful.

This is a very COOOOOL topic.

[BeHereNow]

26. OH MY GOD!

You guys are INCREDIBLE!
23 reponses of help in no time at all!!!
I just went out to paint some pottery I just made
and I come back after and find all these responses!!!
Y'all give me faith-
I just went through a complete head fuck tonight with
some people I totally trusted, andI need to tell you this:
You guys have restored my hope for humanity!
Thanks so fucking very much.
My heart was broken tonight by these head trippers,
(We are mad at you, but we aren't going to tell you why...)

Soooo, I decided to focus on my kid and pottery,
and you guys came through beyond my wildest dreams!
Thank you
Thank you

THANK YOU!!!
And FECK- em, as my kid says.
I told her the story behind the mind fucker shit
and she said, "Mom, you are the most giving person I know,
you would never hurt anyone on purpose- and if you did hurt someone,
you would do anything to make it right...they are fucking with you.
It's very immature to tell someone you are mad at them
and not tell them why, that would be like you sending me to bed without
dinner without no reason...and after all you have been through this
month Mom, you don't need this shit..."

God, I love that kid.
(In explanation as to what I have been dealing with:
Someone raped and beat my niece a few months ago, then
left her for dead...that is the shit I have been going through,
so you have no idea how much I appreciate your loving humanity at this
point!)

BHN

[Pobeka]

28. Crimany!!

That's awful stuff. I hope things improve for you, a lot. Kids can make all that stuff evaporate when that look at you and tell you something straight like that.

I have a "memory trashcan" for ugly folks like you described. Sometimes it's just not worth wasting the brain cells...

If you were up my way, I'd buy you and your daughter an ice cream cone -- any flavor :hi:

Keep 'yer chin up!

[BeHereNow]

30. You are too sweet!

Actually, we live half a block away from a Baskin Robbins,
so we will buy YOU one!
Things are looking up- I am just so tired of being wrong
about people.
As someone told me once, a long time ago...
I have a broken picker...
They are dead now, but their truth to me lives on.
BHN

[Susang]

33. Detroit Riots

Particularly the lasting effect that they had on the city.

[corarose]

36. Human Guinea pigs used for radiation testing back in the 40's & 50's

The USA was testing the effects of radiation from bombs on human guinea pigs back in the 40's and 50's. I believe it was out in New Mexico.

[BeHereNow]

38. OOOOh-

she just took a GREAT college chemistry course,
and she is an animal rights artist.
She will love this story!!!
THANKS!

[DieboldMustDie]

39. The 1953 US overthrow of democracy in Iran...

and installation of the Shah.

[BeHereNow]

41. Okay, here is the deal...

I've got to go tend to some wet clay-
BUT, I have bookmarked this thread and will return later.
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU,
One and all...

I love you evil DUers.
And my kid says "THANK YOU DU" too.
BHN

[Raenelle]

43. How about the movement to allow 18 year olds to vote

n/t

[BurtWorm]

50. Excellent suggestion!

The most original one I've seen.

[Rowdyboy]

44. Taped, Oral interviews with older members of the community....

On the 60's topic of her choice. The oral aspect allows her to do actual research-to talk to people who faced racial discrimination or marched against Viet Nam or fought for women's rights.

She takes their stories, edits them, and puts them in a framework that bring her to her conclusion. She looks like a minor genius.

Just a suggestion...

[BeHereNow]

47. That's EXACTLY

what she did for her Vietnam documentary in eighth grade.
She taped a vet who had RARE never before seen footage
he had taken himself from his helipcopter.
She edited it with an interview of him talking about
his experience.
It is spooky how relevant what he said in that interview
is today...you got me thinking about that though...
I just met another vet the other night who served in the Korean and
the Vietnam war- BOY did he have a mouthful to say
about BUSHIE and his stable of chicken hawks!!!
Paging Ben Bender, veteran from my local market...
BHN

[dawgman]

45. my favorite topic I ever researched

http://democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=111&topic_id=5803

[BGAL1965]

46. The Women`s rights movement

n/t

[oldcoot]

48. Rachel Carson

She could write about Rachel Carson, who was the author of Silent Spring. She was one of the first to recognize the dangers of pesticides.

[Art_from_Ark]

49. Not a sexy topic, but definitely original

The Coinage Act of 1965

Prior to 1965, dimes, quarters and half dollars were made of silver. However, by 1963 the price of silver approached the $1.29/ounce level, the price at which the silver in these coins was worth exactly the face value. Thus, if the price were to exceed $1.29/ounce, the silver in the coins would be worth more than face value. Since there already was a coinage crisis at the time, the high price would make it profitable for people to hoard coins and sell the silver for scrap. Thus, it was decided to completely remove the silver from the dime and quarter, and halve the amount in the half (from 90% to 40%), to give the impression to the public that precious metals still played a role in the money system. Unfortunately, this exacerbated the hoarding of half dollars, which had begun in 1964 with the issuance of the new Kennedy half. The 40% half was continued to 1969, and most of the halves issued during that time were promptly hoarded. Thus the half, which at one time had been a "workhorse coin", was now relegated to "ornamental" status. Vending machines were retooled to accept only quarters, dimes and nickels, and the half faded from memory.

In the meantime, the withdrawl of precious metal from the money supply led to the creation of a fiat currency and began a period of high inflation. Inflation began a rapid acceleration around 1971, when the last silver was removed from the half, and the nation was also taken off the last vestiges of the gold standard.

One other effect of the Coinage Act was the official declaration that every coin and every piece of paper money ever issued by the US government was legal tender.

[Iverson]

52. obscure topic (but shouldn't be)

In the 1960s, there were some changes in labor laws that finally extended the right to strike (and I think in some places just to organize!) to public employees. I think that at first this was done state-by-state.

In some places, such as Michigan where I live, "essential services" like police and fire were denied that right and so got binding arbitration in its place. It might be Public Act 312, but my memory is fuzzy.

So, if your daughter is a good researcher and likes labor stuff, she's likely to be the only one to write such an essay in the class and maybe in her teacher's whole career.

Best of luck.