This writing assignment focuses on the topic of inequality and equality in America between 1865 and the present. It challenges you to examine the historical documents from the period that relate to that topic (e.g. the primary sources) and to place those documents in the context of the secondary sources and lecture material from the course. The goal, in other words, is to demonstrate your ability to think like a historian by critically analyzing the types of evidence that historians utilize to make sense of the past and to answer the questions that interest us.

To begin this assignment, select at least three primary sources from the course that offer three different perspectives on the nature and experience of equality and/or inequality in the United States. You might choose, for instance, the primary documents that deal with any of the following or other topics:

race relations,
immigration,
imperial politics,
class inequality,
religious conflict, or
gender experiences.