Impact of Great Depression or both on particular sectors of the economy (like agriculture, industry, universities, specific business, entertainment, journalism, sports)
Impact of Great Depression in a particular place (Kentucky, the South, etc)
Impact of Great Depression on particular social group (women, African Americans, Latinos, textile workers, tobacco farmers, etc)
Impact of War on different sectors of the economy
Wartime economic policies and planning
Impact of defense industry on a particular place
Politics
Elections: what were key candidates, issues, factors in outcome, changes in voting patterns
Individual political leaders’ ideas, actions, participation in major debates
Opposition movements and their ideas, goals, actions, impact
Changes in political parties and their fortunes
Political rhetoric and advertising as indication of changing values/perspectives
New Deal Policy
History of a particular New Deal program (ideas behind it, political debate over it, what it did etc)
Impact of a New Deal program on a particular group or sector of the economy
FDR’s ideas, approaches, rhetoric about different policies
Popular Culture
Changes over time in film, music, theater, dance, poetry, etc.
Trace the work of a particular artist/writer/performer over time
Trace a particular theme or idea in cultural expression over time
Social Histor/Experience of Marginalized Groups During the War/Social Movements
Trace experience and activities of a particular movement (civil rights, labor, women’s, peace)
American reaction to the rise of Nazism and the holocaust
Internment: calls for it; debates over it; reaction to it; experience of Japanese Americans
Impact of the War on women, minorities, etc
Foreign Policy/Diplomacy/World Role
Development of isolationism in policy
American attitudes about interwar crises
Anti-War sentiment and activities and how it changes over time
US reaction to Spanish Civil War
Trace how a particular war aim was pursued (decolonization, free trade, United Nations, etc)
Allied relations
Individual leaders’ ideas, actions
Military decision making or strategy
Development of the Atomic Bomb and IMMEDIATE reaction (don’t go much past late 1945)
Explore a particular theme in the soldiers’ experience
Be wary: papers trying to demonstrate importance of a particular battle often fall flat