Paper Topic Selection Advice

Defining your paper topic well is perhaps the most important thing you'll do in the seminar.  Because we have only a ten-week quarter to complete the seminar paper, you should get started on this as soon as possible. I expect that topics will range widely across time, space and intellectual approach. We'll spend some time at the first session discussing how to select a research topic, but here is some preliminary advice.

First of all, the topic should interest you. This may sound trivial, but a topic you find tedious will probably result in a tedious paper. It's often useful to start with your own concerns--personal, political, ideological, esthetic, etc.--and work from there towards a subject that addresses those concerns. However, there's a case to be made for moving away from your immedate concerns. It's more challenging to look at something you're not already familiar with. It may help you expand your interests and understanding. It may also be less difficult to control your biases and preconceptions with a topic that isn't very close to your personal identity.

Next, pick a subject that you can formulate as a question. For example: "How did advertisers portray women's roles in magazines for African Americans in the 1960s and 1970s?", "Why did most states and towns abandon 'Blue Laws' that required stores to stay closed on Sundays?" "When did American men start using deodorants regularly?" "How did the government encourage purchase of war bonds during World War I?" "What effect did electrification have on the consumption patterns of Oregon farm families?" By expressing your topic as a question, you achieve a principle of selection. In other words, you know better what material is relevant to your topic and what is not. In addition to this, the question you pose should give you a certain motivation--to answer the question, to solve an intellectual puzzle.

Normally, questions are likely to involve causation. In other words, they may be "why" or "how" questions. At times, however, good topics can be expressed as more descriptive--who, what, where, when--questions. For instance, to find out when American men started using deodorants regularly may tell us why they did. A good description can also entail or at least suggest an explanation.

It is often worthwhile to "pick a quarrel" with a secondary source. If you see a scholar or other writer expressing a point of view that strikes you as odd, unsubstantiated or just plain wrong, that may be the start of defining a good paper topic. Even if the scholar isn't mistaken, applying his or her hypotheses to another time or place may yield fruitful results. For example, Andrew Heinze, in an essay in Consumer Society in American History, contends that there were elements in the culture of Jewish immigrants to the United States that eased their adjustment to American consumer styles. Was this true of Italian-Americans in the same era? Of immigrants from Mexico in more recent decades? In any event, read secondary sources critically; bear in mind that they set forth ideas which you may wish to challenge, modify, or simply explore in greater depth.

A local or regional approach may be the best way to narrow down a paper topic. We know that shopping centers developed rapidly in the United States after World War II and that they affected such phenomena as land use patterns, employment, gender roles, etc. What was the history of Valley River Center in Eugene? Lloyd Center in Portland? One advantage of this is that there may be intriguing manuscript collections in Knight Library that you can use.

A comparative approach may also pay off: For example, compare the ideas of the famous American economist Thorstein Veblen (who gave us the phrase "conspicuous consumption") to the writings of the early twentieth century feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Or, compare the marketing strategies of a luxury product (jewelry? automobiles?) in the prosperous 1920s to the Depression of the 1930s.

History 407/507
Fall 2006