The Great Plains at the Grassroots

 

Primary Documents of Regional Life

 

Our third set of core readings is an assemblage of primary documents, or primary sources, that enlighten or illustrate the history of the Great Plains. The emphasis in these documents is on the lives of ordinary people - hence the label "grassroots" in the title. All documents assigned this semester are available online. You are expected to write analyses of these documents - see Analyses of Primary Documents. The documents are assigned in connection with specific lectures. You should read and analyze the documents at the appropriate time in relation to the lectures with which they are associated.

 

Criteria for inclusion (selection of primary documents remains a work in progress):

 

1.      Text documents – some images OK, but predominantly text

2.      Visual impact – hand-written documents are good, as are print documents that convey the feel of the times – avoid dense text

3.      Specific significance to the Great Plains, preferably to a lecture in HIST 431

4.      Manageable length

 

Primary Documents for Reading & Analysis

See study pages for individual lectures to find documents specific to the lectures. Here is a link to the working Excel file of primary documents, unorganized.

 

grassroots.xlsx

 

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