The purpose of this blog is to act as a space for the members of Mr. Freed's US History Honors class to work out their thoughts on some of the greatest debates in the Early Republic Period of American History. Had these events gone on today, they would not have taken place in the slow moving speed of print media. They would have taken place in electronic space on blogs, twitter feeds, Facebook posts and the like.
You mission is to bring to bear the ideas you learn about in class to this space and have it out here. Each of the bog debates will have a category title. You must make an original posting for your team and comment in support of against the other members of the class.
Rules: There are always rules and no this is not America so there is no freedom of speach...Dobbs!
- Be civil. You can challenge each other's opinions but not each other personally. Everyone is going to see who writes what so keep it academic.
- Your posts must contain historically supported opinions. You can't just pop off and say something because you like the way it sounds. Our goal is to better than the current media culture. For all of your opinions or arguments, you must cite something that happened or someone's actual ideas.
- Your posts can be as long as you like but they need to be at least 3-4 sentences. Hopefully your original ones will be much longer because they need to be in order to make a good point.
- You need to post often. Once I open a debate you need to be checking this space often and posting regularly. Let's say at least once every other day while the debate is open.
- Posts will be graded for the completeness of the argument (did you cover the bases or leave holes open?) and validity of historical citation (did you use the historical evidence the right way or are you taking someone way out of context?)
The big topics will include: The Crisis of Government in the 1780's, The Hamilton vs. Jefferson Debate on Civic/ Republican Virtue, The Early Political Parties and the Debt Crisis, Early Civil Liberties Issues, The War of 1812.
Enjoy!
