History 389 University of Massachusetts, Amherst

L. Lovett

Helen Keller Paper Assignment

DUE: In Class, Tuesday, February 24, 2009

For this assignment, you will be asked to write a brief (3-4 page) essay on one of the topics described below. Your paper must have a signed cover sheet (available at http://people.umass.edu/llovett/cover.html).

Please review the paper Writing Guidelines for this course before you begin to research or write. (Available at http://people.umass.edu/llovett/writing.html.)

Reading related to this assignment is available online and is linked from the syllabus posted on the SPARK site for this course.

TOPIC 1:

Is education a tool for radically remaking women's opportunities in the early twentieth century? Why or why not? Compare and analyze the experiences of Zitkala-Sa, Charlotte Hawkins Brown's students, Rose Schneiderman, and Helen Keller.

TOPIC 2:

In Annelise Orleck's Common Sense and a Little Fire, which is excerpted in Women's America as "From the Russian Pale to Organizing in New York City," she claims "Not surprisingly, young women like Schneiderman, Newman, and Lemlich turned to radical politics to fulfill their desire for a life of the mind." What is the relationship between education and radicalism for Schneiderman, Newman, and Lemlich, on the one hand, and Helen Keller, on the other?

Please be aware that for this assignment you are comparing primary sources included in Orleck's historical analysis with primary sources by and about Keller. This will require that you act as a historian to analyze the sources regarding Keller's experiences.

Keller  Reading (in chronological order):

* "Expressions of Opinions by Distinguished Educators," in The Problem, Humanity's Problem and Its Phases, or The Six Great Problems and Their Satellites, Vol. 1, no. 2, April 1900. (Available on Spark in the Reading folder).

* "I Must Speak," Ladies Home Journal, 1901

http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=1&TopicID=193&SubTopicID=18&DocumentID=1198

* "The Story of My Life, Part 5," from The Ladies Home Journal, August 1902. (Available on Spark in the Reading folder).

* "An Apology for Going to College," McClure's Magazine, June 1905. (Available on Spark in the Reading folder).

* "How I Became a Socialist," New York Call, 1912.

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/keller-helen/works/1910s/12_11_03.htm

* "New Vision for the Blind," Justice 1913.

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/keller-helen/works/1910s/13_10_25.htm

* "Why Men Need Woman Suffrage," New York Call, 1913

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/keller-helen/works/1910s/13_10_17.htm

* "Why I Became an IWW," New York Tribune , 1916

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/keller-helen/works/1910s/16_01_16.htm

* "What is the IWW?", New York Call, 1918

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/keller-helen/works/1910s/18_01_x01.htm

* "Put Your Husband in the Kitchen," Atlantic Monthly, 1932

http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=1&TopicID=193&SubTopicID=18&DocumentID=1209

* Helen Keller's FBI File

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/keller-helen/bio/fbi-file.pdf