History 389                                                                 University of Massachusetts, Amherst

L. Lovett

 

Helen Keller Paper Assignment

 

DUE: In Class, Tuesday, February 26, 2008

 

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 WebCT site for this course.

 

TOPIC 1:

In ÒWhy I Became an IWW,Ó Helen Keller describes how she became an Òunrepentant radical.Ó  How does her radicalism ( in this and other essays listed below)  address womenÕs experiences and opportunities during the first three decades of the twentieth century?

 

TOPIC 2:

In the essays below, Keller challenges her readers to reconsider the relationship between men, women, and different forms of work or economic participation. What historical circumstances would explain the difference between KellerÕs 1913 essay on ÒWhy Men Need Woman SuffrageÓ and her 1932 essay, ÒPut Your Husband in the KitchenÓ?

 

Reading:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

http://marxists.architexturez.net/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://marxists.architexturez.net/reference/archive/keller-helen/bio/fbi-file.pdf