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Hello all,I have a research paper due in early March, roughly 5 pages in length, on any topic in my 20th century world history class. I am brainstorming ideas, so if you guys have any topics in 20th century world history that you think are interesting please help me since I am indecisive!I am considering choosing one of the following topics:The British experience in the South African War 1899-1902Detroit's automobile industry in the 20th centuryLa Violencia in ColombiaLast term I wrote a paper on Nietzsche and the Gay Science and On The Genealogy of Morals, which was interesting, but this term I want to choose something less philosophy-oriented.
Homer Lea, 1876-1912 might be an interesting topic. His books, THE VALOR OF IGNORANCE and THE DAY OF THE SAXON predicting war betweeen the USA and Japan and England vs. Germany proved to be accurate, plus some interesting commentsts about the Russians. Those books were required reading in English, German, and Russian, and Japanese military staff colleges but not in the USA. He actively supported the Chinese revolution, rode into Peking with Chinese republicans after the Boxers were defeated, and was the only caucasian present at the inauguration of Sun Yat-sen. The Japanese followed his predicted landing places in the Philippines in 1941 and captured maps showed they planned to do the same in California.
Is the paper expository in nature (descriptive/book reportish) or do you need to argue a thesis? Five pages is really brief, so if I were you I would narrow the topic down more. So rather than something like “Detroit's automobile industry in the 20th century”, I would pick something like “The rise of Ford in Detroit's automobile industry in the early 20th century”, or “Detroit's automobile industry before WWI”. You could actually write a book on one of these topics as well, but at least they are not quite so broad.Basically, if the paper topic is too broad you'll run into the problem of writing a paper which skips over important historical developments because there's simply too much to fit in. In the Ford topic (above), questions I would be interested in answering might be: how did Henry Ford's business model differ from his competitors? Did he engage in business practices that would be illegal or considered unethical today? What was his personality like in terms of how it affected his business? What was the public reception of his automobiles like?In my opinion, the best way to approach your paper is by thinking of the right questions you want to ask before you start, so this can lead you in your work. These are questions you probably won't know the answer to until you start researching, but this is where the fun is. Perhaps you already have resources, but here is a good guide to creating an outline:How to Write an A+ Research Paper
For something with world impact have you considered something like the “Green Revolution” in Third-World agriculture that occurred mid-century?
Is the paper expository in nature (descriptive/book reportish) or do you need to argue a thesis? Five pages is really brief, so if I were you I would narrow the topic down more. So rather than something like "Detroit's automobile industry in the 20th century", I would pick something like "The rise of Ford in Detroit's automobile industry in the early 20th century", or "Detroit's automobile industry before WWI". You could actually write a book on one of these topics as well, but at least they are not quite so broad.Basically, if the paper topic is too broad you'll run into the problem of writing a paper which skips over important historical developments because there's simply too much to fit in. In the Ford topic (above), questions I would be interested in answering might be: how did Henry Ford's business model differ from his competitors? Did he engage in business practices that would be illegal or considered unethical today? What was his personality like in terms of how it affected his business? What was the public reception of his automobiles like?In my opinion, the best way to approach your paper is by thinking of the right questions you want to ask before you start, so this can lead you in your work. These are questions you probably won't know the answer to until you start researching, but this is where the fun is. Perhaps you already have resources, but here is a good guide to creating an outline:How to Write an A+ Research Paper
Thank you all for the suggestions, and especially Phidippides for the link to the outline, it was very helpful. I admit I asked in haste, and you are correct it does need to present a thesis. I chose a subject that the professor recommended, 'The influence of the automobile on North American cities', which I feel needs to be much more specific. I am not sure how to approach it but so far I am considering taking a case study like Mexico DF or a US city and talking about how that city accommodated the automobile as well as how those cities were changed by it, and then maybe relate that to overall changes across the US for example.
