AP US History  

Minimum of 10 sources in the following categories:

1. Two monographs (books) by historians or an expert in the field.
2. Two journal or database articles
3. Two primary sources
4. One website (if not from one of the sources listed on this libguide, you must have an evaluation sheet included in your appendix)
5. Three other sources

No general encyclopedias are allowed as ANY of your sources. This includes wikipedia, britannica, world book, etc.

Annotations: You are required to indicate why your source is a primary or secondary source and how it is useful to demonstrate your topic's relationship to the NHD theme, describe what aspects of this source make it reliable, explain what potential bias this source may or may not have and elaborate on why historians would value this source. Additionally, all monographs need to contain the author's credentials. ALL CITATIONS must be annotated.

Websites: All websites other than .gov need to have an explanation of where they came from (or who recommended them, Cone Catalog, National History Day, etc.) in the annotation as well. 

Example of a good annotation:

Daley, Arthur J. "110,000 See Owens Set World Record At Olympic Games." The New York Times 3 Aug. 1936: 1. ProQuest Historical Newspapers - Graphical. Web. 12 Sept. 2011. http://hn.bigchalk.com/. This is a primary source because it is a newspaper article that was written during the 1936 Olympic Games about the athletes. The article relates to my NHD topic because it talks about the various reactions of Hitler and other Germans to the feats of American athletes in the Berlin Olympics of 1936. This is a reliable source because it was the article on the front page of the New York Times. The article has some American bias but overall historians would find it reliable becasue of the detail that is put into the accounts of the feats of various American athletes.

According to the information in the NHD materials, if you want to win at NHD, you need to understand historical context. "The NHD Rule Book defines historical context as "the intellectual, physical, social and cultural setting in which events take place." And I'd throw in economic and political settings as well.  IN OTHER WORDS, HISTORICAL CONTEXT IS THE ATMOSPHERE OF THE TIME." (emphasis added)

It's not enough to be able to describe things, you need to be able to discern meaning about an events impact.  Did it change life, politics, etc.  It means reading secondary sources and finding out SO WHAT.

• Did your treaty have an impact on US relations with the Russians?  So what?
• Did the Navajo Code Talkers do a good job?  So what?
• Did The Femine Mystique cause an uproar when published? So what?

Explain the so what and you will be on your way to a successful NHD project.

The Berkeley online database username/password list for remote access is available using Edline. Select Cone Library - UD from the contents section. You will then see the word document containing the complete username/password list in contents. 

Sample topics may include the following but are not limited by:

• John Brown's Revolt Against Slavery
• Dorothea Dix and the Asylum Movement
• Television: A Cultural Revolution
• Bismarck's Reforms in Germany
• The Airplane: Revolution in Warfare
• Sit-ins and Freedom Rides: Reformers in Action

And many more.  See the full list at Sample Themes