  Ltorivia485 Member Username: Ltorivia485 Post Number: 2815 Registered: 08-2004 |
Hey guys, I know this is lazy of me but I need to prepare to write a senior thesis (historical-related) so that I can graduate with honors. Since I want to do something on Detroit, what ideas can you throw at me? I want to do something African-American related and involves black women, public education, professions, neighborhoods and social movements. I prefer the period 1930-1970. I have Thomas Sugrue's book, but I need more than just that. So if you have any ideas, just discuss them here! | ||
Bussey Member Username: Bussey Post Number: 243 Registered: 12-2003 |
Lame... a thesis is supposed to be a polemical collection of original thoughts based on research conducted by the individual. | ||
Ltorivia485 Member Username: Ltorivia485 Post Number: 2816 Registered: 08-2004 |
And what's wrong with giving me ideas? I know how to make connections, comparisons, and deductions, but I need an idea first. | ||
Danindc Member Username: Danindc Post Number: 1807 Registered: 10-2003 |
Research is nothing more than finding the answer to a question (or at least making a substantial, measurable advancement toward one). Ask yourself what you want to know, and there's your thesis. | ||
Kathleen Member Username: Kathleen Post Number: 1616 Registered: 10-2003 |
I thought this conversation sounded familiar.... https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mes sages/62684/68870.html | ||
Kenp Member Username: Kenp Post Number: 104 Registered: 03-2006 |
I wonder what Chow thinks? | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 5055 Registered: 02-2004 |
Here is my thesis example on Black growth in Detroit: A growing strong economic job base is causing African Americans from all the United States to come to Detroit. To make a excellent college based thesis paper. Research the topic, you may want to agree with the topic rather than going against it. Then " BRAINSTORM IT" get all your ideals together to support your topic. Make your claim in broadcast sentence, keep it the simplicity level, avoid vague clutter, connecting conjuctions and false claims. Your ideals and your claim must appeal not only to the intellectual person, but also to the dummies. Finally your claims and your conclusions must explain WHY before the solutions. Thank you WSU!!! | ||
Hornwrecker Member Username: Hornwrecker Post Number: 1659 Registered: 04-2005 |
I haven't had an original idea in thirty years. Why don't you look around the Reuther Library web site, and see what they have on line. I'd link it, but won't. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 2884 Registered: 08-2004 |
LOL at Kenp.... (I too read the old thread!)... maybe a thesis on "urban lead pipes" and how Super_d got the way he is... | ||
Chow Member Username: Chow Post Number: 309 Registered: 10-2003 |
I have no position on this issue. | ||
Ltorivia485 Member Username: Ltorivia485 Post Number: 2817 Registered: 08-2004 |
These are some of the books I have found so far to browse through: We, Too, Are American: African American Women in Detroit and Richmond, 1940-54. By Megan Taylor Shockley. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003 The Origins of the Urban Crisis : Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Princeton Studies in American Politics) (Paperback) by Thomas J. Sugrue Remaking Respectability: African American Women in Interwar Detroit (Hardcover) by Victoria W. Wolcott The Politics of Public Housing: Black Women's Struggles Against Urban Inequality (Transgressing Boundaries) (Hardcover) by Rhonda Y. Williams Redevelopment and Race: Planning a Finer City in Postwar Detroit (Creating the North American Landscape) (Hardcover) by June Manning Thomas Untold Tales, Unsung Heroes: An Oral History of Detroit's African American Community, 1918-1967 (African American Life Series) by Elaine Latzman Moon Whose Detroit?: Politics, Labor, and Race in a Modern American City by Heather Ann Thompson (Paperback - Jan 2004) Black Detroit and the Rise of the UAW by Joseph William Trotter, August Meier, and Elliott Rudwick (Paperback - Feb 28, 2007) How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America: Problems in Race, Political Economy, and Society (South End Press Classics Series) by Manning Marable (Paperback - Dec 1, 1999) Detroit: I Do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban Revolution (Updated Edition) (South End Press Classics Series) (Paperback) by Dan Georgakas The Detroit Almanac (Paperback) by Peter Gavrilovich and Bill McGraw Life for Us Is What We Make It: Building Black Community in Detroit, 1915-1945 (Blacks in the Diaspora) (Hardcover) by Richard Walter Thomas Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South, 1940-1980 (Paperback) by Jeanne Theoharis (Editor), Komozi Woodard (Editor) Whose Detroit?: Politics, Labor, and Race in a Modern American City (Paperback) by Heather Ann Thompson Paradise Valley Days (Hardcover) by Debraha Watson (Editor), Detroit Black Writers Guild (Editor), Herbert R. Metoyer (Editor) Encyclopedia of African-American Education (Hardcover) by Charles A. Asbury (Editor), Margo Okazawa-Rey (Editor), D. Kamili Anderson (Editor), Sylvia M. Jacobs (Editor), Michael Fultz African-American Mayors: Race, Politics, and the American City (Hardcover) by David R Colburn (Editor) Someone Else's House: America's Unfinished Struggle for Integration (Paperback) by Tamar Jacoby (Author) Racial Situations (Paperback) by John Hartigan Jr. Detroit Divided by Reynolds Farley, Sheldon Danziger, and Harry J. Holzer (Paperback - Sep 2002) Violence in the Model City: The Cavanagh Administration, Race Relations, and the Detroit Riot of 1967 (Hardcover) by Sidney Fine | ||
Burnsie Member Username: Burnsie Post Number: 669 Registered: 11-2003 |
It *is* pretty lame to rely on a discussion board for an idea for your thesis. If you're majoring in history and are interested in Detroit, you should already have an interest in some specific part of the city's history that you could further investigate in a thesis. If you don't, you should probably consider writing about something else. | ||
Susanarosa Member Username: Susanarosa Post Number: 1185 Registered: 11-2003 |
Woah, you need to narrow it down there a bit... talk to your advisor. | ||
Ltorivia485 Member Username: Ltorivia485 Post Number: 2818 Registered: 08-2004 |
That's why I'm gonna look through the books in the library. Just to see what gets my interest. I am still interested (I look at the old link, Kathleen) about doing something related to Paradise Valley. | ||
Track75 Member Username: Track75 Post Number: 2394 Registered: 10-2003 |
How about "Hazel Park: a Spatially Discontinuous but Culturally Homogeneous Element of the Downriver Area"? | ||
Ltorivia485 Member Username: Ltorivia485 Post Number: 2819 Registered: 08-2004 |
Sorry, but I rather not do Hazel Park. I am considering graduate school in the future so I rather write on something related to my interests (black history, US social and urban history, gender history, community development, african american education). | ||
Detroitplanner Member Username: Detroitplanner Post Number: 236 Registered: 04-2006 |
Track, please it is contigous with Madison Heights, Ferndale (gasp he mocks the holy grail), and Warren ain't it? | ||
Pam Member Username: Pam Post Number: 532 Registered: 11-2005 |
Yes. | ||
Ltorivia485 Member Username: Ltorivia485 Post Number: 2820 Registered: 08-2004 |
I guess I have narrowed my interests somewhat. I want to do something between 1945 and 1965. I want to incorporate local social movements, changes in community development, and black professionals fighting against racism. | ||
Track75 Member Username: Track75 Post Number: 2395 Registered: 10-2003 |
OK, sorry, I've got another thought. "Temporal Linkages between Female Adolescents During the 1980's in the United States at Large and Today's Perimenopausal Women in Sub-10 Mile Warren with Respect to Attitudes toward the Coiffure Genre Known Colloquially as "Big Hair"." | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 3058 Registered: 10-2003 |
Mentioned on another thread was the increasing predominance of women on the Detroit City Council, but the seeming glass ceiling for Mayor when it comes to running for mayor. Thesis: Why? | ||
Bvos Member Username: Bvos Post Number: 2026 Registered: 10-2003 |
For that time period, I'd recommend reading "Singing in a Strange Land", the biography of C.L. Franklin. The author does an excellent job of not only describing the life of C.L. Franklin during this period, but also does an outstanding job of tying in the convergence of local social movements, the black power movement and Detroit's pivital role, black professionals and their comroderie/conflict with the working class, southern migration, etc. A study on the Shrine of the Black Madonna would make an excellent way to study that era as well. C.L. took a more centrist view/role in that era while Shrine of the Black Madonna took a socialist/left leaning role. The book obviously focuses on CL, but the Shrine is mentioned through out the book. Again I highly recomend "Singing in a Strange Land" as an overview to study this era in Detroit. | ||
Mrjoshua Member Username: Mrjoshua Post Number: 906 Registered: 03-2005 |
I think you should focus on relevant history. For example, how LBJ's Great Society programs actually exacerbated poverty and racial tensions rather than having helped to alleviate them (keeping in mind that poverty rates among black families was halved between 1940-1960 which brings into question the whole motive for having introduced the Great Society in the first place). Outside of 'gender history', this would very much be in line with where your interests lie. | ||
Ltorivia485 Member Username: Ltorivia485 Post Number: 2823 Registered: 08-2004 |
Mr. Joshua, thank you so much for an interesting idea. I will look into it. In fact, I am reading this book right now: Urban Planning & the African American Community: In the Shadows by June Manning Thomas (Editor), Marsha Ritzdorf (Editor) http://www.amazon.com/Urban-Pl anning-African-American-Commun ity-Shadows/dp/0803972342 | ||
Mrjoshua Member Username: Mrjoshua Post Number: 907 Registered: 03-2005 |
Yes Ltorivia, I have seen this book prior. Zoning laws that prevent or discourage integration of people from different economic and social backgrounds is something that was destined to create disharmony and disadvantage. I would investigate why a model of economic reform created by those who purported for so long to hold a monopoly on genuine compassion for the poor and oppressed could have come up with something so disastrous. Was this an oversight, ignorance of policy or was it an intentional agenda to separate the middle class from the poor? More importantly, was it a social program specifically architected at the highest levels of government to keep the poor poor? | ||
Danindc Member Username: Danindc Post Number: 1810 Registered: 10-2003 |
Ah, nothing like having the conclusion before doing any research! | ||
Innovator Member Username: Innovator Post Number: 31 Registered: 07-2006 |
whenever i need to write a paper, and i'm writing about detroit, i like to go read the "city master plans" and other city documents from the 1920's-1970's. Not sure if they are available in your univ. library but I think they might be a pretty good source to start with for looking around. | ||
Dabirch Member Username: Dabirch Post Number: 1893 Registered: 06-2004 |
You mean the glass ceiling that doesn't apply to Sharon Mcphail who just ran for mayor a year ago? | ||
Neilr Member Username: Neilr Post Number: 352 Registered: 06-2005 |
Consider the impact and effect on Detroit made by socially, educationally, intellectually, and culturally elite Black women such as Sarah Carolyn Reece, Marjorie Peeples-Meyers, Mary Agnes Davis, and Josephine Love. These women, and many others of their class, helped make Detroit a better place for all of us. | ||
Ltorivia485 Member Username: Ltorivia485 Post Number: 2826 Registered: 08-2004 |
Thanks everyone. I will continue to update you as I try to find some ideas of my own. Time for the library! | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 3063 Registered: 10-2003 |
Touche and picky picky Dabirch.  "...but the seeming glass ceiling for Mayor when it comes to | ||
Barnesfoto Member Username: Barnesfoto Post Number: 2576 Registered: 10-2003 |
The Co-Ettes Club |
