HIST 1510: Stage 1: Choosing Articles

Each person in the class will need to conduct a search of the New York Times (historical), the Los Angeles Times, or London Times, 1785-1985 (After 1985-) on the library database website. Students will research their own birthdays (month/day) in 1989, and then generate a list of articles from that day that address issues in world history. They will include descriptions and show possible topics for research.

To Find Articles:

• Go to the Library webpage and choose “All Databases”. Type in the newspaper you want to search New York Times – Historical OR Times (London) OR     Los Angeles Times. A search engine should appear (make sure you are on “Advanced Search” option).
• Under search options, change the date range to “on this date”.  Put in your birthday month and day and the year 1989. Also change the “document type” to article or front page article to limit the hits. Then search.
• Scroll through the articles and pick 10 that seem interesting to you.  MAKE SURE they have a world history context.  So, it can be an article about American history, but it must have some sort of global connection to themes we’ve discussed.

To create your article list:

• List your articles using an appropriate citation style (Chicago or MLA). DO NOT just provide a list of long website addresses. See example below for proper style.
• For each article, provide a 1-sentence description of the main points of the article.
• Put a ** next to the article you think is best and for which you’d like to develop your larger project.

Here’s an example of a citation with a short description:

Suro, Roberto. “U.S. set to detain refugees in tents beginning today: New Procedure in Texas." New York Times (21 February 1989), 1.**  This article looks at the creation of tent cities in Texas to deal with a flood of Central American migrants to the United States who seek asylum.