1. Purpose: to give students experience analyzing a scholarly monograph.



2. Content: This is an exercise in critical thinking. Your essay should reflect an understanding of what the author had to say, and as well should convey this to the reader (of your paper) who has not yet read the book. The context of these essays will vary, appropriatly, from student to student; each of you will see the body of information or the argument differently. The trick in such a short paper is not to try and rewrite the book, but to convey the essence (or even a portion of the essence) and argument (what caused the Civil War) while critiquing the book. To get you going, there will be a review of Russell on reserve in the library.

The Russell paper is due at the beginning of class on December 1.