Perspectives on History—Assignment Fall, 20060-1930

Thomas Edison and “Inventing Entertainment”

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edhome.html

Your assignment will be to investigate and write a 20 page research paper on “Thomas Edison and Inventing Entertainment” using a wide variety of primary sources.  The Library of Congress Page above is an extremely good starting point, but there are many more written and digital sources which will help you in your quest.   

You must first narrow your topic by understanding Edison’s role in American technological innovation.  Since this paper is designed to test the skills you have learned in Perspectives on History, you must demonstrate your ability to evaluate primary sources of all types.  Your job is not just to create a narrative, but to analyze the primary sources at hand and present your interpretation and observations on the data.  Merely presenting what someone else has said concerning Edison (as found in secondary sources) does not fulfill this assignment.