Jessica Kilday

Chapter Seven: America Since 1945
William H. Chafe

The thesis of this work is to explore the relationship among social, political, and cultural history from 1945 through the 1980’s. In order to do so, the author divides the period into three categories. The first is the period immediately following World War II until the early 1950’s. The second being the civil rights era and its aftermath. Finally, the 1970’s and 1980’s focusing on the rise of conservatism. Chafe refers to the works of many other historians in order to develop his arguments. For example, he uses Writter to discuss the effects of the Cold War on foreign policy and William Leuchtenburg shows how the availability and ability to buy more “material comforts” increased after World War II. Additionally, Chafe uses The Emerging Republican Majority by Kevin Phillips in order to discuss the rise of Conservatism in particular areas of the United States. This allowed Chafe to show how this affected social and economic attitudes during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Overall, Chafe uses a variety of secondary sources to explore how the growing industries as well as political conflicts and shifts in power (such as presidencies and congress) contributed to the changing society since 1945.

The secondary source which i would like to look at is a journal article: “English Reformation: Product of King or Minister?”

Ban, Joseph D. “English Reformation: Product of King or Minister?” Church History 41, no. 2 (June 1972): 186-197.               http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0009-64… (accessed September 12, 2007).

1. Provide some information about the author. I don’t know much about this author, but in searching for other works by Joseph D. Ban, the majority of items that come up are all religious in background. So, this is obviously an area he specializes in writing about.

2. Why did the author write this book? What’s the author’s perspective? The author wrote the article in order to explore how the king and his ministers affected the course of the reformation. The author examines both Cromwell and King Henry VIII by analyzing what other authors have claimed about the various roles of these two different people. The author’s perspective is somewhat less bias because he both asserts and rejects various arguments and explores both sides.

3. What is the author’s methodology? What sources does the author use? What is the book’s thesis? The thesis of the article is such that the author wishes to affirm Henry VIII’s role in the Reformation while also exploring the influences of Cromwell. The author uses various literature by two different historians. He discusses Elton’s views of Cromwell and his role in the Reformation, and compares these to Scarisbrick’s arguments for Henry VIII.

4. When was the book written? The article was written in 1972

5. How will you use the source for your paper? To discuss the role of King Henry VIII and the influences which his ministers (ie Cromwell) had on the course of the Reformation.

6. What are some of the problems that you foresee in using this source for your paper? Problems with this source may arise because the author of the article is examining and comparing the views of two different historians. Therefore it is necessary to look for some of the works by the two historians which Ban discusses as well as to find any primary sources that can help support the statements which I can make in my research paper using a combination of these sources.

When taking notes from different sources, there are a couple different things that work best for me.

Whether I’m taking notes on index cards or on paper, I always start with the bibliographic information at the top. Under the bibliographic information, the next thing I write is a general idea or summary of what the source is about or the important point it is getting accross. After that, I include any helpful quotes and page numbers that I believe will be useful in my paper. Also, when taking notes, I like to use a hanging indent a lot. I start out writting about a particular idea or subtopic and all of the relevant information after that I indent. It seperates the different ideas without having a heading, which is useful for an early stage of notetaking when I may not know specifically what I’m looking for.
After I have finished taking notes, I tend to organize my sources by argument. I categorize them by what I’m getting out of each source and where in the paper I think it will be relevant instead of organizing them by author or dates of publication.
These are just a few of things that I tend to do when I am taking notes. If anyone has any more suggestions or something that may be more efficient then feel free to comment!
Jessica

I’m not sure how much everyone knows about the computer but here are a couple things that I find useful and maybe atleast one other person will too.

If I’m using a particular word or Phrase a lot that needs to be capitalized, sometimes i’m inconsistent and don’t always capitilize when I need to. For example, I use the word “Reformation” a lot in my paper, so when I need to revise my paper instead of reading through the paper to find the word “Reformation” I can hit “ctrl+F” and type in the word, then the computer will go through and find all instances where I used the word and I can check and make sure I capitalized it everytime. It just saves time if that’s a specific thing you are revising.

 Also, in my paper I find I use passive voice a lot and it may not be the most direct way of saying what I want to say. But if that’s something you worry about you can set your spelling and grammar check to underline when you use passive voice. If you go into the “Tools” drop down menu and then all the way at the bottom click on options. Then click on the spelling and grammar tab, and under grammar, click on settings. This gives you a lot of more specific options that you can set word to check for you. For this class it is probably especially useful to have word check for the use of passive voice and first person throughout the paper.

 These are just a few of the things I find helpful in word, maybe a lot of you knew all this already but maybe some didn’t. If I come up with anything else I will be sure to add it.

Jessica

Many sources can be located on the web, some better than others. 
 
An example of a good source that I found about my topic is at the following link: http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/tudorbib.htm
I think this website is good because it has links to primary sources written by Henry VIII. I found the website when searching the suggested online primary source locations posted on the library webpage. Also, the website ends in .org which is known to be more reliable than .com websites. Additionally, all of the primary sources linked on the website have a bibliography on where the original source was located, therefore making the website a more trustworthy source.

An example of a bad or not-so-useful source is at the following link: http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page1211.asp
This source is probably not as useful and reliable as the previous source for many reasons. First, it is a tertiary source online. Second, even though the information on the site may be accurate, it is very simplistic. The heading in the top right corner of the page is “Kids Zone” which signifies that it is probably not a source that is appropriate to be cited in a college research paper. All of the information on this website is better found in more scholarly sources or encyclopedias.

 One of the primary sources I have found which I think will be useful is a letter that was written from Cromwell to Henry VIII.

1. When was the source composed? March 17, 1539
2. Who composed the source? Thomas Cromwell
3. What do we know about the author? Cromwell was one of Henry VIII’s ministers, he eventually took the title of secretary of state.
4. Under what conditions was the source composed? N/A
5. Was the source constructed based on legal or other formulae? The source is a letter written by Cromwell to Henry VIII. It discusses the fact that Henry’s Ministers are working for him and how the parliament was willing to pass whatever King Henry wanted passed with the advice of his councillors.
6. Was it written at the time of the event? After the event?  Years later? The letter was written during the reformation in 1539 after the Act of Supremacy established Henry VIII as the supreme head of state.
7. Does the source allude to other works? Events? People? Ideas? Are you familiar with them? He mentions someone named Mr. Morison. In context it seems like he is someone who was appointed to serve the king and be familiar with matters in Parliament, but I will have to research this further.
8. How might the author’s perspective on the event or issue differ from that of other authors? Cromwell’s perspective will differ from others because he was directly involved with the government. Anything that is written by Cromwell will show why the reformation was necessary and will discuss many reasons for the break with the church other than marriage. If it were an outside observation it may show an opinion more negatively toward the government.
9. How will you use the source to prove your argument? This source will be useful in my argument because it shows the influence that Cromwell had toward both the King and the Parliament, and he explains how the Parliament is being used at the Kings disposal.
10. What are some of the limitations of this source? The source is limited in that it only shows one perspective, and does not give an overwhelming amount of details. It is more of a general overview of what Cromwell believes about the King and his minsters influence over parliament.
11. Knowing those limitations, what other sources may be necessary to complete your paper? Letters written from different perspectives will be useful to either support or negate what Cromwell descbribes. It will also be useful to look at political documents to see the courses of action and reasons for action that were given to the public. Anything that was written by King Henry VIII would be useful in showing his opinions about what courses of action to take.

I thought today’s class was useful in teaching us how to use the different data bases that we may have not yet looked at. I thought it was also helpful talking to a partner and Jack Bales about the different key words that could be used. My partner found a few things that I still have to look through and which I am hoping will be useful. The only downside, for me, was that it was hard to research for someone else’s topic. I don’t think I was able to find as much as I could have if I were more familiar with the topic and where exactly my partner wanted to go with her research. Overall though, it was very useful getting other peoples opinions and suggestions and learning the different ways to navigate the databases.  
Link

Last week I consulted two professors, Professor Harris and Professor Blakemore. They helped me to narrow and focus my topic as well as suggested good places to start my research.

After coming up with the question which I would like to address, I started research in the library. Thus far, the sources I have been able to find are as follows:

Reference books:

• Great Britain from the Renaissance to the present (by: Richard S. Tompson)
• British Kings and Queens (by: Mike Ashley)

Books:

• Henry VIII and his Queens (by: David Loades)
• Henry VIII and the English Reformation (by: Richard Rex)
• Popular Politics and the English Reformation (by: Ethan H. Shagan)
• The Private Character of Henry the Eighth (by: Chamberlin)
• The matrimonial Trials of Henry VIII (by: H. A. Kelly)
• Reform and Renewal: Thomas Cromwell and the common Weal (by: Elton)
• The Tudor Constitution: Documents and Commentary (by: Elton)
• Tudor Constitutional Documents (by: J. R. Tanner)

Secondary Sources:

• “Henry VIII’s ecclesiastical and collegiate foundations.” Historical Research
         Journal article by Richard Rex
• The Strange Death of Lutheran England.” The Journal of Ecclesiastical History
         Journal article by Alec R. Ryrie
• “Elton’s Cromwell.” History
         Journal article by G. W. Bernard 

Primary Sources:

• Excerpt from the Seven Sacraments
• The lyrics of King Henry VIII
• Act for the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries
• Act of the Six articles
• The Act of Supremacy
• The Submission of the Clergy and Restraint of Appeals

When researching for information on my topic, some of the keywords I use are:

• Henry VIII
• English Reformation
• Cromwell
• Royal Court
• Criticisms
• Anglican Church
• Annulment

I think for my topic, the hardest thing will be coming up with enough primary sources. Since many historians have studied the time period of the Reformation and King Henry VIII, I should not have as much of a problem coming up with secondary sources.
I hope all is going well with everyone else’s research!
-Jessica

The broad topic which I would like to explore is that of the English reformation and the significant characters and events related to the time. I have always found this time period fascinating in that King Henry VIII married and seperated from (though through different means) six different wives. He ruled in a time where the church played a significant role in everday life in both the royal schedule and in the daily life of townsmen, and yet church and politics were still able to function as seperate entities. When the church stood in the way of Henry VIII however he decided to make himself both head of state and head of church.

I would like to more specifically explore how the events of the reformation unfolded due to Henry VIII, and how much of it was due to the influences of other significant actors in the royal court. Was the break with the church more for personal reasons, for power, or for family? The problem is putting these different ideas and aspects of the reformation into one question that is narrow enough to be explored in only 6-8 pages. At the present time, the question which I would like my research paper to answer is as follows: “Was Henry’s desire to annul his marriage with Catharine of Aragon the prime motivating factor in the establishment of the Anglican church?” 
This allows me to explore:
1. How his family life and need to produce a male heir effected his decision.
2. Henry VIII’s personal religious convictions and the role it plays in his decision.
3. How other significant people in Henry’s court (such as Wolsey or Cromwell for example) effected his decision.
and will allow me to conclude whether or not the desire for an annulment was the most significan motivating factor in the break with Rome, or whether it was due more significantly to a culmination of these factors.