Monmouth College
Monmouth, Illinois
History 112, Fall 2005
Third Book Exam, over Perry's Jacqueline Kennedy:  The First Lady of the New Frontier

•  Hand in a thoughtful and thorough essay with perfect grammar and beautiful prose in answer to one of the following questions. Your essay should be no shorter than five pages--and that is five pages to the bottom of page five. This essay is due at the beginning of class on the date specified on the syllabus,  Wednesday, 23 November 2005.
   
•  I encourage you to work with each other on this exam. Discuss the book among yourselves, and talk through your essays.
   
•  Do not plagiarize each other’s exams, however. If you do, both of you will be asked to rewrite your papers, and a penalty may be assessed. If you plagiarize from the book, you will also have to rewrite your paper, and a penalty may be assessed.
   
•  Direct quotes from the book must be inside quotation marks. The page number from whence the quote came must be noted in parenthesis after the period (that is, outside of the sentence, Chicago Manual Style, not MLA). The Scots Guide contains the College’s plagiarism policy, which I follow strictly.
   
•  I expect that your paper will contain some brief quotes from the text, and/or will cite Perry's work for her ideas.
   
•  Write in past tense.  Refer to her as Mrs. Kennedy or the First Lady and not by her first name.  Do not abbreviate until you have first explained the abbreviation.  Identify all people you mention at the first place you mention them.
   
•  If you have any questions at all, call me, e-mail me, or stop by my office. I will be happy to look at a draft of your essay. I’ll be happy to look at your thesis statement, or your outline, or your opening paragraph--whatever will help you to write a really excellent essay.
   
• This is a 50 point exam.  It will be graded on how thoughtfully and thoroughly it addresses the question asked.  I will be looking for evidence that you have read the whole book and pondered the issues therein.  Essays with an abundance of grammatical errors will not receive full marks.  Please avail yourself of the Mellinger Center or me for grammatical assistance.

1. As First Lady, Perry suggests, Jacqueline Kennedy was transitional--a figure standing between traditional and modern First Ladies.  What does this mean?  In what ways was Mrs. Kennedy a transitional First Lady? 

2.  Write a thorough and thoughtful essay that explains how being First Lady changed Jacqueline Kennedy.

3.  Jacqueline Kennedy is often seen as an icon of American progress in the Cold War years.  Write an essay that addresses this aspect of her tenure as First Lady.

4.  Write an essay that explains why history remembers Jacqueline Kennedy.  What exactly did she attempt as First Lady?  What was her vision of the position?  Was she successful in bringing that vision to fruition?  If not, what hindered her?

5.  Every First Lady brings something different to the position.  What did Jacqueline Kennedy bring?  How did her background and interests play a role in the things she accomplished as First Lady?