Ever since learning about them in high school World History, I’ve been eager to apply The Red Scares into examples for my essays, or use them to derive prompts/ideas for other essays. I don’t know what it is about The Red Scares that has always kept my interest. Maybe I like reading about the corruption of those fighting the Reds, or maybe it has to do with the fact that an ‘underdog’ country was able to cause so much fear with a neutral ideology. It might even be a bit of both, and how the United States was able to blow things way out of proportion. (I mean, just look at this propaganda piece.)
Source: wikimedia.org
So carrying on the theme, my initial research question is something along the lines of: How did Santa Clara University react/partake in the Red Scare, and how did the student body differ from the executive board? I am interested to see if the school newspaper published any propaganda of their own, or if there were any protocols for invasion in any handbooks. On top of this, I would like to see how the school was oriented socially and politically at the time. Were they afraid of the Communists like the rest of the nation, or was the school more rational and progressive in thought?
Already having formed a question, and having already thought about what I want to find, I have already done one of the most important steps, according to Lynée Lewis Gaillet in “Archival Survival”. After reading further into her chapter, I made note of things to do/pay attention to, which include:
- Describe, categorize, and give a brief summary for the sources I look at/wish to use, in case I cannot find them again, or forget what they were, knowing they might have a lot of potential information. I plan to make note of each source used, since almost everything has potential.
- Branch out from my used sources in order to not only get a better sense of time, but to expand context and possibly use contextual sources as elaboration or source for my topic.
- Use context to see if a source is truly viable and significant.
- If, say there was one propaganda piece in a schools newspaper, see if that piece started a wave of similar inspired piece and see what gave it such influence.
- Background background background. I don’t want to embarrass myself. I have to know my sources are credible given the context.
And most importantly, I must enter my research with the intention to “tell a story” and not just research for a project. By actually becoming invested in the “story”, research won’t be tedious and annoying, but a personal pursuit to revive a piece of history. The whole point of the story is to use it’s substance to unravel information which would have otherwise gone unnoticed by me, the story-teller.
I’ll see how this approach works for me, and then I’ll probably come back here and give me feedback. Until then, be sure to get 8 hours of sleep each night!
Photo Sources:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Is_this_tomorrow.jpg