Essay Assignment: “The Little Book That Wasn’t There”
Instructions:
For this assignment, you will be reading James Crisp’s article “The Little Book That Wasn’t There”. Using the article, you will select one of the following questions, and answer it fully in a 3-page essay.
Format:
This essay should be double-spaced. Please use an 11- or 12-point font (Calibri or Times New Roman are probably your defaults, and these are both good choices), and have one-inch margins.
If you choose to use direct quotes, you must cite them properly. Be sure to put the quote inside quotation marks, and then put the page number of the quote in parentheses right after it. It is not necessary to use any sources other than “The Little Book That Wasn’t There”, and if you choose not to, no bibliography or works cited page is needed.
However, you may use other sources if you like. If you decide to do so, you will need to include a bibliography page at the end, including the full citations of all extra sources. You may use whichever citation style you are most comfortable with (history typically uses Chicago or Turabian), but be sure you have cited all sources fully. If you use quotes, indicate the name of the source along with the page number. Remember: a good rule of thumb is, when in doubt, cite. You will never get accused of plagiarism for citing too much.
Be sure to put your name on your essay!
How to Turn It In:
This essay must be submitted in hard copy during class, not digitally. It is your responsibility to get it printed before class. Also, it needs to be stapled; loose pages can get lost, and simply folding over the corner is not enough!
If you send your essay in by email (for instance, if your printer is out of ink), a five point penalty will be assessed.
Questions:
Select one of these questions to answer in your essay. Be sure to answer it fully and specifically.
The de la Peña diary is a highly important source of information about what happened at the Alamo. Why did some people (for instance, Groneman) believe it was a forgery? What evidence did they use? Be specific. How did James Crisp go about hunting for the truth of the matter, and what did he discover? What did he eventually conclude about its authenticity?
Part of the purpose of “The Little Book That Wasn’t There” is to review Groneman’s book Defense of a Legend, in which he (Groneman) argues that Davy Crockett actually did go down fighting. What were Crisp’s criticisms of the book? Did he think that Groneman got anything right? What can the story of Defense of a Legend and the de la Peña diary tell us about how historical sources should be used and analyzed?
Think about what Davy Crockett and his legend mean. What do they embody in the minds of many Americans, according to Crisp? Why were so many people so upset when historians began to suggest that Davy Crockett didn’t go down fighting? What do all of these things tell us about how history (what people write), as opposed to the past (what actually and objectively happened), is constructed and used?
***You can read the article for free online at JSTOR.ORG It is titled “The Little Book That Wasn’t There: The Myth and Mystery of the de la Pena Diary” **pp. 260-296
