King Leopold’s Ghost

Secondary Source Analysis Assignment
Modern World History
Assigned book: King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild.
Late Penalty:Your grade will drop by 10 % for each day the essay is late. However, submitting late and getting some points will help your final grade, rather than just getting a 0 for the assignment.
Notes Component
As you are reading the assigned book, you will need to take notes on what you are reading. Prior to turning in your paper, you will be required to submit these notes separately. (Due dates are provided online and/or in the syllabus.) There is no minimum or maximum page length for the notes, and you may use various formatting styles (bullet points, short summary paragraphs, etc.)
Your notes must do two things: First, they must demonstrate that you read the book or at least spent a considerable amount of time reading it. Second, they must feature page numbers from the book that align with what your notes are discussing. The notes, along with the page numbers, must indicate that you are reading and working through the book. The notes will also allow you to write the paper without having to constantly consult the book.
Formatting: The analysis paper must be: 4-5 pages in length, (full pages: ½ a page, or ¾ of a page do not count as a full page), double-spaced, Times New Roman and 12 point font, 1 inch margins.
IMPORTANT – Citing Information in your Paper:
You must cite your information! If you are paraphrasing, summarizing, or quoting the work of someone else in your own work, you MUST cite it in some way. This includes the assigned book as well as any websites you consult. You are not required to go to any outside sources, but if you do, you must provide information on where you got your information. Otherwise, it is plagiarism. If you use outside sources like websites, you must provide a works cited page with those works properly cited. If the information is just from the assigned book, I only require that you put the page numbers where you got the information from in parentheses. See below for an example:
Hochschild explains how Stanley and Leopold worked together. (64-65)
 
Critical Analysis
This paper is NOT just a summary of the book. Spend no more than one page total in your essay summarizing the general story the author tells. The rest should be YOUR analysis of the work. Tell me in your own words what you thought about the book, but think critically about it. Write this as a formal essay (avoid slang, clichés, and a conversational tone.) Be sure to provide examples from the book (with page numbers) to back up what you are saying. In other words, provide evidence from the book. You may consider the following questions when writing your essay:
• What is the author’s overall argument, and what are its strong points? What are its weak points? What flaws did you find in the argument?
• What are some of the smaller or sub points the author makes? Any problems with these?
• What are some connections between the book and class instruction? Were there any times when they seemed to contradict?
• What do you think influenced the author to write this book or to write this book in a certain way? (Consider the time period when the author was writing.)
• Did the author seem to have in major biases? Do they point them out, or try to keep them hidden?
• How does the book differ from a textbook? Is it a narrative? If so, does the narrative point out larger themes in history? If not, how might you do it differently?
• Where is the author getting his/her sources? Do you think he/she is reading them and interpreting them well?
• What are some other things you noticed about the book that stood out to you?
You do not have to limit yourself to these questions, you can address many different questions or topics in your analysis. However, avoid statements such as the following in your essay:
 How much you liked the book, how much you enjoyed reading the book.
 How long or short the book was.
 How boring it was or how interesting it was
You can mention these things in your paper, but your analysis should be more in depth than this. If the book was difficult to read, explain why. If it was more enjoyable to read, explain why. Just as with the questions above, you need evidence from the book (examples with page numbers) to demonstrate.