History 475

The Life and Afterlife of Ernesto Guevara

  1. Students, in assigned groups, are required once during the semester to lead discussion on the week's readings. The group should meet with Dr. Black before the class meeting they're assigned. In addition to leading discussion, the group is required to cover two more pieces of the week's work: 1. The group must produce a bibliography of scholarly work related to their week's readings; 2. After leading discussion, the group is required to add all relevant events from life of Che, broader Latin American History, and world events from their week's readings, lecture, and discussion. The bibliographies and timeline information will then be available to the whole class for use in the Project Essays.

  2. Project 1: This essay is due the week of Fall Break, emailed to Dr. Black no later than 7:00pm, Wednesday, October 10. The essay must be 7-10 pages, double spaced, 12-pt font, 1-inch margins, and utilize Chicago Style citations. For Project 1, students will write an essay on the theme, "The Making of A Revolutionary." Students are required to consult at least one source outside of course readings (drawn from the group discussion bibliographies). The best essays will clearly connect the question of Ernesto Guevara's transformation into a revolutionary to the larger processes/themes of 20th Century Latin American history covered in the lectures, readings, and discussions.

  3. Project 2: This essay is due Wednesday, 14 November 2012 at the beginning of class. The essay must be 7-10 pages, double spaced, 12-pt font, 1-inch margins, and utilize Chicago Style citations. For Project 2, students will write an essay on the theme, "The Death of a Revolutionary or the Death of Revolution?" Utilizing the readings from class, the National Security Archive's dossier on Ernesto Guevara's death, and one outside source drawn from group discussion bibliographies, the essay should explain the death of Ernesto Guevara within the context of his revolutionary theory, the practices of the national security state, and the prognosis that death had for the future of revolution in Latin America. The best essay swill clearly connect these threads together to lectures, readings, discussions on the broader context of Latin America in the 1960s.

  4. Description Project 3.