Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War

Your job in this assignment is to evaluate and reflect on the argument of a professional historian. The reading will be: Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War Here are the two things you need to look for while you’re reading: 1. What is the main argument that the author is trying to make? 2. What are the specific sources that they’re using to support that argument? While number 1 is straightforward, number 2 takes a bit of thinking. It matters if a historian is making a general claim about the people of the United States but only considering the perspective of the US’ rich or political class. It matters if they’re using personal diaries, oral stories, music, etc. After you’ve read your selected reading critically, you need to write a 2-3 page reflection about your chosen secondary source. Like the source reflections, you’ll need to do two things: 1. Summarize the argument the historian is attempting to make, including some commentary on the primary sources that they’ve used to support the argument. 2. Reflect on the argument. Do you agree with it? Why? Do you disagree with it? Why? Do you agree with parts of it and disagree with other parts of it? Which parts and why? An excellent reflection will: + Be at least 2 full pages in length + Accurately summarize the author’s argument + Include direct quotations from the chosen secondary source + Offer insightful comments about the author’s argument + Use 12 point Times New Roman font + Be double-spaced Please let me know if you have any questions about the assignment or the various choices you have for reading.