As the deadline for the last major essay has been pushed back I hope that none of you are too terribly inconvenienced in your writing by the fact that I have not finished all the marking of short essays and group assignments. Sorry. I shall have it done by the end of next week. In the meantime, however, I think it worth reiterating a point I have made before both individually in my comments on your previous work and as whole on this blog. In general, I am very impressed by the standard of presentation and overall maturity of analysis in the written work of this group--it's somewhat better, certainly more of a pleasure for me to read, than the work of my face-to-face MA students . But there is one respect in which a small improvement would deliver an easy elevation in grade: reference to primary source material.
We are very fortunate with this subject to have access to a extraordinary wealth of primary resources on-line. I'd like you all to make a habit of googling all the speeches, official documents, treaties, and so on which you refer to in the secondary literature. A lot of it is available on-line and it you always get a better understanding of what actually happened and a better feel for the quality of the secondary literature when you consult the originals too. In the old days thsi was difficult; now it's easy. And it makes a difference in grade--simple as that. Also, I strongly recommend that whenever you sit down to write your assignments, in addition to whatever else you may have read, you consult these websites:
Digital National Security Archive
Cold War International History Project
Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact
On almost every essay topic you will find material on these sites which is highly relevant and useful.
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