Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:
Micro-Essay #1 – Writing Guide—The Cheese and the WormsHIST 2702: World History– Prof. Cleaveland Your first Micro-Essay assignment is due on Tuesday, February 18th. Your assignment is to write a 700-word essay analyzing a prominent theme or issue in Carlo Ginzburg’s The Cheese and the Worms.This is not a book report, so I do not want you to summarize Ginzburg’s book. Nor do I want you toargue about what really happened, or why—for example, I don’t want you to argue about why theChurch executed Menocchio. Instead, I want you to make an analytical argument assessing one of thebook’s arguments or central themes, and to support your argument with specific evidence from thetext.However, the theme you choose should be sufficiently important to allow you to draw evidencefrommultiple parts of the book. As in your previous micro-essay, that evidence should be paraphrasedwhenthe specific wording of the text is not part of your argument, but both quoted and paraphrasedevidenceshould be cited. Any form of citation is acceptable; the important point is to make it easy foryourreader to check your interpretation of the evidence by going back to the textual source. In additiontothis specific writing guide, you should also read my general writing guide, micro-essay checklist andgrading rubric (all three are on our eLC webpage) before beginning to write your micro-essay.Your micro-essay should not exceed one sheet of paper (please use the back and front). Do not use a font smaller than 12-point, and do provide one-inch margins 1.5 spacing between lines. Please also include the word-count at the top of the page, along with your student identification number. Please do not write your name on your essay paper. The teacher will evaluate the micro-essays on the basis of grammar and style as well as content, and the essays must be submitted at the beginning of class on the date due. Do not put late papers in my department mailbox and do not slide them under my office door. Do not submit micro-essays electronically unless you obtain permission beforehand, and the teacher will only grant permission in exceptional circumstances. One letter grade will be deducted from late micro-essays for each class meeting after the due date. Themes and Issues in The Cheese and the WormsWhat was Ginzburg’s main argument, and to what extent was he was able to support it with specific and persuasive evidence? Why do you think he tried to make this argument? Could he have made a different argument based on this same evidence, and if so, what was it? What was Ginzburg’s attitudes toward the main characters and events of the story he recounted? What, in the end, was his view of Menocchio and what happened to him? What was Ginzburg’s view of the Church leaders and inquisitors, and what is your specific textual evidence of these attitudes? Why did Ginzburg entitle his book The Cheese and the Worms? Would you have given it a different title, and why? One important aspect of Ginzburg’s book is his search to find the origins of the religious ideas that got Menocchio into so much trouble with the Roman Church. You could analyze Ginzburg’s argument in this regard, though as in our previous assignment, I do not want you to try to determine whether Ginzburg was right or wrong. Instead, you might analyze the sources that Ginzburg used and his method for dealing with the problems those sources posed. For example, what kinds of sources did Ginzburg find, and should we (as historians) be skeptical about any of the evidence they seem to provide? Or, would it be reasonable to use these sources as reliable evidence for something, but not for what Ginzburg was trying to argue? How did these sources limit the kind of story he could tell? How did he justify the way he used the sources?
