There are almost an endless number of directions in which you might turn in order to write your Birth of a Nation essay, but let me help you with this overarching theme:
Made in 1915, the film depicts the memory of the Civil War and Reconstruction exactly 50 years after Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox. Today, we are amidst the Sesquicentennial and the memory of the war's meaning has returned to the public discourse with a vengeance.
In writing your essay, feel free to consider all of the works that I have assigned in this class as material for analyzing this film. You might also consider reading a few articles from the New York Times's Disunion column, which features many articles that try to articulate what the Civil War means today.
Your essay should consider how the core memories of the Civil War and Reconstruction created by Birth of a Nation compare with newer narratives of the Civil War Era written over the last 100 years (as exemplified by our readings) and how the issues engaged by Birth of a Nation continue to define the question of nation, race, and war memory.
I will also allow your paper to be 2000 words in length if needed. Yet I encourage you to be concise. Length, as evidenced by your last set of essays, does not necessarily equate content!
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