Seminar Paper #1

Humanities 150
Seminar Paper #1
Due Tue Jan 18

In 1-2 double-spaced pages, respond to one of the following prompts. Your response should illustrate your understanding of the reading by drawing on quotations or specific examples from the reading and citing those passages or examples with page numbers in parenthesis.

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The authors quote Edmund Morgan: “It was ‘almost impossible to secure a verdict which runs counter to the settled convictions of the community’” (p. 279) .What does the quote mean? How does the Sacco and Vanzetti case specifically illustrate that idea? What are the “settled convictions of the community” in 1920s Massachusetts?

Describe the specific institutional elements of the criminal justice systems that worked against Sacco and Vanzetti? What specific policies or practices of the court made it impossible for Sacco and Vanzetti to effectively defend themselves? What specific choices or decisions made by police, lawyers, and Judge Thayer most severely damaged Sacco and Vanzetti’s ability to receive a “fair trial?”

Describe the three major types of evidence that presented by the prosecution: eyewitness accounts, ballistics, and consciousness of guilt. How convincing is each type of evidence and why? What evidence does the prosecution lean most heavily on? How does the defense refute the prosecutions evidence? What do you think of the evidence? Based on the evidence presented, why did the jury find Sacco and Vanzetti guilty?

The article asks the question: “Why all this fuss over a couple of “wops” (p. 258). The authors answer the question with a quote from John Dos Passo, “all right we are two nations” (p. 279). What does “two nations” mean in this context? Specifically describe the two nations that Dos Passo refers to. Almost one hundred years later, is this idea of “two nations” still a valid way to view American society? Why? Are we still “two nations” or one or more?

What is nativism? Describe the specific impacts nativism had on Sacco and Vanzetti’s trial? How did nativism effect the police procedures and the court processes? How was nativism such a successful weapon for the prosecution?