The Margaret Chase Smith Library Fellowship Program presents a unique educational opportunity for qualified Northwood University students. The ten-week program, which coincides with Fall Term, consists of a multifaceted educational experience with a strong emphasis on independent research and study. The foundation of the program is the Library's archival holdings and Senator Margaret Chase Smith's congressional papers. Comprised of over 300,000 primary source documents, more than 500 scrapbooks, and supporting materials, the collection provides a unique and valuable historical window into twentieth-century United States history.

Gregory P. Gallant, Ph.D,
Library Director

Professor Thomas Luptowski,
Northwood Faculty Advisor

Course Organization

Mandatory participation at the Margaret Chase Smith Library, other archival holdings and research facilities, or sponsored programs four hours per day, Monday through Thursday. Generally this will be comprised of:

•Lectures, round tables, research, field trips
•Required journal maintenance with Fellowship critiques
•Independent readings in support of primary source research.

Lectures will be held on Tuesdays; roundtable discussions on Wednesdays and most field trips on Thursdays.

Required Readings

•Bob Greene, Once Upon A Town
•Suzanne Mettler, Soldiers to Citizens:
The G.I. Bill and the Making of the Greatest Generation
•James T. Patterson, Grand Expectations:
The United States, 1945-1974
•David Oshinsky, POLIO: An American Story
•Daniel Yergin, The Prize
•David Von Drehle, Triangle: The Fire That Change America
•Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried
•Tracy Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World

ROUNDTABLE READING AND DISCUSSIONS

Roundtable discussions will take place every Wednesday at 10:00 AM beginning on September 12. Based on the required reading schedule, Fellows will submit a reaction essay of at least 100 words prior to the meetings. The essay may be in hard copy or e-mail form.

SCHEDULE OF LECTURES

Supplementary lectures will be held on Mondays at 10:00 AM in the Seminar Room, unless otherwise noted. Lectures are intended to provide historical background in 20th-Century United States History and context for the historical significance of Margaret Chase Smith's life and career. Actual lecture topics may vary depending upon Fellowship students' historical grounding.

1. Overview of MCS's Career; Background on Early Twentieth-Century Progressivism; Growth of Government and the Rise of Civic Engagement
2. The Red Scare and the Twenties; The Great Depression: Frank D. Roosevelt and the New Deal
3. World War II: Its Aftermath and the Origins of the Cold War
4. McCarthyism and the Fifties
5. JFK and LBJ: The New Frontier and the Great Society
6. Viet Nam
7. Nixon, Detente, and Watergate

Research Projects

Fellows are responsible for completing two research papers that focus on aspects of Senator Margaret Chase Smith’s life and career. The projects should place each subject in a broader context of 20th Century United States History. Fellows will be presented with a list of case studies, e.g. MCS’s World Trip of 1954-55; McCarthyism; Passamaquoddy Tidal Project; the Election of 1948; MCS’s 1956 debate with Eleanor Roosevelt and world events. Topics in which Margaret Chase Smith played a limited role and for which there are few primary sources, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, will not be approved.

Fellows will be presented with a history style sheet and a seminar on methods to assist in the research and writing processes.

While Fellows will be working with primary source documents, they will be expected to incorporate secondary, contextual books and articles into their papers.

2007 FIELD TRIPS

Bar Harbor Oceanarium
Page Farm, University of Maine
Madison Paper, North Star Orchards
Bowdoin College Art Museum
Victoria Mansion, Longfellow House, Old Port
Maine State House, Maine State Museum