Discuss whether the Truman Doctrine implemented in 1947 by the Truman administration represented the same concept as the Whig Party's and later the Republican Party's plan to contain the westward expansion of slavery before the Civil War. Discuss how the Truman doctrine may have followed in the footsteps of the "Quarantine the Aggressor" speech regarding Hitler by President Franklin D. Roosevelt a decade earlier. Show how that speech compared with the policies Abraham Lincoln boasted of during the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Conclude your thesis by discussing how the Bush Doctrine, articulated before the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, compares with these two previous political expressions.
Evaluate in your thesis the two-party political system as it has evolved throughout the history of the United States. Describe the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, the Whigs and Democrats, and the Republicans and Democrats of today. How does politics affect United States history, from Republicans' "Waving the Bloody Shirt" after the Civil War to Democrats' promising Americans a "New Deal" after the Great Crash of 1929. Cite examples such as President Martin Van Buren's take on why there must always be an opposing party that stands for what the party in power does not. In addition, discuss how when there is a sudden change in course in America, the minority party usually gains power. Examples include the Republicans in 1860 before the Civil War and the rise of the Democratic Party in 1932 at the height of the Great Depression.
Discuss in your thesis how the idea of American exceptionalism and the American work ethic were forged even before the creation of the United States. Discuss John Winthrop's telling his Puritan followers in 1630 that they "must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill." Note what John Smith said to followers in the Chesapeake region: "He that will not work shall not eat." Consider how colonial America may have helped establish the cornerstone of our nation's current work ethic and belief in American exceptionalism.
Compare and contrast America during the Guilded Age, and the economics of classical capitalism practiced by the Republican Party, to the Great Society programs enacted during the presidency of Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s. Discuss what events may have helped shape stark changes in economic policies in the United States within less than a century.