Overview
NO AI WHATSOEVER
This project requires you to make a zine slideshow about 15 slides long. It also requires you to create a short reflection essay 500 words long.
I will give you all my completed work and necessary materials in order to finish this successfully. My completed work will be at the bottom of the page.
The list of requirements for the zine is below.
HIST 271 Zine Checklist
Use this checklist as you plan, create, and finalize your zine.
- Content & Historical Understanding (25 points)
- I clearly explain my topic and why it is historically significant.
- I connect my topic to broader themes from the course.
- I explain the topic in a way my friends/family could understand.
- I show how the past connects to the present (why it matters in 2025).
- Use of Course Materials (25 points)
- I use at least 5 key terms from the course.
- I include information from lectures.
- I use ideas or details from relevant readings, films, and/or podcasts.
- I discuss and analyze at least one primary source.
- Zine Design & Media (20 points)
- My zine has a creative, relevant cover and title. I include my name as author!
- I use visuals (collage, drawings, photos, timelines, etc.) that add meaning.
- My pages are well-organized and visually appealing.
- My media choices support my historical argument and are not just decoration.
- Writing Quality & Clarity (20 points)
- My zine includes about 1000 words spread across 8 pages.
- My writing is clear, engaging, and accessible to a general audience.
- I proofread carefully—there are few/no grammar or spelling errors.
- My ideas flow logically from page to page.
- Reflection (10 points)
- I include a short reflection (~500 words, graded separately).
- I explain why I chose my topic.
- I reflect on how I created my zine (choices, challenges, etc.).
This is the prompt for the short reflection essay.
In a short final reflection essay, you’ll share with me an explanation of your second zine project (why you chose your topic and how you created your zine) as well as what you feel you learned over the course of the semester, how it shapes the way you think about the past, and how you’ll carry it with you into the future. (approx. 500 words)
Below this is my significance paragraphs which contains the topic you will be writing about you should use it as the reference and below those will be a list of key terms that you must include in the zine.
The changing American economy is one of the most important topics for my friends and family to understand because it directly shapes the opportunities, struggles, and daily realities we all experience. Over the past several decades, the United States has shifted from a manufacturing based economy to one centered on services, finance, and technology. This transition brought major consequences, the loss of stable union jobs, rising inequality, wage stagnation, and greater economic insecurity for working people. Readings like Karma, "Why America Abandoned the Greatest Economy in History" show that these changes were not accidental they were influenced by policy decisions, corporate interests, and globalization. Understanding this history helps explain why so many families today feel financially stressed, why costs rise faster than wages, and why certain communities were hit harder than others. This topic matters because it gives us the tools to recognize how economic systems impact our lives and empowers us to advocate for a fairer, more sustainable future.
Deindustrialization
Globalization
Service economy
Wealth gap / growing inequality
Second Gilded Age / New Gilded Age
Try and use below as a basic outline to understand the project and its contents. Do not follow it exactly listen to the instructions above.
Page 1 will introduce the changing American economy and the shift from a manufacturing based economy to one centered on services, finance, and technology, using key terms changing economy and service economy, with sources from course lectures and the Karma reading Why America Abandoned the Greatest Economy in History. Page 2 will focus on deindustrialization and the loss of stable union jobs and how that connects to wage stagnation and economic insecurity, using key terms deindustrialization, union jobs, and wage stagnation, with sources from lectures and the Karma reading, plus a primary source such as a photograph of a closed factory or laid off workers. Page 3 will explain globalization and how policy decisions and corporate interests encouraged outsourcing and free trade, using key terms globalization and free trade, with sources from lectures and the Karma reading. Page 4 will connect these changes to the wealth gap and rising inequality and explain why this era is often compared to a New Gilded Age, using key terms wealth gap or growing inequality and New Gilded Age, with sources from course lectures and a primary source such as a graph comparing wage growth to productivity or CEO pay. Page 5 will conclude by explaining why this history matters today by linking the economic transition to modern financial stress and why understanding it helps people recognize how the system impacts their lives, using key terms economic insecurity and policy decisions, with sources from lectures and the Karma reading.