Historical Analogies are essays that compare/contrast two or more historical events, issues, and/or ideas.

Analogies help to increase understanding by dealing with relationships and comparisons – the new to the old, the unknown to the known. That is, analogies help us to understand unfamiliar ideas, things, and situations by showing how these matters are similar to something we already know.

The instructions below should give you an idea of what the skeleton of a historical analogy essay might look like:

You would write a brief introduction that states your thesis (central idea, whatever – however you learned it) and previews how your essay will be constructed:

[Then you would write the body of your paper:]

You would then tie it all together with a well-written conclusion.

So, the idea is to compare/contrast two historical events/issues from the same era, or one historical event/issue from one era with a similar historical event/issue from another era, or

a current event with a historical event we have read about or discussed.

Thus, Historical Analogy assignment is essentially an essay discussing and analyzing what you have learned in a way that makes history meaningful to us in our present day.

Analogies should be a MINIMUM length of 4 double spaced pages. REMEMBER, this is the minimum. You should go beyond the minimum if you expect to receive higher than minimum points for this assignment. You must use AT LEAST three sources OTHER THAN your textbook. You should send your analogy to the instructor via the MESSAGES center (as an attachment). The Dropbox can be found under the “ Tools” navigation button.

Be sure to cite all sources that you use! You must also provide a list of your sources/references at the end of your paper. This should be the last page of your paper. This is a must! Use the APAstyle and format