Digital History Project Proposal Prospectus
1. Scope, genre, audience
Scope: My proposed project will focus on a particular aspect of nineteenth-century political culture: the impact that the War of 1812 had on the Jeffersonian party.
I envision the site having two parts:
a. Developments during the war in political culture - the birth of nationalism.
b. Post-war: The Nationalist Republican/Old Republican divide; its emergence, causes, and consequences.
Genre: Primarily an electronic essay/exhibit but also elements of a teaching resource.
Audience: Academic/scholarly/college student/high school teachers. It will be both be an interpretive site engaging with the historiography on early nineteenth-cenrury political culture and a location for teaching resources on early nineteenth-century political culture.
2. Site map and navigation
The project site will have a home page that explains the project, provides a guide to the various parts of the essay/project (in a concession to postmodernism - allowing the user to go to the part of the essay that most interests him or her), and that has links to special features of the site, like an image gallery, a biographies section (with biographical sketches of key leaders and their role in political culture), and "for teachers" section (with suggested syllabi and outline assignments.) Also the site would have links to other sites - particularly ones with pertinent archival material.
3. Rationale for digital format
The primary rational is the larger audience that can be reached through a web-based project. Another rational for a digital format is the use of interactive ("learn more") images. Additionally, a web-based, digital format will allow teachers easy access to materials.
4. Similar sites that will be reviewed and analyzed in the proposal
I am not currently aware of any sites dedicated to the study of early nineteenth-century political culture and/or the impact of the War of 1812 on that political culture. I will continue to search for such sites using the web review section of past Journal of American History issues as a guide. I also plan to search for sites of similar purpose/genre (electronic essay and teaching resource combination).
5. Work and technical plan
The project will use flat html pages. The main creation tool will be Dreamweaver, and the design will use cascading style sheets.