For
my research paper, I plan to examine how crowdsourcing and Lethem’s version of
“plagiarism” have played a role in significant historical events. I would like
to see how or if people acted according to these two concepts. For example, I
would like to see if, during say a particular political revolution, people
crowdsourced to come up with ideas as to how they could effectively plan their
revolution or the solve the problems within it. Or I could examine whether or
not the revolutionaries used the ideas from previous revolutions, and whether
they incorporated or improved upon then during their revolution. Thus, my
research question is essentially: have crowdsourcing and plagiarism played
significant roles in important historical events? Another issue I may address, what
effect did crowdsourcing and plagiarism have throughout history? A third
question, if crowdsourcing and plagiarism were indeed used, is how effective
were these methods when compared to similar historical events that did not use
them?
These questions come from the fact
that all major historical events are created by many people, and most
historical events are very similar to each other. Even if there is a sole
person leading the war, that person needs many people around them to discuss
and plan war strategy, propaganda, governing their people, or multitudes of
other things. In addition, many historical events are inspired by other
historical events of the past, or the ideas of prominent thinkers before them.
For example, the French Revolution was inspired by the American Revolution, and
the Russian Revolution was inspired by the ideas of Karl Marx. While I need
further research to give a definitive argument, I plan to argue that that
crowdsourcing and plagiarism arise in and have a significant effect in multiple
cases throughout history. This is because great historical change requires the
collaboration of thousands, if not millions, of people, willing to advance
their cause. And at the top, even if there is a sole powerful leader, a group
of individuals need to work together to make that change happen, since such an
event is too much for one person alone to handle. Furthermore, these people
fighting for change need some sort of inspiration. The group of individuals
organizing the change need to come up with ideas from some place. An excellent
place to look is the past, great ideas will arise from either successful past
historical change, or the improvement upon attempts at change that failed.
I plan on first giving a rather deep
examination of crowdsourcing as presented in Davidson’s work, as well as
plagiarism, as presented in Lethem’s work. Their ideas are the foundation of
the entire paper; it is with their ideas that I will be examining the
historical events I choose. Then I will look at a number of important
historical of events, such as the American, French, and Russian revolutions, or
Rome’s, Mongolia’s, France’s, Russia’s, and Germany’s war conquests. For each
historical event, I will examine to what degree Davidson’s and Lethem’s ideas arise.
I will examine to what extent the leaders of these historical events consulted
each other and worked together. For example, I could compare how Napoleon and
his high command created and decided on war plans when compared with Hitler and
his high command. In each case, I will see to what extend Napoleon trusted and
listened to his generals and perhaps used the ideas of previous wars. I will
then do the same with Hitler, and then perhaps compare the two.
Bibliography
Boynton,
Robert. “The Tyranny of Copyright?” The
New York Times Magazine. New York: The
New York Times Company. 25 January 2004.
Web. 1 November 2016.
Davidson,
Cathy. “Project Classroom Makeover.” The
New Humanities Reader. Ed. Richard
Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. Stamford, CT:
Cengage Learning, 2015. 48-69. Print.
Howe,
Jeff. Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the
Crowd is Driving the Future of Business.
New York: Crown, 2008. Print.
Lethem,
Jonathan. “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism.” The New Humanities Reader. Ed.
Richard Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer.
Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, 2015. 211-231.
Print.
Murray,
Williamson and Allan Millett. A War to be
Won: Fighting the Second World War.
Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of
the Harvard University Press, 2000. Print.
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