Reflection

Starting this assignment, I had a general idea of where I wanted to go with my research, but not a clear-cut expectation of what I would find. I had initially intended to make IR my cross-research, but had a rough time finding enough articles that could really relate to the assignment, consequently I changed to history. I only knew that business would be a relevant topic (being my major) and I always had an interest in history, thus it would be interesting to pursue something I would prefer writing about. The one thing that I had to consciously monitor was not making my paper into a "story," which history can easily become. Instead, I pulled globalization and modern politics into my argument a bit, which I think helped me to dig deeper in my research. They also helped me to draw conclusions on the evolution of American business, and analyze why capitalism is the way it is today.

To get a starting point for my research, I began with pure narratives of American economic history. This gave me an overall understanding of the concepts I would be exploring further. Once I started looking into secondary research (modern-day capitalism, its relation to politics, etc.) it became really interesting. Looking at certain modern practices, I was able to draw my own conclusions on how they evolved, through what I had found about the history of U.S. commerce. It was also fascinating to delve into politics a bit; modern-day big business has become so connected to IR, it would have left a hole in my research to ignore foreign diplomacy. It was a natural progression of the analysis, seeing how capitalism evolved to globalization, which then drew politics into the economy.

Overall, the assignment helped me to better understand how business has evolved over the course of American history, and why so much of it functions the way it does. It provided a great foundation and deeper awareness of my major, things not taught in any of the Marshall classes.