<p>For the project that accounts for 90% of fourth quarter grade in AP Modern European History, I need to write a paper and do a presentation on an interesting topic that not necessarily significant to history, but is a minor part of European modern (past 50 years or so) life, that REFLECTS important themes from history.</p>
<p>In the past, the following topics have been pursued:</p>
<p>prostitution (very important)
fan fights at sport events
cats are perceived with sexual connotations throughout history in various languages and cultures
gloves, and how everyone who wants to invade russia should wear them</p>
<p>I need an interesting (preferably funny and deep) topic. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Hooligans in Britian: The life of an English Super-Fan.</p>
<p>Apparently there are people in England who follow around their soccer teams and get in fights with other groups of “hooligans.” Think gang warfare mixed with groupies.</p>
<p>Exploring the lifes of North Africans would be pretty cool as well, also very relevant.</p>
<p>Or fashion, there are issues now with immigrants coming in and head scarves and covering up and how that is bringing in cultural, safety, and racist issues</p>
<p>Europe is very fashion forward, and now with Islamic dress, etc, there are new ideas, etc</p>
<p>In the past, you also had issues with fashion, people being accused of witch craft because of clothes, the black and tan, the yellow star, etc</p>
<p>Fashion used to seperate, elevate and lower people still happens</p>
<p>I always wondered why men (and it is ususally men) would follow a “leader” into battle and possible death - think braveheart- and what cause that kind of loyalty</p>
<p>with hooligans, it is loyalty to a team (doesn’t matter who is ON the team- but the history and name of the team that matters)- the group think that happens (think Nazis), the wanting to hurt, damage, destroy in the name of loyalty, and throw in alcohol, and other issues</p>
<p>this topic has so much- history, physcology, etc</p>
<p>also, you have the riots in France to draw on</p>
<p>Hey, I’m not a parent, but European, so I figure I’ll give it a shot, too… How about outdoor summer movie festivals (they’re EVERYWHERE and are getting more and more popular) and how the kinds of movies shown have changed over the years? Is there a trend to show small-budget/independent European movies versus American Hollywood productions? Could this be a consequence of the EU and how it boosted Europe’s self-confidence? Or how about movies that reflect the Islamic world? Do they gain more access?</p>
<p>One of the most fascinating topics to me (really!) is how airconditioning affected our social patterns: vacations, shopping, eating - everything changed. The wealthy in Europe no longer run to buy second homes in cooler areas, etc. etc.</p>
<p>wow-these topics are wild. Thanks a lot for all your help. Although I am still wondering, on which of these topics do you believe I can write a, say, 10-15 page cited paper AND have a interesting fifteen minute presentation? For example, although the Russia and glove one is interesting, I highly doubt I will be able to write a 10 page paper on that or find many sources (primary, secondary etc.)
Thanks again.</p>
<p>The Pilgrims’ one, and the source of religious toleration in Holland (unlike in England) that impacted the future U.S. is easy to research (and fascinating to boot).</p>
<p>I like the hooligans one, mob mentality, and you can go back to the witch trials which killed hundreds of thousands of women, that kind of mob frenzy I find facsinating</p>
<p>Spectrum said in the last 50 years of European history.</p>
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<p>I travel to Marseille regularly on business, and the French love to complain about McDonalds, and it annoys them when I point out that they could make McDonalds abandon France by the end of the week if they simply stopped eating there.</p>
<p>But the food angle is a good one for an interesting paper. In addtion to McDonalds there are other topics such as the rise (or not) of genetically modified food and advent of mad cow disease that have significant European angles that could be explored. Plus there is Starbucks –> an American chain that is now expanding in Europe that is consciously patterned after Milanese coffee houses – the irony of an imitation Euopean coffee house that is displacing real European coffee houses.</p>
<p>The song contest opens up a paper that exposes all the political alignments that exist in modern europe, the background of them, and the aspiring nations who wish to join the european club, including Turkey.</p>
<p>The Eurovision song contest, like the World Cup Soccer matches, galvanizes European national sentiment and pride and does open a fascinating window on political and economic alignments. Turkey, the former “sick man of Europe”, literally brought the house down at a time when the definition of Europe and Turkey’s entry into the EEC in under hot debate.</p>
<p>Which brings to mind another related topic - Europe and the Coca Cola economy - most of the songs that either win or go on to be commercial hits are in English.</p>
<p>Bouncing off the McDonalds idea, how about fast food in general? In Germany the Wuerst (sausage) sandwich is rapidly being replaced as the number 1 fast food by the Doener Kebab, a turkish sandwich made of smoked turkey (a Turkey turkey?) Around here, though, meals are still made from scratch (more women still at home, I think. Scrubbing their houses spotless without chemicals, cooking from scratch, shopping daily with their cloth bags, getting the children home from school at 1:00. Not sure if women have to stay home because of the society, or vice-versa. Now there’s a topic for you!) And meals out tend to take the entire evening. Nothing fast about it. We don’t like McDonalds all that much, but sometimes we need something quick, and that’s our only choice! (Not entirely – they just opened a Burger King, too.)</p>
<p>What about the development of Slow Food, a movement that grew out of an anti-McDonald’s manifesto in 1986, and has now grown worldwide, with a national headquarters near Genoa?</p>