This list gives several good sources for your term papers.  It is by no means comprehensive, but if you're doing one of the topics listed below, it ought to be helpful.  There are, of course, many more acceptable topics besides the ones listed below.

General piece of advice:  Make ample use of the course reading materials, including your textbooks and the course reading packet.  While textbooks should not be your main sources for the term paper, you certainly should try to get whatever information you can from them.

African-Americans' Economic Progress, 1900-2000

• Alexis, Marcus.  "Assessing 50 Years of African-American Economic Status, 1940-1990."  American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 88(2): 368-75 (May 1998).    [Part of a three-article symposium on "African-American Economic Gains" in that issue.]
• Ellwood, David T., and Jonathan Crane.  "Family Change Among Black Americans: What Do We Know?"  Journal of Economic Perspectives 4(4): 65-84 (Fall 1990).  [Part of a five-article symposium in that issue.]
• Fairlie, Robert W., and William A. Sundstrom.  "The Racial Unemployment Gap in Long-Run Perspective."  American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 87(2): 306-10 (May 1997).   [Part of a four-article symposium on "African-American Economic Gains" in that issue.]
• Heckman, James J., Thomas M. Lyons, & Petra E. Todd, "Understanding Black-White Wage Differentials: 1960-1990."  American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 90(2): 344-49 (May 2000).  [Part of a four-article symposium on the "Economic Well-Being of African-Americans" in that issue.]
• Higgs, Robert. Competition and Coercion: Blacks in the American Economy, 1865-1914. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
• Jaynes, Gerald D.  "The Labor Market Status of Black Americans: 1939-1985," Journal of Economic Perspectives 4(4): 9-24 (Fall 1990).  [Part of a five-article symposium on the "Economic Status of African-Americans" in that issue.]
• Margo, Robert.  Race and Schooling in the South, 1880-1950. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
• Margo, Robert.  "What Is the Key to Black Progress?"  In Second Thoughts, edited by Donald McCloskey. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
• Myrdal, Gunnar. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. New York: Harper, 1944.
• Smith, James P.  "Race and Human Capital," American Economic Review 74(4):685-698 (September 1984).
• Smith, James P., and Finis Welch.  "Black Economic Progress After Myrdal," Journal of Economic Literature 27(2):519-564 (1989).
• Wilson, William Julius. The Truly Disadvantaged. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
• Wilson, William Julius. When Work Disappears. New York: Vintage Books, 1996.
• Wright, Gavin.  "The Civil Rights Revolution as Economic History," Journal of Economic History 59(2):267-289 (June 1999).

• Edelstein, Michael.  “War and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century.”  Chapter 6 in The Cambridge Economic History of the United States, Volume III: The Twentieth Century, edited by Stanley Engerman and Robert Gallman.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.  (On reserve at the Penfield Library circulation desk).
• Edelstein, Michael.  "What Price Cold War?  Military Spending and Private Investment in the US, 1946-1979." Cambridge Journal of Economics 14: 421-437 (1990.)  [Not available at Penfield, but I have a copy.]
• Higgs, Robert.  "How Military Mobilization Hurts the Economy."  Chapter 4 of Second Thoughts: Myths and Morals of U.S. Economic History, edited by D. McCloskey.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
• Koistinen, Paul A.C.  The Military-Industrial Complex: A Historical Perspective (1980).

• De Long, J. Bradford, & Andrei Shleifer.  "The Stock Market Bubble of 1929: Evidence from Closed-end Mutual Funds." Journal of Economic History 51(3): 675-700 (September 1991).
• Rappoport, Peter, & Eugene N. White.  "Was There a Bubble in the 1929 Stock Market?"  Journal of Economic History 53(3): 549-74 (September 1993).
• White, Eugene N.  "The Stock Market Boom and Crash of 1929 Revisited."  Journal of Economic Perspectives 4(2): 67-83 (Spring 1990).

• Shiells, Martha Ellen, "Collective Choice of Working Conditions: Hours in British and U.S. Iron and Steel, 1890-1923," Journal of Economic History 50(2):379-392 (June 1990).
• Soule, George. Prosperity Decade. White Plains, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1947.  [Especially the third chapter.]
• Whaples, Robert, "Winning the Eight-Hour Day, 1909-1919," Journal of Economic History 50(2):393-406 (June 1990).

• Barber, William J. Designs Within Disorder: Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Economists, and the Shaping of American Economic Policy, 1933-1945. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
• Bernstein, Irving. A Caring Society: A History of the American Worker, 1933-1941. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1985.
• Friedman, Milton, & Anna Jacobson Schwartz. A Monetary History of the United States, 1967-1960. New York: Princeton University Press, 1963.
• Mitchell, Broadus. The Depression Decade. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1975 (1947).
• Romer, Christina.  "The Great Crash and the Onset of the Great Depression." Quarterly Journal of Economics 105:597-623 (1990).
• Romer, Christina.  "What Ended the Great Depression?"  Journal of Economic History 52(4): 757-84 (December 1992).
• Romer, Christina.  "The Nation in Depression." Journal of Economic Perspectives 7:19-39 (Spring 1993). [That issue contains an entire symposium on the Great Depression, with three other articles as well.]
• Temin, Peter. Lessons from the Great Depression. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989.
• Temin, Peter, & Barrie A. Wigmore. "The End of One Big Deflation." Explorations in Economic History 27:483-502 (1990). (Available through Interlibrary Loan, or from me.)
• Weinstein, Michael M. Recovery and Redistribution Under the NIRA. New York: North Holland, 1980.
• Wheeler, Mark, ed. The Economics of the Great Depression. Kalamazoo, MI: Upjohn Institute, 1998.

• Goldin, Claudia, & Lawrence F. Katz, "The Shaping of Higher Education: The Formative Years in the United States, 1890 to 1940," Journal of Economic Perspectives 13(1):37-62 (Winter 1999).

• Baily, Martin Neil.  "Distinguished Lecture on Economics in Government:  The New Economy:  Post Mortem or Second Wind?"  Journal of Economic Perspectives 16(2): 3-22 (Spring 2002).
• Blinder, Alan S., and Janet L. Yellen.  "Productivity Growth and Computer Prices."  Chapter 8 of The Fabulous Decade: Macroeconomic Lessons from the 1990s.  New York: The Century Foundation Press, 2001.
• Council of Economic Advisers.  Economic Report of the President 2001.  Washington, DC:  United States Government Printing Office, 2001.
• Fusfield, Daniel R.  "The New Economy."  Chapter 15 of The Age of the Economist, 9th edition.  Boston:  Addison Wesley, 2002.
• Krugman, Paul.  "Requiem for the New Economy:  Millenial optimism confronts reality."  Fortune.  November 10, 1997.
• Krugman, Paul.  "Speed Trap: The fuzzy logic of the 'New Economy'."  Slate.  December 18, 1997.
• Madrick, Jeff.  "How New Is the New Economy?"  New York Review of Books.  September 23, 1999.
• Nordhaus, William D.  "Productivity Growth and the New Economy" (with comments by Robert J. Gordon, Daniel E. Sichel, and others).  Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 2002(2): 211-65.
• OECD Growth Project.  The New Economy:  Beyond the Hype.  Washington, DC:  OECD, 2001.

• Nossiter, Bernard D.  Fat Years and Lean: The American Economy Since Roosevelt.  New York: Harper and Row, 1990.
• Olson, Mancur.  "The Productivity Slowdown, the Oil Shocks, and the Real Cycle."  Journal of Economic Perspectives 2(4): 43-69 (Fall 1988).
• Rowen, Hobart.  Self-Inflicted Wounds: From LBJ's Guns and Butter to Reagan's Voodoo Economics.  New York: Times Books, 1994.
• Smiley, Gene.  The American Economy in the Twentieth Century.  Cincinnati: South-Western, 1994.

• Berkowitz, Edward D.  America's Welfare State: From Roosevelt to Reagan. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.
• Blank, Rebecca M.  It Takes a Nation: A New Agenda for Fighting Poverty.  New York: Russell Sage Foundation/ Princeton University Press, 1997.
• Blank, Rebecca M. "Fighting Poverty: Lessons from Recent U.S. History,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 14(2): 3-19 (2000).
• Ellwood, David T.  "Anti-Poverty Policy for Families in the Next Century: From Welfare to Work -- and Worries." Journal of Economic Perspectives 14(1): 187-98 (Winter 2000).
• Ellwood, David T., and Jonathan Crane.  "Family Change Among Black Americans: What Do We Know?"  Journal of Economic Perspectives 4(4): 65-84 (Fall 1990).
• Moffitt, Robert. "Incentive Effects of the U.S. Welfare System: A Review," Journal of Economic Literature 30:1-61 (March 1992).
• Murray, Charles. Losing Ground. New York: Basic Books, 1984. [Controversial and much-criticized, but also very influential.]
• Patterson, James T.  America's Struggle Against Poverty 1900-1994.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994.
• Wilson, William Julius. The Truly Disadvantaged. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
• Wilson, William Julius. When Work Disappears. New York: Vintage Books, 1996.
• Ziliak, Stephen T. "The End of Welfare and the Contradiction of Compassion," The Independent Review, 1996. [Available through Interlibrary Loan or from me.]
• On the Internet, you might try the Joint Center for Poverty Research (http://www.jcpr.org/).  The proceedings of the Center's conference on Welfare Reform and the Macro-Economy held November 19-20, 1998, if you can find them, are probably a good place to look for recent research.

• Baily, Martin Neil (plus discussants), "The Productivity Growth Slowdown by Industry," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1982(2):423-459 (1982).
• Baily, Martin Neil, & Robert J. Gordon (plus discussants), "The Productivity Slowdown, Measurement Issues, and the Explosion of Computer Power," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1988(2):347-431 (1988).
• Baumol, William J., Sue Anne Batey Blackman, & Edward N. Wolff.  Productivity and American Leadership: The Long View.  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989.
• Baumol, William J. & K. McClennan,eds. Productivity Growth and U.S. Competitiveness.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.  (Includes a review essay, "The Magnitude and Causes of the Recent Productivity Slowdown in the U.S.," by Edward N. Wolff.)
• Denison, Edward F.  Accounting for Slower Economic Growth.  Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1979.
• Jorgenson, Dale W.  "Productivity and Postwar U.S. Economic Growth."  Journal of Economic Perspectives 2(4): 23-41 (Fall 1998.)  [Part of a multi-article symposium on "The Slowdown in Productivity Growth."]
• Williamson, Jeffrey G., "Productivity and American Leadership: A Review Article," Journal of Economic Literature 29:51-68 (March 1991).
• Wolff, Edward N., "The Productivity Slowdown: The Culprit at Last? Follow-Up on Hulten and Wolff," American Economic Review 86(5):1239-1252 (December 1996).

• Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday. New York: Bantam Books, 1959 [1931].
• Allen, Frederick Lewis. Since Yesterday. New York: Bantam Books, 1960 [1945].
• Anderson, Gary, & Brian Goff, "The Political Economy of Prohibition in the United States, 1919-1933," Social Science Quarterly 75(2) (1994).
• Behr, Edward. Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed America. New York: Arcade, 1996.
• Leuchtenberg, William E. The Perils of Prosperity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958. [Only a little on Prohibition, but a good source for general economic information about the 1920s.]
• Miron, Jeffrey, & Jeffrey Zwiebel, "Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition," American Economc Review Papers and Proceedings 81(2):242-247 (May 1991).
• Miron, Jeffrey, & Jeffrey Zwiebel, "The Economic Case Against Drug Prohibition," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9(4):175-192 (Fall 1995).
• Miron, Jeffrey, "An Economic Analysis of Alcohol Prohibition," Journal of Drug Issues, Fall 1998.
• Soule, George. Prosperity Decade. White Plains, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1947.  [Only a little on Prohibition, but a good source for general economic information about the 1920s.]

• Blau, Francine D, "Trends in the Well-Being of American Women, 1970-1995," Journal of Economic Literature 36(1):112-165 (March 1998).
• Furchtgott-Roth, Diana, & Christine Stolba. Women's Figures: An Illustrated Guide to the Economic Progress of Women in America. Washington, DC: The AEI Press, 1999.
• Goldin, Claudia, "The Changing Economic Role of Women: A Quantitative Approach," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 13(4):707-733 (1983).
• Goldin, Claudia. Understanding the Gender Gap. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
• Goldin, Claudia, "The Role of World War II in the Increase in Women's Employment," American Economic Review 81(4):741-756 (September 1991).
• Kessler-Harris, Alice.  Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
• Matthaei, Julie. An Economic History of Women in America. New York: Schocken Books, 1982. (Available through Interlibrary Loan.)
• Rotella, Elyce, "The Equal Rights Amendment -- Yes, But Whose?" In Second Thoughts, edited by Donald McCloskey. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
• Schweitzer, Mary, "World War II and Female Labor Force Participation Rates," Journal of Economic History 40(1):89-95 (1980).
• Smith, James & Michael P. Ward, "Time-Series Growth in the Female Labor Force," Journal of Labor Economics 3(1):59-90 (1985).
• Wright, Gavin, "Understanding the Gender Gap: A Review Article," Journal of Economic Literature 29:1153-1163 (September 1991).

• Edelstein, Michael.  “War and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century.”  Chapter 6 in The Cambridge Economic History of the United States, Volume III: The Twentieth Century, edited by Stanley Engerman and Robert Gallman.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.  (On reserve at the Penfield Library circulation desk).
• Higgs, Robert.  "Wartime Prosperity?  A Reassessment of the U.S. Economy in the 1940s."  Journal of Economic History 52: 41-60 (1992).
• Higgs, Robert.  "From Central Planning to the Market: The American Transition, 1945-1947."  Journal of Economic History 59(3) (September 1999).
• Vernon, J.R.  "World War II Fiscal Policies and the End of the Great Depression," Journal of Economic History 54(4): 850-68 (December 1994).

• Economic Report of the President (published yearly).  These reports, by the President's Council of Economic Advisers, typically do a good job of covering recent economic trends and events (though, of course, they tend to reflect the political biases of whichever presidential administration they were written for).  The data tables at the end of each volume contain a wealth of useful information.
• Journal of Economic Literature (published quarterly).  The review articles at the beginning often deal with current economic events and always provide a thorough overview of the relevant economics literature, as well as an exhaustive list of sources.
• Journal of Economic Perspectives (published quarterly).  This is the most student-accessible of the American Economic Association's publications, and its many of its articles and "symposia" (collections of articles) deal with recent episodes in economic history.
• American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings (published yearly, usually in May, and part of each year's volume of the American Economic Review).  The articles in here tend to be concise and relatively accessible and are often very timely in their coverage of current economic events.