What makes for better history: “happy” history or “disturbing” history? Should we be happier about American history or sadder about it?

What makes for better history: “happy” history or “disturbing” history? Should we be happier about American history or sadder about it? 

Based on what the class has covered in lectures, readings, and assignments since the mid-term, create a list of the three most disturbing, unpleasant moments or developments in the United States’ history (i.e., since 1920, or since World War I), explaining what those events were, what made them disturbing, and why we remember them. Then make a similar list of the three happiest developments in that time period, explaining what they were, what made them happy, and why we should remember them. As part of your answer, you must provide an explanation of which version is the “better” way of thinking about the past.  
The best essays will provide a clear answer to the question, provide clear and compelling explanations of the items in the list, and provide clear, substantive detail to support the argument.
Throughout the 20th Century, young people have fundamentally changed the answer to the question, “What is an American?” For the United States, one of the most notable demographic trends of the 20th Century was the so-called Baby Boom—named for the rise in the birth rate after 1940, and especially from 1945-46 to the mid-1960s. 

To answer this question, please identify at least FOUR of the most compelling events, ideas, or movements influenced by Baby Boomers and explain why they are the most critical and how they set the era apart. That could include (but is not limited to) the following: What they bought, how they dressed, how they challenged the systems guiding American life, how they changed ideas and laws about race, gender, and sexuality, how they reacted to war, and how they had fun.
Students should keep in mind that every U.S. president since 1993 has come from that generation, including the two major party nominees from this year.
Throughout the 20th Century, young people have fundamentally changed the answer to the question, “What is an American?” For the United States, one of the most notable demographic trends of the 20th Century was the so-called Baby Boom—named for the rise in the birth rate after 1940, and especially from 1945-46 to the mid-1960s. 

To answer this question, please identify at least FOUR of the most compelling events, ideas, or movements influenced by these people and explain why they are the most critical and how they explain “America.” That could include (but is not limited to) the following: What they bought, how they dressed, how they challenged the systems guiding American life, how they changed ideas and laws about religion, race, gender, and sexuality, how they reacted to war, and how they had fun.
Students should keep in mind that every U.S. president since 1993 has come from that generation, including the two major party nominees from this year.
Inventions and technological developments have been one focus of this course. They are central to considering the roles of heat, motion, communication, pleasure, and fear in U.S. history. For the first half of this course, the engine, railroad, the telegraph and then telephone, steel-making advancements, and many others were crucial. For the second half, the increasing sophistication and accessibility of energy, cameras, telephones, and automobiles dominated the U.S. economy and lifestyle, as did many others including, the road network, mass production, the defense industry, and all things nuclear. In lecture hall, we focused extensive time exploring products of the camera. Supposing that it is possible to answer the question “What is an American?” with some degree of accuracy, answer the question below:
The challenge of this question is to set out an answer that gives a general reader a clear, detail-rich explanation that highlights the ways that photographs, film footage, and/or films produced from a camera lens captured something that helped to explain “America.” [see item iv below for ideas]
Students must write about images from THREE different eras. TWO of those eras must be 1) the Great Depression/1930s and 2) the 1960s—and the essays MUST draw from images/film from lectures and/or discussion sections. The third era is the student’s choice. 
Students should identify specific images, film footage, or films in their answer, using rich, clear examples and deep, clear reasoning to connect them to a bigger story about America. 
Some possible themes for this essay could be how the camera captured one or more of the following: poverty and struggle; youth; nationalism; traditionalism v. modernity; industrialization and environmentalism; race and inclusion/exclusion; ethnicity and Americanization; gender and gender roles; urbanization and suburbanization; notions of manhood and womanhood and family; the nature of war and popular understanding of it; the role of the camera in affirming or expressing ideas that Americans like such as liberty, power, openness, community, exclusiveness, etc.
How did the young people of that generation help create the thing that we call “the Sixties”?
Looking back at the past half-century, how have Baby Boomers help shape an answer to “What is an American?”
How important has the camera been in shaping an answer to the question “What is an American?”