Documenting United States History

486 Chapter 21 | Discontinuities | Period eight 194 5 –198 0

Consider the following prompt:

To what extent were the years 1945 to 1989 a period of relative confor-

mity? To what extent was it an era for rebellion? How did both confor-

mity and rebellion shape each other during these years?

Step 1 Understand the prompt, and identify the key words

Step 2 Generate a working thesis

Step 3 Identify and organize your evidence

This chapter, along with the previous ones, brings in compelling arguments that

may further your own answer. Lisa McGirr’s essay, for example, provides a dis-

cussion on the development of the New Right. Martin Halpern’s essay (Chap-

ter 19) addresses the House Un-American Activities Committee’s intimidation

of left-leaning activists in the Detroit area. Antwan Jones and Gregg Lee Carter

(Chapter 20) provide rationales for how marginalized groups—such as Latinos—

gained political power after World War II.

All of these examples illustrate the ways in which a secondary source can

address issues of conformity and rebellion in a given era. In fact, Jones and Carter

provide differing views on how Latinos gained access, so one possibility is to deter-

mine which of the two views carries more weight in response to a given prompt.

Step 4 Outline your response

In their book They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Discourse,

authors Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein observe the importance of entering

into existing conversations. To this end, your outline may begin with a synthesis

of secondary voices, especially when they offer competing views. For example,

your outline may begin as follows:

I. Introduction

II. Conformity during the period 1945 to 1989

A. Martin Halpern: oppression and greater conformity over marginal-

ized groups

B. Antwan Jones and Gregg Lee Carter: greater access and empower-

ment for marginalized groups

C. Your own central claim about conformity during this period

Such an approach represents a deductive method of organizing information. For

a review of deductive reasoning, see Chapter 9.

Step 5 Write your essay

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