340 chaPTEr 14 | the throes oF assimiLation | period six 1865 –1898
complexity of any argument invites an examination of different themes. Much
like contexts, the more that you can understand history through different lenses,
the more balanced, logical, and effective your argument becomes.
For example, consider George Washington Plunkitt’s “Honest Graft and dis-
honest Graft” (doc. 14.7). This document addresses issues of politics and power
as Plunkitt describes how he used political graft to increase his own profits. This
document also addresses issues of peopling because Plunkitt’s constituents were
mostly recent immigrants.
How do these themes work together? At first, it might appear that they are
completely unrelated. Politics and power address the government aspects of
American history, and peopling involves the trends, behaviors, and movements
of the common man. Yet people in government sometimes gain when they
respond to the needs of the poor by making social services a political issue and
wielding money and power in the name of helping the poor.
This relationship recurs in other documents, such as the dawes Allotment
Act (doc. 14.4), another example of governmental policy (in this case to Native
Americans) that is a statement on both American politics and power as well as
peopling. Social services were provided to Native Americans in exchange for eco-
nomic and political gain for white people.
Consider the following prompt:Compare the social services that were provided by Jane Addams (doc.
14.6) and George Washington Plunkitt (doc. 14.7). In what ways were
both beneficial to urban immigrant populations?steP 1 Understand the prompt, and identify the key words
For a review of this step, see the Building AP® Writing Skills exercise in Chap-
ter 1 (p. 22).steP 2 Generate a working thesis
For a review of this step, see the Building AP® Writing Skills exercise in Chap-
ter 1 (p. 22).stePs 3 AnD 4 Organize and outline your evidence
Although the prompt includes only two pieces of evidence, you will need outside
knowledge to develop your argument, especially to understand the benefits that
Addams and Plunkitt provided to urban populations. Consult your history text-
book for additional information.
Use the following outline as a starting point. The emphasis in this outline is on
incorporating multiple themes into your discussion.putting it all together 34115_STA_2012_ch14_327-342.indd 341 31/03/15 4:20 PM