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Historical Thesis Statement

A thesis statement is central to any historical research paper. The thesis statement is the historical argument of its author. A well-crafted thesis statement alerts a reader to the purpose of the project. After reading a thesis statement, the reader develops a clear idea of the subject that the researcher will discuss in the paragraphs that follow.

Likewise, a strong thesis statement acts as a map as you develop your project. Guided by the assertion found within a thesis, you will craft paragraphs full of evidence from primary and secondary sources in order to support your claim. A thesis also focuses the research project. If you find yourself writing a paragraph that relates to your chosen topic but you realize that the paragraph does not work to prove your thesis statement, it is generally a safe bet that the paragraph can be removed from the paper. A strong thesis statement will keep you from wandering away from the purpose of your project.

Historical Lenses

As you have discovered in this course so far, historians not only ponder “what” happened regarding historical events, but also “why” those events happened. “Why” is difficult to prove, however, and historians often differ on the connections between events. Historians approach topics from different perspectives. These different perspectives can be said to be the result of looking at a topic through different lenses. Just like colored lenses or prescription lenses can change the way a person views the world, historical lenses can change the way a historian views a topic.

Often, the choice of a primary lens will simply reflect the historian’s personal interests or priorities. A historian who is interested in military strategy may not be interested in technological innovations except for those with battlefield applications. A historian who is interested in environmental history may not be interested in business practices except for when those practices affect the natural landscape. As these examples show, however, one can rarely use a lens in isolation. Most research projects will employ multiple lenses in order to tell more complete stories. It is useful to study the different types of lenses to be able to recognize the different perspectives and priorities that historians bring to a topic.

While there are any number of lenses a historian may choose, they fall into three basic categories: social lenses, political lenses, and economic lenses. In good historical writing, these lenses will overlap.

Social Lens: This lens focuses on people and their interactions with others. It explores areas of ethnicity, class, and gender. Examining the actions and behaviors of how different groups of people interact with each other—and within their own group—provides historians with a great deal of insight into the past.

This is perhaps the widest and most all-encompassing of the three categories of lenses. Through it, historians have examined all manner of interaction—including German immigrants adjusting to their new home in the nineteenth-century United States, class disputes within African American women’s clubs in the twentieth century, and disagreement among different churches about whether or not to support the gay rights movement. The social lens includes the elite as well as the working class, the rich and the poor, and men, women, and children. It seeks, as do the other lenses, to answer the questions of who were these people, how did they think and what did they think about, and how did their thinking drive their actions and behaviors.

Political Lens: Not focusing solely on politicians and governments, the political lens looks at the relationship of those who have power and those who do not. Historians using a political lens seek answers about the ways in which legislation and law influence the lives of individuals. How do individuals (and groups of individuals) react and respond to these? What methods do they employ to create and/or change the “rules” under which they live?

Political history can be as simple as the recounting of organizing a community to repeal an unpopular law, or as complex as the behind-the-scenes interactions that propelled an individual to the presidency. It can examine the treaties that ended World War I, or explore the “gerrymandering” of congressional districts to maintain one party’s political control of Congress.

Economic Lens: This lens focuses on the local, national, or international economy, all of which are central to the lives of every living person. While it conjures images of corporations and economic systems, the economic lens also focuses on government regulation of businesses, the relationships between capital and labor, business strategies such as marketing or horizontal integration, and the relationships between business and consumers.

Historians use the economic lens in a number of different ways. Often, it is used to explore the growth and development of labor unions, the effect of the loss of small businesses on a community, or the havoc wrought upon farmers by price changes in the international agricultural and commodities markets. It can also be used to examine the effect of redlining on suburbs and ethnic neighborhoods, or even the effect of the Industrial Revolution on artisans and craftsmen. Economic history can provide insight into the wage differences between men and women—and the effect they have on the development of family wealth and status.

Other Lenses: Falling somewhere in between these three broad categories, or perhaps overlapping one or more of them, are other lenses available to historians. Each of these lenses helps clarify a specific area of the human past: the environment, the military, science and technology, and so forth.

This brief list is in no way complete—there are about as many lenses as there are people and events. Focusing first on a broad category and then narrowing the lens helps historians focus their research. Once a historian has identified a question to be resolved, he or she researches in primary sources and the secondary literature to determine which lens will best help answer the research question.

Narrowing Research Questions

The ability to narrow a research question is an important skill to develop, especially as you are working on an introductory-level history project. Historians may present broad questions within the books they write, but consider the length of their work: At two or three hundred (or more!) pages per book, they have ample room to explore a topic. In fact, their books are divided into chapters, which contain material that was arranged by asking specific questions that narrowed in on the broader aspect of their research. Even when writing about broad topics, historians have to be able to ask narrowed-down questions.

Narrowing a research question involves investigative thinking. It requires the researcher to begin with the broad question of “who” or “what” and to then dig into the specifics of the topic: When should the researcher focus, and where? Will other people find this topic interesting, and how so? Through what lens will the researcher examine the topic, and what is the significance? Asking these questions aids the researcher in a number of ways. By narrowing the question, the research path clears. The researcher does not have to sift through the massive amounts of sources that typically accompany a broad, general research question. A narrow research question also provides focus and can be a great starting point for developing an eventual thesis. Finally, if there are length constraints on a project, a narrow research question can help the researcher avoid feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information that could potentially be added to a project. Narrowing your research question early in the project process will help you avoid unnecessary or distracting work down the road.

Analyzing Secondary Sources

Students new to history can feel overwhelmed with the sheer amount of historical knowledge and interpretations available. Thousands of books and articles on historical topics are published every year, and it can be difficult to make sense of them all. A search of a library catalog or of the internet will often return multiple works on a particular topic. It is quite rare for a historian to study a topic that has not been studied before. In order to make a project worth the time and energy, the historian must decide how to approach the topic in a way that has not been done before. The first step in doing so is to analyze the existing literature. This will help the researcher see what has been done before, the strengths and weaknesses of the existing literature, and opportunities for future research.

Every literature search starts with a pile of secondary sources. In this module, you will learn how to actively read those sources. When you read a source actively, you are looking for specific information that will help you determine whether the source will be useful to your project. The usefulness of the source will depend on many factors: the argument/thesis, supporting evidence, use of primary and secondary sources, strengths, weaknesses, and its relationship to other works on the topic. In the first few books or articles you read, you will be reading for content in addition to analyzing their arguments, strengths, and weaknesses. Once you get to the tenth or twentieth book or article on a topic, you will probably be an expert on the content and can then focus only on the arguments.

There are many ways to analyze a book quickly to determine its argument, use of sources, strengths, and weaknesses. Patrick Rael, a historian of the Civil War based at Bowdoin College, discusses his method in How to Read a Secondary Source. Rael (2004) suggests the following steps:

1. Read the title and the table of contents. This will provide a very high-level summary of the book’s content and the way it is organized.

2. Read the book or article from the “outside in.” In a book, start with the preface, foreword, introduction, conclusion, and/or epilogue. In an article, start with the first page or two and the last page or two. Usually the author’s thesis, arguments, and methods will be in those beginning or concluding pages or chapters.

3. Read each chapter or section from the “outside in.” In most academic works, each chapter or section mimics the organization of the entire book or article. The first and last paragraphs or sentences usually tie that paragraph or section to the larger thesis or argument. Pay attention to topic sentences and transitions.

4. Read through the entire source actively. Not every paragraph is as important as other paragraphs. Use the topic sentences to determine which paragraphs deserve greater scrutiny.

5. Take notes on what you have found during this process. If you are familiar with the storyline of the historical event or the source’s content, do not take notes on that. Focus on the book’s thesis, argument, supporting evidence, and presentation style. Note what you think the author does well and what the author does not do well.

Rael (2004) identifies three important questions to ask of every secondary source:

First, what does the author say? What is the author’s argument, and how does the author back it up? Every historian has to tell the audience what happened and why it happened. This is the argument.

Second, why does the author say it? Does the historian have a stake in this issue? Is he or she arguing against another historian?

Third, where is the author’s argument weak or vulnerable? No historical interpretation is absolutely correct. That is the nature of history. But historians try to make their interpretations convincing. Did the author succeed in making the argument convincing? In this module, you will learn how to actively analyze a secondary source using a secondary source analysis worksheet. This is not a universally recognized tool among historians. Many historians use different formats, but they are all pursuing the same information and analyses. A completed worksheet will not get published anywhere. It is a good method of organizing your analysis, though, and will be valuable when you write your remaining projects.

Reference

Rael, P. (2004). How to read a secondary source. In Reading, writing, and researching for history: A guide for college students. Retrieved from http://www.bowdoin.edu/writing-guides/secondary.htm

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Secondary Source Analysis Worksheet

Prompt: Replace the bracketed text with information from a secondary source of your choice. Be sure to include specific examples (page numbers, etc.). See the Sample Secondary Source Analysis Worksheet for reference on how to complete this assignment.

Full APA citation

[Insert text.]

Identify author and describe potential biases.

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Identify thesis and arguments.

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What primary sources did the source rely on?

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Is the source reliable and convincing? Why or why not?

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How does the source relate to your project topic? How does it add to what you already know about the topic?

[Insert text.]

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