Analyzing Primary Sources

Reading HW Download this excerpt from Brett Harvey’s oral history of women’s experience of the 1950s. As you read, make a list of all Harvey’s sources of evidence. I found about 10.

Harvey’s account of motherhood in the 1950s is partially interest since those suburban moms gave birth to late-60s teen rebels. But my principal aim here is to provide you with an example of the sort of scholarship I’m looking for in the upcoming essay. Harvey has assembled her account by piecing together both primary and secondary sources. But, because she’s writing for a popular audience, her book lacks scholarly source citations. So you’ll have to read carefully to piece together a sense of kinds sources she is drawing on at any given moment of this chapter.

Bring your list of Harvey’s sources to class. DON’T post it here on the website. We’ll discuss her sources briefly in class, and we’ll consider how these might be grouped together into “bodies of evidence” of the sort I’m asking you to gather for the upcoming essay.

Joint Essay Due

If you don’t have your essay printed out, come to class and turn the essay in by NOON in my office. If I’m not in, just slip it under the door.

Note that you only have to turn in a paper copy if you are in Humanities.

EVERYONE should turn in a .pdf copy on the HU-RH Joint Essay assignment page.

See you in class!

Using a Secondary Source

The HU-RH Joint Essay assignment calls for you to use at least one secondary source, in addition to primary sources from your Humanities and Rhetoric courses.

Perhaps the most straightforward way to use a secondary source as an authority in the essay body, to provide background information as context for the analysis you plan to offer. For example, if you have collected press coverage of the Watts riots, you might lead in with a paragraph summarizing what took place from Aug 11-15, 1965, with footnotes citing Spencer Crump’s 1967 book or David O. Sears’ 1973 book.

Alternatively, you can use a secondary source to inspire the analysis you offer. For example, if you were interested in arguing that Life’s coverage of Watts presented African-American residents as innocent victims, not culpable rioters, you might draw inspiration from Van Deburg’s account, in New Day in Babylon, of how the Black Power radicals were downplayed by mainstream news coverage. Note that your analysis wouldn’t be proven true by Van Deburg: he’s making an argument about how the political viability of the Black Panther Party was downplayed, not the actions of rioters on the streets. This is important because you shouldn’t spend time proving stuff that other scholars have already proven. Rather, Van Deburg’s analysis inspires your angle of attack, so you still need to present evidence to demonstrate your point about Life’s coverage of urban rioting.

For class, write a 2-¶ sequence, as follows.

1. Use the first ¶ to briefly summarize the findings of your secondary source.
2. Use the second ¶ to present your own findings. I’d prefer to see another 3-4 source mashup like the one you wrote for HW last time. But if you have a particularly interesting source you can focus on just that one source for the whole ¶.

Paste this 2-¶ sequence into the comments, below. At the start of your comment, label your use of the secondary source as “Background” or “Inspiration.”

3-4 Source Mash-Up

This assignment gives you practice in identifying and reporting a trend you’ve identified three or more sources from your body of evidence.

1. Start with 10-15 fragments that make up your body of evidence. You can make do with fewer, but lots of instances provides confidence that any patterns you notice are meaningful ones.
2. What patterns do you see? Try to identify three patterns, then choose one that seems especially odd. Alternatively, focus at the outset on a simple pattern, saving really odd/interesting patterns as a place you might take analysis later in your essay.
3. Write a topic sentence that names the pattern. In doing so, use language like “most” or “many” or “8 of 10 ads” to convey a sense of its prevalence.
4. Follow up with sentences presenting 3-4 samples in quick succession, one sentence each. Aim to name each piece of evidence (“In a New York Times article dated 10/16/63″ or “In a 1967 ad”) to give some sense of the granularity of your evidence—but leave most bibliographic details to the footnote. Use the rest of each sentence to provide a quick description that shows how this piece of evidence fits the pattern. For example, if I was interested in how ads present women in supporting roles: “A 1965 Norelco ad shows not just a clean-shaven husband, but his admiring wife.”
5. End the ¶ with a conclusion that finds new significance to the pattern—a restatement of the opening claim that raises the ante or shifts the focus to a further insight.

Put your finished ¶ in the comments, below.

Up from the Details

Writing HW By this point you should have started on a collection of primary sources for the upcoming HU-RH joint essay. Prepare a brief (1 sentence) response to each of the following:

• the principle that defines your collection (i.e. images of children at play from Life magazine ads in 1961, 1966 and 1971)
• the open-ended question you hope to use the collection to answer (i.e. how was childhood envisioned in the 1960s?)
• what patterns you expected to see, given what you’ve learned about the 60s over the past month
• one way in which your collection has confirmed expectations
• one way in which your collection has surprised you

Paste your responses into the comment space, below, along with a sample from your growing body of evidence.

No Class

BU on Monday Schedule.

Body of Evidence: Workshop

Examine the linked clippings, a collection I assembled several years ago when this was a course centered in the 1950s. It contains every mention of the word “motorcycle” in the pages of Life from 1947-1962.

Sources like these aren’t rich enough to sustain analysis when examined one at a time. But amassing a bunch of minor sources allows you to make claims about cultural tendencies. By bundling ads or articles together as a “body of evidence,” you create a composite source of significant complexity and richness. Because this is an exhaustive collection, you can use the relative abundance or absence of motorcycle references in a given year as a rough gauge of cultural interest in motorcycles.

For class Download, print and fill out this notepad.

Post in the Comments a collection of fragments from the period 1960-69. Your collection should be coherent, clustered around a search term or news event. Taken individually, at least some of your fragments should be curious, odd. Taken together, your fragments should offer insight into 1960s attitudes, beliefs, lifestyles.

Minimum 3, but aim for 5 or 6. After posting your first, post later fragments as “replies” to your first post.

Presentations 2

link to presentations

Presentations 1

link to presentations

Upcoming: Bibliography and Research Phase II

Introducing and Annotating the Bibilography

When one of your classmates turns to your work later this term, your annotated bibliography will play a crucial role in bringing him or her up to speed on your topic. In past, bibliographies have been one of the weaker elements produced by student-scholars for this course. So today I’m going to offer pointers on producing a list of recommended sources that is helpful.

Research Phase II: Primary Sources

A presentation on gathering sources and grouping them together into collections, what I call “Bodies of Evidence.”

HW (ex credit) Look ahead to the HW for next Thursday and collect 5 related fragments of the past that are relevant to one another. Send them to me via email by midnight before the current class so I can use them as starting points for discussion in lecture.

Counts as 1 missing HW, as well as counting as ordinary HW for the upcoming class on Thur/Fri.