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.