Critical of Compromise
In her paper “Critical of
Compromise: Henry McNeal Turner and the Rise of the Emigration Movement in
Post-Civil War America,” Bianca Dang centers her essay on Rev. Turner’s shift
from his support of Black Americans’ integration into wider American society to
his ultimate advocacy for their emigration back to the African continent. Dividing
this story into three parts, Dang discusses Rev. Turner’s role in and
subsequent reaction to the Civil War, his strong rhetoric following the end of
Reconstruction and finally analyzes Rev. Turner's defense of his emigration
movement and his use of previous ideas concerning African colonization to
support his movement.
Somewhat surprisingly given that
her topic was so historically situated, Dang’s use of secondary sources or
claims from authors to contexualize her arguments was rather limited. However,
Dang makes admirable use of her primary sources, extracting convincing analyses
that she employs well to support her arguments.
A couple of particularly strong
aspects of Dang’s work that I took away were the quality organization and
structure of her writing as well as her strong introduction. By writing the
paper in three main phases, she allowed her readers to follow her arguments
rather easily. I also thought Dang’s strong opening to her paper was a positive
point that I would like to implement in my own writing. I think it could have
been helpful to see her engage more with her secondary sources in her writing
to have a better understanding of how her arguments are situated in the
spectrum of extant literature on the topic or similar topics. Overall, I felt
that Dang presented her argument well and made strong use of her primary
sources in discussing the evolving ideology of Turner.
Don’t Fuss Mother
Somewhat similar to Dang’s writing,
Jennifer Ockelmann’s “Don't Fuss, Mother, This Isn't So Fast”: Flappers and the
Struggle Between Modernity and Modesty also presents a rather clear argument
that was not difficult for her readers to follow. Teasing out the tension
between the definitions of modesty and modernity that were emerging for twentieth-century
women in the dominant American culture, she ultimately asserts that these women
faced a unique balance of conflicting societal pressures which caused them to
walk a fine line in who they could and could not be.
I enjoyed
Ockelmann’s usage of somewhat nontraditional sources, namely media such as
film, magazines and advertisement, to support her arguments about
twentieth-century women. Her integration of these types of sources into her
work is particularly useful for me as I will probably attempt to incorporate
some similar sources into my own essay. I enjoyed the way that Ockelmann
alternates, seemingly effortlessly, between setting the scenes for her readers,
allowing them to enter and engage with the story, and providing thoughtful
analysis of the primary sources that she utilizes.
Like
Dang’s article, one of the strengths of Ockelmann’s writing is her ability to
begin her essay with a strong, engaging anecdote-based introduction. While
Ockelmann’s separating her writing based on the different types of primary
sources that she was employing may have made it somewhat easier to read, I felt
like it would have been more complex and engaging to offer a bit more
analytical connection among the different types of sources.
African-American Women and the
Metalanguage of Race
Higginbotham challenges mainstream
feminism’s tendency to neglect the intersectionality of race, class and gender
into its conversations and literature. Also addressing somewhat similar
mistakes made among African-American writers and their musings on gender, she
brings to the forefront the powerful complications that historians inflict when
they fail to address such a critical intersection of identities. According to
Higginbotham, this is particularly true in the case of African-American women.
As were the other two authors,
Higginbotham’s writing is quite successful in establishing early on a
three-part roadmap for her readers to follow. She first discusses with her
readers the construction and “technologies” of race and next introduces the
concept of race as a meta-language before finally demonstrating its use as a
site of contestation and a tool of oppression.
Perhaps due to her greater level of
experience with academic writing than either Dang or Ockelmann had,
Higginbotham was able to employ bolder and less-clearly related sources and
examples in her work—a skill that I enjoyed observing. As I initially read, her
use of the HIV, government aid and Tuskegee Syphilis examples seemed somewhat
outside of the scope of her main points, but she was ultimately able to blend
and employ them to deepen her argument. Relying rather heavily on the usage of
“key terms”, definitions and other theories initially created by other
historians, of the three authors, Higginbotham indeed probably most employs the
work of other theorists.
However, I found her demonstration
of her ability to draw upon other scholarship in creating a foundation for her
work enlightening. That ability and the exploration of different angles of her
topic are key aspects that I will take away from Higginbotham’s work. I enjoyed
observing her blending of primary and secondary sources, weaving in her own
analysis with the well-established scholarship in order to create an a
persuasive analysis about the intersection of gender and race in Black Women’s
experiences.
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