Essaying the Past

Jim Cullen teaches history at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City. Cullen, a former Preceptor in the Expository Writing Program at Harvard University, is the author of several books, including The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation (2003) and the forthcoming, provisionally titled Sensing the Past: Hollywood Actors as Historians.

Acknowledgments ix Preface to the Second Edition xii Introduction to the Student: Why Would You Look at a Book Like This? 1 Part I Thinking and Reading About History 5 1. History: It s About Time 7 2. What s the Story with History? 14 3. Th e Sources of History 21 4. Good Answers Begin with Good Questions 30 5. Search Engines, Research Ingenuity 37 6. How to Read a Book without Ever Getting to Chapter One 47 Part II Writing About History 61 7. Analysis: Th e Intersection of Reading and Writing 63 8. Making a Case: An Argument in Three Parts 72 9. Defi ning Introductions 80 10. Strong Bodies (I): Th e Work of Topic Sentences 92 11. Strong Bodies (II): Exposition and Evidence 101 12. Strong Bodies (III): Counterargument and Counterevidence 112 13. Surprising Conclusions 120 14. Scaling the Summit: Crystallizing Your Argument 127 15. Writing is Rewriting: Th e Art of Revision 132 16. Putting It All Together: Th e Research Essay (A Case Study) 140 Conclusion: The Love of History 160 Appendices A Writing an Essay: Ten Easy Steps in Review 164 B Essay Varieties: DBQs, Reviews, and Comparison Assignments 166 C Let s Give a Hand: Bibliographies and Footnotes 173 D Credit Scams: Th e Dangers of Plagiarism 184 E Web of Lies? Weighing the Internet 189 F A Glossary of Key Terms 193 G More Reading About Writing 198 Index 200