Using Opposing Documents in DBQ
Writing Workshop #7: Using Opposing Documents in DBQs
The goal (though not absolute requirement) is always to try to use all of the documents in a DBQ. But students are often unsure of how to use documents that do not support – and may actually contradict – their argument. The following techniques will help you figure out how to do that.
Sample Question (DBQ #7 in back of text): Historians have often portrayed the capitalists who shaped post-Civil War industrial America as either admirable “captains of industry” or corrupt “robber barons.” Evaluate which of these descriptions – “captains of industry” or “robber barons” – is a more accurate characterization of these capitalists. Use these documents and your knowledge of the period 1875-1900 to compose your answer.
Sample Thesis: Because they created so many job opportunities, built industries that benefited the whole country, and gave away so much of their money, the capitalists of the turn of the century are properly considered captains of industry.
So if I want to argue that they were great, how do I use the docs that suggest they were rotten?
1. Concede some of the document’s opposing message, but then try to put your own spin on it.
Example (the political cartoon of lords and serfs):
The capitalists of this period were rightly considered captains of industry because of the many job opportunities they created. Thousands if not millions of Americans found work thanks to Carnegie’s US Steel or Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, or working on the railroads owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt. These jobs lured rural Americans off their farms and immigrants onto ships to come in search of an opportunity to make something of themselves, to become the star of their own Horatio Alger novel. However, many critics complained that those jobs did not pay very well, and pointed out that a large gap was emerging between the rich and the poor. It reminded some commentators of the medieval system of lords and
The goal (though not absolute requirement) is always to try to use all of the documents in a DBQ. But students are often unsure of how to use documents that do not support – and may actually contradict – their argument. The following techniques will help you figure out how to do that.
Sample Question (DBQ #7 in back of text): Historians have often portrayed the capitalists who shaped post-Civil War industrial America as either admirable “captains of industry” or corrupt “robber barons.” Evaluate which of these descriptions – “captains of industry” or “robber barons” – is a more accurate characterization of these capitalists. Use these documents and your knowledge of the period 1875-1900 to compose your answer.
Sample Thesis: Because they created so many job opportunities, built industries that benefited the whole country, and gave away so much of their money, the capitalists of the turn of the century are properly considered captains of industry.
So if I want to argue that they were great, how do I use the docs that suggest they were rotten?
1. Concede some of the document’s opposing message, but then try to put your own spin on it.
Example (the political cartoon of lords and serfs):
The capitalists of this period were rightly considered captains of industry because of the many job opportunities they created. Thousands if not millions of Americans found work thanks to Carnegie’s US Steel or Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, or working on the railroads owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt. These jobs lured rural Americans off their farms and immigrants onto ships to come in search of an opportunity to make something of themselves, to become the star of their own Horatio Alger novel. However, many critics complained that those jobs did not pay very well, and pointed out that a large gap was emerging between the rich and the poor. It reminded some commentators of the medieval system of lords and