Writing an Effective Central
Question and Thesis Statement
20th Century History
Your Topics! (Partial List)
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Rise of Hollywood
Manson murders
Black Sox baseball scandal
1950s tv and its impact on youth
Fashion
Gay rights
Compulsory sterilization
Title IX
Alcatraz
Women in WWII / impact on
1960s women’s movement
Sesame Street
Barbie
Julius & Ethel Rosenberg
Salem witch trials
Tensions between science
&religion in the 1920s
Skiing in WWII
•  Vietnam War
•  WWII: Japanese internment, DDay, music
•  History of women’s tennis
•  Birth of hip hop
•  Cuban missile crisis
•  Cars (muscle cars / auto
industry after WWII)
•  LA Riots
•  Music (Woodstock / Rock & Roll)
•  Treatment of insane/mental
disabilities
•  Sputnik
•  Jonestown
•  Birth Control & M. Sanger
•  Evolution of UN Sec. Council
•  Prohibition
•  Arthur Miller
The Central Question…
•  Establishes a connection between your topic
and U.S. history, culture, and/or society.
•  Provides your paper with scholarly
significance--why the reader should care
about your paper.
•  Cannot be written without some knowledge of
U.S. history of the period related to your topic
•  Should lend itself to an analytical and
argumentative response (the thesis)--not a
factual answer.
Other Guidelines
•  Your topic can be broad (Vietnam War), but
your Central Question and Thesis need to be
narrow and focused.
•  You are writing 6-8 pages, not a book.
•  Determining a central question that can be
answered succinctly is a major challenge of
this assignment.
Steps for Writing a Central
Question:
•  Select a Topic
•  Research--should start with your
textbook
•  Formulate Question
•  As you continue to research, it might be
necessary to modify your thesis.
BAD CENTRAL QUESTIONS
•  What is the history of the Olympics?
WHY BAD?
•  Too broad
•  Answer to question is factual
•  Lacks explicit connection to American
history
MORE BADDIES
•  Is the mafia as bad as it was portrayed
in The Godfather?
WHY BAD?
•  Yes / no question
•  Too general with regard to time period
•  Lack of scholarly significance (The
Godfather is fictional piece of work)
YET ANOTHER BAD QUESTION
•  What was it like to fight in the Vietnam
War?
WHY BAD?
•  Too broad
•  Again, no explicit connection to
American society or culture
•  No one will disagree with you when you
explain your answer
Topic Example:
Marilyn Monroe
•  Potential Central Question:
–  How can Marilyn Monroe’s films be used to
understand American culture in the 1950s?
•  Analytical Thesis Statement:
–  Marilyn Monroe’s popularity--demonstrated
by the hit film ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’-reflected America’s move toward a more
sexually open culture in the 1950s.
Topic Example:
Music of the Counterculture
•  Potential Central Question:
–  What is the relationship between the
protest music of the 1960s and the
turbulent social climate of the 1960s?
•  Analytical Thesis Statement:
–  Not only did the protest music of the 1960s
reflect the time’s turbulent social climate
but it also at time served as a catalyst for
action and social change.
Topic Example:
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
•  Potential Central Questions:
–  How was the bombing of Pearl Harbor a turning point in 20th
century American foreign policy?
–  How did the bombing of Pearl Harbor impact Japanese
Americans during the war?
•  Analytical Thesis Statements:
–  The fact that the attack on Pearl Harbor became a symbol of
American unpreparedness led to a determination to maintain
a permanent state of readiness in terms of foreign policy in
the future.
–  The attack on Pearl Harbor crystallized much of the antiJapanese sentiment that already existed in American
society, contributing to the decision to intern Japanese
Americans during the war.
NOW YOU DO IT!