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This essay will require the use of Nancy Langstons book Toxic bodies. This is the only source that should be used and it should follow the prompt entirely. if you do not follow the prompt I will ask you to rewrite until it meets the given requirements.
Be sure to follow the guidelines I laid out in my lecture on “How to Write a Good Short
Essay.”
Again, a reminder: The position papers are to be two-to-three typed double-spaced pages in
length. Use a cover page for your name and title so as not to waste precious space for
making a stronger argument—and you should have a good catchy title! The assigned topics
will always cry out for a far longer treatment, so the whole point is to compress as much
solid argument and information into this short space as possible. You should start by
writing a longer piece and then proceed to winnow it down to its very core. This means
there should be absolutely no fluff. No sentences like, “This is a very interesting question
and one that people have been debating for thousands of years.” And so on. Rather, your
very first sentence should lay out your thesis clearly, directly, and forcefully. Then you
briefly expand and explain the thesis—e.g., it is based on three sub arguments, or explain
why the obvious counterarguments are wrong, etc.—before turning quickly to the body of
the argument. Your argument must be supported by abundant concrete specific evidence
from the book or articles which are cited using parenthetical citations: (Diamond, p. 34)—
or if you have an e-book, use the chapter number and subsection, if there is one: (Diamond,
ch. 3, “The Cattle of Mesopotamia”)
Little or no direct quotes allowed—paraphrase all but the most essential or brilliantly-
written text. NEVER quote text that is just providing information!
Note that this paper is to be based solely on your reading of Nancy Langston’s Toxic Bodies
and is in part a test of your mastery of and ability to use evidence from the book. This is not
a research paper, so do not use sources other than the book! If it seems useful, you can use
content from the lectures briefly to provide context. But the focus should overwhelmingly
be on the book itself.
See the syllabus for the grading rubric.
The Prompt:
The prominent historian of technology Langdon Winner once argued that modern
societies rarely engage in any thoughtful discussion about the wisdom of adopting
new technologies, leading to a phenomenon he calls “technological somnambulism”:
humans “sleep walking” as technological changes occur that could radically change
their lives. In Toxic Bodies, the historian Nancy Langston provides a compelling
example of how one new technology, DES, spread through the United States in the
middle of the 20th Century.
Based on your reading of Langston, how can we explain how this dangerous chemical
became so widely used? More specifically, what were the historical assumptions
made about safety, testing, regulation, and the human bodily relationship to the
environment that made this possible? Does it seem that Americans thoughtfully made
informed decisions about where to use the technology of DES, or did they simply
accept it without much debate or consideration of costs and benefits? Given these,
does the idea of “technological somnambulism” seem an apt one in the case of DES, or
would you suggest a different explanation and phrase?
Note that you shouldn’t try to answer all of these question in a mechanical way.
Rather, the questions are designed to help you spot important themes and develop a
clear and interesting thesis of your own. Remember, the hard work of writing a good
essay is in the thinking about the material. If you have a good clear thesis, the paper
almost writes itself (almost)!
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