PrepTest 145, Section 3, Question 20
In contrast to the mainstream of U.S. historiography(459 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- AHistorians are now(22 more words not shown)
- BEarly African American(16 more words not shown)
- CU.S. historiography in(31 more words not shown)
- DThe transnational perspective(26 more words not shown)
- EMainstream U.S. historians(30 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
We've already predicted the two-part main point: African American historians challenged a U.S.-centered nationalist approach, but their own transnational histories helped construct a shared identity for a dispersed people. In that broader cultural sense, their work could also be nationalist.
What we’re looking for
An answer that captures only their disagreement with mainstream historians will miss the final paragraph's important complication.
Working the answers
- A
Citizenship is one reason for the transnational approach, not the whole subject. The author is not reporting a new recognition by today's historians or ranking citizenship as the period's major challenge.
- B
Emigration was one important issue, but the historians' project was not primarily an effort to get African Americans to leave the United States. It also concerned the shared history and identity of people living across different places.
- C
The contrast between approaches matters, but this turns it into the central characterization of U.S. historiography. It leaves out the more distinctive conclusion that the transnational historians' own work arguably had a nationalist dimension. We need that complication, not just opposing camps.
- DCorrect
This includes both the challenge to mainstream nationalist history and the arguably nationalist creation of a culturally unified diaspora. A community can be imagined through shared culture and history even without its own sovereign territory.
- E
The author does not conclude that mainstream historians could no longer justify their approach after this challenge. That verdict also shifts the focus away from the character of African American historians' own work.
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