Chapter 10. New Chapter Title

10.1 Section Title

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Annotating a Bibliography

The paragraph below comes from Henry Petroski’s book The Toothpick. Assume that you want to use the material in this paragraph in a paper about the legacy of Abraham Lincoln. Under the paragraph is an excerpt from an annotated bibliography for this assignment. Read the annotated bibliography, and then create your own entry for the Petroski source. Fill in the textbox with a summary of the paragraph, highlighting the information that you might use in a paper. Don’t forget to evaluate the source, and include your reaction and analysis of the paragraph. If one particular sentence stands out as a valuable quote, you can include that—in quotation marks—as well.

Petroski, Henry. The toothpick: Technology and culture. Alfred A. Knopf, 2007, p. 120.

The image of the contented toothpick chewer was invoked during a debate over a statue of Abraham Lincoln by the sculptor George Grey Barnard. The original had stood unchallenged in Cincinnati, but controversy arose when a duplicate was to be erected in London in commemoration of a century of peace between England and America. In the bronze, Lincoln was represented with his hands “grasped over his abdomen in a gesture strongly suggestive of pain,” a stance to which opponents, including Lincoln’s son, objected. The New York Times editorialized, “The humble origin of the man, the uncouthness his enemies found in his personality, need not be suggested in a statue intended to personify for all time the triumph of the democratic principle.” Proponents retorted that the position was “one of the most natural assumed by Mr. Lincoln.” While this was granted, the objectors still felt that it was reminiscent of the way the “Middle-West and middle-class public man of the late fifties stood on the hotel porch and plied his toothpick.”

Annotated Bibliography

Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of rivals: The political genius of Abraham Lincoln. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2005, p. 83.

This source provides some great background information. It covers a lot of the key moves of Lincoln’s political career and helpful comments on why they mattered.

Tooley, Mark. “What Abraham Lincoln can teach us about ugly politics.”The Hill, Feb. 7, 2017, thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/uncategorized/318240-what-abraham-lincoln-can-teach-us-about-ugly-politics.

A great source for the conclusion—this will help me to comment on the ways that Lincoln is still relevant to modern society.

Petroski, Henry. The Toothpick: Technology and Culture. Alfred A. Knopf, 2007, p. 120.

Question

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A good entry in an annotated bibliography should start with the full citation of the source, then give a summary of the source and ideas about how you might use it in your writing project. Here’s a sample annotation for the excerpt provided here:
Petroski’s book offers a history of the humble toothpick and its cultural influence. I’ll use this passage as a lighthearted way to demonstrate that, despite his celebrated legacy, Lincoln was deemed boorish by some in his day.