We will critique the thesis statements that you brought to class today in an effort to differentiate the strong from the mediocre from the weak. Of course, our goal is to help you improve your thesis by making it even stronger and leading to an even stronger essay. Baseball provided both writers not only with a shared experience with childhood friends and family but also served as a backdrop through which many American struggles of the 50's and 60's, involving issues of race relations and the blossoming middle class, played out. Tolan and Goodwin wrote about baseball because it is our national pastime and it brings out the best in people and draws people together and gives them something to talk about. Sandy Tolan and Doris Kearns Goodwin both use baseball as the unifying theme in their accounts of American society because baseball has a long and deep-rooted tradition in the hearts and souls of all Americans.
Baseball is a topic in which all americans can openly talk about to each other.
It brings people from all different kinds of backgrounds together. It is the true American game in which to play the game you do not need to be the biggest, strongest, or fastest to play, all you need is the desire. Baseball was an important part of Tolan's and Goodwin's childhoods. Over the years baseball has been a unifying force throughout the country, it is a piece of America that opitimizes our society, ideals, and dreams. Tolan and Goodwin wrote about baseball because it served as the backdrop not only for important personal events in their lives but also for larger issues such as race and community relations.