#18 - Specific Reference, Main Point

[landphil]

Could someone please help me understand why the answer is A and not E?
Thanks!

[Luke Haqq]

Hi landphil!

Support for answer choice (A) comes in at the beginning of the second paragraph: "Most scholarship that has offered a defense ..." (Line 11). So this paragraph starts off by stating the received view in a given domain of scholarship. The author then places a particular scholar within this: "While this is an understandable viewpoint ... Kelley's interest is in African-American organizing" (lines 16-19).

The paragraph as well as the passage as a whole is dealing with one particular scholar--Kelley. For this reason, (E) compared to (A) is too broad. Answer choice (E) doesn't mention Kelley at all. By contrast, answer choice (A) situates Kelley within prior scholarship and contrasts the author with previous historians.

[landphil]

Hi landphil!

Support for answer choice (A) comes in at the beginning of the second paragraph: "Most scholarship that has offered a defense ..." (Line 11). So this paragraph starts off by stating the received view in a given domain of scholarship. The author then places a particular scholar within this: "While this is an understandable viewpoint ... Kelley's interest is in African-American organizing" (lines 16-19).

The paragraph as well as the passage as a whole is dealing with one particular scholar--Kelley. For this reason, (E) compared to (A) is too broad. Answer choice (E) doesn't mention Kelley at all. By contrast, answer choice (A) situates Kelley within prior scholarship and contrasts the author with previous historians.

Thank you, Luke! The part you said about E being too broad and not mentioning Kelley is especially illuminating and incredibly damning for E. This helped a lot!