Colossus by Niall Ferguson FTP: How to find the author's thesis

Some authors make it easy to find their thesis. Some authors make it a little more difficult. To the latter, it’s not on purpose. The main reason, and I sometimes do this myself, is when the author sits down and fleshes out their article, argument, book, and so on, they will arrive at a thesis after careful reflection. This thesis then expands into the argument or work. The author may explicitly write it in a paragraph yet he will not outright say, “Hey reader! The next sentence is my thesis!”

Other writers do explicitly state it, and sometimes they almost write a pre-thesis to create space to expand their arguments, positions, and so on. It’s great when an author does this. And it’s a good idea to pay attention to it.

Here’s how Niall Ferguson does it in Colossus.

He offers a preamble of sorts to tune the reader into the thesis:

Colossus set out to do this, and thereby succeeded in antagonizing both conservation and liberal critics. Conservatives repudiated my contention that the United …