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Exam Questions Harvard Socialism

Harvard. Final exam questions for Socialism and Communism. Carver and Bushée, 1901-1902

Thomas Nixon Carver was originally hired to beef up the economic theory side of the Harvard curriculum but soon found himself holding an instructional portfolio that included sociology, schemes of social reform (i.e. socialism and communism), and agricultural economics. The fields of sociology and socialism were briefly left fallow when Edward Cummings resigned to become the minister at Boston’s South Congregational Church before Carver joined the faculty in 1900.

Artifacts included below are a thick course description, enrollment figures, and the final exam questions for the half-year course “Socialism and Communism” that was co-taught by assistant professor Thomas Nixon Carver and Frederick Bushée during the Fall term of 1901-02.

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Material from earlier years: Exams and enrollment figures for economics of socialism and communism taught by Edward Cummings, 1893-1900.

Material from later years: Thomas Nixon Carver (1920), Edward S. Mason (1929), Paul Sweezy (1940), Wassily Leontief  (1942-43), Joseph Schumpeter (1943-44), and Overton Hume Taylor (1955).

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Socialism and Communism
1901-02

ECONOMICS 141
For Undergraduates and Graduates

Socialism and Communism. Half course (first half-year). Tu., Th., at 1.30. Asst. Professor Carver.

Course 14 begins with an historical study of socialistic and communistic writing and agitation. This is followed by a critical examination of socialistic theories as presented in the works of representative socialists. The purpose is to get a clear understanding of the economic reasoning that lies at the base of socialistic contentions and of the economic and social conditions which make such reasoning acceptable to socialists. Attention will be given largely to the reading of Marx’s Capital, but parts of the writings of other expounders of socialism will also be read.

Course 14 is open to those who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1; but it is to the advantage of students to take or to have taken either Course 2 or Course 3.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science (June 21, 1901), University Publications, New Series, No. 16, p. 37.

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Economics 14
(Carver and Bushée)
1901-1902 Syllabus

Previously posted: https://www.irwincollier.com/harvard-socialism-communism-carver-bushee-1901/

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Enrollment 1901-02
Economics 141

Economics 141 hf. Asst. Professor Carver and Mr. Bushée. — Socialism and Communism.

Total 27: 5 Graduates, 14 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 3 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

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Semester Final Examination
1901-02

ECONOMICS 14

Write on the following topics.

  1. The definition of Socialism and its relation to competition
  2. Fourier’s plan of social organization.
  3. Lassalle’s place in the socialistic movement.
  4. Marx’s theory of the evolution of society.
  5. Marx’s theory of value.
  6. Marx’s theory of interest.
  7. How does Bernstein’s theory differ from that of Marx?
  8. The problem which George set out to solve and his solution of it.
  9. George’s theory of interest.
  10. The origin and early development of the German Social Democratic Labor Party.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-Year Examination Papers, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume, Mid-year Examination Papers, 1901-02. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (January 1902). Also included in Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1902-03. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (June 1902).

Image Sources:

Thomas Nixon Carver (left). The World’s Work. Vol. XXVI (May-October 1913) p. 127.

Frederick Alexander Bushée (right). Detail from portrait in the University of Colorado Archives. Charles Snow photograph of Professor Bushee (March 30 1921). Detail reproduced in the 1924 University of Colorado Yearbook.

Both portraits colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.