Tag: Carver

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Exam Questions Harvard Socialism

Harvard. Exam questions for Social Reform, Socialism, Communism. Carver, 1907-1908

Harvard’s Thomas Nixon Carver, individualist to a fault, played less a devil’s advocate in his courses on social economic reform than he engaged with the theories behind the social movements of his time to disabuse his students’ of the economic schemes of reformers and revolutionaries that attracted them like moths to a flame. 

While  Bakunin, Marx and George are seen in the Rear-view Mirror of today, they were still objects seen in the side-view mirrors of Carver’s time — objects he probably believed to be closer than they appeared. In any case, objects to avoid for safety’s sake.

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Previously posted

Pre-Carver:
Carver’s courses

Post-Carver:

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 14b 2hf. Professor Carver. — Methods of Social Reform. Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.

Total 20: 5 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 14b
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. In what particulars does the socialist movement resemble a religious rather than a rationalistic movement?
  2. What are the leading doctrines of “Orthodox Socialism”?
  3. In what particulars are socialism and anarchism alike, and in what particulars are they unlike?
  4. State and comment upon Karl Marx’s theory as to the origin of capital and of interest.
  5. Compare the single tax movement and the socialist movement.
  6. Have you any clearly defined conclusion as to the proper, or logical, limits of state enterprise? If so, explain. If not, state the difficulty in the way of arriving at such a conclusion.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), p. 38.

Images: Mikhail Bakunin, Karl Marx, Henry George from the Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.  New York Public Library Digital Collections.

 

 

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Distribution Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam for Distribution of Wealth. Carver, 1907-1908

 

Thomas Nixon Carver was originally hired by Harvard for his work in economic theory. His course portfolio expanded to cover agricultural economics, sociology, economic reform schemes, and methodology, but his course on distribution probably is the best single reflection of his core economic understanding (beliefs?) regarding economic theory. 

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From earlier semesters

1904-05
1905-06

The course content is undoubtedly captured in Carver’s 1904 book The Distribution of Wealth which was reprinted several times during his lifetime.

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 14a 1hf. Professor Carver. — The Distribution of Wealth.

Total 19: 5 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 14a
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. Assuming that the labor of a man and team, with the appropriate tools costs the farmer the equivalent of 5 bushels a day, how many days could he most profitably devote to the cultivation of each of the four fields described in the following table:—
Number of days’ labor of a man and team with the appropriate tools. Total product, in bushels, of each of four fields under
varying applications of labor.

Field A

 Field B Field C

Field D

5

 50 45 40 35
10 150 140 130

125

15

 270 255 240 220
20 380 360 300

270

25

 450 420 350 310
30 510 470 390

340

35

 560 510 420 360
40 600 540 440

375

45

 630 560 450 385
50 650 575 455

390
  1. Assuming that the relation of the labor supply to the land supply is such that for four fields like those assumed in the table there are 130 days labor of the kind assumed, what, in bushels, would be the normal rate of wages — i.e., what is the highest rate of wages at which the farmers could find it more to their advantage to employ all the labor than to leave some of it unemployed.
  2. Under the conditions assumed in Problem 2, how much, approximately, would the total product of the community be reduced if field A were withdrawn from cultivation.
  3. Exactly what do you understand by capital and how does it come into existence.
  4. How, if at all, is the supply of capital related to the rate of wages? What authors have you read upon this point and how does your opinion compare with theirs?
  5. What do you understand by the standard of living, and how does it affect wages?
  6. How is the productivity of an instrument of production determined? How is its value determined? How and where, in the process of valuation, does interest arise?
  7. What is the risk theory of profits? What writers, among those whom you have read, hold to this theory, and how do their views compare?
  8. What classes of incomes do you regard as earned, and what as unearned? Justify your position.
  9. What are the leading theories, so far as you have studied, as to how wealth ought to be distributed? Which do you prefer? Why?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

Image Source: Portrait of Thomas Nixon Carver from the Harvard Class Album 1913. Colorized and enhanced by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Exam Questions Harvard Methodology

Harvard. Semester Exams for Methods of Economic Investigation. Carver, 1907-1908

The following exam questions on Methods of Economic Investigation were for a course listed as primarily for graduate students, taught by Thomas Nixon Carver at Harvard, 1907-08. It is hard for me to imagine there was any period in the last 120 or so years when anyone might have been impressed by this shallow dive into questions of methodology. Am I missing something?

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Some biographical details
for Thomas N. Carver

https://www.irwincollier.com/harvard-course-readings-final-exams-and-enrollment-for-principles-of-sociology-carver-and-field-1904-1905/

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Exams from earlier years

1900-01
1901-02
1903-04
1904-05

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 13 hf. Professor Carver. — Methods of Economic Investigation

Total 3: 2 Graduates, 1 Divinity.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 13
Mid-year examination, 1907-08

  1. How can the method of difference be applied to the determination of the shares in the distribution of wealth.
  2. What do you understand by the analytical method in economics? Give examples.
  3. Is the mathematical and diagrammatic method capable of being used in investigation, or it is only a method of exposition? Give reasons for your answer.
  4. Is there a noticeable tendency among certain writers to treat economics as though it were the science of surplus wealth, and among others to treat it as a science of human well-being? What is the real difference between the two points of view.
  5. How would you subdivide economics into departments; (a) if you were going to write a text-book; (b) if you were going to organize a department of economics in a university where you could have a teaching staff, say, of 8 specialists, and could get men who would fit into whatever special fields you might plan for them?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

ECONOMICS 13
Year-end examination, 1907-08

  1. To what extent is the question of method determined by the kind of information which the investigator is seeking? Illustrate.
  2. Is the question of method ever confused with the question of the source from which information must be gathered? Illustrate.
  3. Is the mathematical method a method of investigation or of exposition? Explain and illustrate.
  4. What quantitative concepts are, or should be, used when we speak of a quantity of land, of oats, of capital, of labor, of money?
  5. Describe and criticise three methods of ascertaining to what extent immigration, since 1820, has increased the population of the United States.
  6. Contrast three methods of ascertaining the causes of poverty.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 36-37.

Image Source: Harvard football poster (1907) by F. Earl Christy. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

 

 

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Exam Questions Harvard Sociology

Harvard. Exam questions for principles of sociology. Carver, 1907-1908

Thomas Nixon Carver was back at the lectern in 1907-08 following his European sabbatical year. His teaching portfolio was pretty broad and it included the field of sociology which had not yet escaped the gravitational pull of the economics department.  

One presumes the course text was Thomas Nixon Carver’s book of course readings (over 800 pages!): Sociology and Social Progress: A Handbook for Students of Sociology. Boston: Ginn & Company, 1905.

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Sociology exams from earlier years.

1901-02 (taught by T. N. Carver)

1902-03 (taught by T. N. Carver and W. Z. Ripley)

1903-04 (taught by T. N. Carver)

1904-05 (taught by T. N. Carver and J. A. Field)

1905-06 (taught by T. N. Carver)

1906-07 (taught by J. A. Field)

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 3. Professor Carver. — Principles of Sociology. Theories of Social Progress.

Total 49: 8 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 10 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 66.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 3
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. Discuss the relation of sociology to economics.
  2. Describe the development of ancestor worship according to Spencer, and show the influence of a system of ancestor worship upon political organization.
  3. What does Spencer mean by “industrialism”?
  4. Can education effect any progressive improvement in the innate physical and mental capacities of a race?
  5. Explain the term “eugenics,” and discuss the obstacles to the practical application of eugenic principles.
  6. How does Kidd define religion? What is the function of religion thus defined?
  7. Explain and criticise Stuckenberg’s theory of “Sociation.”
  8. In what sense can interests be said to be harmonious, and in what sense are they antagonistic?
  9. What is meant by “consciousness of kind,” and how is it related to sympathy?
  10. Discuss the question, Is work a blessing?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1907-08.

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ECONOMICS 3
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

  1. Comment upon the following passage: “Every great historical epoch and every variety of social organization must be explained on the basis of factors and forces now at work, and which the student may study at first hand.”
  2. Can you, consistently with modern evolutionary philosophy, define social progress in terms of well-being? Explain.
  3. Comment upon the following passage:—
    “So that as law differentiates from personal commands, and as morality differentiates from religious in junctions, so politeness differentiates from ceremonial observance. To which I may add, so does rational usage differentiate from fashion.”
  4. Comment upon the following passage: “The fundamental fact in history is the law of decreasing returns.”
  5. Compare Gidding’s conception of the “ultimate social fact” with that of Adam Smith.
  6. Describe some of the agencies for the storing of social energy.
  7. What is meant by “animated moderation” and how is it developed.
  8. Compare the mediaeval prince and the modern political boss.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1908), p. 29.

Image Source: Thomas Nixon Carver. The World’s Work. Vol. XXVI (May-October 1913) p. 127. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Exam Questions Harvard Sociology

Harvard. Enrollment and exam questions for principles of sociology. J.A. Field, 1906-1907

 

Thomas Nixon Carver was on a European sabbatical with his wife and three children during the academic year 1906-07 so substitutes were needed to cover his courses on sociology, agriculture and income distribution. The graduate student James A. Field took over the principles of sociology course in Carver’s absence.

Note: Materials from some courses have already been transcribed and posted. Whenever that is the case, I’ll just add a link to the relevant post. Falling between Economics 1 and Economics 3 was Frank W. Taussig’s course, Economics 2 (“Principles of Economics–Second Course”). It was the “advanced” economic theory course in the curriculum.

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Previous Posts about James A. Field

Chicago. Decennial Harvard Class Report of associate professor of political economy James A. Field, ABD, 1913.

Harvard. Economics Graduate School Records of James Alfred Field, ABD. 1903-1911.

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Course Enrollment
1906-07

Economics 3. Mr. J.A. Field. — Principles of Sociology. Theories of Social Progress.

Total 44: 4 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 16 Juniors, 11 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1906-1907, p. 70.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 3

Mid-year Examination, 1906-07

I.

  1. [Elective reading(s)]
    1. Name the author and the title of the book which you chose for elective reading (or of each of the books, if your reading involved more than one).
    2. Indicate and briefly describe that which seems to you the central thought or the most interesting thought in the book (or in each of the books) thus read.
    3. Criticise the book (or one of the books) with regard to both merits and defects, giving special attention to the part you have described in your answer to question (b) above.

II
Omit one question of this group.

  1. What do you consider to be the true conception of social progress?
    To what extent does social progress in this sense promote the welfare of individuals?
  2. What is an acquired character?
    Assuming that acquired characters are not inherited, in what ways is that fact advantageous for society?
    Does this assumed non-inheritance of acquired characters become more advantageous or less advantageous as civilization advances?
  3. Describe the three stages traced by Comte in the progress of human society.
    Is Comte’s scheme in harmony with Kidd’s belief regarding the conditions of progress?
  4. What is meant by social heredity?
    Show the relation between social heredity and the theories of Baldwin, Fiske, and Tarde which have been considered in this course.

III
Omit one question of this group.

  1. What is Buckle’s conclusion as to the relative importance or moral and the intellectual factors of progress, and on what reasons is his conclusion based?
    Do you accept his conclusion and his reasoning as correct?
  2. How may self-interest act as a socializing influence?
  3. In what sense can a social mind be said to exist?
    How is it related to the individual minds of the members of society?
  4. What is religion, according to Kidd?
    How much has it in common with “the struggle for the life others”? How much has it in common with Idealization?
    Would Kidd agree that the function of all religions is to reconcile us to the inevitable?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1906-07.

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ECONOMICS 3

Year-end Examination, 1906-07

[Omit one question.]

  1. Briefly explain:
    1. Exogamy.
    2. Anthropomorphism.
    3. Refraction of Imitation.
    4. Vicarious Leisure.
    5. General Social Sanction.
  2. What are the functions which are organized in the institution of the family?
    Describe the Religious-Proprietary Family.
  3. Criticise Spencer’s antithesis of the militant and industrial types of society and compare it with Robinson’s theory of the relation between war and economics.
  4. What is the Standard of Living?
    For what reasons, and under what conditions, is a high standard of living desirable?
  5. Compare economic competition with the biological struggle for existence.
  6. What are the relations of cause and effect which connect competition, specialization and capitalism?
  7. Explain and criticise Veblen’s theory of the Instinct of Workmanship.
  8. Discuss the relation of women to the competitive process, to conservatism and reform, to religion and to the institution of the leisure class.
    How do you explain the psychic differences between men and women which this discussion suggests? To what extent do you regard these differences as merely the result of social conventions?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1906-07 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 27-28.

Image Source: Original black-and-white image from the Special Diplomatic Passport Application by James Alfred Field (January 1918). Cropped and colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. (Note: left third of the image is slightly distorted because of a transparent plastic strip used to hold pages in the imaging process)

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Agricultural Economics Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam questions for agricultural economics. Carver, 1905-1906

In 1911 Harvard economics professor Thomas Nixon Carver published a textbook Principles of Rural Economics  that undoubtedly encompassed the content of his course on agricutural economics first taught in 1903-04. Somewhat unusually the book is prefaced with an eight page bibliography. The eight question final exam for this semester course from 1905-06 is found below.

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From a previous year

ca. 1904 Problem set

1903-04 Final exam

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Course Enrollment
1905-06

Economics 23 2hf. Professor Carver. — Economics of Agriculture, with special reference to American Conditions.

Total 42: 4 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 14 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 73.

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ECONOMICS 23
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

  1. Describe the two principal stages in the development of commercial agriculture.
  2. Describe the methods by which a citizen could acquire a title to government land at the following dates: 1850, 1870, 1890.
  3. What are the chief advantages of large-scale farming and of small-scale farming? Which system has the United States government favored, and by what means?
  4. What are the advantages of diversified farming, and under what conditions is it practicable?
  5. What experiments are being carried on under the direction of the United States Department of Agriculture in the breeding of animals?
  6. Describe three types of farm management as practiced in the United States.
  7. Name, in the order of their value, the five leading crops of the United States, and if any of them are grown in special regions or belts, state approximately their limits.
  8. What are the principal factors tending, at the present time, to affect the character of the rural population of the United States?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), p. 46.

Image Source: “The American farmer – where he has to sell, and where he has to buy,” print by Louis Dalrymple in Puck, v. 35, no. 910 (August 15, 1894). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Print shows Uncle Sam as an American farmer trying to sell his products labeled “Pork, Wheat, Butter, Beef, Oats”, and corn overseas where there is stiff “Open Competition” at the “Market of the World” represented by John Bull labeled “England” and “Germany, Russia, South America, [and] Australia”. In a vignette, Uncle Sam is shown at “The McKinley Home Market and High Prices” looking at the merchandise for sale, where all the items that he needs have been “Marked Up” 35% to 45%; McKinley offers him a new coat that has been “Marked Up 35%”.

 

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Exam Questions Harvard Socialism

Harvard. Exam questions for Social Reform, Socialism, Communism. Carver, 1905-1906

Courses on utopias, schemes of social reform, shades of socialism and communism were offered by the Harvard economics department from its early years through the twentieth  century. Thomas Nixon Carver taught such a course for several decades as an exercise of know-thy-enemies. His autobiographical Recollections of an Unplanned Life (1949) makes it clear that there was not a collectivist bone in his body. 

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Previously posted

Pre-Carver:
Carver’s courses
Post-Carver:

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Methods of Social Reform,
Socialism, Communism…
Economics 14b
1905-06 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Course Enrollment
1905-06

Economics 14b 2hf. Professor Carver. — Methods of Social Reform. Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.

Total 29: 10 Graduates, 6 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 73.

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ECONOMICS 14b
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

  1. Describe one Eutopian scheme, covering the following points:
    (a) supposed location, (b) time, (c) form of government, (d) organization of industry, (e) system of exchange, (f) family life, (g) distribution of the products of industry.
  2. What periods in American history have been most prolific in non-religious communistic experiments? Describe a characteristic experiment of each period.
  3. Do communistic experiments, so far as you have studied them, throw any light upon the question of the probable success or failure of communism or socialism on a national scale? Explain.
  4. Characterize the social philosophy of one writer who is not an economist, covering the following points: (a) Is his philosophy religious or non-religious? (b) Does the writer discriminate between the obligation of the individual and that of the state? (c) Is his philosophy constructive or merely critical? (d) Has he a clearly defined principle of justice? If so, what is it?
  5. Is there a clearly defined principle of justice embodied in the competitive system? Explain.
  6. How does Marx account for the interest of capital?
  7. Does every government enterprise necessarily narrow the field for private enterprise and diminish the amount of competition? Explain.
  8. Would socialism entirely eliminate competition? If so, under what conditions?
  9. What is meant by the proposition that a single tax on land values is paid for all times by the one who owns the land at the time the tax is first imposed?
  10. Is an inheritance tax a socialistic measure? Explain.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), p. 40.

Image Source: “The trouble, my friends, with socialism is that it would destroy initiative” by Udo J. Keppler. Centerfold in Puck, v. 66, no. 1715 (January 12, 1910). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Illustration shows a large gorilla-like monster with human head, clutching clusters of buildings labeled “Public Utilities, Competition, [and] Small Business” with his right arm and left leg, as he crushes a building labeled “Untainted Success, Initiative, Individualism, Independence, [and] Ambition” with his left hand, causing some citizens to flee while others plead for mercy. He casts a shadow over the U.S. Capitol, tilting in the background.

Categories
Distribution Exam Questions Harvard Theory

Harvard. Final exam for distribution theory. Carver, 1905-1906

 

Thomas Nixon Carver was hired by Harvard based on his work in economic theory. As it turned out theory would only constitute a minor share of his portfolio of courses at Harvard. Here we have the exam for a theoretical course offered in 1905-06 dedicated to the functional distribution of income. This is the second time Thomas Nixon Carver taught this one-semester course at Harvard. (Exam from its initial run in 1904-05).

The course content is undoubtedly captured in Carver’s 1904 book The Distribution of Wealth which was reprinted several times during his lifetime.

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Course Enrollment
Distribution of Wealth
1905-06

Economics 14a 1hf. Professor Carver. — The Distribution of Wealth.

Total 46: 7 Graduates, 25 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 73.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

ECONOMICS 14a
Distribution of Wealth
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

  1. Why does the value of a consumable commodity fall when its supply increases, — other things remaining the same?
  2. Ditto of a productive factor?
  3. What limits or checks the supply of labor?
  4. Ditto of land?
  5. Ditto of capital?
  6. Fill out the blank columns in the [following] table.

Total Crop, Marginal Product of Labor, Total Wages, and Rent (All in Bushels) from Four Farms of Different Productivity when cultivated by Varying Numbers of Laborers, Capital being left out of account.

Farm A
Total crop Marginal product Total wages Total rent

Rent per acre
1 500
2 900
3 1200
4 1400
5 1500
 

Farm B
Total crop Marginal product Total wages Total rent

Rent per acre
1 400
2 700
3 900
4 1000
5
 

Farm C
Total crop Marginal product Total wages Total rent

Rent per acre
1 300
2 500
3 600
4
5
 

Farm D
Total crop Marginal product Total wages Total rent

Rent per acre
1 200
2 300
3
4
5
  1. In what proportion could six laborers be most advantageously distributed among these farms? Ten laborers? Fourteen laborers?
  2. When there are six laborers employed, how much, in bushels, would the product of the whole group of farms and laborers be reduced by the removal of one laborer, assuming the laborers all to be of the same efficiency? Ditto when there are ten laborers?
  3. When there are fourteen laborers employed on these farms, how much, in bushels, would the product of the whole group be increased by the opening up of a new farm of the same grade as farm A, and the transfer to it of four of the laborers?
  4. Compare Clark’s theory of business profits with Walker’s.
  5. State Hollander’s position on the question. Does rent enter into price?
  6. Compare Clark’s definition of capital with Taussig’s.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1905-06.

Image Source: Portrait of Thomas Nixon Carver from the Harvard Class Album 1913. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

 

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Exam Questions Harvard Sociology

Harvard. Final exam questions for principles of sociology. Carver, 1905-1906

Thomas Nixon Carver

 

Excerpts from Thomas Nixon Carvers’s autobiography dealing with sociology, his course reading list and a “thick” course description from the 1904-05 academic year have been transcribed and posted earlier.

Image today having a question like “What are the chief factors tending to promote the improvement of the race, and what are the chief factors tending to deteriorate it?” standing between you and your final grade in a course.

I wonder when such a question was first able to elicit a consensus cringe among social scientists. 

Likely readings for this course can be found in Sociology and Social Progress, compiled by Thomas Nixon Carver (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1905).

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Course Enrollment

Economics 3. Professor Carver. — Principles of Sociology. Theories of Social Progress.

Total 60: 9 Graduates, 11 Seniors, 23 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 72.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 3
Mid-year Examination, 1905-06

  1. State and explain briefly, —
    1. Spencer’s position as to the possibility of a science of society.
    2. Bagehot’s conclusion as to verifiable progress.
    3. Kidd’s theory as to the function of religious beliefs in the development of society.
    4. Kidd’s prediction as to the future relation of European races to tropical regions.
  2. What are the chief factors tending to promote the improvement of the race, and what are the chief factors tending to deteriorate it?
  3. Discuss briefly the following topics in their relation to social development:
    1. “The consciousness of kind.”
    2. Imitation
    3. Resentment.
    4. The power of idealization.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1905-06.

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ECONOMICS 3
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

  1. Discuss Kidd’s view that the real drift of society is toward greater equality and that this is accompanied by keener competition.
  2. Can social progress be defined in terms of human well being? Explain.
  3. What is meant by the transition from a pain to a pleasure economy? What corresponding transition does Comte describe?
  4. If we grant that war is primarily due to economic reasons, does the conclusion follow that it is permanent?
  5. What importance attaches to the prolongation of infancy in the human species?
  6. Compare the views of Kidd and Buckle as to the relative importance of the moral and the intellectual factors in social development.
  7. What is meant by the storing of social energy, and what are some of the chief agencies by which it is accomplished?
  8. Compare the prince, as described by Machiavelli, with the modern political boss.
  9. What is meant by the distinction between the repressive and the directive activities of the State? What are the main conditions which justify the latter?
  10. What general principle determines the obligation of the State in the imposition of taxes?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), p. 30.

Image Source: Portrait of Thomas Nixon Carver, colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror, from the Harvard Class Album 1906.

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Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Methods of Social Reform. Enrollment, description, linked reading list, final exam. Carver, 1904-1905

Economics professor Thomas Nixon Carver was the second in a long line of Harvard professors who exposed their students to the doctrines of anarchism, socialism, and communism (among other -isms). Carver came to bury the well-intentioned but ill-conceived doctrines, not to praise them. 

Strange Political Bedfellow: An earlier post provides Thomas Nixon Carver’s link to the U.S. publicist of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 1921.

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Material from earlier years:

Exams and enrollment figures for economics of socialism and communism taught by Edward Cummings (1893-1900),
Socialism and Communism (with Bushée), 1901-92,
Methods of Social Reform, (Carver), 1902-03.

Material from later years:

Short Bibliography of Socialism for “Serious-minded students” by Carver (1910),
Thomas Nixon Carver (1920),
Edward S. Mason (1929),
Paul Sweezy (1940),
Wassily Leontief  (1942-43),
Joseph Schumpeter (1943-44),
Overton Hume Taylor (1955).

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 14b 2hf. Professor Carver. — Methods of Social Reform. Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.

Total 79: 10 Graduates, 25 Seniors, 26 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 5 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.

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Course Description
1904-05

14b 2hf. Methods of Social Reform. Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 1.30. Professor Carver.

Open only to students who have had Course 14a.
The purpose of this course is to make a careful study of those plans of social amelioration which involve either a reorganization of society, or a considerable extension of the functions of the state. The course begins with an historical study of early communistic theories and experiments. This is followed by a critical examination of the theories of the leading socialistic writers, with a view to getting a clear understanding of the reasoning which lies back of socialistic movements, and of the economic conditions which tend to make this reasoning acceptable. A similar study will be made of Anarchism and Nihilism, of the Single Tax Movement, of State Socialism and the public ownership of monopolistic enterprises, and of Christian Socialism, so called.
Morley’s Ideal Commonwealths, Ely’s French and German Socialism, Marx’s Capital, Marx and Engels’s The Communist Manifesto, and George’s Progress and Poverty will be read, besides other special references.
The course will be conducted by means of lectures, reports, and class-room discussions.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), p. 46.

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[Library stamp: Mar 7, 1905]

Economics 14

Topics and References
Starred references are prescribed

[Note: Identical to reading list of 1902-03]

COMMUNISM

A
Utopias
1. Plato’s Republic
2. *Sir Thomas More.   Utopia.
3. *Francis Bacon.   New Atlantis.
4. *Tommaso Campanella.   The City of the Sun. (Numbers 2, 3, and 4 may be found in convenient form in Morley’s Ideal Commonwealths.)
5. Etienne Cabet.   Voyage en Icarie.
6. Wm. Morris.   News from Nowhere.
7. Edward Bellamy.   Looking Backward.

 

B
Communistic Experiments
1. *Charles Nordhoff.   The Communistic Societies of the United States.
2. Karl Kautsky.   Communism in Central Europe in the Time of the Reformation.
3. W. A. Hinds.   American Communities.
4. J.H. Noyes.   History of American Socialisms.
5. J. T. Codman.   Brook Farm Memoirs.
6. Albert Shaw.   Icaria.
7. G.B. Landis.   The Separatists of Zoar.
8. E.O. Randall.   History of the Zoar Society.

 

SOCIALISM

A
Historical
1. *R. T. Ely. French and German Socialism.
2. Bertrand Russell. German Social Democracy.
3. John Rae. Contemporary Socialism.
4. Thomas Kirkup. A History of Socialism.
5. W. D. P. Bliss. A Handbook of Socialism.
6. Wm. Graham. Socialism, New and Old.
7. [Jessica Blanche] Peixotto. The French Revolution and Modern French Socialism.

 

B
Expository and Critical
1. *Albert Schaeffle. The Quintessence of Socialism.
2. Albert Schaeffle. The Impossibility of Social Democracy.
3. *Karl Marx. Capital.
4. *Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels. The Manifesto of the Communist Party.
5. Frederick Engels. Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.
6. E. C. K. Gonner. The Socialist Philosophy of Rodbertus.
7. E. C. K. Gonner. The Socialist State.
8. Bernard Shaw and others. The Fabian Essays in Socialism.
9. The Fabian Tracts.
10. R. T. Ely. Socialism: An Examination of its Nature, Strength, and Weakness.
11. Edward Bernstein. Ferdinand Lassalle.
12. Henry M. Hyndman. The Economics of Socialism.
13. Sydney and Beatrice Webb. Problems of Modern Industry.
14. Gustave Simonson. A Plain Examination of Socialism.
15. Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement in the Nineteenth Century.
16. Vandervelde. Collectivism [and Industrial Evolution].

 

ANARCHISM

1. *Leo Tolstoi. The Slavery of Our Times.
2. William Godwin. Political Justice.
3. Kropotkin. The Scientific Basis of Anarchy. Nineteenth Century, 21: 238.
4. Kropotkin. The Coming Anarchy. Nineteenth Century, 22:149.
5. Elisée Reclus. Anarchy. Contemporary Review, 45: 627. [May 1884]

 

RELIGIOUS AND ALTRUISTIC SOCIALISM

1. Lamennais. Les Paroles d’un Croyant.
2. Charles Kingsley. Alton Locke.
3. *Kaufman. Lamennais and Kingsley. Contemporary Review, April, 1882.
4. Washington Gladden. Tools and the Man.
5. Josiah Strong. Our Country.
6. Josiah Strong. The New Era.
7. William Morris, Poet, Artist, Socialist. Edited by Francis Watts Lee. A collection of the socialistic writings of William Morris.
8. Ruskin. The Communism of John Ruskin. Edited by W. D. P. Bliss. Selected chapters from Unto this Last, The Crown of Wild Olive, and Fors Clavigera.
9. Carlyle. The Socialism and Unsocialism of Thomas Carlyle. Edited by W. D. P. Bliss. Selected chapters from Carlyle’s various works. [Volume 1; Volume 2]

 

AGRARIAN SOCIALISM

1. *Henry George. Progress and Poverty.
2. Henry George. Our Land and Land Policy.
3. Alfred Russell Wallace. Land Nationalization.

 

STATE SOCIALISM

An indefinite term, usually made to include all movements for the extension of government control and ownership, especially over means of communication and transportation, also street lighting, etc.

1. R. T. Ely. Problems of To-day. Chs. 17-23.
2. J. A. Hobson. The Social Problem.

 

WORKS DISCUSSING THE SPHERE OF THE STATE IN SOCIAL REFORM

1. Henry C. Adams. The Relation of the State to Industrial Action.
2. *D. G. Ritchie. Principles of State Interference.
3. D. G. Ritchie. Darwinism and Politics.
4. *Herbert Spencer. The Coming Slavery.
5. W. W. Willoughby. Social Justice.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1904-1905”.

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ECONOMICS 14b
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

  1. So far as you have studied them, were the failures of communistic experiments due to the fact that they were carried out on too small a scale, to unfavorable outside conditions, or to inherent weaknesses in their internal organization? Give at least three illustrations.
  2. Give an outline of one Utopian scheme or ideal commonwealth which you have studied, and point out its strong and its weak features.
  3. Give an account of the origin of the German Social Democratic Party.
  4. Is there any essential difference between the income of the capitalist and that of the landlord? Explain your answer.
  5. Discuss the question, Is labor the sole creator of wealth?
  6. Discuss the question, Is there any relation between the inequality in the distribution of talent and the inequality in the distribution of wealth under the competitive system.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 33.

Image Source: “The trouble, my friends, with socialism is that it would destroy initiative” by Udo J. Keppler. Centerfold in Puck, v. 66, no. 1715 (January 12, 1910). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Illustration shows a large gorilla-like monster with human head, clutching clusters of buildings labeled “Public Utilities, Competition, [and] Small Business” with his right arm and left leg, as he crushes a building labeled “Untainted Success, Initiative, Individualism, Independence, [and] Ambition” with his left hand, causing some citizens to flee while others plead for mercy. He casts a shadow over the U.S. Capitol, tilting in the background.