Note: Most of the questions on the exam will be drawn from these
review questions. The format of the exam will be the same as that of the midterm.
1. How does Sumner use Social Darwinism to defend the following political
principles:
2. How does Sumner defend the existence of large fortunes? Why does Croly
criticize inherited wealth?
3. Despite his attack on the supposed vices of the working class, Sumner shows
an awareness of the structural nature of working class exploitation. Explain
how. How does Sumner rationalize this exploitation?
4. Explain why Croly believed that “in so
far as . . . equal rights are freely exercised, they are bound to result in
inequalities; and these inequalities are bound to make for their own
perpetuation, and so to provoke still further discrimination” (450).
5. Croly called for the creation of an activist state dedicated to promoting
“individual distinction and social improvement.” What were some of
his reasons for believing this necessary?
6. In “The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements,” Addams gives
three interrelated reasons for establishing settlement houses: to social
democracy, for human solidarity, and as an expression of the Christian
“social gospel.” Explain these.
7. Did Addams consider Hull House a form of private charity?
8. In what respects was Hull House infused by what we would now call feminist
values? How would you assess the compromises implicit in using the metaphor of
the home to frame women’s social activism ?
9. How was science in practice un- or anti-democratic in Dewey’s view? Do
you think the same criticisms could be made today? What were the main features
of Dewey’s alternative conception of a democratic science?
10. Dewey declares that “democracy . . . is the idea of community life
itself” (148). Each of the elements of his theory can be interpreted as
expressions of this basic insight. For example, his model of the person
emphasizes interdependence, social learning, and individuality as distinction
within a community. His epistemology (theory of knowledge) is premised on the
belief that “knowledge . . . depends upon tradition, upon tools and
methods socially transmitted, developed and sanctioned.” Go through these
and the other elements outlined in “Search for the Great Community”
(e.g., the notion of popular will formation, the redefinition of liberty and
equality, the role of “continuous inquiry” and the media it requires,
his view of science) and explain how each reflects (and explains) the idea of
democracy as the realization of community.
11. Goodwyn discusses three cultural difficulties which make it “very
difficult for Americans to understand” the Populist movement. What are
they? Explain each briefly.
12. Why did Debs fight for industrial unions and oppose craft unions?
13. What did Debs think would become of the working class under capitalism
unless they organized to end it? How did the development of monopolized
capitalism and the liberal welfare state confound his (and the Socialist
Party’s) expectations?
14. What are the main tenets of Hayden’s model of a participatory
democratic society?
15. Hayden claims that “apathy is not simply an attitude; it is a product
of social institutions (473). What are the mechanisms at work in higher
education and in society in general that promote apathy and discourage, if not
repress, active citizenship?
16. Hayden proposes the “community union” as a radical
organizational form for working class and poor people (482). What is the
community union? What forms of oppression, including internal oppression, is
it intended to challenge? What makes it, in Hayden’s view, the
organizational antithesis of the typical labor union or the mainstream
political party (insofar as the latter attempts to recruit or organize these
constituencies)?
17. What, according to Huntington, was the “essence of the democratic
surge of the 1960s”? What was the basic threat posed by this surge?
18. What are the three moments in Huntington’s theory of political
cycles?
19. Does Huntington subscribe to the “Tocquevillian story”?
20. How does Martin Luther King justify civil disobedience? What is its
purpose, why is it necessary, what makes it moral and just? What makes
nonviolent civil disobedience effective? When might it not be?
21. Ynestra King sums up the need for ecofeminism in an epigram: “Women
have been culture’s sacrifice to nature.” Explain how, according to
King, (a) the oppression of women and the domination of nature are integrally
related, and (b) women are uniquely capable of leading the struggle to
“reconcile humanity with nature.”
22. How does Carson characterize the new forms of pollution?
23. What distinguishes Carson’s “other road” from the path of
insecticide-laden agricultural intensification? What are some examples of her
alternative model?
24. What is Simon and Kahn’s basic premise concerning the economy and the
environment?
25. How do Simon and Kahn respond to concern about species extinctions? about global
warming?
26. In “Fortress L.A.” Davis describes the destruction of
“democratic public space.” What does he think is impelling this
destruction? What are the principal means he identifies through which it is
being carried-out? Discuss some of the ways in which Davis analyzes the
“architectural semiotics” of exclusion. Why is public space
important? What do you think might be the consequences of its diminishment or
loss?