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Exam Questions Harvard Radical Socialism Suggested Reading

Harvard. Methods of Social Reform. Readings, final exam. Carver, 1909-1910

Columbia standing with Puck's figure for the "Independent" party/vote and Puck who is holding a design drawing for a statue labeled "Reform", which is under construction behind them by "D.W. Everett, Rev. J.F. Clarke, Beecher, Col. The. Lyman, Schurz, H. White, G.F. Williams, Curtis, [and] Jones". The building blocks are labeled "Scratchem 1879, Anti-3rd Termism 1880, Tidal Wave Elections 1882, Civil Service Reform Bill, [and] Republican Revolt 1884"

The Economics in the Rear-view Mirror collection of artifacts in the form of course readings, syllabi, and exams is increased with this post that provides material from the economics course Methods of Social Reform — Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax taught by Thomas Nixon Carver during the second term of the academic year 1909-10 at Harvard.

At the risk of being unfair to an academic scribbler of a few years back who may be pronounced not guilty in the illiberal mania of our own times, I believe Harvard Professor Thomas Nixon Carver (1865-1961) could easily have been the sort of professor Turning Point USA would have embraced and promoted. 

Professor Carver’s own words about his course on Methods of Social Reform are fair game to quote (Prove me wrong):

The half course on methods of social reform attracted every kind of radical which the student body could furnish. They came armed with all the stock arguments against the existing economic system. Its defects were patent enough, while their untried schemes had not revealed to the naked eye their own defects. By listening patiently to their indictments, maintaining a reasonable attitude, and adopting the Socratic method of free discussion, I was able to steer the course, not to the satisfaction of the extreme radicals, but to that of the majority of the successive classes.

Source: Thomas Nixon Carver. Recollections of an Unplanned Life. Los Angeles: The Ward Ritchie Press, 1949. Page 172.

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Previously posted

Pre-Carver:
Carver’s courses

Post-Carver:

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Course Announcement and Description
1909-10

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

A 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 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 the Single Tax Movement, of State Socialism and the public ownership of monopolistic enterprises, and of Christian Socialism, so called.

This course is open only to those who have passed satisfactorily in Course 14a.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VI, No. 29 (23 July 1909). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1909-10, pp. 53-54.

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ECONOMICS 14b
TOPICS AND REFERENCES

Starred references are prescribed.
Double starred references will be used as a basis for class-room discussion.

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 Cabot. Voyage en Icarie.
  6. William Morris. News from Nowhere.
  7. Edward Bellamy. Looking Backward.
  8. Laurence Gronlund. The Coöperative Commonwealth.
  9. H. G. Wells. A Modern Utopia.
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. William Graham. Socialism, New and Old.
  7. Peixotto. The French Revolution and Modern French Socialism.
  8. Wm. B. Guthrie. Socialism before the French Revolution.
  9. M. Hillquit. History of Socialism in the United States.
B
EXPOSITORY AND CRITICAL
  1. **J. E. Le Rossignol. Orthodox Socialism.
  2. *Albert Schaeffle. The Quintessence of Socialism.
  3. Albert Schaeffle. The Impossibility of Social Democracy.
  4. **Karl Marx. Capital.
  5. *Karl Marx and Frederic Engels. The Manifest of the Communist Party.
  6. Frederic Engels. Socialism, Utopian and Scientific.
  7. E. C. K. Gonner. The Socialist Philosophy of Rodbertus.
  8. E. C. K. Gonner. The Socialist State.
  9. Bernard Shaw and others. The Fabian Essays in Socialism.
  10. The Fabian Tracts.
  11. R. T. Ely. Socialism: an Examination of its Nature, Strength and Weakness.
  12. Edward Bernstein. Ferdinand Lassalle.
  13. Henry M. Hyndman. The Economics of Socialism.
  14. Sidney and Beatrice Web. Problems of Modern Industry.
  15. Gustave Simonson. A Plain Examination of Socialism.
  16. Werner Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement in the Nineteenth Century.
  17. Émile Vandervelde. Collectivism.
  18. R. Flint. Socialism.
  19. A. Labriola. Essays on the Materialistic Conception of History.
  20. E. de Laveleye. The Socialism of Today.
  21. P. J. Proudhon. What is Property?
  22. W. D. P. Bliss. A Handbook of Socialism
  23. John Spargo. Socialism
ANARCHISM
  1. Max Stirner (pseudonym for Kaspar Schmidt). Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum.
  2. *Leo Tolstoi. The Slavery of Our Times.
  3. William Godwin. Political Justice.
  4. P. Kropotkin. The Scientific Basis of Anarchy. Nineteenth Century, 21: 238.
  5. P. Kropotkin. The Coming Anarchy. Nineteenth Century, 22: 149.
  6. Elisée Reclus. Anarchy. Contemporary Review, 14: 627.
  7. E. V. Zenker. Anarchism, a Criticism and History.
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 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.
THE SINGLE TAX
  1. **Henry George. Progress and Poverty.
  2. Henry George. Our Land and Land Policy.
  3. Alfred Russell Wallace. Land Nationalization.
  4. Thomas G. Shearman. Natural Taxation.
  5. Louis F. Post. The Single Tax.
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. HUC 8522.2.1. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1. Folder: 1909-1910.

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Course Enrollment
1909-10

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

Total 59: 14 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 18 Juniors, 5 Sophomore, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 44.

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ECONOMICS 14b
Year-End Examination, 1909-10

  1. State and discuss the doctrine of “Evolution through class struggle.”
  2. What does Mackaye mean by “conditional compensation,” and how does he propose that it shall be put into practice?
  3. Give a brief account of the origin of the Social Democratic party in Germany.
  4. What is the difference between Utopian and “scientifie” Socialism?
  5. What problem did Henry George attempt to solve in his Progress and Poverty? Did he solve it? Explain your answer.
  6. Is the single tax a step in the direction of Socialism? Explain your answer.
  7. Why does Fillebrown think that the single tax would improve the conditions on Cornhill Street, Boston? Is he justified in his belief?
  8. Discuss the question: Would the single tax be confiscation?

 Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1910), pp. 48-49.

Image Source: “Men may come, and men may go; but the work of reform shall go on forever” by J. Keppler in Puck (5 November 1884). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.