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Exam Questions Harvard Sociology

Harvard. Enrollment, course description, semester exams in sociology. Carver and Bristol, 1910-1911

Carver lists sixteen items in his chapter on sociology in A guide to reading in social ethics and allied subjects (1910), by Francis G. Peabody et al.

An obituary for Carver’s assistant for the course, Lucius Moody Bristol (Harvard PhD in Social Ethics, 1913), was published in Social Forces Vol. 32, Issue 1 (October 1953), p. 90.

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Sociology exams from earlier years.

1892-93 (taught by E. Cummings)
1893-94 (taught by E. Cummings)
1894-95 (taught by E. Cummings)
1895-96 (taught by E. Cummings)
1896-97 (taught by E. Cummings)
1897-98 (taught by E. Cummings)
1898-99 (taught by E. Cummings)
1899-1900 (taught by E. Cummings)
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) Includes the reading list for the course and additional biographical information.
1905-06 (taught by T. N. Carver)
1906-07 (taught by J. A. Field)
1907-08 (taught by T. N. Carver)
1908-09 (taught by T. N. Carver and C. W. Thompson)
1909-10 (taught by T. N. Carver and J. S. Davis)

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Course Announcement and Description
1910-11

  1. Principles of Sociology. — Theories of Social Progress. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 1.30. Professor Carver, and an assistant.

An analytical study of social life and of the factors and forces which hold society together and give it an orderly development. The leading social institutions will also be studied with a view to finding out their true relation to social well-being and progress.

Spencer’s Principles of Sociology [Vol. 1; Vol. II; Vol. III] and Carver’s Sociology and Social Progress will be read in full. Students are expected to take part in the discussion of the books read and of the lectures delivered.

Course 3 is open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1.

Source: History and Political Science, Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1910-11. Published in the Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. VI,I No. 23 (June 21, 1910), p. 63

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Course Enrollment
1910-11

Economics 3. Professor Carver, assisted by Mr.[Lucius Moody] Bristol [Ph.D. 1913] — Principles of Sociology. Theories of Social Progress.

Total 61: 8 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 27 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 12Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-1911 p. 50.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 3
Mid-year Examination, 1910-11

  1. What is the bearing of Weisman’s theory of heredity upon the problem of the transmissibility of acquired characters?
  2. What is Spencer’s opinion as to the methods of administering charity?
  3. How does the transition from the militant to the industrial type of society affect the liberty of the individual?
  4. What is the relation of our economic concept of wealth to the general problem of adaptation?
  5. How does Spencer explain the origin of the belief in ghosts?
  6. What is meant by the power of idealization, and how does it affect the process of adaptation?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1910-11.

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ECONOMICS 3
Year-end Examination, 1910-11

  1. Comment upon the following: —
    “Already increased facilities for divorce point to the probability that whereas, while permanent monogamy was being evolved, the union by law (originally the act of purchase) was regarded as the essential part of marriage and the union by affection as non essential; and whereas at present the union by law is thought the more important and the union by affection the less important, there will come a time when the union by affection will be held of primary moment and the union by law as of secondary moment: whence reprobation of marital relations in which the union by affection has dissolved.”
  2. Trace the origin, separation, and specialization of the leading professions.
  3. What is the leading idea of the selection entitled “War and Economics”? What do you think of it?
  4. What is the leading idea of the selection entitled “The Prolongation of Infancy”? What do you think of it?
  5. What, according to Nordau, are the symptoms and the causes of increasing degeneration in recent times?
  6. What is the relation of morality to the problem of adaptation?
  7. What are the leading phases of the struggle among the individuals of the social group called the state?
  8. What is meant by the storing of social energy, and by what means is it accomplished?
  9. Discuss the question: Is monarchy or democracy the more highly evolved form of government?
  10. What do you regard as the most important thing you have learned in this course?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11 (HUC 7000.25) Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1911), pp. 41-42.

Image Source: Thomas Nixon Carver from Harvard Class Album 1913 (colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror).