Harvard. Socialism, Communism, etc. Course Description and Final Exam. Carver, 1908-1909

“Plans of social amelioration” were considered important enough to include in the economics curriculum at Harvard from early on. In the hands of the conservative professor Thomas Nixon Carver the doctrines of socialism, communism, and Georgeism were introduced to Harvard students in order for them to see the errors of critics of free-enterprise market economies, a.k.a. capitalism.

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Previously posted

Pre-Carver:

• Exams and enrollment figures for economics of socialism and communism taught by Edward Cummings (1893-1900).

Carver’s courses

• 1901-02. co-taught with Frederick Alexander Bushée. Economics 14. Socialism and Communism
• 1902-03. Includes exam with the linked reading list.
• 1904-05
• 1905-06
• [1906-07, on European sabbatical]
• 1907-08.
• 1910. Brief bibliography for serious students on the economics of socialism
• 1919-20, second term. Economics 7^b. Socialism.  [Final exam]

Post-Carver:

• 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
1908-09

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

Total 44: 7 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 14 Juniors, 7 Sophomore, 1 Freshman, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 67.

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Course Announcement
1908-09

Economics 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 & view to getting & 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. [The Distribution of Wealth]

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. V, No. 19
(1 June 1908). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1908-09, pp. 49-50.

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ECONOMICS 14b
Year-end Examination, 1908-09

1. How would you distinguish Socialism from Communism, from Anarchism, and from the single tax?
2. Upon what grounds do the Marxian Socialists base their belief that Socialism is inevitable?
3. Compare the socialistic theory of commercial crises with that of Henry George.
4. Compare the views of Karl Marx and of Henry George upon the source of interest, or the income of the capitalist.
5. Discuss the question: Is interest earned?
6. Discuss the question: Is rent earned?
7. Which of the communistic experiments in the United States seems to you most interesting? Why?
8. Outline, briefly, Tolstoi’s theory of “passive resistance.”

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, 1909), p. 45.

Image Source: Andy Piascik, “Remembering the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike,” September 8, 2018. From The Africanist Press website.