midterm essays & answers

Short answers. Pick 6 for 3 points each. few sentences that answer the questions.
What is positive freedom? Who is it for? Examples?
“Capabilities” – providing ability & OPPORTUNITY to do things for whole population – universal education, health care, public transportation, parks, microcredit etc Progressives who believe “all men =” & believe poverty is mostly result of environment, & rich are not superior, believe in positive changes to environment for all
What is negative freedom? Who loves it and what are the usual results?
Right to be let alone. Result – laissez Faire economics – big gap rich & poor, politics corrupt by $$$ as in 1880’s & 1920’s & 1980’s & 2000’s
What did Adam Smith say about size of markets & division of labor & economic productivity? The Larger the market, the greater the division of labor and thus the more efficiency & economic growth
What are 2 kinds of side-effects of markets / trade called & give a few examples?
positive & negative externalities. Negative : pollution (energy taxes can help cure) & Positive: universal education (do for voting – helps economy), universal health care (do for humanitarian reasons, turns out to be cheaper, more efficient so saves auto jobs).
How did the way Winston Churchill divided up the mid-east, including Iraq, differ from the way Woodrow Wilson advocated? Oil imperialism – draw boundaries to include all the known oil vs Wilson’s self-determination – decided by experts on populations, languages, cultures & political history . Make a country that can be democratically ruled. Lincoln “House divided against itself cannot stand”
What happened in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1921 & why? “Black Wall Street” was burnt down in a huge race riot by Klanners who couldn’t stand that Blacks were thriving economically. This disproved the white trash’s most cherished valuable beliefs
How did the way alcoholism & poverty were viewed change from Social Darwinists to Progressives? SD’s thought poor and alcoholics inherently inferior, sinful, lazy, stupid, etc Progressives believe environments & opportunities were major factors – hard to get rich if you start working in a mine at 12 – easier if you inherit a few million and go to Yale. Bush43 “poor are lazy”
Medium answers. Give a bit more detail and more sentences . Pick 5 for 5 points each.
Compare Booker T Washington & WEB DuBois on Reconstruction, political rights & education. B T Washington said Blacks weren’t ready to rule in radical reconstruction (already disenfranchised by violence) so the right to vote could be compromised (why die?)– self-improvement & vocational education was the emphasis so Blacks could advance economically – become middle class in segregated communities.
DuBois wrote path-breaking history of reconstruction and said Blacks did better than white trash governments. Blacks must fight for all their rights including political and have an education opportunities appropriate for the “talented tenth” of leaders, political and cultural.
What were elements of Marcus Garvey’s program & how was it influenced by where he was from? Garvey was from Jamaica which had a history of successful slave revolts and black rule so any sense of inferiority was ridiculous. JAMAICA ruled mostly by “light” blacks in a “caste” system, He emphasized (1) Black pride in their African past (especially Ethiopia – only independent black-African nation and Egypt (2) “Africa for the Africans” so American blacks would have foreign advocates like the Irish and (3) no “caste” system distinguishing between light and dark African-Americans and (4) international black unity from Africa to Caribbean to US including (5) maybe Liberia as headquarters?
What did the Balfour Declaration say, why was it issued when it was, and what contradiction did it contain? (1) English government looks with favor on Jewish homeland in Palestine with (2) no prejudice to rights of current inhabitants. But (3) 2 peoples can’t own same land. (4) It was issued in 1917 for Jewish favor – since many believed Jews controlled the Bolshevik Revolution. A few Jews also had lotsa $$

Why is Imperialism much harder to pull off now than in the 1800’s? (1) media (can’t slaughter in private anymore)
(2) expectations of self-determination, people believe what US founders said about ruling your own country . (3) arms trade, everyone can get cool weapons now, no monopoly for Europeans (4) urbanization harder to suppress those in buildings than scattered in country

What different kinds of violence did African Americans experience in the South after the Civil War? What political & economic purposes were served? (1) Klan violence especially for (2) disenfranchising Blacks and (3) lynching for (4) economic or personal “uppity” behavior day to day, including wearing a military uniform or not stepping aside.

How did the Soviet / Comintern “Party Line” change in the 1930’s & why?
It was originally (1) “revolutionary” trying to debunk all other leftists including Socialists & NAACP. After Hitler came to power the line was (2) “popular Front” unity of all progressives (including New Deal, CIO, NAACP) in an anti-Fascist coalition because (3) debunking all other leftists had led to Hitler’s victory and his wiping out of all progressives including commies. After Hitler-Stalin Pact in 1939 it was (4) “who-ever-heard-of-anti-fascism” Hitler is OK & any westerner who says otherwise is a war-monger.

How did the ideal woman change from the middle-class model of the 1880’s (name?) to the Progressive Bloomer girl to the “New Woman” of the 1920’s? The middle class model of the 1880’s was the (1) “cult-of-true-womenhood” which emphasized (2) purity, piety, chastity & submissiveness . The (3) “Bloomer girl” of the progressive (and settlement house) era was often Lithe & athletic & more independent. More women had work and were interested in meaningful work. The (4) “New Women” of the “Roaring”1920’s partied-hearty and might be smoking and having a drink.

Long Essays. Pick 3 for 10 points each. Why did Imperialism & scientific racism happen to Southern Africa & South America instead of the other way around (to Europeans)?
Eurasia had (1) easily domesticable seeds (2) easily domesticable animals (3) similar latitudes & thus similar climates so seeds / plants are easily trade-able or transferable, These 3 make for (4) surplus food which allows for (5) division of labor & specialization & inventions from writing to metals to ceramics etc etc all the way to ocean going ships.
Eurasia’s advanced “extra food” civilizations could trade with each other (5) within large areas and share advances(6)- Southern Africa had no good rivers (7), Southern Africa & New World no draft animals & Bottlenecks (8) like Panana and Sahara for trade in general & North-South orientation which lead to dissimilar climates which doesn’t let domesticable plants be shared easily. Tropical diseases don’t allow domesticable animals to be shared in Southern Africa. (9)The concentrated populations & domesticable animals of Eurasia also create a breeding ground for deadly diseases which the New World peoples, with no domesticable animals and less concentrated populations do not develop immunities to. This meant many millions died when the Eurasians came, which made conquest much easier. (10) All these accidents meant Eurasians had the inventions & diseases to conquer the others, and having won, and having lots of cool inventions made Eurasians believe their races / countries were superior.

What were the underlying and more immediate causes of WWI?
Imperialism was the underlying cause. Because of the accidents of geography Europeans COULD conquer others. Many (Lodge, Churchill) believed thatconquering would make them richer. Most believed their material superiority was due to racial superiority so they deserved to control their inferiors, who might be dying off anyway. Some Eurasians thought their religions or their morals were superior. Competition for colonies led to arms races and suspicion. Suspicion led to alliances with promises to fight if the other was attacked. When Archduke Ferdinand was killed by Serbians their Russian allies were drawn into the fight when Austria demanded concessions from Serbia. Germany was an ally of the Austrians , France and England allies of the Russians. Slow to mobilize Russia had to start getting ready just in case …. And Germany had to get ready to hold off Russia and attack France quickly before Russia could get really organized. The escalation of threats & mobilization schedules led to a war noone wanted or thought was coming.

What happened at the end of WWI and in the Versailles Peace Treaty that helped lead to WWII?
The Allies never marched through Berlin as General Pershing suggested, so Hitler believed & convinced others that Jews (in the Weimar government) stabbed Germany in the back when Germany really wasn’t defeated. The total collapse of German army after the war and the absence of Russia also meant that Wilson had no effective negotiation allies to make the settlement more like the generous 14 points he intended. Germans were pissed at French & English nastiness compared to promises of 14 points.
German and European economy hurt by Reparations which could only be paid with a delicate series of loans to Germany which went to France & England which paid back American loans ... but noone helped rebuild delicate economies.
The defeat of the League in America insured that no-one could take effective action to stop Hitler (or Italy or Japan) so aggression paid for a long time and became a habit.
As Keynes noted in “Econ Consequences of Peace” breaking up German territory & industries (especially steel & coal) and imposing harsh reparations meant economic problems which make it much easier for Hitler to stir up anger & hate.
The stolen teritory also gave Hitler good excuses for aggression.

America used to have depressions regularly, but as economic thinking advanced we figured out how to prevent them. Starting with the 1893 depression give an outline of emerging theories from Gold to Keynes and mention how they fixed previous depressions. Mention Fiscal & Monetary policy.

The Gold Standard meant currency was limited by gold discoveries. By 1890’s there wasn’t enough currency to maintain much-increased economic activity. Less than ½ amount of $$$ per-capita, leading to huge deflation. Debtors who had to pay debts in money worth twice as much, and the poor were hurt most, as the dollars of the rich become twice as valuable. The depression of 1893 was caused in part by this lack of currency which limited consumption . A huge income skew between rich & poor reinforced this under-consumption. The income skew came in part because taxes moved from progressive income (on rich) to tariffs where the poor (consumers) paid more.
The Federal Reserve was designed to prevent this kind of depression by making the money supply match the level of economic activity. The Fed did this by monetary policy which includes printing money & setting interest rates. Printing $ and lowering interest rates would combat deflation. Raising interest rates & printing less would combat inflation (inflation happened in Germany in the 1930’s when it took a wheelbarrow of $$$ to buy stuff).
Keynes said the economy might settle at an activity level less than full employment and then you needed to do public works or give welfare $$ or otherwise “prime the pump” economically, not just match the low activity level . FDR didn’t read Keynes in 1938, when cutting relief & not running a deficit caused a recession which made the deficit even bigger.