Historians

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Historians

by goelmohit2002 » Wed Jul 15, 2009 5:47 am
Hi All,

Can someone please tell in the below question why the answer is C and not A ? What is wrong with A ?

Historians sometimes forget that history is continually being made and experienced befire it is studied , interpreted ,and read. These latter activities have their own history, of course which may impinge in unexpected ways on public events. It is difficult to predict when “new posts” will overturn established historical interpretations and change the course of history.

In the fall of 1954, for example, C Vann Woodward delivered a lecture series at the University Of Virginia that challenged the prevailing dogma concerning the history, continuity and uniformity of racial segregation in the South. He argued that the Jim Crow laws of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries not only codified traditional practice but also were a determined effort to erase the considerable progress made by black people during and after reconstruction in the 1870’s. This revisionist view of Jim Crow legislation grew in part from the research that Woodland had done for the NAAP legal campaign during its preparation for Brown v Board of Education. The Supreme Court had issues its ruling in this epochal desegregation case a few months before Woodward’s lectures.

The lectures were soon published as a book, The Strange Career Of Jim Crow. Ten years later, in a preface of the second revised edition, Woodword confessed with ironic modesty that the first edition “had begun to suffer under some of the handicaps that might be expected in a history of the American Revolution published in 1776”. That was a bit like hearing Thomas Paine apologize for the timings of his pamphlet Common Sense, which had a comparable impact. Although Common Sense also had a mass leadership ,Paine had intended to reach and inspire : he was not a historian, and thus not concerned with accuracy or the dangers of historical anachronism. Yet, like Paine, Woodward had an unerring sense of the revolutionary moment and of how historical evidence that was crushing the dreams of new social possibilities. Martin Luther King Jr testified to the profound effect of The Strange Career Of Jim Crow on the civil rights movement by praising the book and quoting it frequently.



Which of the following is the best example of writing that is likely to be subject to the kinds of “handicaps” ? (See in bold)

1) A history of an auto manufacturing plant written by an employee during an auto buying boom.
2) A critique of a statewide school desegregation plan written by an elementary school teacher in that state.
3) A newspaper article assessing the historical importance of a US president written shortly after the president has taken office.
4) A scientific paper describing the benefits of a certain surgical technique written by the surgeon who developed the technique.
5) Diary entries narrating the events of a battle written by a soldier who participated in the battle.
Source: — Reading Comprehension |

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by scoobydooby » Wed Jul 15, 2009 6:54 am
the first edition “had begun to suffer under some of the handicaps that might be expected in a history of the American Revolution published in 1776
=> history of anything must account for everything related to that thing from start to end. history of anything written at the time of its start would not be complete. so C seems best.

A is out as we do not know if the auto company started at the time of the autoboom. the company may have existed since long before the boom and peaked at the boom. not really a handicap

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by goelmohit2002 » Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:20 am
scoobydooby wrote:the first edition “had begun to suffer under some of the handicaps that might be expected in a history of the American Revolution published in 1776
=> history of anything must account for everything related to that thing from start to end. history of anything written at the time of its start would not be complete. so C seems best.

A is out as we do not know if the auto company started at the time of the autoboom. the company may have existed since long before the boom and peaked at the boom. not really a handicap
Yes correct.....but how can we assume that auto company died out after the boom....

its history too can be far from over....

e.g. GM has filed bankruptcy now a days but it is still going on and its histrory is far over...

isn't it ?

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by aspirant_gmat » Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:27 am
'Handicap' here refers to the fact that Woodward’s declared the effects of the Jim Crow laws just few months after they were issued. So, he actually prejudged the effects of the laws.

3) A newspaper article assessing the historical importance of a US president written shortly after the president has taken office.

C here correctly represents the analogy as historical importance of a president is being judged shortly after he has taken office.

Conversly, in answer choice A history is being written during the occurence of an event.

So, C is a better(actually the only) choice here.

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by goelmohit2002 » Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:34 am
Can someone please tell what does the historical importance of president here refers....basically what I mean is this:

Let's say Obama has taken over the presidentship of US.

So historical importance was written shortly after he took over...means...

a) historical importance of Obama.(basically person)
b) historical importance of American President in general(basically post)

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by aspirant_gmat » Wed Jul 15, 2009 8:00 am
It means if somebody writes about the historical importance of Obama's presedential term or his overall contribution right after he swore in.
So, b in your list.

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by goelmohit2002 » Wed Jul 15, 2009 8:29 am
Thanks.

Then how can C be the answer....

American revolution started around 1770....sb wrote abt the history of American revolution in 1776....which was not yet over..it continued later too.....so later a lot of things were yet to come.....

But historical importance if the answer is B in the above case i.e. (historical importance of American President in general(basically post))....then Never ever president's of Americas history be over unless America dissolves(very unlikely)....

Or there is something that I am missing something here...

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by scoobydooby » Wed Jul 15, 2009 8:59 am
the historical importance should be a) among the two choices given. note the use of "after the president had taken office". "the" refers to a particular president say X and not all presidents in general.

for a complete history of something, that something must run its course long enough to allow the documentation of all relevant facts. one cant write a complete history of something still in its nascent stage.

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by goelmohit2002 » Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:09 am
scoobydooby wrote:the historical importance should be a) among the two choices given. note the use of "after the president had taken office". "the" refers to a particular president say X and not all presidents in general.

for a complete history of something, that something must run its course long enough to allow the documentation of all relevant facts. one cant write a complete history of something still in its nascent stage.
Thanks scooby....do u mean to say that in the example I gave above:

"a) historical importance of Obama.(basically person) "

is what option C talks about ?

Kindly tell...

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by aspirant_gmat » Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:04 pm
Well, I will try it once more.


Woodword confessed with ironic modesty that the first edition “had begun to suffer under some of the handicaps that might be expected in a history of the American Revolution published in 1776(when the revolution was still on)

This implies that the first adition of Woodword's book(which contains assessment about the impact of the laws) was published too soon after the Supreme Court's judgement on the Jim Crow laws.

In the same way:

3) A newspaper article assessing the historical importance of a US president written shortly after the president has taken office.

This implies that in the article historical importance of a US president is assessed too early, he hasn't even completed his term.

while in A, an employee just happens to write about an auto manufacturing plant during an auto buying boom, he is not necessarily assesing the importance of the plant.

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by goelmohit2002 » Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:54 pm
aspirant_gmat wrote: while in A, an employee just happens to write about an auto manufacturing plant during an auto buying boom, he is not necessarily assesing the importance of the plant.
Hi gmat_aspirant,

thanks.

why do we need to have "only" importance....why can't only plain history will work...i.e. just description...

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by aspirant_gmat » Thu Jul 16, 2009 2:14 am
A- It's like someone wrote about 9/11 incident when it occurecd
C- It's like someone is evaluating historical importance of 9/11 incident( consequences of the incident).

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by goelmohit2002 » Thu Jul 16, 2009 1:42 pm
scoobydooby wrote:the first edition “had begun to suffer under some of the handicaps that might be expected in a history of the American Revolution published in 1776
=> history of anything must account for everything related to that thing from start to end. history of anything written at the time of its start would not be complete. so C seems best.

A is out as we do not know if the auto company started at the time of the autoboom. the company may have existed since long before the boom and peaked at the boom. not really a handicap
Awesome Scooby !!!.

On rereading your argument makes complete sense.

Thanks a ton !!!

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by Spring2009 » Tue Jul 28, 2009 8:03 pm
My answer was C but my approach was different.
The name of the book was "the strange career of Jim Crow" so it should mention the career of someone (in the case of C, the president). Also the book could be compared with an article. C satisfied both.

Not sure this is the right approach even though I got the answer right.
Please tell me what you think.