Live GMAT classes with Target Test Prep start Nov 1 and Nov 21. First class free.

See classes
Target Test Prep · GMAT

Choose how you want to prepare

Learn live with an expert or move at your own pace. Every option includes the complete TTP study system.

Newsweek Readers’ Choice Awards 2026 winner: Target Test Prep, #1 Test Prep

Target Test Prep was voted #1 Best Test Prep in the 2026 Newsweek Readers’ Choice™ Awards.

★★★★★5.0563 reviews
GMATLiveTeachStarts Nov 1
Josh Braslow, Target Test Prep GMAT expert
LIVE ONLINE CLASSES

Get Ready for GMAT Test Day Faster with Live Online Classes

with Josh Braslow, 20+ years in test prep

Nov 1 · Josh Braslow
Sun · 1:00 to 4:00 PM ET
Nov 22 · Josh Braslow
Sun · 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM ET
Included
40 hours of live online classes + 6 months of TTP OnDemand
  • Attend the first class for free
  • Every class is recorded, so you never fall behind
View classes & enroll
Limited seats availableTarget Test Prep
EALiveTeachOnDemand5 seats leftStart anytime
EXECUTIVE ASSESSMENT

Target Test Prep EA OnDemand

Self-paced EA prep. Study on your schedule.

Logan Thompson
EXECUTIVE ASSESSMENT

Sep 6 to Dec 6, 2026

with Logan Thompson

165+ EA score guarantee
$05-day trial no automatic billing
Schedule
Sun · 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM ET
Included
40 hours of live online classes plus six months of access to the complete TTP EA OnDemand course.
  • 165+ EA Score Guarantee
  • 4,100+ Quant, Verbal, and Integrated Reasoning practice questions
  • 400+ hours of in-depth video lessons
  • 3,000+ step-by-step video solutions
View EA class & enroll Start free 5-day trial
Limited cohort · enrollment openTrial includes full course accessTarget Test Prep
GMATOnDemandStart anytime
SELF-PACED MASTERCLASS

Target Test Prep GMAT OnDemand

Complete access from day one. Study on your schedule.

715+ score guarantee
$0to start then $127/mo
  • Personalized study plan and analytics
  • Thousands of lessons and practice questions

Compare the format, schedule, and included access before enrolling. Prices and seat counts shown reflect the supplied offer details.

The new school of political

Expert replies
by YellowSapphire » Mon Jul 26, 2010 12:44 am

Timer

00:00

Answers

A

B

C

D

E

Stats

Difficulty—

The new school of political history that emerged in the 1960's and 1970's sought to go beyond the traditional focus of political historians on leaders and government institutions by examining directly the political practices of ordinary citizens. Like the old approach, however, this new approach excluded women. The very techniques these historians used to uncover mass political behavior in the nineteenth century United States-quantitative analyses of election returns, for example-were useless in analyzing the political activities of women, who were denied the vote until 1920.

By redefining "political activity," historian Paula Baker has developed a political history that includes women. She concludes that among ordinary citizens, political activism by women in the nineteenth century prefigured trends in twentieth century politics. Defining "politics" as "any action taken to affect the course of behavior of government or of the community," Baker
concludes that, while voting and holding office were restricted to men, women in the nineteenth century organized themselves into societies committed to social issues such as temperance and poverty. In other words, Baker contends, women activists were early practitioners of nonpartisan, issue oriented politics and thus were more interested in enlisting
lawmakers, regardless of their party affiliation, on behalf of certain issues than in ensuring that one party or another won an election. In the twentieth century, more men drew closer to women's ideas about politics and took up modes of issue
oriented politics that Baker sees women as having pioneered.

The information in the passage suggests that a pre1960's political historian would have been most likely to undertake which of the following studies?

(A) An analysis of voting trends among women voters of the 1920's
(B) A study of male voters' gradual ideological shift from party politics to issue-oriented politics
(C) A biography of an influential nineteenth-century minister of foreign affairs
(D) An analysis of narratives written by previously unrecognized women activists
(E) A study of voting trends among naturalized immigrant laborers in a nineteenth-century logging camp

OA: C Is it because they have mentioned "leaders and government."

Can someone elaborate it?
Yellow Sapphire
Join the discussion
Source: — Reading Comprehension |

by tanviet » Tue Jul 27, 2010 1:22 am
Traditional focus on leaders and government institutions is mentioned in the text. we infer that the traditional historians will study biography of minister.

C is correct.
Join the discussion

Re: The new school of political

by BTG Expert Team » Fri Oct 30, 2026 9:04 am
What we see: a Reading Comprehension inference question. It asks which study a historian working before the 1960's would most likely choose. The poster asks whether the reason is the phrase "leaders and government." Yes, it is, and here is how to use that phrase.

Step 1. Find what the passage says about historians before the 1960's.
What we see: the new school "emerged in the 1960's and 1970's" and tried "to go beyond the traditional focus of political historians on leaders and government institutions."
What it means: the "traditional" historians are the ones who came before the new school. So a pre-1960's historian studies leaders and government institutions.
What we do and why: we turn that phrase into one test: "Is this study about a leader or a government institution?" A test built from the passage's own words keeps us from guessing what an old-fashioned historian might like.

Step 2. Find what that older focus left out.
What we see: the new historians looked at "the political practices of ordinary citizens," and the passage adds that "like the old approach," the new one excluded women.
What it means: ordinary citizens and women both sit outside the older focus.
What we do and why: we can now cut any choice built around ordinary voters or women, without reading it twice.

Step 3. Run each choice through the test.
What we see:
(A) studies women voters. That is women and mass voting, so it fails.
(B) studies male voters moving toward issue-oriented politics. Those are ordinary citizens, and this is the shift Baker writes about, so it fails.
(D) studies women activists. This is Baker's kind of work, the opposite of the older focus, so it fails.
(E) studies voting by immigrant laborers. Those are ordinary citizens, so it fails.
What it means: only the biography of a minister of foreign affairs is about a leader inside a government.
What we do and why: we pick it because it is the only choice that passes the test.

The trap: (E) feels old-fashioned because it is set in the nineteenth century and mentions voting. But the date of the subject does not matter here. Studying how ordinary people voted, using tools such as "quantitative analyses of election returns," is what the passage says the new school did.

Faster way: once you read "leaders and government institutions," scan the choices for a leader or a government office. Only one choice names either.

Takeaway: when a question asks what an older or "traditional" group would do, find the one phrase that describes that group, turn it into a yes or no test, and run every choice through it.

Answer: C
Join the discussion