Historians sometimes forget that history is continually being made and

Q2, Explained

To answer this question, let’s take a closer look at the text:

"In the fall of 1954, for example, C. Vann Woodward delivered a lecture series at the University of Virginia which challenged the prevailing dogma concerning the history, continuity, and uniformity of racial segregation in the South.”

"Concerning" means "about." If I mention that I have a belief concerning cat videos, I haven't told you what the content of my belief is. Maybe I love cat videos, or maybe I hate them. Perhaps I have an interesting theory about cat videos and why they’re so popular. Likewise, when the author mentions “the prevailing dogma concerning the history, continuity, and uniformity of racial segregation in the South," we have learned nothing about what the prevailing dogma was. We only know that there was some dominant belief about the history, continuity, and uniformity of racial segregation in the South. Let's keep reading.

"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.

Aha! Vann Woodward argued that Jim Crow not only codified traditional practice, but also meant to erase the progress that black people had made. His argument says that Jim Crow wasn't just turning traditions into law (this was the existing belief about the history, continuity, and uniformity of racial segregation). According to Van Woodward, Jim Crow was also undoing progress that black people had had made during Reconstruction (this was the revisionist view that made a big impact on how people interpreted the continuity of Jim Crow as a traditional practice).

To help understand the logical structure here, consider the following example:

• Say that the prevailing dogma about butter is that it is bad for your heart. To keep things simple, let's say that this is the only bad thing about butter according to the prevailing view.
• You then conduct a bunch of research related to butter and conclude that butter also kills brain cells (let's hope not!).
• You then might say, "Butter is NOT ONLY bad for your heart BUT ALSO bad for your brain!"
• The "not only" part was the accepted dogma, while the "but also" was something new. This new discovery challenges the existing view, which is that butter is only bad for your heart.
• Note that you are NOT saying that butter is good for your heart, but you are still challenging the prevailing dogma.

Similarly:

• The prevailing dogma saw Jim Crow as a continuation of traditional, discriminatory practices.
• Vann Woodward argued that Jim Crow was also a reversal of Reconstruction.

Let's make sure we review every answer choice and confirm whether it matches this understanding.


This matches what we’ve read. At the time, people believed that Jim Crow laws had codified (i.e. made into law) traditional practices of discrimination against black people. Vann Woodward challenged this belief in the historical continuity of racial segregation by arguing that Jim Crow laws also erased the prior progress black people had made during Reconstruction.


Was the point of Jim Crow to reduce differences between individual states? No. Vann Woodward challenged a widely held belief in the historical continuity of Jim Crow, not the geographic continuity of Jim Crow. Eliminate (B).


This is what Vann Woodward argued, not the dogma he argued against. Eliminate (C).


Both Vann Woodward and people of his time believed that Jim Crow had codified, not disrupted, traditional practices of racial segregation. Eliminate (D).


There is no mention of "earlier" Jim Crow Laws anywhere in the passage. Eliminate (E).

(A) is the best choice available.

Q4 Choice D, Explained

Remember that the question asks us to pick the choice that is not a similarity between Vaan Woodward and Paine suggested in the passage.

• Vaan Woodward's "The Strange Career of Jim Crow" had a significant effect on the civil rights movement. According to the passage, MLK Jr. himself testified to this effect.
• Paine's "Common Sense" had "a comparable impact" on the American Revolution.

(D) is backed up by the passage, so we eliminate choice (D).

Q5 Choices A and B, Explained

Approbation is another way of saying "praise." Qualified has multiple meanings. When used to describe a statement that someone is making, it means “limited” — not “meeting the necessary qualifications.” For instance:

• “Bob qualified his praise of the film with a critique of a major plot hole.”
• “Maria wasn’t happy with the candidate’s debate performance, so she offered a qualified endorsement that didn’t attract any new voters. On the other hand, Reema’s unqualified praise for the candidate motivated her entire neighborhood to show up and vote.”

The author is praising Vann Woodward’s work, but this praise doesn’t come with significant limitations or doubts. It’s consistently positive, as Vann Woodward’s lectures provide a great example for the author’s point, and the author clearly has a high opinion of the impact these lectures made on the events of their time. That’s why we eliminate (B).

Now let's check on choice (A). "Regard" is another way of saying "attention" or "consideration," and the regard that this author pays to Vann Woodward is surely respectful. This is more in line with the author’s attitude than “qualified approbation,” so we’re sticking with (A).

Q6, Explained

Check out this earlier post.

Thanks for the questions, everybody! I hope that the answers make some sense.