The new school of political history that emerged in the 1960’s and

P1- focus on ordinary citizens; women are denied; why ? two sides.
P2- study by PB - women involvement at diff level;
Main point - historians are avoiding dtudies on women but PB broke the jinx with her study.

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) enumerate reason why both traditional scholarly methods and newer scholarly methods have limitations - no
(B) identify a shortcoming in a scholarly approach and describe an alternative approach - closest in the lot.
(C) provide empirical data to support a long-held scholarly assumption - no
(D) compare two scholarly publications on the basis of their authors’ backgrounds - no
(E) attempt to provide a partial answer to a long-standing scholarly dilemma - no
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2. The passage suggests which of the following concerning the techniques used by the new political historians described in the first paragraph of the passage?
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.

(D) They were of more use in analyzing the political behavior of nineteenth-century voters than in analyzing the political activities of those who could not vote during that period. -

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3. It can be inferred that the author of the passage quotes Baker directly in the second paragraph primarily in order to
anchor - PB
PT - she did something that previously mentioned historian avoided completly.

(B) differentiate between a novel definition and traditional definitions - i chose this one cause of the vocab used in it. moreover, it is showing contrast with the traditional theory.
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4. According to the passage, Paula Baker and the new political historians of the 1960’s and 1970’s shared which of the following?
PT - shared should be common. must be in P2. - need to look for the points for which PB and new political historian agreed. one thing is that both are concerned with ordinary citizens. 1st sentence of P1 + 1st sentence of p2

(E) An emphasis on the political involvement of ordinary citizens
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5. Which of the following best describes the structure of the first paragraph of the passage?
Mainly this one is concerned about old vs new approach, however not focused on women's status.
(A) Two scholarly approaches are compared, and a shortcoming common to both is identified. - closest.

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6. The information in the passage suggests that a pre-1960’s political historian would have been most likely to undertake which of the following studies?
something that exists in this era. focus of political historians on leaders and government institutions
(C) A biography of an influential nineteenth-century minister of foreign affairs - focus on some leader.

Why is the answer B for Q3?

I eliminated B because there was no differentiation between definitions. What is the traditional definition and what is the novel definition here? Or is there, am I missing something?
Selected A without proper justification as I was able to eliminate C, D, E along with B.

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.


Can someone please explain what this sentence exactly means.
I cannot understand the use of enlisting in this sentence.
The women enlisted lawmakers on behalf of certain issues.
What does this mean?
DO the lawmakers represent the different issues OR
enlisting is used in a different sense over here.

Thank you for your reply in advance.

GMATNinja
daagh
workout
DmitryFarber

Nitesh
Enlisting here means securing; what are they trying to secure? The support of those lawmakers who would champion the women's causes, regardless of whether they were Republicans or Democrats or Conservatives or Labour. In essence, according to the Baker, women were very focused on their vision and mission.
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There's been some good discussion of certain pieces of Q3, but there still seems to be confusion around the question as a whole, so let's take a thorough look at it.


Well, why did the author write the second paragraph in the first place? To explain how Baker's redefinition of "political activity" provides a greater understanding of women's political activity in American history.

Now, how do the direct quotes from Baker fit into this purpose?


The structure of this P2 shows us a few things:

• Baker redefined "political activity." This means "political activity" had a previous meaning, and Baker gave it a new meaning.
• She defined that new meaning as “any action taken to affect the course of behavior of government or of the community" (as opposed to only voting and holding office).
• Once the author makes this distinction clear, then the author can more fully examine how women fit into American political history (from which they've been previously excluded).

So, getting back to our question: Why does the author bring up these quotes from Baker?

To give new meaning to the phrase "political activity." This redefinition then enables the author to spend the rest of P2 explaining presenting a fresh interpretation of women's political activity in the U.S. They were issue-oriented activists before they were voters, and this type of political activity foreshadowed a similar behavior among men the U.S. in the 20th century.

Now let's eliminate any answer choice that doesn't match our understanding of the quotations and how they fit into the paragraph.


Carolyn has already explained why we reject this answer choice. In agreement with her explanation, I'd ask the following:

• Is the author quoting Baker in order to clarify a position?
• Is the author quoting Baker in order to clarify a position?
• Is the author quoting Baker to then provide an alternative to the position that the author just clarified?

We can only pick (A) if the answer to every question above is "yes." And this simply isn't the case. The author quotes Baker to give new meaning to a phrase. Then, the author explains the significance of this new meaning. "Clarify" is a stretch, "position" is a stretch, and "provide an alternative to the position" is totally off-track. So we'll eliminate (A).


This matches our reading precisely. Baker's quote is literally provided to explain her redefinition of "political activity." The second paragraph was written to show us how Baker's new definition changes the way that women's political activity can be examined and understood. Let's keep (B) around and continue working through the other choices.


This quote, paragraph, and passage, have nothing to do with different generations of scholars agreeing on any kind of point. If anything, the quote is used to illustrate where and how Baker and the author disagree with other scholars. Eliminate (C).


Nope. Nope, nope, nope. The author is definitely not writing the second paragraph to tell us about Bakers' "prose style." Get outta here, answer choice (D)!


As I mentioned earlier, we're told that Paula Baker redefined “political activity.” Baker's definition of politics was different from the previously accepted definition (voting and holding office). So even if the first paragraph presented a definition, Baker's definition certainly did not AMPLIFY the traditional definition. It was, in fact, a redefinition. Eliminate (E).

I hope this helps!
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6/6 10 min total 3min to read. Love history passages because they are easy to comprehend as opposed to science passages that contain some complex terms. Questions 3 and 5 were the trickiest to me but POE helped. If anyone has specific questions pertaining to the passage, feel free to reach out.

The paragraph starts by telling us that Baker redefined "political activity", indicating that Baker defined things differently than her predecessors/peers. We then get a specific example when the passage cites Baker's new (novel) definition of "politics": “any action taken to affect the course of behavior of government or of the community.” Baker is quoted to communicate her precise definition of politics and to emphasize that her definition differed from previous definitions.

This fits with (B): "It can be inferred that the author of the passage quotes Baker directly in the second paragraph primarily in order to differentiate between a novel definition and traditional definitions".
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Passage Map:
p1: to discuss similiarities and difference between new and old school political history, and their shortcoming - lack of info on women
p2: To intro a more recent historian's work that accounts for some shortcomings of the former historians

Question 1
A is incorrect because the passage doesn't focus on the reasons why the scholarly methods are incorrect, it merely states the shortcoming then provides the work of Baker, an alternate that accounts for the shortcoming
B accounts captures what I mentioned above -thus is correct
C No. Cannot be supported
D No, author's backgrounds are never compared
E The issue is no where defined as long-standing, and it would be hard to argue that baker's approach is 'partial'

Question 2
A is incorrect because no where is biographies mentioned
B We can't determine if the historians were reacting to political historians
C There's no reference to the 19th Century anywhere....19xx = 20th century
D Yes. We can infer this since we are told the techniques are "useless in analyzing the political activities of women" who couldn't vote
E no. No where are we told of the intention of why they were devised.

Question 3
The author states that Baker redefines "political activity" in the first sentence of the second paragraph. The author then states "Defining "politics" as "BAKERS DEFINITION", Baker concludes that..."

So we can ultimately see that Baker's definition is quoted to redefine an older term - "political history"
A is incorrect because no alternate is provided
B . I got this incorrect. But I see that if I had interpreted the first few sentences of the second paragraph more carefully and slowly I would have transpired my interpretation denoted above to selecting this.
C - if a new definition is provided then Baker must not have agreed with the older definition.
D - No. Style? What?
E - I thought this was the answer as it wasn't apparently clear to me that Baker's definition was 'Redefining" as quoted by the author - missed this completely- obviously if Baker is redefining then she can't be amplifying an existing definition

Question 4
E is quite apparently common. The other answers can be eliminated fairly easily. E is clear as we are told that "new school"..historians focus on "practices of ordinary citizens" and we are also told that Baker "concludes that among ordinary citizens" leading us to interpret that Baker focused on ordinary citizens as well.

Question 5
A is correct as scholarly approaches are in fact compared - New and Old - and the shortcoming -failure to include women - is identified and common to both
B - is incorrect as these thoughts aren't rival. A third is stated, not alluded to.
C is incorrect because no corrective approach is called for
D is incorrect because no counter arguments are given
E is incorrect because no political trends vis-à-vis historical era are described

Question 6
We get our information to solve this question in the first sentence: "The new school of political history that emerged.. sought to GO BEYOND the traditional focus of political historians on leaders and government institutions".

Thus pre-1960s political historians focused on Leaders and Government institutions

A is incorrect because women weren't even able to vote
B although I selected this answer I see that it's incorrect as we cannot infer the historians' focus outside of what we are told - which is that they focused on leaders and institutions
C is correct as it provides an example of a focus on a leader - "minister of foreign affairs"
D is incorrect because women weren't even in the scene
E is incorrect because it cannot be supported from what information we have.

Hi GMATNinja



Where in the pessage do we know that previously accepted definiton was voting and holding office?

Thanks.

Paula Baker's definition of politics included “any action taken to affect the course of behavior of government or of the community." This broader definition captured political activity performed by women, whose contributions were excluded by historians following an older definition of politics.

By contrast, these previous historians used techniques that were NOT able to capture the contributions of women. For instance, they relied on election returns to give them insight about political activity. These voting records would definitely exclude the impact of women, who did not have the right to vote.

So, while it's not stated explicitly in the passage that the previously accepted definition of political activity was voting and holding office, the contrast set up by the author allows us to infer that Baker introduced a broader, more inclusive definition, which differed from the previous, narrower definition that excluded women.

Overall, it is clear that Baker is not "amplifying" the older definition, but is instead is changing it to be more inclusive.

I hope that helps!
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GMATNinja Can you please explain why B is wrong in question 4?

Question 4

In paragraph 1, we see that the new political historians of the 1960’s and 1970’s “sought to go beyond the traditional focus of political historians on leaders and government institutions.” Instead they wanted to focus on the “political practices of ordinary citizens.” However, their work excluded women.

In paragraph 2, we see that Paula Baker developed a political history that also focuses on ordinary citizens, but “includes women.”

Right off the bat, we notice that both the 1970’s political historians and Paula Baker want to focus on ordinary citizens, which lines up nicely with answer choice (E). But why is (B) wrong?

What does answer choice (B) mean by “political theory?” Well, it seems that both Paula Baker and the 1970’s political historians are developing their own theories of political history, so it wouldn’t make sense to say they "disregard political theory" in general.

From another angle – it’s true that both Baker and the historians are revising the traditional focus of political historians (i.e. on government institutions). But that doesn’t mean they’re disregarding political theory in general – that’s way too broad a statement. So (B) is wrong.

I hope that helps!
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The OA is option A to Q5.
(A) Two scholarly approaches are compared, and a shortcoming common to both is identified.
However, the 1st para clearly states-"Like the old approach, however, this new approach excluded women."
So, both the approaches have problems but not a common one.
Please correct me where I'm going wrong..
GMATNinja

-Regards

You've definitely identified a key line from the passage: "Like the old approach, however, this new approach excluded women." This suggests that both approaches excluded women.

So they both had the same shortcoming -- more specifically, they both excluded women. Put another way, they have this shortcoming in common. As result, (A) is correct.

I hope that helps!
_________________

Author didn't write "Like the old approach, however, this new approach also excluded women." So, doesn't the use of contrast word "however" means the previous one included women??

Question 5

The more relevant word to focus on here is "like," which is used to compare two things that are similar to one another. The similarity between the old approach and new approach is that they both excluded women.

The word "however" actually gives us a contrast to information presented earlier in the passage. The author start off talking about how the "new school" did something innovative: it "sought to go beyond the traditional focus of political historians on leaders and government institutions by examining directly the political practices of ordinary citizens."

However, it wasn't so innovative in another sense: just like the old approach, it excluded women.

The meaning is the same, and perhaps a bit more clear, if we play a bit with the word order:

"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. However, like the old approach, this new approach excluded women."

There's no need to include the word "also" here, because the author uses the word "like" to show that the approached are similar to one another in that they both excluded women.

I hope that helps!
_________________

The OA is option A to Q5.
(A) Two scholarly approaches are compared, and a shortcoming common to both is identified.
However, the 1st para clearly states-"Like the old approach, however, this new approach excluded women."
So, both the approaches have problems but not a common one.
Please correct me where I'm going wrong..
GMATNinja

-Regards[/quote]
You've definitely identified a key line from the passage: "Like the old approach, however, this new approach excluded women." This suggests that both approaches excluded women.

So they both had the same shortcoming -- more specifically, they both excluded women. Put another way, they have this shortcoming in common. As result, (A) is correct.

I hope that helps![/quote]

Author didn't write "Like the old approach, however, this new approach also excluded women." So, doesn't the use of contrast word "however" means the previous one included women??[/quote]
The more relevant word to focus on here is "like," which is used to compare two things that are similar to one another. The similarity between the old approach and new approach is that they both excluded women.

The word "however" actually gives us a contrast to information presented earlier in the passage. The author start off talking about how the "new school" did something innovative: it "sought to go beyond the traditional focus of political historians on leaders and government institutions by examining directly the political practices of ordinary citizens."

However, it wasn't so innovative in another sense: just like the old approach, it excluded women.

The meaning is the same, and perhaps a bit more clear, if we play a bit with the word order:

"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. However, like the old approach, this new approach excluded women."

There's no need to include the word "also" here, because the author uses the word "like" to show that the approached are similar to one another in that they both excluded women.

I hope that helps![/quote]

Thank you so much GMATNinja for taking time out of ur busy schedule to clear this doubt..tysm

Though I marked wrong answer for the 3 question. In analysis I realized better reasoning that could have been used to eliminate answer.
Option A- Author did not clarify any position in firs paragrah. Author just mentioned that women were not allowed to vote and did not gave resons behind it. In addition author did not give any alternative to that position either in second para. Author highlighted different approach taken by PB in comparison to new historian. Thus rejected.

Option B- I could not connect so kept on hold.

Option C- YEs PB view is about agreement with new historian focused on politics of ordinary citizen. But was not in line with historians befor 1960. Thus rejected.

Option D- Only about PB was discussed and about its view . Nothing mentioned about PB style. Thus rejected

Option E- The definition was redifned by PB. Thus rejected

KarishmaB GMATNinja Sajjad1994
bm2201

Could you please help me with

Q6 The information in the passage suggests that a pre-1960’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

As given in passage that pre-1960's political historians were interested in 'leaders and government institutions by examining directly the political practices of ordinary citizens.' ; and the very techniques these historians used to uncover mass political behavior were 'quantitative analyses of election returns, for example'.

Basis what is mentioned in passage both Option C and E seem correct. Could you please help me in understanding why Option E is incorrect.