GMAT Reading Comprehension (RC) | For many years, historians thought that the development of

For many years, historians thought that the development of capitalism had not faced serious challenges in the UnitedStates. Writing in the early twentieth cen- tury, Progressive historians sympathized with the battles waged by farmers and small producers against large capitalists in the late nineteenth century, but they did not question the widespread acceptance of laissez-faire (unregulated) capitalism throughout American history. Similarly, Louis Hartz, who sometimes disagreed with the Progressives, argued that Americans accepted laissez-faire capitalism without challenge because they lacked a feudal, precapitalist past. [highlight]Recently, however, some scholars have argued that even though laissez-faire became the prevailing ethos in nineteen-century America, it was not accepted without struggle. [/highlight]Laissez-faire capitalism, they suggest, clashed with existing religious and communitarian norms that imposed moral constraints on acquisitiveness to protect the weak from the predatory, the strong from corruption, and the entire culture from materialist excess. Buttressed by mercantilist notions that government should be both regulator and promoter of economic activity, these norms persisted long after the American Revolution helped unleash the economic forces that produced capitalism. These scholars argue that even in the late nineteenth century, with the government's role in the economy considerably diminished, laissez-faire had not triumphed completely.[color=#ff0000][/color] Hard times continued to revive popular demands for regulating business and softening the harsh edges of laissez-faire capitalism.
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Q12:The primary purpose of the passage is to
A. reveal the underlying similarities of certain arguments regarding the development
of capitalism in the United States
B. synthesize two competing arguments regarding the development of capitalism in
the United States
C. defend an established argument regarding the development of capitalism in the
United States
D. summarize a scholarly refutation of an argument regarding the development of
capitalism in the United States
E. discuss a new methodology for the study of the development of capitalism in the
United States



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Q13:According to the passage, the Progressive historians mentioned in line 5 and the scholars
mentioned in line 17 disagree with regard to which of the following?
A. Whether laissez-faire became the predominant ethos in the nineteenth-century
United States
B. Whether moral restraints on acquisitiveness were necessary in the nineteencentury
United States
C. The economic utility of mercantilist notions of government
D. The nature of the historical conditions necessary for the development of laissezfaire
capitalism in the nineteen-century United States
E. The existence of significant opposition to the development of laissez-faire
capitalism in the nineteen-century United States



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Q14:
The passage suggests that the scholars mentioned in line 17 would agree with which of
the following statements regarding the “norms” mentioned in line 23?
A. They provided a primary source of opposition to the development of laissez-faire
capitalism in the United States in the nineteenth century.
B. Their appeal was undermined by difficult economic times in the United States at
the end of the nineteenth century.
C. They disappeared in the United States in the late nineteenth century because of
the triumph of laissez-faire capitalism.
D. They facilitated the successful implementation of mercantilist notions of
government in the United States in the nineteenth-century.
E. They are now recognized by historians as having been an important part of the
ideology of the American Revolution.