Summary Quiz 1

. K. Drum states "the most important geopolitical feature of the 19th century is obvious: ...the industrial revolution" (p.43). what are the arguments for support and alternative arguments.
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. K. Drum states "the most important geopolitical feature of the 19th century is obvious: ...the industrial revolution" (p.43). what are the arguments for support and alternative arguments.
What are arguments in support of this statement?
Rising middle class, democracy, no funding for war, civil rights the result of industrial revolution that created wealth and new classes.

What alternative arguments does Drum entertain?
Democracy, capitalism etc didn't matter.

Do you agree or disagree?
Industrial revolution was central, e.g. Haitian slave rebellion called attention to human rights, prior to industrial revolution.
2. What is K. Drum's essential point of comparison between the digital revolution and the industrial revolution?
How can those in power remain in power, after the shift in how the economy works.
There was a distinct difference between French and Japanese revolutions; in Japan, a feudal class sustained power through industrialization of the country.
Why might it matter that "the most powerful computers in the world are...as powerful as the human brain?
Artificial intelligence can exacerbate inequality by taking over jobs, can change geopolitics; can exacerbate social inequality; essay is speculative given that computers are not mobile and small enough to replace human brain.
What support is there for the statement that "the digital revolution is going to be the biggest geopolitical revolution in human history" m(K.Drum)? What does author mean by this statement?
Compared to the industrial revolution that replaced muscle power, digital tech replaces the human brain.
Evidence now supports idea that it may have this impact, early indications such as "drones."
After dismissing an undefined Marxist approach, Drum states that "Liberal democracy still stands a chance, but only if its leaders take seriously the deluge that's about to hit them and figure out how to adapt capitalism to a world in which the production of goods is completely divorced from work." What does this mean, and what are the strengths and weaknesses of this statement?
Marxist approach - AI controls all production;
For liberal democracy to work - there would need to be some mechanism for democratic control over the political system, however this may not happen if the owning class becomes autocratic.
How does Drum argue that can robots solve climate change?
Robots can be more productive and efficient, and need little fossil fuel; robots can construct wind power & solar power cheaply;
Chance to develop safe nuclear fission.
Drum states that "it may be impossible to halt technology in its tracks, but it is possible to understand what's coming and prepare..." (p.48) In what ways would it be impossible to "halt technology"? What is Drum's belief, and why do you agree/disagree?
Humans try to do things more efficiently and effectively; capitalists compete using technology, and competition is central to capitalist logic
According to Rank & Hirschl, what percent of children experience food insecurity? What methodology is used to estimate these percentages? What do these facts tell us about childhood and inequality?
Half of children receive food stamps (SNAP), using longitudinal data tracking kids in families; findings correlate to findings about food security where half of kids are not having consistent meals, not getting the food they need to grow in a healthy manner; many children have stressful childhoods;
What are health & behavioral implications of U.S. child poverty & food insecurity?
Many children in the US face huge challenges in terms of having a basic sense of happiness and well adjusted childhood development.

Health and behavioral implications of poverty/food insecurity are detrimental experiences for children, eg stunting of physical and intellectual potential.
Why do American children face high levels of food insecurity and poverty? How does this relate to Thomas Malthus' argument that starvation is a check on population?
Problem is that capitalism is not a good system of equitable food distribution, purpose of distribution is profit, not nutrition.

Malthus applied pre-industrial logic to the industrial era. Industrial area produces surplus food and surplus population at the same time. There is starvation amidst plenty.
Are there any logical connections between Drum's essay and the Rank/Hirschl paper? What are they?As AI changes society, the way food is produced and distributed it could make food more available; or it could increase food insecurity by destroying low-wage jobs. Already food distribution is unequal and problematic, this could/will get worse, unless new policies are created.How does marital status, race, and parents' education affect child nutrition and poverty?These 3 are all strong determinants of poverty and food insecurity, and tell us how social stratification works in the USHow does the phrase "sparking the gap" (p.269) describe social development in Southern Mesopotamia beginning in the 4th millennium BCE? What were the critical influences on development during this period?Gap is between fertile crescent and Persian Gulf, and the area in between is :: Trade in obsidian and marine products (fish, shell fish), & created towns and later cities out of scattered communities of farmers.Describe the interrelationships between the development of cities, the state, agriculture (irrigation, domestication, animal power), and the division of labor that resulted in "agrarian empires" in China, Central America, Egypt, and Southern Mesopotamia.As agriculture advances, people produce more food, yielding more surpluses, allowing people to settle down & increase. This set the stage for hierarchy because size leads to further specialization. Men tended to get power, women focused on household, men grabbed hold of social specializations and gained power. Cycle of growth in production and population.When did society first become stratified with social inequalities, as opposed to personal inequalities? How/why did this happen?Men more expendable, and attained specialized roles; men eventually entered into politics; with the rise of agriculture, there was more surplus, and communities need to control/dispose of surplus; larger communities can't be controlled by kinship, and became controlled by impersonal/social powers.What is Christian's argument regarding the identity of social hierarchy in agrarian society with gender inequality? This resulted in men filling nearly all positions with social powerAt beginning of ag revolution, children necessary for survival; men had more time, and had positions of power; women had the more important role to the community whereas men were more "expendable" and found roles with power outside the household;Describe the forces pushing humans toward agriculture, and the factors preventing humans from entering in to agriculture - what is the evidence for these factors?Enablers: knowledge, technology, climate, desire to settle down, access to animals to domesticate; Blockers: disease, the opposite of the enablers, stress because it's tedious & boring to be a farmer;What is "the state"? What does Christian intend when he quotes Marvin Harris that "the rise of the state was the descent of the world from freedom to slavery" (p.248).The management of economic surplus led to coercion and the withering of consent based control; as agriculture developed, and slavery developed as the division of labor developed; this became a way to support the "ruling class."; armies became useful for conquering other cultures, and to enslave the conquered.How is agriculture analyzed by the concepts symbiosis and predation? What is the "secondary products revolution," and why was it important in the transition to agriculture?Predation is method for obtaining food, and people began to selectively take some food, and this influenced what food survived. Secondary products revolution where animals not used simply for meat, but were used for eggs, wool, and to get labor to draw a plough.. What is the social logic that led to widespread slavery in agrarian society, and why does Christian believe that slavery is largely absent today? (see p.263)Slavery required for class power, and for economic specialization; humans were an excellent store of "energy."; Fossil fuels have made slavery obsolete;Describe the conditions for a sedentary, non-agricultural society. How did this type of society come about, and why didn't it persist? What is the "trap of sedentism"? What is the "Holocene"?Holocene: era after the last ice age; the fertile crescent started to dry (mud dried); intensification started to develop by using certain plant species; as intensification developed, there was a tendency for population to outstrip food source; to the extent hunter/gatherer skills have been lost, it becomes difficult to abandon sedentism.How do the ice age & agriculture relate to "demographic & technological dynamism"? What is this "dynamism"?Dynamism between population size and ability to gather/cultivate/find food; soil in the fertile crescent was nutrient rich from glacial runoff; access to rivers;Why does Christian emphasize inequality differences between "early agricultural society" (chapter 8) versus "later agricultural society" (chapter 9)?Power dynamics changed from early to late agricultural society; from managers of the surplus to owners of the surplus; also from small population to large population, then you have no possibility for personal inequality, it becomes social inequalityUsing the data on page 208, make the following argumentsHuman beings are primarily hunter/gatherers, in terms of historical time, Human beings are primarily farmers: population grew with ag, most people were farmers; Development of humans has occurred across three fundamental stages: there are three distinct patterns of human behavior & thinking; Which of these arguments do you agree/disagree with?What are the plant domestics associated with agriculture in the fertile crescent, and why does David Christian believe are the reasons why agriculture first developed there?barley, wheat, pomegranate, lentils, peas, chickpeas, flax, bitter vetch; Reasons: these plants were easily domesticated, thus this is an accident of history; also, Mediterranean climate favors plants with lots of endosperm.What point was Christian (p. 366) making when he quoted Adam Smith saying, "China is a much richer country than any part of Europe?" Why was Asia the "heartland of the world system" (p.404) during this period?Christian had advanced technology, but wasn't at the hub of global trade; China had the most productive agriculture and therefore had the most people; China's wealth was based on tribute paid by peasants to the Mandarin state;2. What were the components of England's "threefold economic revolution" (p.411-426)? How are these defined?Social context: cultural change to mass literacy and mass education from illiterate feudal society; commercialization of life and urbanization; science enters into how the country is governed and into popular consciousness Agrarian/agricultural: from subsistence to commercial; Technology & industry: use of steam engine, metallurgy, manufacturing textiles3. How did "the vast world market which had gradually come into being in the eastern hemisphere, and in which European fortunes could be made and European imaginations exercised" (p.366) fuel development within Europe? As part of your answer, interpret the trend line/graph on page 436On the graph, the GDP trend of china is compared to the US + UK; overtime the graph flips where China's wealth was surpassed by the US + UK; the wealth of china lured Euro-traders who eventually colonized the Chinese economy, beginning with the "opium wars"4. What is Christian's explanation for the growth of Islam during the period 500 to 1500 CE (pp.370-1)? Why was Southwest Asia considered a "hub region" during this period?Islam spread because of trade flowing through Southwest Asia, encouraging trade in ideas including religion;. Why was the industrial revolution in Song China short lived (pp.374-38)?Marginal nonproductive land in the North; Song economy didn't produce high levels of tributary revenues, depended to some extent on commercial revenues. During this period there was no developed world market; also, China was not a hub region, so innovations in China didn't spread out rapidly to world system.What is the social significance of sweet potato cultivation in China as early as the 1560s (p.383)?Sweet potatoes enhanced population growth by increasing ag productivity; this increased demand for silver, and China started trading with Japan, and Portuguese were middlemen; Chinese farmers were probably the most innovative on the planet;7. Compare Europe beginning in the 16th Century to "Sumer 4,000 years before" (p.390). Your comparison should use the word "topology."Topology: the way the land and its parts are arranged; arrangement of exchange networks, and both areas were in the middle of trade regions; Europe was new and "flexible", and was the crossroads between Afro-Eurasia and the newly "discovered" Americas; just as Sumer was at the cross-roads of trade in the fertile crescent.What are the two ways that Western Europe was "exceptionally well prepared to survive in the new global commercial system that emerged in the 16th Century" (p.391)?Global position, located on the Atlantic coast, being at the hub; Young and flexible state structures; more open and adoptable to commercial trade; commercialized warfare encouraged their states to be commercially minded and commercially dependentHow were Britain's "traditional tributary elites" (p.395) transformed into a capitalist class beginning in the 16th Century?Commercialization supplanted tribute from peasants; aristocracy began investing in international trade; traditional nobility became commercially minded; the power of money upended traditional aristocratic values/ways of life;Describe the inequality systems in France (p.401-2) & Great Britain (pp.411 & 414-416) around 1700-1750, and how these reflected historical processes at work in the two countries.English society commercialized by removing peasants from the land, and using the land for commercial gain. This created an urban way of life, stimulating urban markets; industrialization in France was stimulated by the French revolution where the middle class gained control over the state and started accumulating using state supported enterprises; the peasants stayed on the land, and continued being taxed, but the character of the state was no longer feudal, but was commercialWhat are the obstacles to industrialization faced by tributary societies such as Russia and China?These were large tributary societies that had states and economies inclined to remain feudal and to continue existing on tribute from the peasants. Thus they failed to commercialize and were late to industrialize relative to western European countries and the US.What was the social class structure of British agriculture in 1750 (p.415) and why was this important to British development?Most of the land was controlled by a small, wealthy class that was commercially minded. Many had no land and lived as pauperized wage workers. In between there was a small land owning middle class. It was in the interest of the wealthy class to improve productivity, and to exploit the landless class by paying low wages.