General Overview: Below is a list of questions for each of this semester’s readings. These questions are designed to help you engage with the author’s ideas and to draw your attention to the key issues. Your answers should be typed and range between 250 and 300 words. In addition to the questions, I ask you to list around three quotes you find important and give a short 250 to 500-word summary for each reading. Each section also includes a list of key concepts. Please provide a short definition AND example for each idea listed under the “key concepts” sub header. Before each test, you will turn in all the author overview questions (including quotes and key concept definitions and examples) for each reading that will be covered in the upcoming test.
Test questions will be based on the content covered by the reading questions. Before each test you will meet during class time to compare answers with other student’s. We will call these “reading groups.” On the designated day, the class will be divided into groups of three or four people. These groups will discuss and compare answers to each of the reading questions.
Each group member is expected to arrive to the meeting with all author overview questions completed and ready to share with the group. Remember, author overviews will have been due at 8am the day of the reading group. If you are absent or otherwise unprepared to contribute to the group, you will receive a 0 for this assignment.
Can I work in Groups? You are very welcome (even encouraged) to work in groups. This stuff is hard, and you can help each other. BUT your work must not be the same. If your answers are too close to those of other students, you will receive a 0 for the assignment and possibly a failing grade for the class.
Outside Sources & Citations: There is no need to cite the assigned readings. Only outside sources must be cited. You are welcome to use outside sources, but do so at your own risk. There are many poor summaries and interpretations of this semester’s readings (particularly on YouTube). I suggest you stick to books and webpages that end with edu. I also suggest that you ONLY use these sources when you are at a total loss. Should you decide to use outside sources, you MUST provide a full ASA style citation (including the web address if applicable). List citations under your answer for each individual question even if you use the same citation again in the next question.
Turning in Your Work: Each author overview will be due at 8am the day of the reading group. This is to ensure that you have completed your work before meeting with others. Your work will be submitted via D2L and evaluated through Turn-it-in.
What is Turn-it-in? In case you don’t know, turn-it-in is a software program that checks your work against published books, the internet, others in this class, others in previous classes, and papers turned in at other universities. The program generates an originality report that indicates the percentage of original material in the document. If I deem your originality report unsatisfactory, you will receive a zero for the whole assignment and possibly fail the class. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Warning: Do not plagiarize your outside sources or each other. I will know.
How, you ask? See the section “What is Turn-it-in” below.
Evaluation: I will not be providing in-depth feedback on these assignments. I am not concerned with the accuracy of your interpretations or answers. I will check that you have completed the assignment, have not plagiarized, and have put in the requisite effort. I will not indicate that you got the right answer. Author overviews will receive one of four grades.
25pts: This grade indicates that everything looks like it should. You’ve provided sufficiently in- depth answers to each section and addressed each key concept. Your work is well formatted and free from significant grammar and spelling errors and any citations are ASA. Turn-it-in indicates that your work is original.
15pts: This grade indicates that your work meets minimum acceptable requirements. All questions are answered, but answers might be short or do not show much innovative thought. Other issues may include: You have citations but they’re not ASA, there are lots of grammar or spelling errors, work is sloppy or not well formatted.
5pts: This grade indicates that your work needs significant improvement. You may have unanswered questions, poor formatting, poor spelling/grammar, missing citations, etc. Basically, you’ve phoned it in.
0pts: If you get a zero, you should come talk to me immediately. This indicates that your work is unfinished or otherwise unsatisfactory. Turn-it-in may have indicated plagiarism.
Reading Questions and your Final Portfolio
Your reading questions will comprise a significant portion of your final portfolio. This assignment will have three parts. Part 1 is a completion of all your reading question answers, revised, and corrected (25pts). Part 2 will be answers to three questions that ask you to compare theories or principles discussed over the course of the semester (25pts each, 75pts total). Each question will necessitate a three-page response for a total of 9 pages (or so). Part 3 will be a short (1-2) page reflection on what you leaned this semester (5pts
Marx
The German Ideology
1. How did the development of modern societies through the division of labor lead to various forms of ownership, and what are some examples Marx and Engels give of the various stages of ownership?
2. What do Marx and Engels mean when they write: “The social structure and the State are continually evolving out of the life process of definite individuals, but of individuals, not as they may appear in their own or other people’s imaginations, but as they really are … ”?
3. Pick an example of something that you consider to be a ruling idea in modern society. If you were Marx or Engels, how would you explain where this ruling idea came from?
Key Quotes:
Short Summary:
Manifesto of the Communist Party:
1. The Manifesto of the Communist Party is well known for its revolutionary zeal, but we often think of the proletariat as the revolutionary force. However, Marx and Engels suggest that the bourgeoisie also came about through revolution. In your own words, explain how the “bourgeoisie played a most revolutionary part.”
2. In one of the most eloquent passages of the Manifesto, Marx and Engels write: “But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to wield those weapons—the modern working class—the proletarians.” What “weapons” are Marx and Engels talking about, and how did the bourgeoisie “call into existence” the proletariat?
3. How do the bourgeoisie create “a world after its own image?” What are the consequences for those who resist?
4. In your opinion, would the measures laid out on page 60 really bring about “an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all”?
5. Marx and Engels suggest that as capitalism has developed, the bourgeoisie has sown the seeds of its own destruction. Yet, many critics point to the undeniable fact that capitalism still exists and communism has struggled to survive. Where do you fall? Do you find Marx and Engels’s argument convincing?
Key Quotes:
Short Summary:
Das Kapital:
1. Marx begins this excerpt with the subject of commodities. What are commodities, according to Marx, and how is their value determined?
2. What does Marx mean when he refers to labor-power as the amount of labor “socially necessary” to produce a commodity?
3. In your own words, define commodity fetishism and its relation to labor. Then, pick a popular commodity and describe how it is fetishized today. If possible, paste a link to an advertisement on the web that you think captures its most fetishized properties.
Key Quotes:
Short Summary:
Key Concepts (provide definition and an example):
Alienation Bourgeoisie Capitalism Communism Dialectic Division of Labor Exchange Value Feudalism Ideology
Labor
Means of Production Mode of Production Petty Bourgeois Primitive Communism Proletariat
Socialism
Surplus Value
Use Value
Value
