Robin D. G. Kelley's Book Hammer and Hoe Explores The History Of GMAT Reading Comprehension

Robin D. G. Kelley's book Hammer and Hoe explores the history of communism in the U.S. state of Alabama. Kelley asks not whether the Communist Party was ideologically correct, but how it came to attract a substantial number of African-American workers and how these workers could embrace and use the Communist Party as a vehicle for organizing themselves. He insists on measuring communism not by its abstract tenets but by its ability to interact with a culture to generate bold class organization.

Most scholarship that has offered a defense of the Communist Party in the 1930s and 1940s (a period known as the party's Popular Front) has tended to emphasize its attempts to draw on democratic political traditions, and to enter meaningful political alliances with liberal political forces. While this is an understandable viewpoint among historians searching for models of unity between radicals and liberals, Kelley's interest is in African-American organizing. From that point of view the Popular Front appears as much less of a blessing.

Indeed Kelley argues that the wild, often sectarian Third Period that preceded the Popular Front better undergirded organization among African-American farmers and industrial workers. The extreme rhetoric of the Third Period communists was not taken seriously by African-American party members, who avoided posturing and confrontation whenever possible. But on another level, rhetoric regarding a "new world" resonated among African-Americans, whose traditions emphasized both a struggle for survival and the transcendent hope of deliverance. Help from a powerful ally, even one as far away as Moscow, seemed a source of power and possibility. The worldwide efforts of the communist-led International Labor Defense in mobilizing against lynch law in the United States helped to establish the party's image as such an ally.

The Popular Front saw African-American participation in the Communist Party decline. A retreat from attacks on white chauvinism and a tendency to de-emphasize, however slightly, involvement in local African-American issue-oriented politics made the party seem less an instrument of deliverance. The party's increasing cautiousness, born of a desire to appeal to moderates, doubtless made it a less attractive alternative in interracial conflicts.

Even so, Kelley is far from claiming that the change to a Popular Front line was the sole reason for the decline of African-American communism. The Popular Front initially appealed to African-American communists because it seemed to open new strategies for blunting repression. Kelley's rounded portrait of the decline emphasizes not the absence of a "correct line" but the presence of factional battles and of transformations in the agriculture industry caused by market changes and U.S. federal government intervention.

Question 1: Which one of the following most accurately characterizes the passage's main point?

(A) By spending little time discussing ideological controversies, Hammer and Hoe fails to fully explicate the relationship between the Communist Party and African-American workers during the 1930s and 1940s.
(B) The relationship between the Communist Party and African-American workers during the 1930s and 1940s makes it clear that ideological purity and consistency are not essential to effecting political change.
(C) Hammer and Hoe constitutes a valuable tool for the modern historian who is attempting to search for models of unity between radicals and liberals.
(D) The true measure of the success of the Communist Party at organizing African-American workers was not its ability to change people's thinking but to interact with their culture.
(E) Hammer and Hoe offers new insights into the nature of the relationship, in the 1930s and 1940s, between the Communist Party and African-American workers.

Question 2: The passage's characterization of the Communist Party in Alabama before the 1930s includes each of the following EXCEPT that the party

(A) refrained from attacking white chauvinism
(B) benefited from the goodwill created by the actions of the International Labor Defense
(C) inspired some African Americans with its rhetoric
(D) failed to convince some of its African-American members that confrontation was an acceptable political stance
(E) was involved in local African-American political issues

Question 3: The primary purpose of the second paragraph is to

(A) contrast Kelley's viewpoint on the Popular Front with that of previous historians
(B) defend the Popular Front from Kelley's attacks on it
(C) question the political usefulness of searching for common ground between radicals and liberals
(D) enumerate the differences between the Popular Front and the Third Period
(E) argue that one valid way to approach the study of communism in the United States is to discuss its impact on African-American workers

Question 4: It can be inferred from the passage that Kelley would most likely agree with which one of the following assertions about the Popular Front?

(A) The Popular Front introduced factors that hampered the political appeal of communism for African Americans.
(B) The Popular Front was inherently inimical to African-American interests from its inception.
(C) The increasing cautiousness of the Popular Front appealed to most African-American party members.
(D) The Popular Front was viewed by African Americans as an improvement over the rhetoric of the Third Period.
(E) The extreme posturing and confrontation of the Popular Front alienated many African Americans.

Question 5: Based on the passage, which one of the following statements is more likely to have been made by a Communist Party organizer during the Third Period than during the Popular Front?

(A) African Americans and whites must join together under the common banner of communism.
(B) Workers everywhere must revolt to bring about the final global victory over capitalist oppression.
(C) African Americans should strive to overcome racism in the highest levels of government.
(D) The goals of communism have much in common with those of more liberal causes.
(E) One should not expect too much progress too quickly when attempting to change the prevailing social order.

“Robin D. G. Kelley's book Hammer and Hoe explores the history of”- is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension. This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 3 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

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