CMST: History

[Knickerbocker glory]

This subforum is for discussion of the history in this set.

I'd like to spend a little time discussing the vision I had for the history in this set. In particular, I wanted the following changes from last year's (This) Tournament is a Crime set, whose history I edited as well:

- Easier tossup answerlines and bonus hard parts. Last year, tossups on the Elaine race riot and the Dzungar genocide were very difficult, and many hard parts were either trivial or near-impossible to pull. This year, answerlines and bonus difficulty were tightly controlled.

- More even distribution of questions by era and geography. In particular, I ensured equal representation in world history tossups among the five rough geographical areas of Latin America, Africa, the Islamic world, East Asia, and South and Southeast Asia. I also took a page from Will Alston's book and ensured at least one pre-1900s world history question per packet.

- More social history, less military history. I did not set a quota for either but I think the set content reflected this.

I deliberately calibrated the history to be easier this year. More importantly, I tried to ensure consistency in difficulty across questions. By my count, there were 12 writers who contributed to the history this year. I think having this many writers was a net benefit. It allowed for writers to concentrate on quality rather than quantity, and solved what I think is the biggest problem when a category is written entirely by one or two people: their personal biases/pet topics/weaknesses are reflected in the set, resulting in a very skewed set.

Props to the writers for producing a large number of high-quality, creative questions. I was thoroughly impressed by many questions I received, which is incredibly impressive considering that this is the first time most contributing writers have worked on a set of this difficulty.

Happy discussing.

[Cheynem]

Hey Bruce: I liked the history in this set a lot. I think on the whole I liked Crime better, but upon reading your post, I realized that Crime did have some issues that I thought you fixed pretty well (removing the impossible tossups, for one, for the most part).

[Zealots of Stockholm]

Just wanted to stop in and say that the tossup on the Atlantic Ocean/World was my favorite history tossup of the year, with the only other one I enjoyed about as much being the American Revolution TU from Regionals. I liked that the question was on an interesting, important topic in historiography while managing to stay accessible.

I don't really have any overall/general thoughts since I was reading and not playing.

[A Dim-Witted Saboteur]

Just wanted to stop in and say that the tossup on the Atlantic Ocean/World was my favorite history tossup of the year, with the only other one I enjoyed about as much being the American Revolution TU from Regionals. I liked that the question was on an interesting, important topic in historiography while managing to stay accessible.

I don't really have any overall/general thoughts since I was reading and not playing.

In the same vein I don't think I've mentioned how much I similarly enjoyed the Slavery tossup. That question felt a lot more oriented toward the practice of history than even most other historiography tossups.

[Zealots of Stockholm]

Just wanted to stop in and say that the tossup on the Atlantic Ocean/World was my favorite history tossup of the year, with the only other one I enjoyed about as much being the American Revolution TU from Regionals. I liked that the question was on an interesting, important topic in historiography while managing to stay accessible.

I don't really have any overall/general thoughts since I was reading and not playing.

In the same vein I don't think I've mentioned how much I similarly enjoyed the Slavery tossup. That question felt a lot more oriented toward the practice of history than even most other historiography tossups.

Could this TU be posted here? I'm in a history of slavery course this semester and don't think I've encountered anything mentioned until "The Case for Reparations." This isn't to imply that this wasn't a good tossup, I'm just interested in seeing what the other things mentioned were referencing.

[Mike Bentley]

For good measure I'd also be interested in seeing the Atlantic tossup.

[women, fire and dangerous things]

FYI, the "slavery" tossup was in social science.

[Knickerbocker glory]

A 2005 book on the historiography of this region cites the emergence of the idea of this region’s “civilization” in the works of Jacques Godechot (“god-uh-SHOW”) as a foundational influence on the field. A 2000 book about this region argues that it was destabilized by a multiethnic “motley crew” who resisted oppression by those who viewed them as the “many-headed hydra”; that book challenges an argument by R. R. Palmer that ideas of “the people as constituent power” and of political rights characterized a set of “democratic” (*) revolutions that took place in, and are often named for, this region. Marcus Rediker is known for applying Marxist approaches to the study of this region, and Bernard Bailyn is sometimes credited with pioneering the study of its namesake “world.” Horses and tomatoes formed part of what Alfred Crosby identified as an “exchange” across this region, while molasses, manufactured goods, and slaves were major products of the legs of a trade across this region. For 10 points, identify this region, across which triangular trade and the Columbian Exchange took place, which connects Africa, Europe, and the Americas.
ANSWER: Atlantic Ocean [or Atlantic World]
<MC, Other History>

[rahulkeyal]

Just wanted to stop in and say that the tossup on the Atlantic Ocean/World was my favorite history tossup of the year, with the only other one I enjoyed about as much being the American Revolution TU from Regionals. I liked that the question was on an interesting, important topic in historiography while managing to stay accessible.

I don't really have any overall/general thoughts since I was reading and not playing.

In the same vein I don't think I've mentioned how much I similarly enjoyed the Slavery tossup. That question felt a lot more oriented toward the practice of history than even most other historiography tossups.

Could this TU be posted here? I'm in a history of slavery course this semester and don't think I've encountered anything mentioned until "The Case for Reparations." This isn't to imply that this wasn't a good tossup, I'm just interested in seeing what the other things mentioned were referencing.

David Brion Davis has written extensively on this phenomenon and founded the Gilder Lehrman Center for the study of this phenomenon. George P. Murdock’s analysis of 186 world cultures inspired Harvard’s Orlando Patterson to write a book linking this phenomenon to “social death.” The first known English-language book with the word “sociology” in its title labels this phenomenon “the very best form of socialism.” This phenomenon was controversially compared to Nazi concentration camps in a 1959 book by (*) Stanley Elkins. This phenomenon’s economic benefits are defended by George Fitzhugh’s Cannibals All! This practice’s economic implications are analyzed in Stanley Engerman and Robert Fogel’s Time on the Cross. “The Story of Clyde Ross” and Chicago’s redlining are discussed in a essay making “The Case for Reparations” for this practice, written by Ta-Nehisi (“TAH-nuh-HAH-see”) Coates. For 10 points, name this practice euphemistically known as “our peculiar institution” in the American South.
ANSWER: slavery
<RK, Social Science>