Reading Section ACT Practice: Social Science- 2 | Reading for ACT PDF Download

Passage 

In the scholarly debate of gender and class in Renaissance Italy, the writings of historian Samuel K. Cohn Jr. maintain that Italian women—especially those of the lower classes—experienced a palpable decline in status from the late fourteenth century until the Counter-Reformation visitations of the 1570s. Cohn’s essays are distinct from his contemporaries in that they bespeak a darker and rarely mentioned side of the Renaissance. In particular, the broadly encompassing scope of his essays is an attempt to investigate populations as a whole, rather than focusing solely on elites, which, according to Cohn, “has been, with few exceptions, the tendency of women’s Renaissance history since the 1970s.” 

Cohn, of course, was not the first historian to investigate the change in women’s status during this period. He takes Joan Kelly’s famous article “Did Women have a Renaissance?” as a jumping-off point for his own research. However, while Kelly’s article draws evidence largely from literature, and pertains primarily to the status of aristocratic women, Cohn’s methods of research emphasize the value of statistical data, particularly those derived from the surviving court records, wills, and donation records of Italian city-states. At the time his essays were composed, individual case studies drawn from legal briefs or welltold stories were fast acquiring greater credibility with historical audiences than wages series or ratios of criminal indictment. In the words of one critic, “Measurement was out, and representation was in”. Cohn views these popular case-study sources—dubbed “microhistories”—as possessing, by nature, irreconcilable social biases, and feels they provide only a limited glimpse at life in a given society. To construct more accurately a portrayal of life in Renaissance Italy for women, the full breadth of society must be examined comprehensively. 

Using statistical data, Cohn identifies the fall of the number of women participating in criminal tribunals as an indication of women’s decline in status both in the court, and on the street. According to Florentine records between the end of the fourteenth century and the middle of the fifteenth, the number of women participating in these tribunals dropped by 84 percent. The implications of this backslide are significant. By 1450, the power of women to defend themselves in court had suffered a significant blow. And while weakness in the courtroom may not have significantly impacted the elite women of the upper classes, its effects were undoubtedly felt by working women of the lower classes, who were, by the late 1460s, more or less at the mercy of their accusers.

However, not everyone in Cohn’s audience is convinced. Historiographer Jacob Burkhardt, pointing to conventional case-study evidence, such as the salons of the upper classes, believes that the Italian Renaissance was a unique time when women were on equal social footing with men, and that this equality was brought sharply to an end only by the onset of the Counter-Reformation. Cohn’s detractors have also pointed out instances in which his statistical data appears to be misrepresented in order to bolster his thesis. In particular, as evidence toward worsening gender divisions, Cohn describes instances in which women were accused of infanticide, highlighting that the “majority”—approximately 65 percent—of the victims in such cases were male. Not only is 65 percent a statistically insignificant distribution, Cohn’s reasoning seems to make a somewhat irrational leap in this case. Had the number of male victims of infanticide risen to 90 percent, it still would not constitute sound evidence of a decline in women’s social status. 

While Cohn’s occasional manipulation of data must be taken into account with respect to his own thesis, his fundamental methods—namely, research and analysis of the numerical data surviving from a given society—will continue to be of great value in scholarly debates. In order to reconstruct the most complete image of a historical period, it is necessary to address the changing conditions in all areas of the social strata. This would involve a synthesis of the preferred, highly detailed case-study sources, as well as statistical interpretations of legal, economic and governmental records, such as those examined by Cohn. Together, the case-study can produce vivid, historical textures existing within one pocket of society, while concurrent statistical data can help to provide us with the broader social context surrounding and encompassing that texture.

Q1: We can infer that one of Cohn’s contemporaries, as discussed in the passage, would likely NOT have written an article by which of the following titles?
(a) The Mona Lisa – the story of the world’s most famous painting
(b) Michelangelo – A brief biography of the quintessential Renaissance artist
(c) King Francis I – an analysis of the decisions of France’s first Renaissance King
(d) The Underclass – who were the poor in Renaissance London?

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Q2: The tone of the passage can best be described as which of the following?
(a) formal and condescending
(b) serious and subjective
(c) objective and balanced
(d) ironic and pedantic

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Q3: In Paragraph 2 (lines 15-37) what does the author suggest is the clearest relationship between researchers Cohn and Kelly?
(a) Kelly inspired Cohn, yet Cohn disagrees with Kelly’s approach
(b) Kelly taught Cohn, and Cohn is one of Kelly’s strongest adherents
(c) Kelly disagrees with Cohn on the type of historical topics worth investigating
(d) Cohn agrees with Kelly on the historical topics of interest, and continues her approach with his research

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Q4: Which of the following would NOT reinforce the scholarly tendency outlined in lines 9-14 in popular culture?
(a) A book about the Queens of England
(b) A film about how aristocrats responded during the Hundred Years War
(c) A television program that chronicled the lives of the servants to Queen Elizabeth
(d)A magazine article about how Popes and church leaders confronted the Reformation

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Q5: Assuming that all of the choices are true, which of the following makes Cohn’s approach to historical research in his area of interest more challenging?
(a) The lack of reliable quantitative data from the Renaissance Era
(b)The lack of accurate primary source personal accounts of historical episodes
(c) The lack of precise military statistics from Renaissance battles
(d) The lack of female historians in society during the Renaissance Era

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Q6: What is the author’s purpose in mentioning “wages series or ratios of criminal indictment” in lines 28-29?
(a) To provide examples of the type of information that historians found less credible
(b) To provide examples of the types of stories that readers found uninteresting
(c) To contrast historical and economic research
(d) To give instances of biased historical primary sources

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Q7: The author of the passage would most likely advocate an approach to history that was:
(a) Quantitative and focused
(b) Personal and interpretive
(c) Comprehensive and balanced
(d) Qualitative and contemporary

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Q8: Based on lines 70-73, why might we infer that the author considers statistics about male infanticide (i.e. the killing of young male babies) to be of little help in drawing conclusions about the social status of women?
(a) Percentages of infanticide victims who were male gives us no information about the percentage who were female
(b) This information gives us little idea of how adultage women were treated in society, which is the primary objective of the researcher
(c) A 90% trend is clearly just as statistically insignificant as a 65% trend, according to the passage
(d) Much like all of Cohn’s historical research, this information is based on his irrationality

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Q9: Based on information in the passage, what type of historical source would someone writing a microhistory most prefer?
(a) A small painting of a Noble
(b) A collection of correspondence
(c) A statistical summary of deaths from the Plague
(d) A summary of legal theories in the Renaissance

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Q10: What is the main idea of the last paragraph (lines 74-90)?
(a) That statistical and case-study approaches should be comprehensively synthesized to make for the best possible historical analyses
(b) That both statistics and case-study approaches are fundamentally flawed, and a better understanding of social context should be attained
(c) That while Cohn’s approach has its merits, the case study approach with its more balanced analysis is a more rigorous option
(d) Historians will be unable to improve upon the works of Cohn and his contemporaries due to the lack of reliable historical information

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