The great French historian Jules Michelet (1798-1874) sympathized with the French Middle Ages and with the Revolutionary epoch in France, yet he wrote his best work on the despotic French monarchy, which he despised.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5) The statement above, if true, would most clearly support which of the following general claims about the writing of history?
A) Historians should keep personal opinions out of their historical writing.
B) The best history is not necessarily written by historians in sympathy with their subject.
C) Historians tend to write about historical subjects with which they sympathize.
D) It is difficult to write objectively about the French monarchy.
A) is not correct because the statement doesn't offer an opinion.
C) and D) also don't fit the statement.
Doesn't that leave B) as the best answer?
(1) It is an article of faith among some economists that the significant inventions of the contemporary world are the results of the innovative genius of big business organizations. (2) Yet in the United States, the current trend toward corporate mergers has been accompanied by a sharp decline in innovation. (3) The record indeed shows that big organizations are far more resistant to change than small ones are, and for predictable reasons. (4) They are tied to highly specialized operations that would be disrupted even by small changes, and they are guided by bureaucracies that typically favor control over innovation. (5) According to T.K. Quinn, the former chief executive officer of a large finance company, giant corporations do not invent new technology--they buy out the smaller companies and independent inventors who do.
To determine the answer to this question, let's break down the statement and the possible claims:
The statement says that Jules Michelet sympathized with the French Middle Ages and the Revolutionary epoch, but he wrote his best work on the despotic French monarchy, which he despised.
A) Historians should keep personal opinions out of their historical writing. This option does not directly relate to the statement since it does not mention anything about personal opinions in historical writing.
B) The best history is not necessarily written by historians in sympathy with their subject. This option aligns with the statement. It suggests that historians who despise their subject can still produce great work, as in the case of Jules Michelet.
C) Historians tend to write about historical subjects with which they sympathize. This option does not align with the statement since it highlights the tendency of historians to write about historical subjects they sympathize with, which is contrary to the situation in the statement.
D) It is difficult to write objectively about the French monarchy. This option does not align with the statement because it does not focus on the difficulty of writing objectively about the French monarchy specifically.
Based on the analysis, the best answer is B) The best history is not necessarily written by historians in sympathy with their subject.