40
Q35 to Q37:
For many years, historians thought
that the development of capitalism had not
faced serious challenges in the United
Line States. Writing in the early twentieth cen-
(5) tury, Progressive historians sympathized
with the battles waged by farmers and
small producers against large capitalists
in the late nineteenth century, but they did
not question the widespread acceptance
(10) of laissez-faire (unregulated) capitalism
throughout American history. Similarly,
Louis Hartz, who sometimes disagreed
with the Progressives, argued that Amer-
icans accepted laissez-faire capitalism
(15) without challenge because they lacked
a feudal, precapitalist past. Recently,
however, some scholars have argued
that even though laissez-faire became
the prevailing ethos in nineteen-century
(20) America, it was not accepted without
struggle. Laissez-faire capitalism, they
suggest, clashed with existing religious
and communitarian norms that imposed
moral constraints on acquisitiveness to
(25) protect the weak from the predatory, the
strong from corruption, and the entire cul-
ture from materialist excess. Buttressed
by mercantilist notions that government
should be both regulator and promoter
(30) of economic activity, these norms per-
sisted long after the American Revolution
helped unleash the economic forces that
produced capitalism. These scholars
argue that even in the late nineteenth
(35) century, with the government’s role in
the economy considerably diminished,
laissez-faire had not triumphed com-
pletely. Hard times continued to revive
popular demands for regulating busi-
(40) ness and softening the harsh edges of
laissez-faire capitalism.
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my puzzle:please look the following sentence first:
Laissez-faire capitalism, they
suggest, clashed with existing religious
and communitarian norms that imposed
moral constraints on acquisitiveness to
(25) protect the weak from the predatory, the
strong from corruption, and the entire cul-
ture from materialist excess.
Buttressed
by mercantilist notions that government
should be both regulator and promoter
(30) of economic activity, these norms per-
sisted long after the American Revolution
helped unleash the economic forces that
produced capitalism.
the former"the communitarian norms"clashs with the capitalism.
why "these norms"is also supported by mercantilist(support the capitalism)
in addition, what the meaning of the word' harsh edges' is
I think there is paradoxical ?????
Q35:
The primary purpose of the passage is to | 
