History 371

Devine

Spring 2014

 

FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE

 

FINAL EXAMINATION [Tuesday, May 13th  10:15 am – 12:15 pm]

 

The final will cover all lectures and readings since the midterm.

 

The final will have the same basic format as the midterm.  ALL questions will be drawn directly from the review questions listed below.

 

In Part I (70%), you will answer 7 of 10 short essay questions. Provide as much specific information as you can – SHOW why something is true, don’t just assert it. A one or two sentence answer is insufficient if you wish to receive full credit.

 

In Part II (20%), you will answer 1 of 3 long essay questions. Be sure you state your answer to the question at the very beginning – this is your thesis. Then, using specific examples, spend the rest of the essay demonstrating that your thesis is true. Don’t write in generalities or assertions – give specific facts that support your case.

 

In Part III (10%), you will answer 1 of 3 essay questions based on Michael Patrick MacDonald, All Souls.

 

PLEASE BRING AN UNMARKED GREEN BOOK AND A PEN WITH YOU TO CLASS.

 

1.    Why did Americans from all classes and ethnicities flock to Coney Island at the turn of the twentieth century?

2.    Why was Coney Island especially popular with young men and women? What about the amusements and the environment was so attractive to them?

3.    Why could a visit to Coney Island be both liberating and dangerous for single young women?

4.    By 1914, certain technologies had advanced further than others. What were some of these technologies? How did the uneven advance lead to staggering casualties on the battlefields of Europe during World War I?

5.    What steps did the British take to insure the Americans would be more likely to enter the war on the Allies’ side?  What steps did many Americans – particularly bankers and investors – take that made it more likely the US would enter the war on the Allies’ side?

6.    How did German submarine warfare bring the United States into the Great War? If the Germans feared submarine warfare would bring the US into the war on the Allies’ side, why did they continue to engage in it?

7.    Why did William Jennings Bryan and his followers believe their commitment to democracy was stronger than that of Clarence Darrow and his followers?

8.    Why did Clarence Darrow and his followers believe that forbidding the teaching of evolution in Dayton high school classrooms was undemocratic even if the majority of the local voters supported the ban?

9.    Given the respective positions they took in the Scopes trial, how do we know that Bryan preferred order and authority and Darrow preferred tolerance of different views and independent thinking?

10. Most observers agreed that in the showdown between Bryan and Darrow, Darrow got the best of Bryan. How did he do this?

11. What were some of the major issues that divided rural, southern Americans from urban, northern Americans during the 1920s?

12. How did German war reparations and French and British war debt involve the United States? How did this 3-way relationship work and why did it cause international economic instability?

13. What factors – both domestic and international – brought on the Great Depression of the 1930s?

14. Why did stock prices rise so high during the mid-1920s and why, in 1929, did the bubble burst?

15. Why did the decline of the housing market and the automobile market begin to undermine the basis of prosperity in the U.S. during the late 1920s?

16. Why was the U.S. government’s raising of tariffs and refusal to forgive European war debt during the late 1920s and early 1930s a bad idea?

17. What steps did President Roosevelt take to restore public confidence in the U.S. banking system?

18.  What did the New Deal do to put home ownership within reach of more Americans?

19. What were the New Deal’s major non-economic achievements?

20. Why did Franklin Roosevelt believe that public works projects – building post offices, bridges, and dams – would help to stimulate the economy?  Why did he prefer such projects to direct cash payments to those in need?

21. Why were farmers suffering during the 1930s? How did Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal propose to help them?

22. How did Roosevelt’s programs intended to help farmers end up hurting consumers and even some farmers?

23. Explain the origins of World War II in Europe.  How and why did the conflict begin? What were the key events that led to the official beginning of the war on September 1, 1939?

24. During the late 1930s, why did the British and French choose to “appease” Hitler rather than confront him?  How did they justify this decision?

25. Identify the two biggest mistakes that Hitler made during World War II and explain why these mistakes were so costly.

26. Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor?  In hindsight, why did this prove a costly mistake?

27. The 1950s were characterized by the “Four A”s – anxiety, anticommunism, affluence, and alienation.  Explain how each “A” led logically to the next one.

28. Why were many Americans anxious after the end of World War II? Why was the 1950s considered a decade of anxiety?

29. Identify two international events and two events within the United States and explain why they caused the vast majority of Americans to become anti-communist during the 1950s.

30. Why did the “red scare” of the 1950s make American society more conformist?

31. How did American family life, gender roles, and religion distinguish the United States from the Soviet Union?

32. Why did most Americans focus their anticommunism inward (at their fellow citizens) rather than demand that their government directly confront the Soviets?

33. What factors helped to fuel American affluence during the 1950s? 

34. Why did the construction of a national network of highways during the 1950s help further the development of franchise businesses like McDonalds and Holiday Inn?

35. What provisions were in the GI Bill?  Why did it help to expand the middle class after World War II? 

36. What specific groups of Americans were alienated during the 1950s? Why were they alienated?

37. How did some artists, writers, and musicians during the 1950s express their alienation from mainstream American society? What particular aspects of mainstream society did they find so alienating?

38. In The Ugly American, why was Gilbert MacWhite a more effective ambassador than Louis “Lucky” Sears?

39. According to The Ugly American, why were Soviet diplomats more effective in Asia than American diplomats?

40. Identify what you believe are the best examples recounted in The Ugly American of Americans succeeding in winning over Asian “hearts and minds” and failing to win over Asian “hearts and minds.” Citing specific evidence form the novel, justify your choices.

41. Though both were well-intentioned, why did the engineer Homer Atkins end up achieving more success in his venture in Sarkhan than did the powdered milk salesman John Colvin?

42.  What is the significance of the Tet Offensive?  Why did it mark a turning point in the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam war?

43. Who was Eugene McCarthy and why did he play a significant role in the presidential election of 1968?  [Do not confuse Eugene McCarthy with Joseph McCarthy, the leader of the anticommunist crusade during the early 1950s.]

44. In 1968, why did many Americans believe Robert F. Kennedy would make a good president?

45. Why did the Chicago police (and a majority of Americans) dislike the young anti-war protesters?

46. Staying loyal to the neighborhood meant everything to the residents of Southie. Was this more a source of strength or the source of the people’s problems? Did it help them survive or keep them from living more fulfilling lives?

47. How did Whitey Bulger exploit the residents of Southie by appealing to the very values that many residents believed made their neighborhood special?

48. Why did government-sponsored measures intended to improve race relations and alleviate poverty – such as busing, the enforcement of “hate crimes” laws, provision of public housing, and welfare payments – actually end up fueling racism in Southie and making poverty more difficult to escape?

49. Why does simply dismissing the residents of Southie as “racists” not give us a complete picture of the people in this neighborhood?

50. Why was President Johnson reluctant to raise taxes during the late 1960s? Why did his decision not to raise them turn out to be a bad one?

51. What was “stagflation” and why did it seem to break the laws of economic theory?

52. Why were inflation and high interest rates especially harmful to the unemployed and Americans on fixed incomes during the 1970s?

53. How did the oil crisis of the 1970s affect the American economy?

54. Why did Ronald Reagan defeat Jimmy Carter in the presidential election of 1980 even though many at the time thought Reagan was too conservative to be elected?  In answering, consider 1) the loss of confidence in liberal policies 2) the economic conditions of the 1970s and 3) the foreign policy crises of the 1970s.

55. What is the difference between a “market economy” and a “market society”? Why is the latter potentially damaging to the social fabric of a nation?