History 474B

Devine/Arrowsmith

Spring 2010

 

Final Exam Study Guide

 

 

The final exam on THURSDAY MAY 13th 8pm-10pm will consist of three parts: SEVEN short essay questions and TWO long essay questions. 

 

In Part One, I will give you ten short essay questions; you will answer seven of your choice.  (65 points)

 

In Part Two, I will give you three long essay questions; you will answer one of your choice. (20 points) 

 

In Part Three, you will answer question #50 below. (15 points)

 

The exam questions will be taken directly from the questions below.  There will be no questions on the exam that do not appear below.  The questions are in the order that we discussed the readings in class.  (The material covered begins with Hine, The Great Funk and ends with Judt, Ill Fares the Land.) 

 

Since you have the questions ahead of time, it is expected that you will answer with more than just a superficial response.  Be sure to include as much specific evidence as possible to explain and support what you assert.

 

  1. Why are the 1970s considered the beginning of an “Age of Limits”?  What limits – physical, economic, environmental – did Americans encounter during the 1970s?

 

  1. How did television shows and movies express the concerns of the American public during the 1970’s? (Hine)

 

  1. How could achieving a higher consciousness be accomplished?  In what ways could it be rewarding? (Hine)

 

  1. Why does Thomas Hine label the 1970’s the “decade where everything shattered?”

 

  1. Why and how did Americans’ living spaces change in the 1970’s? (Hine)

 

  1. How did television shows and movies express the concerns of the American public during the 1970’s? (Hine)

 

  1. What new significance did the past take on in the 1970s?  How did the past become visible? (Hine)

 

  1. What new views about sexuality and sexual identity took hold in the 1970’s and why? (Hine)

 

  1. Why and how did home furnishings and decor change during the 1970s?  How did the “look” of the ‘70s home match the cultural mood of the decade? (Hine)

 

  1. How could adjusting the tax rate, the level of government spending, and the money supply (by adjusting interest rates) influence the economy?

 

  1. Why – before the 1970s – did economists assume that when the unemployment rate rose, inflation would go down?

 

  1. Why was it politically difficult for the government to take steps to curb inflation when the rate of unemployment was continuing to rise?  Wouldn’t the unemployed want government to take steps to force down prices?

 

  1. Why are high rates of productivity good for both workers’ wages and companies’ profits?

 

  1. Carter failed to achieve his goals in the policies of the “three E’s” – energy, environment, and economy.  What kept him from achieving his goals?  His own shortcomings as a leader? Or forces beyond his control?

 

  1. Why, according to Schulman, was the great inflation of the 1970s “a transformative event?” (page 131)  How did inflation affect attitudes about credit, spending, and investing?

 

  1. Why do different groups – American and Iranian – see the beginning of the hostage crisis as occurring at different moments? (Farber)

 

  1. Why did many Iranians dislike the American government?  Why was it easy for them to blame the United States for all of Iran’s troubles – real and imagined?

 

  1.  Why did the U.S. end up supporting a coup against Muhammad Mossadegh?  Why did many Iranians support the overthrow of Mossadegh as well?

 

  1. What was “the White Revolution”?  Why did Ayatollah Khomeini and other Iranians oppose it?

 

  1. As he took office in 1977, what were some of the major characteristics of Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy?  How did he differ in his approach from Nixon and Kissinger?  In what ways were his basic assumptions similar to his predecessors?

 

  1. What factors help explain why the Shah’s regime in Iran had become so weak by the 1970s?

 

  1. Why was the Shah incapable of dealing with the growing revolution in his country?  Why were U.S. pleas to “moderate” his regime unrealistic?

 

  1. What were the arguments for and against allowing the Shah to settle in the United States?

 

  1. Why did the Ayatollah Khomeini support the taking of the hostages?  How did this serve his own interests?

 

  1. How did Carter react to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan?  How did this reaction reflect a misperception on his part? 

 

  1. Why were liberals already in political trouble during the 1970s?  Why were Americans more willing to embrace conservative ideas – such as deregulation and tax cuts – that went against liberal “conventional wisdom”? (Ehrman)

 

  1. What were the basic tenets of Ronald Reagan’s governing philosophy?  To what extent did he succeed in turning his ideas into policies?

 

  1. What role did James Baker play in shaping the Reagan presidency – both in how it operated and how it was perceived? (Ehrman)

 

  1. What were some of the pros and cons of deregulation?  Takeovers and buyouts? (Ehrman)

 

  1. How did the Iran-Contra scandal reveal Reagan’s weakness as a manager?

 

  1. What structural changes occurred in the economy during the 1980s that made the decade good for the highly educated, adaptable, and skilled and disastrous for the poorly educated, inadaptable, and unskilled?

 

  1. Why did the Democrats fail to mount any effective opposition to Reagan and his policies?

 

  1. In Rivethead, Ben Hamper describes a “cycle” of life beginning with birthright as a shop rat, educational segregation, and GM’s dominance as the only real employment option in Flint. Which part of this cycle is most responsible for what happened in Flint – the family, educational system, or the corporation? Who does Hamper see as being mostly responsible? Is it the individual?  Or the institutions the individual must contend with?

 

  1. In Rivethead, Ben Hamper remarks,“That pay stub was like a concrete pair of loafers” (Hamper, 48) What is the author getting at here?

 

  1. Given the descriptions of “doubling up” of jobs, Hamper’s writing ability, Bud’s college work, and Dale’s pursuit of farming, how “unskilled” was the labor force at GM? Why didn’t GM do a better job of recognizing and utilizing the latent talent of the workforce in its pursuit of quality instead of trying to motivate them by introducing Howie Makum the “quality cat”?

 

  1.  Why was Ben Hamper not suited for assembly line work in a factory? 

 

  1. What were Reagan’s overarching principles in his conduct of foreign affairs?  How do we see him pursuing (and sometimes compromising) these principles as he dealt with the Soviet Union and other specific diplomatic crises during his two terms in office?

 

  1.  What was Reagan’s strategy for hastening the collapse of Communism?  What specific steps did he take to shove the Soviet Union into the “dustbin of history”?

 

  1. How did Cold War anti-communism shape (and, arguably, distort) American policy in Central America?

 

  1. In hindsight, the entire Iran-Contra affair seems like a fiasco that reveals incredibly poor judgment and a cavalier disregard for the law on the part of several Reagan administration officials and even the President himself.  How did the administration get involved in this series of ill-advised decisions?  Why was Reagan able to emerge from the scandal relatively unscathed (in stark contrast to Nixon and the Watergate scandal)?

 

  1. Why were both Reagan and Gorbachev crucial players in bringing the cold war to an end “without a shot being fired”?  What fundamental beliefs did each eventually have to abandon in order to reach an agreement?

 

  1. Why was World War I such a pivotal moment in determining man’s vision of himself?  Why could the Victorian notion of a heroic “God-man” not survive the war?

 

  1. What was the difference between “inner-directed” and “other-directed” man? Between “character” and “personality”?  How did the idea of “personality” change or even disappear in the postmodern era?

 

  1. How do modern and postmodern celebrities differ? What accounts for Clinton’s success at being a “postmodern celebrity president”?

 

  1. How did Clinton (or his presentation of himself) differ from previous presidents who, the author says, were not (and were not expected to be) “celebrities”?

 

  1. According to the political journalist E.J. Dionne, what were Americans looking for from politicians during the early 1990s?  Why did “old” liberals and “new” conservatives fail to gain the approval of voters?

 

  1. Why was there a backlash against Great Society liberalism during the 1960s?  What other elements contributed the emergence of a successful conservative political movement by the 1980s?

 

  1. What criticisms did conservatives level against welfare?  What arguments did the conservatives’ critics make in response?

 

  1. According to Tony Judt, why, over the last 30 years, has the welfare state as it existed in Western Europe and the United States between approximately 1945 and 1980 fallen out of favor with radical leftists, conservatives, and voters more generally? Why, according to Judt, is sustaining the welfare state and the government-funded services it provides nonetheless important for the overall health of society? (Judt, chapter 3)

 

  1. Drawing on the material that Tony Judt presents in chapters 1 and 3 of his book Ill Fares the Land, explain how the degree of economic inequality – that is, the size of the gap between the richest and poorest members of society – affects that society.  (Note that inequality can have both positive and negative effects, the key thing to keep in mind is the degree of economic inequality.)