History 476

Devine

Fall 2013

Final Exam Study Questions

The final exam 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 choose seven to answer. In Part Two, I will give you three long essay questions based on All Souls; you will answer one. In Part Three, I will give you three long essay questions; you will answer one. The exam questions will be taken from the questions below.

There will be no questions on the exam that do not appear below. 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 from the reading as possible to explain and support what you assert. If in grading your answers, it is clear to me that you have drawn on specific evidence from the reading (and, even better, specific evidence that we may not necessarily have gone over in class) you are more likely to get 9 or 10 points rather than 7 or 8.

1. Why did the “moral guardians” of the Southern way of life see the emergence of rock music and the desegregation of schools as interconnected threats to the South’s social order? What “threat” did these two social developments pose?
2. How did the broader context in the South during the 1950s shape white segregationists’ reaction to the rise of rock’n’roll? Why did many whites in the South object (sometimes even violently) to the new youth culture that seemed to emerge alongside rock’n’roll music?
3. How did Ruth Brown and Janis Martin challenge mainstream norms regarding female sexuality? Why were “hysterical” female fans ok, but Brown and Martin beyond the pale?
4. Critics later claimed the “whitening” of rock’n’roll drained it of its spirit. What evidence does Grace Palladino introduce to argue that this wasn’t necessarily so – that even “whitened” rock signaled the inception of a new teenage rebel culture?
5. How did Dick Clark differ from Alan Freed? How did Clark’s show, Bandstand, try to “contain” some of rock’s rebellious power?
6. How did Elvis Presley “negate” mainstream attitudes about race, sex, and the protestant work ethic? [Robert Pielke article]
7. Why does Pielke say that many adults “dreaded” Elvis Presley while teens found him so fascinating?
8. Why did the fact that Elvis was white make him so threatening in the minds of both black and white parents?
9. Why did Elvis’s purchase of a pink Cadillac seem so subversive to many white middle-class Americans? Why did the fact that it was pink make them even angrier?
10. How did the experience of poverty and low social status shape Elvis’s attitude about his own success? How did growing up poor and marginalized shape his music?
11. What evidence does Michael Bertrand introduce to discredit the myth that Elvis had no following among African Americans and that he “stole” his act from African Americans?
12. How does the assumption that Elvis Presley was out to “copy” black music in order to become a commercial success ignore the historical realties of life in the South during the 1950s? In 1954, why was “acting black” and “crossing the color line” not a likely road to success for a white artist?
13. What various musical influences went into rock’n’roll? Why did the fusion of all of these influences produce such a powerful – and even subversive – form of music?
14. Why were African Americans often ambivalent in their response to the popularity of rock’n’roll and black performers? How could rock music both facilitate racial progress but also reinforce racial stereotypes?
15. How did Anne Moody’s experiences as a child teach her about the significance of race in the South? How did these experiences also teach her that race was largely a social construction rather than a biological reality?
16. How would you describe relations between blacks and whites in Mississippi when Anne Moody was a young girl? How did whites in rural Mississippi use fear to impose their dominance over blacks?
17. In what ways were young southern blacks in the 1950s and early 1960s different than their parents? Why was the Civil Rights Movement largely “led by the young”?
18. In what ways was Anne Moody different than most African Americans in Mississippi? What traits and characteristics did she have that propelled her toward a leadership role in the local Civil Rights struggle?
19. What were the major impediments Anne Moody faced as she tried to lead black Mississippians in the Civil Rights struggle? Which were more significant, impediments from within or outside of the black community itself?
20. Does Anne hate white people? How does she act differently toward whites than did most blacks in rural Mississippi? Does her attitude toward whites change throughout her memoir?
21. Does Anne hate black people? Is she justified in her hostility or is it misplaced?
22. Why did the Movement put such emphasis on the voter registration campaign? By securing blacks the vote, what were activists hoping to achieve?
23. Why were the ideas of the Old Left not much help to the New Left in its attempt to critique the “Affluent Society”?
24. Who did SDS see as potential allies? How did it plan to structure its organization? What were some of SDS’s weaknesses from the very outset?
25. What was “participatory democracy”? Why did SDS members believe that adopting it would improve American society? Why did participatory democracy prove more attractive in theory than in practice?
26. According to Steigerwald, how did the New Left change between 1962 and 1969? Why did these changes bring about the New Left’s downfall?
27. How did the political and social rebellion of the New Left differ from the cultural rebellion of the counterculture?
28. What were the myths the residents of Southie told themselves about their neighborhood? What were the myths that outsiders (white liberals, the media, social activists) told about the neighborhood?
29. How did Whitey Bulger exploit the residents of Southie by appealing to the very values that many residents believed made their neighborhood special?
30. Why did the white residents of Southie hate the white liberals? Why did the liberals’ dismissal of Southie residents as “racists” (particularly during the busing crisis) tell only part of the truth?
31. How did government-sponsored measures intended to improve race relations – like busing and the enforcement of “hate crimes” laws – actually end up heightening racial tensions in Southie?
32. The ancient Greeks defined “tragedy” as a good man brought to a bad end by the very qualities that allowed him to achieve greatness in the first place. How might one argue that this definition of “tragedy” fits the lives of several of Robert MacDonald’s siblings and the story of Southie itself?
33. What role does silence play in All Souls? Is silence good or bad in the context of life in Southie?
34. According to Ilana Nash, how did teenage girls who listened to Shawn Cassidy (and other teen idols) actually demonstrate more of a feminist consciousness than other girls in the “cool” group who listened to hard rock music?
35. How does Nash answer the criticism that young girls idolized “androgynous” singers like Shawn Cassidy because they weren’t “ready for real boys”?
36. According to Palladino (Ch 14), why did many adults resent teenage boys’ long hair? Why did the boys resent those who resented them?
37. How had the older generation’s attitudes toward its children changed by the 1970s? Why did adults seem more hostile to their children than in previous decades?
38. How were women’s roles in the world of music constricted during the 1950s and 1960s? What roles did they play? How were they treated by male performers and industry executives?
39. What impact did the emergence of punk have on young women? How did female punks demonstrate their rejection of traditional notions about femininity?
40. In what ways was punk a reaction to the musical culture of the 1970s?
41. How did punks during the 1980s demonstrate a “D. I. Y.” (Do it yourself) attitude?
42. Within the context of the punk subculture of the 1980s, what does it mean to be “anti-corporate”? What aspects of the corporate music culture did punks reject and what steps did they take to offer an alterative musical culture?
43. Why is a youth rebellion based on style easily co-opted by consumer capitalism?
44. According to Kevin Mattson, why have various sub-cultural rebellions among the young since the 1950s failed to offer clearly reasoned alternatives to the mainstream culture they are rebelling against?
45. Why did both conservative whites and some liberal blacks (including Civil Rights activists) criticize gangsta rap?
46. Why does George Lipsitz believe those who wished to censor or ban gansta rap music were diverting attention from more significant social and cultural issues. What were some of these issues?