History 476

Devine

Spring 2007

Final Exam Study Questions

1. Robert Holton argues that during the 1950s Beats were looking for “folds of heterogeneity” so as to escape the homogeneity of mainstream American society What does he mean by “folds of heterogeneity”? Where might one find such “folds”?
2. Why were the Beats’ alienated from mainstream American society? What aspects of Cold War America did the Beats reject or seek to escape?
3. How did the Beats’ values differ from those of the “squares?” What did they want out of life that the white middle-class suburbs of the 1950s could not provide?
4. Why were many Beats attracted to urban black hipsters, homosexuals, drug addicts, and others at the margins of society?
5. 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?
6. 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?
7. Beyond its violation of racial taboos, what reasons did critics of rock’n’roll cite for their dislike of the music?
8. According to Palladino, how did Alan Freed contribute to rock music’s increasing popularity during the 1950s? How did Freed himself profit from his association with rock’n’roll? (See Chapter 8)
9. According to Palladino, what role did Dick Clark play in making rock music more “mainstream” and acceptable? (See Chapter 8)
10. According to Palladino, how did class determine teens’ expectations for the future? Was there a connection between teens’ expectations for the future and their behavior as adolescents? (See chapter 10)
11. Who was James Conant and what were his views about education? How did concern about the Cold War shape Conant’s views? (See Chapter 10)
12. How did Elvis Presley “negate” mainstream attitudes about race, class, and the protestant work ethic? [Robert Pielke article]
13. Why does Robert Pielke argue that Elvis Presley was a revolutionary figure? Why was Elvis’s race an important component of his revolutionary status? (In other words, why did a “white man to play the blues”?)
14. 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?
15. 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?
16. 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, was “acting black” and “crossing the color line” a likely road to success for a white artist?
17. What various musical influences went into rock’n’roll? Why did the combination of these influences produce such a powerful – and even subversive – form of music?
18. How would you describe relations between blacks and whites in Mississippi when Anne Moody was a young girl? How did whites in rural Mississippi exercise power over blacks?
19. In what ways were young southern blacks in the 1950s and early 1960s different than their parents?
20. What does it mean to say that race is a “social construct” – that society, not biology, dictates who is “white” and who is “black”?
21. 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?
22. 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 the book?
23. Does Anne hate black people? Is she justified in her hostility or is it misplaced?
24. Why did the Movement put such emphasis on the voter registration campaign? By securing blacks the vote, what were activists hoping to achieve?
25. Why has it been said that the Civil Rights Movement was a movement “led by the young?” (See Palladino, Chapter 11)

26. Why did tensions develop within the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) between whites and blacks and between black men and black women? (See Palladino, Chapter 11)
27. Why did many college students resent in loco parentis? (Palladino, pp. 209-210) Why did undergraduates at many major universities have good reason to protest their treatment there?
28. What precipitated the Berkeley Free Speech Movement? What was the significance of this movement and what consequences did it have for college students and campus life?
29. Why did many believe teenage freedom and the removal of boundaries was a double-edged sword – particularly for high school students who didn’t take their education seriously?
30. Why did many adults resent teenage boys’ long hair? Why did the boys resent those who resented them?
31. Why were there disagreements between SDS (the New Left) and LID (the Old Left)? Why were the ideas of the Old Left not much help to the New Left in its attempt to critique the “Affluent Society”?
32. What did SDS think was wrong with American society and how did they propose to correct society’s ills? What role would students play?
33. What was the purpose (or purposes) of ERAP? Why didn’t it work out like the New Left activists hopes it would?
34. Who did SDS and the New Left see as potential allies? Why didn’t any of these alliances prove very strong or lasting?
35. How did the Vietnam War help energize the student movement?
36. How did the New Left change between 1962 and 1968? Why did the movement become more violent, more alienated, and much smaller?
37. Why were the events in Chicago during the Democratic Convention significant in the history of the New Left? Why didn’t things turn out the way the New Left had hoped?
38. Drawing on William O’Neill’s article, identify the various elements that contributed to the birth of a “counterculture” in the mid-1960s. What contributions did these elements make in shaping the world view of the counterculture?
39. Why does William O’Neill argue that the counterculture increased social hostility and broadened the gap between the privileged and the working class?
40. How did the political and social rebellion of the New Left differ from the cultural rebellion of the counterculture? If both were rejecting arbitrary authority, how did their means of rejecting such authority differ?
41. Why did the participants in the counterculture think that politics were irrelevant?
42. What role did drugs like marijuana and LSD play in shaping the behavior and attitudes of the counterculture? What purpose did such drugs serve for these young people?
43. Why did the anti-war movement want to forge an alliance with the counter-culture? Why did this alliance not produce the expected results?
44. 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?
45. 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?
46. How did Whitey Bulger exploit the residents of Southie by appealing to the very values that many residents believed made their neighborhood special?
47. MacDonald remarks that if you stand your ground, you end up going nowhere. Why is this observation especially relevant when examining the teen culture of Southie?
48. 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?
49. How did the absence of fathers in Southie shape the culture of the neighborhood?
50. What impact did the emergence of punk have on young women?
51. How had rock music changed by the 1970s? Why did these changes make possible the emergence of punk?
52. How was the “D. I. Y.” attitude of punk demonstrated both in the music and in the cultural production of these young people?
53. Within the context of the punk subculture of the 1980s, what does it mean to be “anti-corporate”? What about “corporate culture” did punks reject?
54. Why is a rebellion based on style easily co-opted by consumer capitalism?
55. Why does Kevin Mattson argue that to understand the punk subculture, we must think of its participants as a “robust community of producers”?
56. According to Kevin Mattson, why have various subcultural rebellions among the young since the 1950s failed to offer clearly reasoned alternatives to the mainstream culture they are rebelling against?