History
485
Devine
Fall 2015
Study Questoins: David
Reynolds, From Munich to Pearl Harbor
Chapter 1
1.
Throughout
1940-1941, what was the fundamental issue that divided “noninterventionists”
and “interventionists? How did this disagreement reveal two different notions of
what constituted “national security” and what the United States’ role in the
world should be?
2.
Why
does Reynolds believe the period leading up to US intervention in World War II
is more important that previous historians have acknowledged – particularly
with regard to the unfolding of US policies in the years after the war?
Chapter 2
1.
How
do “Empire, Ideology, and Economics” help explain the origins of World War II?
3.
Why
was the Spanish Civil War seen as an indication of the weakness of liberal
democracy during the 1930s?
4.
What
is the difference between liberal capitalism and autarky? Why did autarky seem
to be winning the battle of economic systems during the 1930s?
5.
How
did the United States’ “Empire of Liberty” differ from the empires of Europe
and Asia?
6.
What
factors kept the US from gravitating toward fascism, communism, or economic
autarky?
7.
Why
does Reynolds describe the US in the 1930s as a “country that had lost its
nerve”? How is this “loss of nerve” seen
in the foreign policies of this decade?
8.
In
his approach to foreign policy, in what ways did Franklin D. Roosevelt draw on
the ideas of both Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt? In what ways was he different than Wilson?
9.
To
what extent is it correct to say that throughout 1937-1938, FDR’s policy
regarding the situation in Europe was limited to “pin pricks and righteous
protests”? If true, why was this the
case?
Chapter 3
1.
What
effect did the Nazi-Soviet pact have on the geopolitical situation in both
Europe and Asia? What effect did it have
on public opinion and policy in the US?
2.
Why
was FDR concerned about air power after 1938?
Why did he fear German air power in particular?
3.
Why
did FDR fail to rally Congress or the public to a policy of “unneutral
rearmament” in late 1938 and early 1939?
4.
Why
was the US less worried about getting involved in the Sino-Japanese conflict
than it was about getting involved in Europe?
How did events in Europe shape US policy in Asia?
5.
How
did the Neutrality Act of 1939 make it less likely the US would be pulled into
a European war but also enable the US to provide more help to the British and
French?
Chapter
4
1.
Why
was Britain initially reluctant to devote all of its resources into buying
goods from the US?
2.
Why
were both the evacuation at Dunkirk and the fall of France significant in
determining the course of the European war and the US reaction to events?
3.
How
did circumstances surrounding the war in Europe change FDR’s attitude toward
businessmen and Republicans? Why did the
approach of war also mark the end of the New Deal?
4.
What
impediments did FDR face as he tried to aid the British? What was the argument for limiting US aid to
Britain?
5.
Why
was the Curtiss-Wright court decision significant, both in the short- and
long-term?
6.
How
did Hitler’s successes in Europe affect the Japanese strategy in Asia? Why was the US response to the Japanese so
disorganized?
7.
Why
did both US and Japanese efforts to deter the other end up backfiring? What role did misperceptions play?
8.
What
were the major arguments of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the
Allies? To what extent did the America
First Committee refute these arguments?
9.
What
factors – military, cultural, social, political – slowly moved the American
public toward a pro-British stance during the summer and fall of 1940?
10.
How
did FDR handle the issue of US intervention in the war during the 1940
presidential campaign?