STUDY SHEET FOR HISTORY 225,
EXAM 2
A. Exam 2 will be held on Wednesday, March 29, 2000.
B. Exam 2 will cover:
- All lectures from February 16 (the origins of the Great Depression) through March 27 (the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower).
- Tindall and Shi, America: A Narrative History,
chaps. 28-33 & pages 1217-1231.
Use the text to answer questions which occur to you as you study other materials, to cover topics we have not had time to discuss in class, and to reinforce in your memory the material we cover in class.
- Stoff, Fanton, and Williams, eds., The Manhattan Project, all pages.
Pay special attention to our class discussion of the book and to the issues raised in the introductions to each chapter of the book (pages xii-17, 60-63, 88-91, 134-137, 178-181, 218-221, 250-253).
- Give priority to studying lecture notes.
C. Outline Of Exam 2
- Take-home essay question (20 points)
- Refer to the handout entitled "Take-home Questions for Exams" for questions.
- Write your essay about the period of history beginning with the origins of the Great Depression in the late 1920s and ending with the Eisenhower presidency (1953-61).
- In-class essay question (30 points, 20 minutes)
- Multiple choice and short answer questions (50 points, 25
minutes)
D. In-Class Essays for Exam 2
Students will be required to answer ONE
in-class essay question as a part of Exam 2. The following is
a list of potential essay questions for the exam. Two of the essays
questions below will be on Exam 2. Each student will pick one
of these questions to answer on of the exam.
- Discuss the origins of the Great Depression. What were the
structural weaknesses of the American economy in the years before
the Depression? What role did the international economic instability
and the Stock Market Crash play in causing the Depression? Describe
the chronology of the Depression from 1929 to 1933.
- Discuss the following New Deal programs: (1) Civilian Conservation
Corps, (2) Agricultural Adjustment Administration, and (3) National
Recovery Administration. What were the goals of each of these
programs? How was each program designed to meet its goal? What
was the public reaction to these programs? What effects did each
program have on the economy?
- Discuss the efforts of Franklin Roosevelt to lead the United
States into cooperation with the Allied Nations from 1939-41.
- Discuss the deterioration of American relations with Japan
during the 1930s and early 1940s.
- Discuss the effects of World War II on the American economy,
civil rights and civil liberties, technology, and the federal
government.
- Discuss the Yalta Conference. What agreements were reached
at the conference? What effects did those agreements have on the
postwar world? Evaluate the claim that Roosevelt "sold out"
American interests at the conference.
- Defend or refute the following statement: Though Franklin
Roosevelt's presidency seemed to be a grand success to many Americans
in the 1930s-40s, it is clear in hindsight that Roosevelt's presidency
was a failure. Roosevelt failed in many areas of his domestic
and foreign policies, he was reckless and authoritarian in his
use of presidential power, and he introduced many harmful trends
into the practice of American government.
- Discuss the evolution of the Cold War from 1945-50. What events
and factors contributed to the emergence and escalation of the
Cold War? Was either the U.S. or the Soviet Union primarily to
blame for the Cold War? Explain your answer.
- Discuss the United States as "The Affluent Society," 1945-60. What factors caused the postwar prosperity of the U.S.? What were the consequences of the new affluence on the economy, class structure, demographic patterns, and culture of the U.S.?
