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History 223: Twentieth Century U. S.Monday 6:00-8:40

Final Exam Review

Your final exam will take place on Monday, May 9. It will be 120 minutes longand will consist of a section of T/F questions, a section of multiple-choicequestions, several sections of matching questions, a long essay question, as wellas a short mandatory essay question (You will not have the question ahead oftime for the short essay, but I would recommend that you think very generallyabout the central historical turning points of the twentieth century.). This examwill cover material from class 8 (The “Good War” and New Visions of Freedom)to class 12 (The Post-Cold War World and An Empire in the Making). Be sure tocomplete all of the scheduled reading assignments.

Terms and names

Here are the names and terms that you will need to study for the final exam. Besure to think broadly when you are studying them. When looking at the AlbanyMovement, for example, you should immediately think about how the failure ofMartin Luther King and the SCLC to make civil rights gains in Albany, Georgia,influenced their strategy in Birmingham. Albany should also get you thinkingabout the divisions within the civil rights movement itself. Charles Sherrod, forinstance, was unhappy with what the SNCC saw as a high-handed attitude byMartin Luther King and the SCLC. This should demonstrate how one term canget you thinking about broader themes – in this case the very nature of the civilrights movement. Being familiar with the historical context and significance ofthe following names and terms will allow you to succeed on the matching sectionof the exam, prepare for multiple choice and true or false questions, as well asprovide examples for your essays. When you are studying, remember to askyourself, “Why is this name or term historically significant?”

Neutrality Act (1935) Abraham Lincoln Brigade America First Committee

Pearl Harbor General Douglas MacArthur Dunkirk

Battle of Midway Guadalcanal

The Four Freedoms Office of War Information GI Bill of Rights

Henry A. Wallace Executive Order 8802 A. Philip Randolph

bracero program Executive Order 9066 Rosie the Riveter

Korematsu v. United States (1944) “Double-V” campaign

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Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC)

Battle of Stalingrad Winston S. Churchill D-Day Auschwitz

Manhattan Project Hiroshima United Nations

George Kennan Bernard Baruch Truman Doctrine

Marshall Plan Harry S. Truman Berlin Airlift

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Korean War

Walter Lippman Make Mine Freedom (1948) The Fair Deal

Taft-Hartley Act (1947) Operation Dixie NSC-68

Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) Dixiecrats

Joseph R. McCarthy HUAC Alger Hiss Paul Robeson

Nikita Khrushchev Richard Nixon Kitchen Debate

Levittown James Baldwin Massive Retaliation MAD

C. Wright Mills Jack Kerouac Allen Ginsberg Jackie Robinson

Chief Justice Earl Warren Brown v. Board of Education

Thurgood Marshall White Citizen’s Council Rosa Parks

Montgomery Bus Boycott Martin Luther King SCLC

Lunch Counter Sit-ins Congress of Racial Equality SNCC

Freedom Rides Albany Movement Charles Sherrod

Bull Connor Birmingham, Alabama

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church 1963 March on Washington

Cuban Missile Crisis (1961) John F. Kennedy Fidel Castro

Civil Rights Act of 1964 Freedom Summer Voting Rights Act of 1965

Barry Goldwater Lyndon Baines Johnson Higher Education Act (1965)

Medicare and Medicaid (1965) The Great Society

Immigration Act of 1965 Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO)

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The War on PovertyVISTA Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

Malcolm X Kerner Report Chicago Freedom Movement

Black Power Rachel Carson Port Huron Statement (1962)

Free Speech Movement (FSM) Tom Hayden Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

The Sharon Statement (1960)Robert F. Williams Detroit Riot (1967)

Paul Potter The International 1968 Redstockings Manifesto (1969)

Abbie Hoffman Betty FriedanThe Feminine Mystique (1963)

Counterculture National Organization for Women (NOW)

Stonewall Uprising (1969) César Chavez Ralph Nader

American Indian Movement (AIM) Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

The Second Battle of Wounded Knee

Roe v. Wade (1973) Tet Offensive (1968) “silent majority”

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Family Assistance Plan

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) New Federalism

Philadelphia Plan Warren Burger Milliken v. Bradley (1974)

Title IX Equal Credit Opportunity Act Barry Commoner

Henry Kissinger Salvador Allende Augusto Pinochet

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)

Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty Vietnamization

Kent State University Jackson State University

My Lai Massacre (1968) Pentagon Papers War Powers Act

Robert McNamara Watergate Church Committee

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) stagflation

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Ferdinand Marcos

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Gerald Ford Jimmy Carter Carter Doctrine

Andrew Young Three Mile Island Camp David Accords

Augusto Sandino Massacre at El Mozote

Anastasio Somoza Sandinistas Shah of Iran

Ayatolla Khomeini Heritage Foundation Jerry Falwell

ERA Phyllis Schlafly Roe v. Wade (1973)

Sagebrush Rebellion Ronald Reagan supply-side economics

James Watt The Misery Index Tip O’Neill

PATCO SDI Jeane Kirkpatrick Oliver North

Iran-Contra Affair Mikhail Gorbachev glasnost

perestroika George H. W. Bush Michael Dukakis

Willie Horton World Trade Organization (WTO) Velvet Revolution

Nelson Mandela Manuel Noriega Saddam Hussein

Operation Desert Storm Gulf War Colin Powell

Dick Cheney Bill Clinton Janet Reno

Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) NAFTA Newt Gingrich

“Contract with America” “triangulation” Slobodan Milosevic

Silicon Valley Enron Telecommunications Act (1996)

Declaration for Global Democracy (1999) Dick Armey

Puwat Chaukamnoetkanok Robert Byrd

“prison-industrial complex” AIDS

multiculturalism Proposition 187 Pat Robertson

Timothy McVeigh Kenneth Starr Al Gore

George W. Bush Bush v. Gore (2000) Al Qaeda

Kyoto Protocol (1997) Bush Doctrine Donald Rumsfeld

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Operation Iraqi Freedom USA Patriot Act Alberto Gonzales

“rendition” Abu Ghraib John Kerry Hurricane Katrina

Lawrence v. Texas (2003) Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004)

Security, Liberty, and the War on Terror (2008) Barack Obama

Essays

Concentrate on the following essay questions when you are studying. On theexam you will have a choice of essays. Not all of the following essays, however,will appear on the exam.

Please answer one of the following questions in a well-argued, well-supported,and clearly articulated essay. In your essay be sure to develop an argument orthesis that addresses the questions. Please be sure to use examples or evidencefrom a variety of sources to support your arguments. You can use examplesfrom Eric Foner’s Give Me Liberty! An American History, Voices of Freedom – theprimary documents reader, Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of American Empire,lectures, class discussions, documentaries, and contemporary films. Your essaymust be over six pages long. (On the exam you will be able to choose fromseveral of the following questions.)

1. When the United States first entered World War II the Allies were back ontheir heels – the future did not look good. Why did the Axis powers findthemselves in a strategically advantageous position until the middle of 1942? Besure to consider events that occurred before the United States officially enteredthe war. In a well-supported essay describe and analyze what happened to turnthe tide of battle in the Allies’ favor. Were Axis reversals due to tactical setbacks,strategic missteps, or a combination of both? Explain. What were the mostsignificant battles of World War II? Why? Finally, why did the Allies ultimatelyemerge victorious?

2. The United States’ involvement in World War II ultimately resulted in successfor the Allies. Millions of U.S. troops were quickly mobilized to fight on thebattlefields of Europe and on the islands of the Pacific. Perhaps even moreimportantly, an entire society was mobilized to support the war-effort. In a well-supported essay describe and analyze how the United States rallied its citizens toparticipate in the war effort at home and abroad. How effective were thesemobilization efforts? Why? How did these tactics differ from the previous war?Finally, in what ways did the war on the home front change the United States, aswell as reveal tensions in U.S. society?

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3. Commentators have often referred to World War II as “The Good War.” Noblegoals may have shaped U. S. citizens’ patriotism and support for the war effort;but as the conflict came to a close what the United States’ future would look likebecame contentious indeed. In a well-supported essay describe and analyze howdebates about how the postwar world would be shaped and governed affectedboth U. S. society and international diplomacy. What new issues framed thedebate? How did various individuals and institutions respond to these newimperatives? Was the emerging postwar world a safer world? Explain.

4. The first full decade of the Cold War not only saw it heat up in Korea, but alsowitnessed the domestic ramifications of global policy. In a well-supported essaydescribe and analyze the effects that the Cold War had on the United States’society, culture, and politics during this time. Did the United States, during thefirst full decade of the Cold War, fulfill the national aims put forth during WorldWar II? In what ways did groups ranging from white supremacists, businessowners, and the Democratic Party use anticommunism? How did the idea ofloyalty contained in anticommunism transform into an ideology of conformity?What did anticommunism do to political discourse? Where did anticommunismleave the idea of industrial democracy that had inspired organized labor duringWorld War II? What ramifications would this decade have on the future promiseof the United States?

5. The rise of the citizen consumer and the suburban utopia during the 1950s and1960s made the inequalities existing in American society during this time evenmore apparent. The rise of the counterculture and the energizing ofantidiscrimination activists soon began to challenge the cultural hegemonytypical of the 1950s and early 1960s. In a well-supported essay describe andanalyze the developing relationship between the civil rights’ movement and thecounterculture. What vision of society did these movements share? What largerconcerns helped to bring them together? What issues divided them? In whatways did the civil rights’ movement inspire other social justice or rightsmovements? How did these movements ultimately change U.S. society andculture?

6. The fight for civil rights in the United States was one of the most noble andnecessary movements of the twentieth century. The movement constantlyshowed Americans at their best and their worst. What effects – short-term, aswell as long-term – did the civil rights’ movement have on U. S. politics, culture,and society? In a well-supported essay describe and analyze the ways that the civilrights’ movement changed the United States during the twentieth century. Wasthere debate within the movement about the strategies, tactics, and goals of themovement? Explain the nature and sources of this these debates. Be sure toconsider how the movement developed as the aspirations and demands of thoseinvolved in the movement changed.

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7. The rights revolution represented a turning point in American society in whichthe federal government supported and authorized citizens’ demands for socialjustice. In a well-supported essay describe and analyze both the origins and resultsof the rights revolution of the 1960s and the larger implications that thisrevolution had for the creation of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society,” as well asthe liberation movements of the early 1970s.

8. The Vietnam War brought many changes to the United States. Why did theconflict seem so important to fight to a succession of presidentialadministrations? What ongoing developments in U. S. society, politics, andculture did the war exacerbate? What new problems did the war create? Whywas the war lost and what larger implications did this have for the United States?In a well-supported essay describe and analyze how the Vietnam War affected theUnited States.

9. The early 1970s marked the end of the economic golden age as a stagnatingeconomy and high inflation introduced Americans to “stagflation.” Solutionswere hazy at best. Why were the 1970s and 1980s tough times? In a well-supported essay describe and analyze the problems that emerged in the 1970s and1980s and the ways that the United States tried to address them. What newsocial, economic, political, and cultural problems did these decades bring? Howsuccessful were the government and the public’s efforts to address theseproblems? What were the long-term implications of these efforts?

10. During his 1976 presidential campaign, Georgia Governor Jimmy Carterpromised to restore the public’s trust and respect for government after theVietnam and Watergate years. Instead, Carter presided over numerous domesticand international crises that further eroded the status of the United States athome and abroad. In a well-supported essay describe and analyze the problemsfaced by the Carter administration, as well as the administration’s attempts toaddress these problems. How, for instance, did Jimmy Carter try tofundamentally change some of the ways that the federal government operated?Did all of his efforts end in failure? Explain. Why have historians ultimatelyconcluded that the Carter administration was a failure? What were the lastingeffects of the administration’s ineffectiveness? Explain.

11. Ronald Reagan, through dint of his personality and policies, dominated apolitical era by combining a rejection of past political policies with the nostalgicrhetoric of Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was an appealing political cocktail. In awell-supported essay describe and analyze how Ronald Reagan changed theUnited States and lent his name to a political era. How should one ultimatelyassess the “Age of Reagan”? Be sure to discuss not only his influence on thepolitics and culture of the 1980s – both domestically and internationally – butalso his influence on subsequent developments in American politics and the lifeof the United States.

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12. The rights revolution that started in the 1960s culminated during the 1990s asa variety of marginalized groups gained greater social acceptance and legalstanding. Although it appeared that the end of the twentieth century wasushering in a truly pluralistic society, not all Americans celebrated this newmulticulturalism. What did cultural conservatives think about thesedevelopments? Why? In a well-supported essay describe and analyze the responseof cultural conservatives to the developments of the 1990s.

13. The George W. Bush presidential regime represented a rejection ofClintonism, as well as the approach to international diplomacy previouslypursued by the George H. W. Bush administration. In a well-supported essaydescribe and analyze why and how the George W. Bush administration madesignificant changes to the way that the United States government would operateat home and abroad. What were the origins of these sometimes drastic policydecisions? What were some of the results of these decisions? Did the George W.Bush administration bring the United States to a new level of dominance inworld affairs, or did it usher in a decline in the status of the U. S.? Be sure toexplain your reasoning.