Posted: September 16th, 2017

History 17B: Summer 2015, Final Examination

History 17B: Summer 2015, Final Examination

Instructions: Write a typed, double spaced, two page essay response (minimum) from each part of the examination. Please footnote using the Chicago Manual of Style, using the following sources: Give Me Liberty, Vol. 2, Voices of Freedom, Vol.2 and the course lecture notes. Do not use Internet sites, period! This will lead to the student earning a zero on the examination.  Please deliver hard copy only during your final examination period, July 9. 2015. This is a mandatory course meeting.

Essay-Part 1: Answer one question from the part of the examination.

1. Was the Kennedy presidency a continuation of the Eisenhower presidency? Explain.

2. Explain how liberalism went beyond the New Deal in the “Great Society” policies of the Johnson administration?

3. Compare the transformation of Republican Party (from center-right to right) and the Democratic Party (center-left to centrist) from 1980 to the present day. Explain what caused this transformation.

4. Vietnam was a flashpoint of the Cold War. Explain the continuity of the U.S. policy towards Vietnam from Eisenhower to Nixon. Why it was difficult for U.S. Presidents to pursue peace with North Vietnamese?

5. Why was Watergate a constitutional crisis in the United States? Was there a lasting political legacy from Watergate?

6. How can the Clinton presidency be categorized, liberal, conservative or something else?

7. Explain how lying to justify going to war is a continuity in US foreign policy from
Vietnam War to the Iraq War.

8. How did a number of trends shape conservative behavior in the 1950’s: the Red Scare, consumerism, cultural conformism, and segregation?

Essay-Part 2: Pick one document from the following:

1, Use Document 166, Voices of Freedom, 259-261 to explain the critique of U.S. consumer society made by C.Wright Mills.

2.  Use Document 169, Voices of Freedom, 268-271 to explain Martin Luther King’s defense of direct action and non-violent protests.

3. Use Document 170, Voices of Freedom, 272-274 to explain conservative critique of liberalism by the Young Americans for Freedom.

4. Use Document 173, Voices of Freedom, 282-288 to explain the New Leftist, Students for Democratic Society’s ideals for changing American society.

5. Use Document 175, Voices of Freedom, 290-294, to outline the statement of purpose of the National Organization for Women (1966) by feminist Betty Friedan.

6. Use Document 178, Voices of Freedom, 301-303 to make arguments for the Equal Rights Amendment.

7. Use Document 179, Voices of Freedom, 303-307 to examine Barry Commoner’s warnings about our lack of attention to pollution and environmental destruction.

8. Use Document 181, Voices of Freedom, 311-315 to explain Christian Right spokesperson Jerry Falwell’s fundamentalist creed.