Western Civilization Since 1650 Fall 06 Final Exam Study Guide
There will be three types of questions on the exam: a) multiple choice questions that ask you for information based upon the Perry textbook review questions; b) multiple choice questions that ask you for information from several of the assigned web-linked documents; c) essay questions that require that you review information from the textbook, the documents, and the course lectures.
A. The exam will have multiple choice/matching questions based upon the following review questions in Perry:
If you have answered these questions carefully and you UNDERSTAND the answers (instead of just copying text without thinking), then all you need to do is review your answers carefully--that should help you review the basic information on which I will test you.
Based upon your quizzes, though, I have the impression that many people either a) have not done the reading/answered the questions; or b) answered by simply copying without thinking about what the questions asked or what the answers meant. If you fall into one of those two categories, then you have a lot more work to do! Be sure that you UNDERSTAND the answers! And then review them carefully--that should help you review the basic information on which I will test you.
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B. The exam will have multiple choice/matching questions based upon the following documents:
From Week IX: Darwin, excerpt from The Origin of Species (1859)
From Week X: Bismarck, Speech on to the German Reichstag on Defense, 1888
From Week XIII: Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism ("What is Fascism") (1932)
From Week XIII: Hitler, selections (excerpts) from Mein Kampf (1926)
From Week XIV: The Munich Pact (1938)
From Week XIV: The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Treaty (1939)
I will ask you about the basic information in the documents, based upon the instructions that I gave you on how to take notes on the documents. Just to remind you, for each document you were supposed to take notes on the following:
If you have answered these questions carefully and you UNDERSTAND the answers (instead of just copying text without thinking), then all you need to do is review your answers carefully--that should help you review the basic information on which I will test you.
Based upon your quizzes and the extra-credit assignment, I have the impression that some of you a) have not been reading the documents and answering these questions; or b) have not read carefully, so that you really don't know who wrote the documents, when, where, etc. If you fall into one of those two categories, then you have a lot more work to do! Be sure that you UNDERSTAND the answers! And then review them carefully--that should help you review the basic information on which I will test you.
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C. The Exam will include at least one essay question. To answer the question, you need to think about what you read in the Perry textbook, what you read in the assigned documents, and what I discussed in the class lectures. If you have done the readings and if you attended class sessions and paid attention (and took notes), you should be able to answer these questions by reviewing carefully (and thinking!). If you did not do the readings, you have a lot of work to do. If you did not attend class or did not pay attention in class, you are "up a creek."
I will give you one of the following three questions:
I. Mussolini said that the fascists' goal was to "erase" the year 1789 from history. What did fascists like Mussolini mean by when they said that they wanted to wipe out the legacy of 1789?
To explain this, you MUST:
a) explain what the basic goals of the French Revolution of 1789 were;
b) explain what the basic beliefs of Italian fascism were;
c) explain why the creation of a fascist social-political order would mean "erasing" the legacy of the 1789 French Revolution.
II. Marx argued that industrial capitalism had created social classes locked in an inexorable conflict and that this would lead to workers' revolutions and creation of a "socialist" society. What actually happened in two major revolutionary conflicts--one in the 1800s, one in the 1900s--that pitted the "proletariat" against the "bourgeoisie" and what were the results?
Be as specific as you can. For each of the two revolutions, be sure that you:
a) explain what political parties (or groups) claimed to represent the interests of the workers and what political parties (or groups) claimed to represent the interests of property owners;
b) explain what goals "workers" and "owners" (and "their" political parties) had and how/why these came into conflict;
c) explain if, by the end of each revolution, the results actually achieved what any of the conflicting "sides" had hoped.
III. Some people explain away the horrors inflicted by the Nazis by saying "it was all because Hitler was crazy and the German people were zombies who did whatever Hitler said." But you have actually studied some history, and so you know more than "the average Joe"! If we wanted to explain Nazism in connection to other historical phenomena, what other ideas/movements/events should we consider? Put differently, how were the ideas, goal, and methods of Nazism related to other (previous) developments in Modern European history?
To answer this question well, you MUST:
a) explain what the most important goals of Nazism were (what the Nazis wanted to create) and the methods the Nazis used to try to reach these goals;
b) explain how the basic ideas of Nazism were related to (specific) earlier ideas. Among the ideas that you might consider are: nationalism, race theory, Social Darwinism, anti-Semitism, anti-liberalism, anti-socialism, the belief that governments can transform the very nature of society, etc.;
c) explain how the methods used by the Nazis once they were in power were related to methods used by (specific) previous governments (think about the entire period since 1789!).