Study questions for Final Exam
What is fascism, and what two European leaders were associated with this political system?
How did America attempt to stay isolationist at the same time that they prepared for war?
How was the attack on Pearl Harbor a threat to isolationist policy?
What were the "Four Freedoms"? How did they represent what the American people wanted and American foreign policy?
What was the two front war? How was this different from the Double V War?
How were white and black soldiers and workers treated during World War II?
What were the assumptions about women's work during World War II? How were those same in the military and the private sector?
How did the American government attempt to repair its reputation regarding war information after World War I?
How were minorities affected by World War II?
What did the Soviet Union want after World War II? How did these desires lead to increased tension between the U.S. and Soviet Union?
Why did Truman drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What were the criticisms of his decision?
What is containment? How was it manifested in the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, NATO, Berlin Airlift, and NSC-68?
How did the creation of the state of Israel help alleviate guilt for the Holocaust? How did this impact the way the American nation viewed itself religiously?
How did the Cold War and fear of Communism impact the need for Americans to conform to white, middle-class society? How did Americans do this?
What was the GI Bill of Rights? How did it change the American way of life after World War II?
What was the "baby boom"? How did it change the demographic nature of the United States?
What is "white flight"? How did it change the demographic nature of the United States?
What was suburbia, and how did it impact the ideal view of men and women? How was the ideal different from the reality?
What were the two goals of the Interstate Highway Act of 1956?
What was the impact of air conditioning on the Sunbelt?
How was the 1950s counterculture a predecessor to the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s?
What was the Second Red Scare? Who was involved? How was it different than the First Red Scare? How were universities, labor unions, and the homosexual community impacted by the Red Scare?
How was the Vietnam War part of the US policy of containment?
Describe McCarthyism. Explain the impact of this "movement" on the American mindset.
How did Eisenhower attempt to be more conservative in world affairs during the 1950s? How did this lead to increased involvement by the US in Southeast Asia and the Middle East?
How did the NAACP, World War II, and the Cold War influence the early years of the Black Freedom Movement? What were the early events or policy changes that started the movement?
What is the difference between de jure and de facto segregation? How did that influence the way the Black Freedom Movement functioned in the North and the South?
What was Brown vs. Board and Brown II? How did they cause issues in the United States that needed to be fixed by the federal government?
Who was Emmett Till? How did he help jump start the Black Freedom Movement?
What were the goals of the people who led the Montgomery Bus Boycott? How were they successful? How were they unsuccessful?
What happened at Little Rock Central High in 1957? How did those events Rock expose the problems of the Brown II decision?
Why was the launch of Sputnik a challenge to the American belief of superiority to the Soviets? How did it inspire the American public and government to change the way money was spent?
What were some of the major events that JFK experienced during his brief time as president? How did his experiences with the Soviet Union, Civil Rights, and the need to better the country change when he died?
What was the New Left? What did they believe? How were they different from the Old Left? What were some of the groups involved in the New Left?
What changes and policies did LBJ put in place during his presidency? How did they reflect his beliefs about race, ethnicity, and poverty?
What was the War on Poverty? How did it anger Americans and help lead to the rise of the New Right?
Explain LBJ's policies on the Vietnam Conflict? How did his actions cause the distrust of Americans towards the federal government?
What was the Counterculture? When did it shift to Radicalism? What was radical about it?
What was Mississippi Freedom Summer? What did the volunteers want? How successful was the movement? Who led the movement? What did it lead to?
What were the differences between the non-violent Black Freedom Movement and Black Power? When and why did the shift occur? Who were the leaders of each? What were they working for? What were the goals and strategies of each? In what ways and where were the two movements successful?
What was "The Feminine Mystique"? How did it lead to the Second Wave Feminist Movement? What are the differences between first and second wave feminism?
What were the differences between the Women's Rights movement and the Women's Liberation movement? Who were the leaders of each? Why was the shift to radicalism needed? What were the groups involved in, tactics, and goals of the movements?
What were the opinions of black women towards feminism?
What were the many traumas of 1968? How did they help lead to Nixon's election in 1968?
Who was the "Silent Majority"? Who was the New Right?
What were Nixon's strategies for dealing with civil rights, women's rights, and gay rights? What gains were made for each of these groups during his presidency?
What was Nixon's strategy for dealing with Vietnam? How was it successful? How was it a failure?
Explain Nixon's policies toward Communism and the economic crisis of the early 1970s?
What was Watergate? How did it influence the American people's view towards the government and the strength of the country during the 1970s?
What were Ford's contributions as president?
What is the Religious Right? Who makes up this group? What is important to members of this group?
How was the election of Democratic Jimmy Carter in 1976 a continuation of the rise of the Religious Right?
How did civil rights, gay rights, and women's rights fare in the late 1970s?
What was Proposition 13? How was it part of the cutback of social programs?
Describe the Iran Hostage Crisis. How did it help end the popularity of Jimmy Carter?
What was Jimmy Carter's response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan? How did it lead to US support of the Taliban?
What was Reagan's platform for his campaign?
What was the Reagan Coalition? Who was involved in it?
What was the Reagan Revolution? How did it impact the government in the 1980s and 1990s?
What were the major crises of the Farm Crisis of the 1980s? What was the public response to this economic crisis?
What was the Iran-Contra scandal? What were the results?
Describe the ending of the Cold War. Explain Gorbachev's role in it.
How did George Kennan, Francis Fukuyama, and George H.W. Bush react to the end of the Cold War?
Describe the Tiananmen Square Massacre. How was involved with the end of the Cold War?
Describe Operation Desert Storm. How was it the first true test of the New World Order?
How did American religious peoples view Saddam Hussein and Operation Desert Storm?
What was Clinton's domestic agenda? How did it represent the New World Order?
How were minorities affected during the 1980s and 1990s?
What is the government's strategy for fighting the War on Terror?
What are the differences among state-sanctioned terrorism, terror networks, and domestic terrorism?
What is orthodoxy? How is it related to globalization and the New World Order? How does orthodoxy contribute to the War on Terror?
What is genocide? How is it connected to terrorism? How did the break-up of the Soviet Union and de-colonization in African and Southeast Asia lead to genocide?
Ponder this statement: Genocide is state-sanctioned terrorism of a nation's government against its own people.
How was the siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco an attack on domestic terrorism?
What is the New Normal?