History 342: Final Exam Study Guide

(The Final Examination will be held in class)
Friday, December 14th from 1:00pm-3:00pm)

  

Possible Identification:

(50 pts: Four IDs appear on exam, you answer two, 25 pts each)

 

Gentry Turnaround

Gospel of Moneyed Men

Independence Betrayed

Defending Democracy

Rings of Protection

Articles of Confederation

Why the Founders Feared Democracy

“Barrier Against Democracy”

Ratification

Madison’s Reversal

The Founders and Christianity

Federalist Revolution

Jefferson’s Nightmare

Revolution of 1800

Republican Motherhood

Revolution for Northern Slaves?

Revolution for Southern Slaves?

Indians and the Revolutionary War

Cornplanter and Handsome Lake

Making an American Culture

The Birth of American History

 

 

 

Possible Essays (50 pts)

One of the following essay questions will appear on the exam (no choice)

 

1) In 1991, the Pulitzer Prize in history went to a book arguing that the American Revolution was a victory for democracy and for the average person.  According to this author, the Revolution earns distinction for having made “the interests and prosperity of ordinary Americans – their pursuits of happiness – the goal of society and government.” Do you agree or disagree with this assessment of the Revolution? (Whatever side you argue, you must include consideration of the other position: if you’re going to argue that the Revolution was a victory for the average person, your answer also needs to consider the Revolution’s limits; if you’re going to argue that the Revolution wasn’t a victory for ordinary folk, your answer also needs to consider the ways in which ordinary people benefited).  USE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES TO MAKE YOUR CASE. The more SPECIFIC examples that you include and the WIDER VARIETY of “ordinary Americans” your analysis takes into consideration, the better your grade will be).

 

2) As we have seen this semester, the Revolution ended in complicated ways, with not everyone getting what they wanted from the settlement after the war. Some people did quite well and saw their power and wealth grow; others experienced a mix of benefits and losses; still other groups saw themselves in steep decline. Why do you think the Revolution ended the way it did? Why did some people end up better off and others with little to show? Use specific examples from lectures and readings to answer the question. (This question is asking your opinion, but I want you to justify your response using specific examples of what happened during the 1780s-1810s that led you to draw your conclusions. The more SPECIFIC examples that you include, the better your grade will be).

 

3) An outbreak of food poisoning has hospitalized the entire social studies department at the high school in your neighborhood.  The principal has called on college students to serve as temporary replacements.  You have volunteered to teach the unit called “The Founding of the New Nation: the American Revolution in the years following the War for Independence.”  You have FIVE class periods to fill.  What topics will you teach? Why these topics? What are the main points you want to emphasize to students about these topics?  What will you leave out and why?  The objective of this question is to decide what you think is most important for students to know about and to explain what message you want students to take away from that topic.  Be realistic about what you can condense into five class periods (of about 50 minutes to an hour).  DO NOT try to cram every single topic and lecture into the five class periods.  Instead, think practically about what you can (and should) cover given the time constraints.  Your answer should address the array of topics we covered in books and readings, but does not necessarily have to cover the specific lecture title or ID-based format we used in class.  Your answer should justify your choices—explain why you think that topic is more important than the others.  You should also explain why you left the other topics out of the mix.