From the following three possible questions, please choose TWO, similar to the midterm exam, and answer each of them completely. You do not need to link your two essays together.
Choice 1: Imagine that you are talking to a curious 12 or 13 – year – old, and starting to teach them about 20th – century US history. You can picture, in your mind, a real young person you know, or a hypothetical person.
When you explain that it’s important to study history so that you can learn from the lessons and cautions of the past, they ask you, “so, did we learn anything from the example of recent US history?” In other words, have we progressed at all towards freedom, justice, equity, etc.?
How do you answer them, yes, no, or a little bit of both, given the current – day situation in the US? Please use examples from the course materials, as well as your own research if you choose, as well as specific examples of more recent events.
Choice 2: Historians often remark on the transformations of the world since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, particularly in the years after 9/11.
In your estimation, in what way has the world changed the most since then?
You can choose to focus on the fields of culture, science and technology, politics, economics, or anything you choose. Pick one area and argue for that as the most striking vector of change since the end of the Cold War, using specific examples from the course.
Choice 3: One noticeable factor of modern US history is that regular Americans have often been highly aware of international events, whether that was of an isolated episode, like the Cuban Missile Crisis, an unsuccessful uprising in the Eastern Bloc, like the Hungarian Revolution, or a long – drawn – out conflict, such as the Vietnam War. As these and many other international events unfolded, American reactions to those events became an episode in themselves, as American popular entertainment even mined these events for shows and movies.
Pick one international event or series of events from the time period covered by our course, and narrative the range of US reactions to it, using both the course materials, and your own research if you like.
