HIST 2070 - EXAM III
Study Guide

I. Topic Areas: The exam will cover World War I up to the present.

II. Lectures: The exam will cover the following lectures. 

• The "Second Thirty Years War" - World War I and World War II
• The Holocaust
• The Cold War
• Globalization and Upheaval in the Post-Cold War Era

III. Readings:

IV. STRUCTURE OF THE EXAM: The exam will have two parts, an essay portion and an identifications portion, each worth 50%.

Exam Structure: The exam will consist of two parts, an essay section and an identification section, each worth 50%. You will choose one essay from a selection that will be drawn from the essays below. For the identifications, you will be given a list of at least ten terms, drawn from the terms below, of which you will choose five for long (paragraph-length) identifications discussing the historical significance of those terms.

Grading Criteria:

• Essays: Essays should within reason follow standard short essay form, given the time restraints - 1) Introduction and thesis; 2) Supporting evidence; 3) Conclusion. This will ordinarily take a page or so, depending on your handwriting. You will be graded on form, completeness, accuracy, and how well you support your thesis.

• Identifications: You will be graded on two grounds: 1) Details - who, what, when, where; 2) Historical Significance - why does this matter? What were the consequences? How did this person/idea/thing shape history? (These are examples of questions you could address. Each term will vary as to how it needs to be approached.)

• Examples:

  • George Washington: First president of the United States, 1789-1797. Established a number of important presidential traditions, such as the practice of serving only two terms, the Cabinet system, presidential independence in setting foreign policy, and a semi-isolationist foreign policy that sought to avoid involvement in European affairs.

  • Jerusalem: A traditional religious center, located in the Eastern Mediterranean. Although of minor economic and strategic importance, it has had high religious significance for the three Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Because of this, control of Jerusalem has been important in a number of conflicts, including the medieval Crusades and the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

  • animism:  A class of religions based on the idea that the universe is inhabited by and animated by spirits. Since all the world is inhabited by sprits, all the world is sacred. Widely practiced in pre and early agricultural societies, and still present in such modern religions as Shinto and Santeria. In such religions, it is important to develop good relations with these sprits, through sacrifice and other rituals, in order to obtain benefits and avoid problems.

V. Essay Questions: You will have to choose one of the following essay questions.

1. How did the two world wars of the first half of the twentieth century restructure world politics from 1914 to 1947? ID TERMS:  trench warfare, Balance of Powers, Treaty of Versailles, Great Depression, Vladimir Lenin, Fascism
2. The Holocaust was a process that happened in stages and did not happen all at once. Explain and discuss this statement.
   ID Terms: Stab in the Back, Enabling Act, lebensraum, blood libel, Kristallnacht, Auschwitz
3. What were the main concerns for both the USSR and the United State in the Cold War that led to conflict between the two nations? ID Terms:  Marshall Plan, Berlin Air Lift, Warsaw Pact, containment, Mao Zedong, Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping, Mikhail Gorbachev, Solidarity
4. What have been the most significant factors in globalization in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century? Discuss at least two concrete examples. ID TERMS: European Union, multiculturalism, negritude, counter-colonization. (see chps 29&30)