Second Exam
Potential Essay Questions

Two of the following questions will appear on the exam. You will be asked to write on one of the two. (In addition to the essay questions, there will be multiple choice questions which can be drawn from any source in the course to date.) In your essays, you will be expected (1) to isolate key themes and concepts, (2) to explain those themes and concepts with clarity and precision, and (3) to provide specific examples to reinforce and prove your general points.

1. What were the origins of the French Revolution (through 1789)? Why did the French Revolution radicalize after 1789 (through 1795)? In what ways did Robespierre justify the radicalization of the revolution?

2. How were liberalism, conservatism, and nationalism defined between 1815 and 1871? What were the successes and failures of each of these ideologies during this period?

3. To what extent was U.S. history "exceptional" or unique in the era from colonial times until 1871? How did the American Revolution compare to the liberal revolutions of Europoe? To what extent were European ideologies of conservatism, liberalism, and nationalism manifest in U.S. history? Did the Civil War parallel trends of nation-building in Germany?

4. What were the origins of the American Civil War? In what ways and to what extent did the Civil War reflect nationalist aspirations? Your answer should include a consideration of the perceptions and arguments of South Carolina's Address to the Slave-Holding States and Lincoln's Second Inaugural.

5. Reconstruct the arguments of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in The Communist Manifesto. You should include a consideration of their ideas about (1) historical change (dialectical materialism); (2) the origins and historical role of the bourgeoisie; (3) the (predicted) origins of the proletariat revolution; (4) and rationale for abolishing bourgeois private property.

6. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, advocates of the same ideologies and causes often adopted different arguments, objectives, and strategies. Explain the differences among liberals (using Green and Spencer), among socialist (using Marx and Bernstein), among feminists (using Hearings), and among African American reformers (using Washington and DuBois).


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