History 271 Devine Fall 2017
FINAL STUDY GUIDE
In addition to studying the questions below, you should be sure to have read the assigned chapters of Coming of Age in Mississippi since the final exam will include several questions related to the book (on topics beyond those covered in the questions below). To help you prepare, refer to the Coming of Age study guide posted on the History 271 syllabus and other study guides on the book available on the internet.
1. Why has it been argued that the origins of World War II in Europe were related to the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I? 2. How was Hitler able to get the Western Powers – especially France and Germany – to go accept his expansion into the Rhineland and into Austria? How did he justify these moves? 3. Explain the origins of World War II in Europe. How and why did the conflict begin? What were the key events that led to the official beginning of the war on September 1, 1939? 4. During the late 1930s, why did the British and French choose to “appease” Hitler rather than confront him? How did they justify this decision? 5. Why did the Germans and Russians sign a “non-aggression” pact in 1939? What did each side stand to gain from such an agreement? 6. Why was Hitler’s decision to invade the Soviet Union in 1941 a bad one? 7. Why was the Soviet Union unprepared for the German invasion in 1941? 8. Why did the Soviet Union want the British and the Americans to open a “second front” against the Germans in Western Europe? Why did the British and the Americans delay doing so until 1944? 9. Why did Winston Churchill and the British government prefer the Americans to support the British war effort in North Africa rather than focus on sending troops to France? 10. Identify the two biggest mistakes that Hitler made during World War II and explain why these mistakes were so costly. 11. Why did Roosevelt come up with the program of “Lend Lease”? 12. Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor? In hindsight, why did this prove a costly mistake? 13. How did American racism make the attack on Pearl Harbor even more costly for the U.S. military? How did Japanese racism contribute to the Japanese decision to attack Pearl Harbor in the first place? 14. Why did the Japanese decide to surrender when they did? What factors went into making this decision? 15. From her youngest years, how was Anne Moody different than other African Americans in Mississippi? Why did she gravitate toward the Movement while so many others feared it?
16. How does Anne learn that “race” is a social construct – that society dictates who is “white” and who is “black” and that “black” is inferior to “white”? 17. How would you describe relations between blacks and whites in Mississippi when Anne was “coming of age”? How did whites in rural Mississippi exercise power over blacks? 18. Who was Emmett Till and why was he murdered? What message did his death communicate to the blacks in Mississippi? 19. What is Anne's attitude toward organized religion? Does it change as her life progresses? How does she feel about the black ministers? 20. Why does Anne say she hates black people? Is she justified in her hostility or is it misplaced? 21. Why were young people a key component of the Civil Rights Movement? 22. When observers referred to the early 1960s as a “promising time,” what two conceptions of “promising” did they have in mind? 23. Why did John F. Kennedy come to embody the “promising time” of the early 1960s? Why did his election seem to mark the ending of one era and the beginning of another? 24. Why have some argued that John F. Kennedy was not entirely honest with the voters during his campaign for President in 1960? 25. Why had Cuba become a concern to the American government after 1959? 26. What was the “Bay of Pigs Invasion” and why did Kennedy agree to support it? Why did the Bay of Pigs Invasion encourage Kennedy to adopt a more aggressive anticommunist foreign policy? 27. Why did the Soviet Union support the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1962? 28. What was the United States’ goal when it intervened in Vietnam? Why did Kennedy feel the U.S. must assist and support the anticommunist government in South Vietnam? 29. How was Lyndon Johnson able to use the death of President Kennedy to advance the liberal agenda? 30. Why did the Vietnam War and opposition to the Vietnam War divide Americans along class lines? 31. If older Americans were most likely to oppose the war, why did they also oppose the anti-war demonstrators? 32. How do urban unrest and the Vietnam War explain the shift from liberalism to conservatism between the election of 1964 and the election of 1974?