FINAL EXAM HST 331, Sections 105 & 107 Fall 1992 Michael J. McCarthy SHORT ANSWER ESSAY QUESTIONS Choose one of the three questions below and answer it in essay form. 1. The strength of the labor movement waned in the 1920s, largely because of the growth of "welfare capitalism." How did "welfare capitalism" arise, and what sort of reforms did it involve? How did it weaken the labor movement? What were some of the limitations of "welfare capitalism?" 2. If the accomplishments of a president can be measured by the weight of his legislative agenda, Lyndon Johnson can be seen as one of the most efficacious presidents in American history because of his success in implementing his "Great Society" and "War on Poverty" legislation. What sparked the "War on Poverty," and what pieces of reform did it include? What were some of the results of the "Great Society?" 3. The decade following the end of World War I witnessed an unprecedented development of American literary and artistic styles precipitated by the "Lost Generation" of American intellectuals. How did these intellectuals view modern American culture in the 1920s? What about American society during that time and about the legacy of the nation's involvement in the First World War lay at the root of their disillusionment? How did their disillusionment manifest itself in the themes of their writing, poetry and artwork? LONG ANSWER ESSAY QUESTIONS: Choose one of the three questions below and answer it in essay form. 1. Professor Emil Shwenck, in Roots of a Quagmire: The Origins of US Involvement in Vietnam, 1954-1963, argues that "Vietnam represented an aberration in American postwar foreign policy. The US doctrine of 'containment,' as originally envisioned and as refined in the 1948 National Security Council study, NSC- 68, clearly called for a narrow definition of national interests and a limited American commitment to world affairs. Had the US remained true to Truman's policy of containment, it never would have become mired in the quagmire in Southeast Asia." Evaluate Schwenk's claim by comparing the origin of containment in postwar American diplomacy to the reasons behind US involvement in Vietnam, paying attention to the following issues: What assumptions underlay America's effort to contain the spread of communism? What implications did containment have for America's involvement in world affairs? Why did Truman order the National Security Council to review American diplomacy, and how did the resulting study, NSC-68, alter the containment policy? Did the US involvement in Vietnam truly represent a departure from this policy, as Schwenk contends? Finally, was containment a wise foreign policy? 2. In the joint opinion of the case Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992), the Court claims that "The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives." In his dissent to that opinion, Justice William Rehnquist argues that "The joint opinion's assertion of this fact is undeveloped and totally conclusory. In fact, one cannot be sure to what economic and social developments the opinion is referring. Surely it is dubious to suggest that women have reached their 'places in society' in reliance upon Roe, rather than as a result of their determination to obtain higher education and compete with men in the job market, and of society's increasing recognition of their ability to fill positions that were previously thought to be reserved only for men." Evaluate this disagreement in the context of women's roles in American society during the 1920s, paying attention to these questions: What gains did American women make during the 1920s in the areas of political, social and economic equality? What factors spurred these gains? What factors limited women's abilities to advance after the passage of the 19th Amendment? Compared to other factors that fostered or hindered women's progress, how important was the growing ability of women to control their own maternity? (NOTE: In your answer, you may -- but need not -- include a mention of the articles from Taking Sides and the Greenwald book, Women, War and Work. Also, this question does not ask you to pass judgment on abortion per se, but only to evaluate this particular historical disagreement.) 3. Professor Emil Schwenk, in A Nation within a Country: Black Nationalism from the "New Negro" to "Black Power", suggests that a direct link exists between the "New Negro" ideology of the early 1920s and the "Black Power" movement of the mid-to- late 1960s. He claims that "the movements share two factors in particular: both arose in response to rising frustration in dealing with a recalcitrant white America and both movements found fertile ground for growth in the seedbed of the nation's cities." Evaluate the validity of Schwenk's claims, paying particular attention to the following: What factors sparked the "New Negro" philosophy and the Harlem Renaissance, and what about African-American culture did these two movements emphasize? How does the origin of the "Black Power" movement compare with or contrast to these earlier manifestations of black nationalism? In what ways was the emphasis of "Black Power" the same as and different from that of the "New Negro" and the Harlem Renaissance? Finally, in what ways did the urban setting foster the growth of each movement?