FINAL EXAM STUDY QUESTIONS
[Latest revision: December
3, 2023. Note that essay question #4 (a question I have had to
eliminate some years) *is* a potential essay question this
time around.]
ID'S:
COMTE, HEGEL, DARWIN, NIETZSCHE, MARX, ROMANTICISM, REALISM, DOSTOYEVSKY, NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND, (DREAM OF A RIDICULOUS MAN)
SCHLIEFFEN PLAN, RISK THEORY, BALKANS, TRENCH WARFARE, ARMENIANS, WOODROW WILSON, FOURTEEN POINTS, VERSAILLES TREATY
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, LENIN, CHEKA, (GULAGS), STALIN, (FIVE-YEAR
PLAN), HOLODOMOR, MUSSOLINI, FASCISM, (NATIONAL
SOCIALISM), HITLER, HOLOCAUST (SHOAH)
(CHAMBERLAIN), (BLITZKRIEG), CHURCHILL, BATTLE OF BRITAIN,
LEND-LEASE, PEARL HARBOR, HIROSHIMA, YALTA, POTSDAM, (COLD WAR),
MAO TSE-TUNG, GREAT LEAP FORWARD, CULTURAL REVOLUTION
INDIA, PAKISTAN, BANGLADESH, SYRIA, LEBANON, PALESTINE,
ISRAEL, (ALGERIA), CONGO [ZAIRE], (UGANDA) , (RWANDA), (VIETNAM),
(CAMBODIA), (KHMER ROUGE)
ATONAL MUSIC, ALEATORIC MUSIC, STRAVINKSKY, DADA, SURREALISM, CUBISM, (POP ART), (ABSTRACT IMPRESSIONISM), T.S. ELIOT, JAMES JOYCE, BECKETT, IONESCO, SARTRE, (BRECHT), (ARABEL)
ESSAYS:
1. Most 19th century European thinkers, artists, and writers were convinced that their century was an age of progress, but it is not at all clear that what some of these men called progress was such a good thing after all. Comment.
2. World War I is an excellent example of the senseless violence of the 20th century. Comment.
3. The rise of totalitarian movements like Communism,
Fascism, and National Socialism is probably the most troubling
development of the years following World War I. Comment.
4. The totalitarian powers promised their peoples world
dominance, telling them that the democracies of the world were too
weak to prevail against them. During both World War II and
the following Cold War period, it often looked like they might be
right, though, in the end, the "good guys" triumphed--sort of.
Comment.
5. The break-up of the European colonial empires may turn out to be a good thing in the long run, but the transition from colonial rule to independence was a difficult and sometimes horrible process for the countries involved. Comment.
6. Three main tendencies of much (though by no means all) art, music, and literature in the 20th and 21st centuries are the following: a tendency to be less and less accessible to the average person, a tendency to glorify art itself, and a tendency to undercut rather than reinforce traditional standards and beliefs. Comment.