History 467
Winter Quarter 2008
Take-Home Final Exam

 

Instructions: Chose and answer ONE of the following five essay questions, AND five IDs from the list on the back of this page.  Your answers should be typed or computer-printed, and they must be handed into me on or before Friday, March 21, at 10:15 a.m.  Bring your exams directly to my office, 335 McKenzie Hall (if I’m not there, just slip them under my door).  I encourage you to spend as much time as you need to prepare for the exam, but you should limit your actual writing time to no more than the two-hour period usually accorded a final exam.  This exam will be scored just like the midterm (with 25 possible points for the essay and 5 possible points for each ID), then your score will be multiplied by 3 to get a total of 150 possible points.  Don’t forget to use as many examples as possible from the readings, and be sure to tell me (by number) which essay question you’ve chosen.

1.      Which event do you think had greater historical significance for the U.S. West, the Great Depression of the 1930s or World War II?  In giving your answer, make sure to consider both possibilities and to tell me how you would choose to measure "significance" as well as to include a wide range of specific examples.

2.      The presence of the federal government has been highly significant in the history of the 20th-century West, and so has its involvement in the region's economy, from the federal dam-building projects of the 1930s and the industrial buildup of the World War II and Cold War periods to the rise of a service economy and deregulation policies of more recent decades.  In an essay that covers the entire period from 1930 to 2000, analyze the many ways that the federal government worked to spur or to limit economic opportunity among westerners.  Be sure to think broadly about the many groups affected by federal policy, including workers (including women, African Americans, Latinos), capitalists and corporations.

3.      Twentieth-century Native peoples found land, natural resources, and treaty rights central to ensuring tribal sovereignty. In an essay covering the period from 1934 to the present, analyze how Native peoples used their land base, culture, pan-Indian identity, and the tools of white economy, politics, and legal system to foster claims for sovereignty.  To what extent have Native peoples been successful at asserting their sovereignty, and at keeping their tribal cultures and Native identities intact?

4.      Compare and contrast the lives and accomplishments of any two of the following four politicians: Edward Roybal, Lyndon Johnson, Harvey Milk, Ronald Reagan.  To what extent did their careers reflect developments in western history during their lifetimes?  To what extent did their actions challenge and/or change the history of western politics?

5.      Boundaries between the West's diverse communities have often had race as a primary delimiter. The federal government has often been the main arbiter in this process. How have shifts of people–by cross border immigration, internal migration, termination, internment, and postwar migration–been shaped by federal policy since the 1930s? Have federal policies granted equal opportunity to all comers, or have groups had to challenge government policy to gain employment, residency, and civil rights in the West?

 

Terms to Identify for the Final Exam

 

Instructions: Chose FIVE of the following terms, and give a one-paragraph identification.  Be sure to discuss the historical significance as well as the bare facts of each term.

 

Herbert Hoover

Repatriation

Upton Sinclair

Civilian Conservation Corps

Bureau of Reclamation

Indian New Deal

Henry J. Kaiser

Fair Employment Practices Commission

Bracero Program

John L. DeWitt

Executive Order 9066

442nd Regimental Combat Team

Korematsu v. U.S.

Margaret Chung

Floyd Dominy

HUAC

Edward Roybal

Cesar Chavez

Echo Park

Free Speech Movement

Black Panther Party

Lyndon Johnson

Counterculture

Equal Rights Amendment

Barry Goldwater

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

Termination Policy

Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978

Maquiladoras

Proposition 187

Harvey Milk