London calling...

While I'm sitting here watching the Cold Warriors write their midterm, let me remind everyone about next week: Euro class writes its test on Wednesday, March 30, while Cold Warriors work diligently on their Tier III/Liberal Arts Symposium project. No class on Monday, April 4 or Wednesday, April 6--we ALL will be back in class on April 11. Quiz on these details to follow(NOT!)...

Europe exam...

History 450
Midterm exam part II, spring ’11…for March 30, 2011

Directions Part I(70%): Prepare the following essays, using readings, videos, lectures and any outside reading or reflection to make your points. You need to prepare all three, unless you are clairvoyant, because you don’t know which one will be asked. On occasion, I as Benevolent Class Dictator will allow YOU to choose, but that doesn’t always happen, so be ready for any of them.

The United States and Great Britain expressed in the 1941 Atlantic Charter sa their hope that post-World War II Europe would reform on the basis of self-determination, each nation determining for itself what form of government it wanted. Yet by l948, Europe was divided into two hostile camps, with a Communist east and a democratic west. Write an essay in which you explain how this unfortunate turn of events came to pass.

The Berlin airlift marked a dramatic escalation in an argument that had started before the end of World War II, namely: what should be done with defeated Germany. What did the Allies decide to do with that state, and how did the old Nazi capital, Berlin, bring the US and Great Britain to serious confrontation, even brinksmanship with the Soviet Union?

When(not if) you take your friends to Paris, you will all go inspect the Arch of Triumph on the Champs Elysees, the main street of the French capital. You all find near the tomb of the Unknown Warrior from World War I several additional commemorations, including two dedicated to Frenchmen who fell in Indochina and Algeria in the l950s. As someone who knows something of contemporary France, what will you tell them when they ask you why there were French troops in those nations in the l950s, and how will you describe the outcome of those campaigns?

Directions Part II(30%) Identify, briefly discuss and GIVE THE SIGNIFICANCE of the following in a paragraph or two. You will do THREE of FOUR on test day.

Marshall Plan, Nuremberg Trials, Operation Overlord(“D-day”), “Iron Curtain.”

P.S. For those who went down in flames on the geo midterm, there will be a chance to redeem yourself, rise from the ashes, Phoenix-like, after I get back from England on April 6(didn’t get an invite for the Wales-Middleton nuptials, regrettably).

Essay writing, installment #1

Now hear this...it might help you with more than history tests...

How to write an effective essay, part I—making a case.

Lots of exams require you to make a case for something, argue for or against, or argue degrees…like degrees of responsibility in the case of one of the Cold War questions. What you do here is first, decide how you will argue—choose the side you want to take(if you’re given a choice!). Then assemble all the evidence you have for your argument, and craft two or three paragraphs, taking care to include at least ONE specific piece of evidence for each one. Step three is writing the appropriate intro and conclusion…in the intro, you tell people what side you are taking and what they can expect to read, and in the conclusion, you tell them what they just read, in case they missed it(or, in the words of my grad advisor, Barbara, “in case you were too stupid to catch what I just said”).


So here’s an sample/example…Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln are considered two of the most influential American Presidents. Which of them had the greatest impact?

I want to argue Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on the following grounds:

1) He had longevity as President. He served four terms; Lincoln, only one term plus a few months.
2) He steered America through its worst political and economic crisis to date, then helped the country confront aggressive, meglomanaical totalitarianism abroad.
3) He is responsible for the emergence of a middle class in America, through the creation of such anti-poverty measures as social security during the depression, and the GI Bill afterwards.


So now I can write the essay. First, I introduce it….


Many American historians have ranked Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt among the greatest US Presidents. I believe Franklin Delano Roosevelt had the greatest overall impact, because he served nearly four terms rather than one, he had to face two major threats to the nation rather than one, and was able to do more to put the nation on a firm footing for the future in the years following World War II.


Then I write up the three points I have chosen, as follows. Note how I work in at least one piece of evidence, a name of a person or thing, a date, SOMETHING that proves the point to the reader. You have to have evidence to convince a jury in a courtroom; same thing applies in a good essay. The operative words are, SHOW ME or PROVE IT!!!

Longevity isn’t a virtue in and of itself, but it helped Franklin Roosevelt. He had nearly two decades in which to affect the course of the nation, l933-l945. During his nearly four terms, he made seven appointments to the US Supreme Court, making possible the votes for Brown Vs. Board of Education, which gave legal foundation to those challenging Jim Crow laws and therefore facilitated the de-segregation of the south in the l960s. And he had the time, opportunity and skill to lead the nation through two serious crises, the depression and World War II. Serving only four years and three months, Lincoln lacked the time to compile a record of achievements to rival FDR’s.

While it is true that Lincoln had a unique achievement in leading the country through a terrible, divisive civil war, Franklin Roosevelt saw his countrymen through two serious crises, both of which threatened the existence of the nation. The Great Depression nearly plunged the nation into chaos, and while FDR did not solve the problem, he mitigated it, kept the country going with palliative measures like the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress adminstration as well as reform projects like the SEC. He then confronted the challenge of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan l941-45, partnering with friends and former opponents to defeat them, very important since both aimed at world domination. It is hard to argue against a President that successfully negotiated not one, but TWO existential threats to the nation.

Finally, Franklin Roosevelt was able to do more to prepare his country to meet the challenges of the future. President Lincoln had sketched the outlines of a generous program of Reconstruction, but was unable to implement it. President Roosevelt compiled an enviable record of achievement, including creating Social Security, the “most successful antipoverty program in US history,” and the G.I. bill, which sent an entire generation of veterans to college, fueling its future prosperity and creating one of the highest standards of living in world history.

Now for the conclusion, where I say again what I just said:

It is hard to compare Presidents across the centuries, but I believe Franklin Roosevelt had the greatest long-term impact on the United States. He had four terms rather than one, allowing him to get more accomplished, two serious crises to negotiate rather than one, and had more time and opportunity to prepare the country for the future.


And voila! You have a pretty successful essay. You don’t have to be Tolstoy, or any other kind of beautiful, skilled wordsmith to do this: what is required is some clear thinking, disciplined presentation and EVIDENCE. You can achieve this if you practice following this formula.

Cold War exam...

You will write this exam, then I will "get" to grade it on the long flights to and from the UK...a perfect antidote to Airplane Boredom.

History 466
Cold War
Midterm exam…for March 28, 2011


Directions Part I(100%): Prepare the following questions, taking care to support your answers with specific names, facts, dates, etc. On test day, you will answer ONE, but you do not know WHICH one, so prepare them both.


A)In the recent Ken Burns documentary covering World War II, “The War,” viewers learn about the titanic struggle between the US, Great Britain and the USSR on the one hand and Germany, Italy and Japan on the other in World War II. Victory was a team effort, requiring a common strategy, coordination and millions of casualties. How did it happen that this “marriage” ended in divorce, with victorious allies becoming bitter enemies, glowering at each other across barbed-wire borders, just a couple of years after that happy meeting in Berlin? In other words, how did we get a nasty, antagonistic Cold War after the successful conclusion of the Hot War?

b)Historians have argued since the beginning of the Cold War about which side started it. Residents of United States tend to believe the Soviet Union was most responsible, while citizens of the Soviet Union/Russia pin the blame squarely on their former allies, the United States and Britain. In a modern twist on the Twilight Zone, you are suddenly and unexpectedly transported across time and space to in the Court of History, with an interesting assignment. You have the brief for the Soviet Union, meaning you must argue before the Court that the United STATES bears the greatest share of the responsibility for the peace gone bad after l945. So do it!

c)Unlike many wars, the mathematics of the Cold War is not addition or subtraction, but DIVISION. Write an essay in which you address the role of division in US-USSR relations in Asia and Europe between l945 and l950.


No identifications this time, you will cover everything in these essays…

The image you see above is the Kremlin, where Stalin plotted and schemed throughout this period in question. Note the high walls...it says all you need to about the transparency, or lack thereof, of the Soviet and Russian governments.