The following are possible essay questions for your final examination.  I will place three questions on the exam for you to choose and answer two.  You will answer in essay form…sentences and paragraphs.  You will detail your answers with many specific examples provided to you by Zinn and the films we watched.  Since you have this study guide one week in advance of the exam, I will expect very well detailed and organized essays.

1. Chapter 5, “A People’s War”

Zinn writes
 

Indeed almost all Ammericans were now in agreement—capitalists, Communists, Democrats, Republicans, poor, rich, and middle Class—that this was indeed a people’s war.  Was it?

Use at least 6 specific examples from Zinn and the documentary “America in the Forties” to answer Zinn’s question.

Chapter 6, “Or Does It Explode?”

2. In this chapter, Zinn details the ways in which various organizations and people worked to achieve Civil Rights for African-Americans, but they had to struggle to do so, and because of the resistance they faced many issues of equality are still unfinished.  Provide at least 5 examples from Zinn and the Documentary we watched on Martin Luther King that show the range of organization, individuals and tactics involved in the movement, and at least three examples of governmental resistance employed.

3. Chapter 7, “The Impossible Victory: Vietnam”

Zinn writes at the outset of the chapter:
 

When the United States fought in Vietnam, it was organized modern technology versus organized human beings, and the human beings won.

Write and essay explaining this statement providing at least five specific examples of each the machines and the human beings.  Did the human beings win?
 

4. Chapter 9, “The Seventies: Under Control?”

Zinn writes:
 

What seemed to be happening was that the Establishment—Republicans, Democrats, newspapers, television—was closing ranks behind Ford and Kissinger, and behind the idea that American authority must be asserted everywhere in the world.

Write and essay explaining this statement providing at least four specific examples of how the government and the media each “closed ranks” behind “the system.”
 

5. In chapters 6-8, Zinn writes about several popular “movements” for equality and humanitarian issues.  In an essay that uses at least two specific examples from each movement, show how they were all connected to one another in ideals and in actual practice.  What did these movements accomplish?  Why didn’t they fundamentally change the American political and economic system?

6. Chapter 11, “The Unreported Resistance”

Zinn writes:
 

Despite the political conensus of Democrats and Republicans in Washington… there were millions of Americans, perhaps tens of millions, who refused, either actively or silently, to go along.  Their activities were largely unreported by the media.  They constituted this ‘permanent adversarial culture’.

Write and essay explaining this “permanent adversarial culture” using at least six specific examples.  To what were they adverse?

7. Make a one sentence statement about American History from 1940-December, 2002, (making sure to reference some post 9-11 history) and then write an essay using at least 10 specific examples to prove that statement.  It could be about politics, business, class, the media, war, poverty, socialism, capitalism, unions, race, gender (anything that we’ve read and discussed)…it could be about many of those things or all of those things (the more diverse and inclusive the better).  Make sure that you spread your argument evenly over those six decades.  You will NOT be graded on your opinion, rather, you WILL be graded on how well you frame your argument.  Trust me, I’m a 1st Amendment dude, not a fascist .
THINK FOR YOURSELF, SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, ACT FOR HUMANITY!!!