Viewing America, HIUS 3161
Final Exam
Below, please find the instructions for OPTION 2 (short answers) of the final exam. Unless you have written permission from your teaching associate to submit your creative option (option 1) final exam in a format other than a word document, upload your exam as a Word document with your name in the file name to the “Assignments” tab of your discussion section collab site. Please include the word count and the signed honor pledge. Please include your name on the document itself!"
ALL FINAL EXAMS ARE DUE BY NOON, THURSDAY, MAY 13.
OPTION 2, Short Answers
INSTRUCTIONS: Please answer FOUR (4) out of the following 6 questions. Your answers should be 400 to 650 words each. Please put the number of the question you are answering in the heading of each answer and the word count at the end of each essay. Please sign the honor pledge. This is an “open book, open note, open computer exam.
1. The new chair of the history department has announced that professors can no longer use movies in class because they are fiction and don’t tell us anything useful about the past. Professor Balogh is heartbroken. Write a defense of movies as historically relevant and appropriate for an undergraduate history course. Reference at least three movies from Viewing America and tie them into the other course materials.
2. During your CYOUs you learned the powerful potential and potential pitfalls of group work. What did Americans learn about group work between 1940 and 1980? How did they organize themselves? What were their goals? Cite course materials and evaluate the success of their strategies and tactics.
3. Trust in expertise and experts were at its height after World War II. What factors eroded that trust between 1960 and 1980? Cite relevant course materials and feel free to argue counterexamples.
4. Colored People and The Strike that Changed New York address race in America from profoundly different vantage points. Which perspective is the most convincing and why? Tie your answer into other course materials.
5. In 1953 the British novelist LP Hartley wrote: "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." Was he right? Which elements of the United States from 1940 to 1980 are most foreign and different from the America of your lives up to 2021? Which elements remain familiar and the same? Reference a range of course materials and give multiple examples.
6. How did the relationship between citizen and state change between 1960 and 1980? How did these changes vary based on race and gender? Be both specific and wide-ranging in your answer.
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Viewing America Final Spring 2021
Choose one of the options below for your final exam. By Saturday May 8th at 10 PM you must
email your TA if you intend to complete Option 1. Otherwise, you will complete Option 2. After
10 PM Saturday May 8th, you may not change your choice.
Option 1 - Creative Project
Overview
Design a creative project that will demonstrate your knowledge of the course and write 500-750
words explaining why you chose that project and how it relates to the course.
Approval Process
You must get your creative project approved ahead of time by your TA. TA’s will not give
approval before Monday, May 3 at 8 AM EDT or after May 8th at 10 PM.. However, it is
suggested that you submit your project idea early in case your TA has questions/concerns. If
you would like to receive approval on Monday May 3 at 8 AM, please submit your idea before
your section time the week prior (April 29/30). Once a creative project proposal has been
submitted, the student is locked into that project. In other words, once you submit your proposal,
you cannot change projects or change to the other exam option.
Examples/Suggestions
Write a portion of a movie script
Draw a series of political cartoons
Write diary entries of famous people or categories of people from the course
Create a podcast
Write or act out a debate
Due Date
Thursday May 13, 12:00 PM EDT
Submission Instructions
Upload your project and 500-750 word writeup to Collab. Please include an honor pledge
attestation, final word count, and make sure your full name is all filenames, and submit the
writeup as a Word document. The final is open-note and open-computer, but please do not
consult other humans besides your TA.
Option 2 - Short Answers
Overview
Demonstrate your knowledge of the course by answering a series of short answer questions,
each 400-650 words.
Questions
The questions will be released via email on Monday, May 10 at 8AM EDT. Professor Balogh will
provide six questions and you will be responsible for answering four of them. The questions can
cover anything from the course and will allow you to incorporate a variety of materials including
the readings, movies, and lectures. Include parenthetical citations such as (Easy Rider) or
(Balogh Lecture 4/12) or (Podair, The Strike the Changed New York) or (Reciprocity
Roundtable, Part 3).
Due Date
Thursday May 13, 12:00 PM EDT
Submission Instructions
Upload all of your responses in a single Word document to your section Collab page. Please an
honor pledge attestation, make sure your full name is in the filename, and indicate which
question each response is answering. Additionally, each response should be 400-650 words
and you should include a word count at the end of each response. The final is open book and
open computer, but you may not consult with any other humans.
A Note about your responsibility for the winning CYOU material on the final exam:
spend some time with ONE of the TWO winning CYOUs. Your choice.
read the prose written by the group.
If Cartoon CYOU, watch AT LEAST four cartoon episodes –
If you choose Twilight Zone two episodes of the Twilight Zone.
You will notice that I am NOT asking you to do any of the assigned reading.
We have worked you hard enough on that front. But of course you are welcome to do more than the minimum if you get absorbed.
What all of this means is that you will NOT be asked a specific question on the exam about either CYOU.
I would like you to spend some time with ONE of the TWO winning CYOUs:
https://cartoonsinthecoldwarera.wordpress.com/
OR
The Twilight Zone and Cold War Culture: https://imo2wp.wordpress.com/
Whichever you choose, you should read the prose written by the group. I would also like you to watch AT LEAST four cartoon episodes – if you choose the cartoon CYOU, and two episodes of the Twilight Zone – if you choose that CYOU. You will notice that I am NOT asking you to do any of the assigned reading. We have worked you hard enough on that front. But of course you are welcome to do more than the minimum if you get absorbed.
What all of this means is that you will NOT be asked a specific question on the exam about either CYOU. However, I hope that you will feel free to draw on the material in them, and my lecture today on these topics, to support your answer to the questions that we do ask on the final exam.