His 3110, Final Exam, 2691 Coleman Tuesday, May 2, 2006 12:30-2:30 pm

Part I (30%) Writing the 20th Century.

• Using a group of selections provided–from Good-Bye to All That (1929, rev. ed. 1957) and the poems of Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves, and Siegfried Sassoon (“Attack” by Sassoon, “The Parable of the Old Man and the Young Man” by Owen, “Recalling War” by Graves), the letters and speeches of Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill, the Beveridge Report, the Labour Party Manifesto (1945), and Philip Larkin’s “Annus Mirabilis,” the quotes about the sixties)–to write an essay in which you show how the selections help us understand the history of and the role of the British people in the 20th century. Provide explanation of the writers’ thoughts and intentions as well as the context (event, era, philology [historical meaning of words]) needed to help explain the quotes and what you think are the major events or changes in 20th-century Britain. Finally, if you could add one quote to explain an important aspect of that history not included in the sources above, what would it be and why? [Note: this can be ANY quote, primary or secondary, from the sources assigned but not printed in the exam, or from the web. It cannot be made up.]

Part II (30%) From Prime Ministers David Lloyd George, Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald, Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, and Clement Attlee, I will choose three about two of whom you will write one essay (at least four paragraphs) in which you compare:

1. their qualifications/achievements before entering the chief office,
2. their domestic policies or achievements in office (of Prime Minister),
3. their military or diplomatic achievements (of Prime Minister).
   Provide evidence.

Part III (40%) Write one well-considered essay (at least five paragraphs) answering one out of two of the following questions. Be sure to refer to and to explain the significance of specific events, persons, and ideas when appropriate. [For up to 5% extra credit on your final grade, write a second essay answering the second question.]

1. Good-Bye to All What? Robert Graves used his autobiography Good-Bye to All That (1929, rev. ed. 1957) to suggest the changes in his own life caused by World War I. What event, what date would you suggest is the most meaningful water shed of the 20 century? Identify and define the event, date it, and then compare and contrast the British state and society before and after that event? What was lost because of that event? What changed? [esp. Arnstein, chs. 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 19]
2. It has been written that "In the years since 1945, three themes have stood out in British history:
   1. the creation of a welfare state built on a remarkable political consensus;
   2. the faltering performance of the British economy; and
   3. the decline of Britain from the status of a great world power to that of a middle-rank European nation."
   But has this been true throughout the long 20th century? Analyze to what extent these three themes were true for at least two of the following periods: 1870-1918, 1919-1944, post-1945. (In other words, compare and contrast the welfare state, economic failure, and decline of international power in, say, the pre-1918 period with the post-1945 period.) Be sure to provide evidence. [esp. Arnstein, chs. 9-10, 12-20]
3. As the Empire goes, so goes the nation? Use the history of India, South Africa, and Ireland in the 20th century to argue how the history of the British empire relates to the domestic history of Britain. How do events in these colonies (or former colonies, or perhaps you want to argue that Ireland was not a colony) relate to elections, sentiments, etc. in Britain itself? How do changes in Europe/Britain relate to the histories of these colonies? [esp. Arnstein, chs. 9, 10, 12, 15, 19, 20]

last updated on May 1, 2006