FREE-RESPONSE ESSAY QUESTIONS

Directions:  Each of you has been assigned five essay questions to research and respond to by Friday, April26 at 12:00 noon.  Specifically you will:

1.  Write the question.
2.  Create a strong thesis sentence in response to the question.
3.  Provide a list of supporting facts, information, etc.  If you refer to wars, treaties, etc., please provide the basic facts regarding the term.  That will help each of the students with the review process.
4.  You may talk with each other regarding the questions.  If you have a question that deals with literature, music, art, etc., feel free to mention the question to a teacher in that field.  He/she may be able to offer you some pointers.
5.  You may have a question [or questions] over material we have not yet covered or over an issue during a time period in which we did not deal with that issue.  Use your text as a resource.  I've tried to identify areas where you might need additional info in order to pull your thoughts or observations together.
6.  Word-process this information and e-mail it to Mrs. Mines by the due date.
7.  If you complete the assignment early, go ahead and e-mail the completed work.  EXTRA POINTS WILL BE AWARDED FOR EARLY COMPLETION OF THE ASSIGNMENT.
8.  THANKS from all your classmates!
9.  Completed questions will be posted on the AP Review Connection and offer a wonderful review tool.  For example, if the person mentions several major events and you do not recognize any of them - - that might just be a hint that you need to review that information. 

AND, THE QUESTIONS ARE  . . .

ALEXIS:  To what extent and in what ways may the Renaissance be regarded as a turning point in the Western intellectual and cultural tradition?

LAUREN BAKER:  “Every age projects its own image of man into its art.”  Assess the validity of this statement with reference to two representative twentieth-century European works in either the visual or literary arts.

ERIN:  Discuss the origins and evolution of European liberalism as a political movement during the nineteenth century.

CHRISTY CALL:  Discuss the combination of social, cultural, political, and economic factors that allowed Great Britain to be the first nation to industrialize.

EMILY CRISMAN: 

“Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night
God said ‘Let Newton be,’ and all was light.”
The couplet above was Alexander Pope’s way of expressing the relationship between the Scientific Revolution and Christianity.  What was the effect of seventeenth-century science on Christianity, and how did each react to the other?

LAUREN HAYES:  “Every successful revolution puts on in time the robes of the tyrant it has deposed.”  Evaluate this statement with regard to the English Revolution (1640-1660), the French Revolution (1789-1815), and the Russian Revolution (1917-1930).

MANDY: European monarchs of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries are often referred to as the “New Monarchs.”  What was “new” about them?  Do their actions warrant this label?

CHRISTY JONES:  What political and social changes in Western and Central Europe account for the virtual disappearance of revolutionary outbreaks in the half-century following 1848?

SARAH: The chalice shown above on the left was used by sixteenth-century Roman Catholic priests in the celebration of the Mass; the wooden cup shown on the right is what he used to celebrate the Lord’s Supper after he left the Church and became a follower of Martin Luther.  How does the new cup reflect the theology and the ideals of the Reformation? {the chalice on the left is ornate, the one on the right is plain and wooden}

EMILY MONTAGUE:  “Every war creates illusions and is conducted in the name of unrealizable ideals.”  Evaluate this statement by comparing the goals for which the First World War was fought to those for which the Second World War was fought.

POONAM:  Explain how economic, technological, political, and religious factors promoted European explorations from about 1450 to about 1525.

AMY:  The culture of the years between the two world wars (1918-1939) was marked by experimentation and an interest in the irrational.  Select any two European works of art or literature from this period and describe their significance in terms of these characteristics.

JULIA:  Evaluate the relative importance of the religious rivalries and dynastic ambitions that shaped the course of the Thirty Years’ War.

PHOEBE:  Compare the economic roles of the state under seventeenth-century mercantilism and twentieth-century communism.  Illustrate your answer with reference to the economic system of France during Louis XIV’s reign under Colbert and of the Soviet Union under Stalin.

TAYLOR: Analyze the major social, political, and technological changes that took place in European warfare between 1789 and 1918.

ALEXIS:  “1914-1918 marks a turning point in the intellectual and cultural history of Europe.” Defend, refute, or modify this statement with reference to the generation before and the generation after the First World War.

BAKER:  Compare the ways in which the two works of art reproduced below express the artistic, philosophical, and cultural values of their times.

ERIN: Compare and contrast the motives for European overseas expansion during the Age of Discovery (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) and during the Age of New Imperialism (nineteenth and early twentieth centuries). 

CALL:  In the seventeenth century, what political conditions accounted for the increased power of both the Parliament in England and the monarchy in France?

CRISMAN:  Why did Germany’s experiment with parliamentary democracy between 1919 and 1933 fail?

HAYES:  What policies of the Stalinist government perpetuated the essential features of the tsarist regime under Nicholas II (1984-1917)? 

HLUBEK:  “Luther was both a revolutionary and a conservative.”  Evaluate this statement with respect to Luther’s responses to the political and social questions of his day.          

  JONES:  To what extent and in what ways did intellectual developments in Europe in the period 1880-1920 undermine confidence in human rationality and a well-ordered dependable universe?

McCANDLESS:  Compare and contrast the ways in which the two works of art reproduced below express the  artistic styles and political issues of their times. {Goya's Third of May; Picasso's Guernica}

MONTAGUE: Compare and contrast the views of Machiavelli and Rousseau on human nature and the relationship between the government and the governed.

 POONAM:  How did the developments in scientific thought from Copernicus to Newton create a new conception of the universe and of humanity’s place within it?

AMY:  Describe the steps taken between 1832 and 1918 to extend the suffrage in England.  What groups and movements contributed to the extension of the vote?

  J ULIA:  What were the responses of the Catholic Church in the 16^th c. to the challenges posed by the Lutheran Reformation?

  PHOEBE:  “In 17^th c. England the aristocracy lost its privileges but retained its power; in 17^th c. France the aristocracy retained its privileges but lost its power.”   Assess the accuracy of this statement with respect to political events and social developments in the two countries during the 17^th century.

TAYLOR:  Compare and contrast the efforts to ensure European collective security that were made by the victorious powers between 1815 and 1830 (after the Napoleonic Wars) with those made by the victorious powers between 1918 and 1933 (after WWI).

ALEXIS:  Evaluate the effectiveness of collective responses by workers to industrialization in Western Europe during the course of the 19^th century.

BAKER: To what extent and in what ways has 20^th century physics challenged the Newtonian view of the universe and society?

ERIN:  Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the economic revival of Western Europe between 1945 and 1970.

  CALL:  “The Protestant Reformation was primarily an economic event.”   By describing and determining the relative importance of the economic, political and religious causes of the Protestant Reformation, defend or refute this statement.

 CRISMAN:  Analyze the ways in which the Cold War affected the political development of European Nations from the end of WWII in 1945 to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.

HAYES:  Describe and analyze the ways in which the development of printing altered both the culture and the religion of Europe during the period 1450-1600.

  HLUBEK:  Philip II of Spain (1556-1598) built the Escorial and Louis XIV of France (1643-1715) built Versailles.  Starting with the pictures of these palaces, analyze the similarities and differences in the conception and practice of monarchy of these two kings.

JONES: Describe and compare the differences among Utopian Socialists, Karl Marx, and
Revisionist socialists in their critiques of 19^th century European economy and society.

McCANDLESS:  Analyze and assess the extent to which WWI accelerated European social change in such areas as work, sex roles, and government involvement in everyday life.

 MONTAGUE:  “In the 15^th century, European society was still centered on the Mediterranean region, but by the end of the 17^th century, the focus of Europe had shifted north.  Identify and analyze the economic developments between 1450 and 1700 that helped bring about this shift.

  POONAM:  Analyze the ways in which Tsar Peter the Great (1689-1725) sought to reform his society and its institutions in order to strengthen Russia and its position in Europe.

PERKINS: Between 1750 and 1850 more and more Western Europeans were employed in cottage industry and factory production.  Analyze how these two types of employment affected employer-employee relations, working conditions, family relations, and the standard of living during this period

 JULIA:  How and in what ways did European painting or literature reflect the disillusionment in society between 1919 and 1939?   Support your answer with specific artistic or literary examples.

 PHOEBE: In 1519, Charles of Hapsburg became Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.  Discuss and analyze the political, social, and religious problems he faced over the course of his imperial reign (1519-1556).

  TAYLOR: Analyze the differences in leisure activities shown in the two paintings, reflect about the social life of peasants (Bruegel – The Peasants Dance) and of urban dwellers in the 19^th century (Seurat – Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte).

  ALEXIS:  How and in what ways were economic and political factors responsible for intensifying European imperialist activity in Africa from the mid-19^th century to the beginning of WWI?

  BAKER:  Analyze the ways in which technology was an issue in European social activism between 1945 and 1970.  Be sure to include three of the following:  environmentalism, peace movements, student protests, women’s movements, workers’ movements.

ERIN:  Analyze the military, political, and social factors that account for the rise of Prussia between 1640 and 1786.  

CALL:  Between 1815 and 1848, the condition of the laboring classes and the problem of political stability were critical issues in England.  Describe and analyze the reforms that social critics and politicians of this period proposed to resolve these problems.

CRISMAN:  Describe and analyze the ways in which Marxism, Freudianism, and the women’s movement challenged traditional European beliefs before WWI.

HAYES:  Describe and analyze the changing relationships between the USSR and Eastern European countries from 1945 to 1970.

  HLUBEK:  Analyze criticisms of European society presented by European authors in the period 1940 to 1970.  Be sure to discuss at least two works.

JONES:  In 1490 there was no such country as Spain, yet within a century it had become the most powerful nation in Europe and within another had sunk to the status of a third-rate power.  Describe and analyze the major social, economic, and political reasons for Spain’s rise and fall.

McCANDLESS: Discuss the effects of the industrial economy on Western European peasant women and working-class women from 1830-1914.

MONTAGUE:  “Dictators in 20^th century Europe have had much greater control over culture and society than had divine right monarchs of earlier centuries.”   Assess the validity of this statement, using specific examples from each era to support your position.

POONAM:  Analyze the common political and economic problems facing Western European nations in the period 1945-1960 and discuss their responses to these problems.

PERKINS:  Compare and contrast the attitudes of Martin Luther and John Calvin toward political authority and social order.

JULIA:    Analyze the influences of the theory of mercantilism on the domestic and foreign policies of France, 1600-1715.

PHOEBE:    Identify four specific changes in science and technology and explain their effects on Western European family and private life between 1918 and 1970.

 TAYLOR:  Discuss the ways in which European Jews were affected by and responded to liberalism, nationalism, and anti-Semitism in the 19^th century.

ALEXIS:  Compare and contrast the relationships between the great powers and Poland in the periods 1772-1815 and 1918-1939.

BAKER:  Compare and contrast the women’s suffrage movements of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries with the European feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

 BROCKER:  Describe the physical transformation of European cities in the second half of the 19^th century and analyze the social consequences of this transformation.

  CALL:  Analyze the policies of three European colonial powers toward Africa between 1871 and 1914.

CRISMAN:  Describe and analyze the economic, cultural and social changes that led to and sustained Europe’s rapid population growth in the period from approximately 1650-1800.

HAYES:  Discuss some of the ways in which Romantic artists, musicians, and writers responded to political and social-economic conditions in the period from 1800-1850.  Document your response with specific examples from discussions of at least two of the three disciplines:  visual arts, music and literature.

  HLUBEK:  Account for the responses of the European democracies to the military aggression by Italy and Germany during the 1930s.

  JONES:  To what extent did the Enlightenment express optimistic ideas in 18^th century Europe.  Illustrate your answer with references to specific individuals and their works.

McCANDLESS:  Compare and contrast the Lutheran Reformation and the Catholic Reformation of the 16^th century regarding the reform of both religious doctrine and religious practices.

 MONTAGUE: Contrast how a Marxist and a Social Darwinist would account for the differences in the conditions of these two mid-nineteenth-century families.

 
PERKINS:  Machiavelli suggested that a ruler should behave both "like a lion" and "like a fox." Analyze the policies of TWO of the following European rulers, indicating the degree to which they successfully followed Machiavelli’s suggestion.

Choose two:               Elizabeth I of England
Henry IV of France
Catherine the Great of Russia
Frederick II of Prussia

JULIA:  Discuss the relationship between politics and religion by examining the wars of religion. Choose TWO specific examples from the following:

Dutch Revolt

French Wars of Religion

English Civil War

Thirty Years' War

PHOEBE: Compare and contrast the political and economic policies of Joseph Stalin in the period before WWII and those of Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-1991).

 TAYLOR:  “Leadership determines tha fate of a country.”  Evaluate this quotation in terms of Spain’s experience under Philip II.

MINES:
Man for the field and woman for the hearth:
Man for the sword and for the needle she:
Man with the head and woman from the heart:
Man to command and woman to obey:

How accurately do the lines of poetry above reflect gender roles for European men and women in the late 19^th century?

MINES:  Compare and contrast the political and economic effects of the Cold War (1945-1991) on Western Europe with the effects on Eastern Europe.

MINES:  Compare and contrast the French Jacobins’ use of state power to achieve revolutionary goals during the Terror (1793-1794) with Stalin’s use of state power during the period 1928-1939 and Hitler's use of state power during the period 1933-1945.

 MINES:  Describe and analyze the resistance to Soviet authority in the Eastern bloc from the end of WWII through 1989.  Be sure to include examples from at least two Soviet satellite states.