450 final

And now, what we've all(!?) been waiting for...the ModEur final...

History 450
Europe since 1945
Final exam spring 2008



Directions Part I(60%): Prepare the following question, drawing upon lectures, readings, videos, travel and personal reflection. Be sure to make clear at the outset what points you will address in the essay and back each point up with specific names, dates, etc. EVERYBODY will do this one.

One fact that characterized Europe between l945 and l989 was division. Write an essay in which you explain for someone unfamiliar with Europe how it became divided. Then identify briefly two or three manifestations of this division. Conclude by discussing briefly why the dividing lines dissolved in the late l980s. Use specific examples in specific places to support your discussion.


Part II(40%) Prepare answers to these questions, using the same methods as described above. You should prepare ALL of them, unless you are a betting man(or woman!)…


“Blessed are those who hunger for justice,” reads a mural in a Catholic neighborhood in northern Ireland. Select one of the H-Block martyrs(not Bobby Sands, because he’s too well known) and discuss the reasoning behind his decision to take his own life on behalf of Irish Catholics. Then evaluate the success of the hunger strike in improving the lot of Catholic citizens over the long term.

The fight for civil rights was waged in both the United States and northern Ireland in the l960s, the Irish taking a page from the notebook of Martin King and other American civil rights leaders. Discuss the conditions the northern Irish Civil Rights Association sought to change in their country, then trace the evolution of their movement. What role did they ultimately play in the resolution of the Troubles?

Like all the small nations in the Soviet orbit, Czechoslovakia had a tragic history after l945. Discuss briefly how it fell under Soviet control, then describe the yearlong attempt by some Czechoslovak authorities to achieve a more humane “socialism” in the Prague Spring l967-68. Conclude your essay by outlining some of the assets and liabilities life there now, nearly 20 years after the state’s breakaway from the Soviet Union.