HIST 2312: US History Since 1877FINAL EXAMYour final exam will consist of TWO essay questions, each worth 50 points for a total of 100 points.You will randomly be given two of the following questions to answer:1. President Harry Truman’s Fair Deal, an ambitious program of social welfare legislation proposed in 1946 to extend the New Deal, floundered badly in the late 1940s, and most of it went down to defeat. Why did Truman’s plan fail, and what changed to make it possible for Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs—which adopted many of the same aims—to alter American society twenty years later?2. How did the experience of World War II—on the home front and abroad—lay crucial groundwork for the civil rights movement and African Americans’ greater access to “the American promise” in the 1950s and 1960s?3. The passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919 and the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 represented two major victories for women activists who had worked since the mid-nineteenth century for temperance and suffrage. Why did women work for these changes, and what did they hope they would accomplish? What did women’s activism and political power look like in the 1920s and 1930s, and what does it reveal about the extent to which these constitutional amendments brought about real change in women’s political status?4. How did minorities experience the period between Reconstruction and the 1970s? Were they able to attain the American Dream? How did they work towards equality and what did they experience to make this harder? A well-thought out answer will look at at least two of the following groups: African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans.Grading Guidelines for Final Exam:For these essays, I am looking for both content and argument. For content, you want to discuss as much information as possible, exhaust everything that you know about the topic. However, it is not just an information “dump.” Instead, you need to mold that information into a cohesive whole with an argument. For these, I am not looking for an argument that will “rock the historical world.” Instead, I am looking for something that shows that you know how the pieces come together to form a coherent whole.I have an argument, now what?Now that you have a thesis statement and argument, you’ll need evidence. Your evidence will compel the reader to understand your argument and will convince him or her that your argument is correct. However, you will also need to relate your argument to larger themes that we have seen in class.Audience:You should write your essay for an educated audience, essentially one who has read everything that you have read in this class but just can’t put it all together. That means they know the basic chronology and the subject matter. What they don’t know is the arguments and ideas that each of these authors have. That is your job—to put everything together and show them what the relationships between the different regions, sources, and ideas are. How do you do this? Your argument and thesis of course!One other note: now that you are the historian, that does not give you license to use the first person. Avoid the use of “I” in all academic writing unless you are writing a 100+ page thesis, dissertation, or book. You want to use declarative sentences which tell your reader authoritatively what your argument is.Grading Guidelines:1. Argument (30%)Your argument is the most important part of your essay. Your argument is essentially your thesis. An “A” essay will have a clear thesis that succinctly tells your reader what your essay is all about. When they read the thesis, they will know the general “gist” of what your essay will argue. In addition, an argument also flows through the essay as well: it is not just self-contained in the introduction. Throughout your essay, using good topic sentences (those that give your reader an idea of what you will argue in that paragraph) in each paragraph will help you continue to illustrate your argument to your reader. 2. Organization (20%)The second most important part of your essay should be your organization. An “A” essay will start with an introduction that compels the reader to continue reading the essay. The rest of the essay should always relate back to your argument that you laid out in your thesis. Each paragraph should relate to your argument and use examples to show it. By the end of the essay, the reader should be convinced by your examples that the he or she should agree with your thesis statement.3. Use of Evidence (50%)Your evidence will compel the reader to understand your argument and will convince him or her that your argument is correct. An “A” essay will use a significant amount of information from the course material and use that evidence in a way that clearly relates back to the thesis. Use of evidence is really important for this essay and you really need to pick what evidence you are going to use carefully. “A” essays will have a variety of evidence used in them from several different sources from the class readings.In addition, integration of the material into your essay is key to an “A.” It is not just the kind of evidence you use but how well you can use that evidence to bolster your argument. Remember, evidence can be either from direct quotations or it can be paraphrased. It can be an idea an author uses or a certain instance—you do not necessarily need to actually quote something word for word to use it as evidence. Given the nature of this exam, you do not need to cite your sources or the textbook. Just provide the evidence as examples of the point you are trying to make.

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