Learning
Module 1 – History 103 / Online
Exam Essay – Study Guide
General
Information:
- This exam essay is worth 30
points.
- It is due on September 9.
- You can send the essay via
email to soliver@cerritos.edu. Be sure to include
your full name and class ticket number
- Late essays not accepted.
- Your essay will need to be
between 300 – 400 words. Otherwise,
you will not have answered the question completely. Please proof read and
use the “spell check” feature in your word processor.
Exam
Information:
Shown
below are two exam questions. You are to
select the one.
To write a successful exam essay, you should:
- Spend
the time necessary to complete the assignment/discussion before you being
writing the exam essay.
- Be
sure you understand the exam question and the kinds of information that
are required in the essay. If
unclear contact me ASAP. soliver@cerritos.edu
- Pay
attention to the recommended outline for the exam essay
- Be
sure to incorporate the recommended resources for the essay.
- Write
the essay in your own words. You
are free to quote information from the sources, but be sure to cite the
source by using MLA style.
- MOST IMPORTANT: NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO WRITE THE
EXAM ESSAY.
Table of
Contents - Exam Essays
[Definitions]
[Social
and Reform Darwinism: Approaches to Social Reform]
[Social
and Reform Darwinism: Foundations for American Foreign Policy in the 1890s]
Definitions of Social Darwinism and Reform
Darwinism
- Social
Darwinism:
A social theory based on Charles Darwin’s’ theory of evolution that argues
that all progress in human society comes as the result of competition and
natural selection. Gilded Age
(1880s – 1890s) proponents such as William Graham Sumner and Herbert
Spencer claimed that reform was useless because the rich and poor were
precisely where nature intend them to be and intervention would retard the
progress of humanity.
- Reform Darwinism: a
social theory, based on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution that
emphasized activism, arguing that humans could speed up evolution by
altering the environment (conditions of housing, work, education in
society). A challenge to social Darwinism, reform Darwinism condemned
laissez-faire and demanded that the government take a more active approach
to solving social problems. It
became the ideological basis for progressive reform in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries.
Social and
Reform Darwinism: Approaches to Social Reform
Exam Question:
In the
last two decades of the 19th century, Social Darwinism and Reform
Darwinism were two approaches used by middle class reformers to address the
problems facing the semiskilled and unskilled workers and their families who
lived urban, industrialized cities. Most were recently arrived immigrants from
Eastern Europe and Russia (east coast) and from Asia and Mexico (west coast). In this essay, evaluate how (1) William
Graham Sumner and (2) Jane Addams or Edward Bellamy would offer solutions to
the problems facing these workers.
Required Information:
- Definitions
of Social Darwinism and Reform Darwinism.
These must be in your own words.
- Summary
of the conditions faced by workers.
Reread the following sections of Chapter 18: “The New Immigration” (578-582); “The
Industrial City” (550-553); “Industrial Work” and “The Laboring Class” -- See especially The Workers Share in
Industrial Progress, The Family Economy, Women at Work.
- The
introduction to Chapter 19, if Edward Bellamy is one of your choices.
- The
section on “Settlements and Social Gospel” if Jane Addams is one of your
choices. (Note: Addams emphasis
incorporated a “spiritual commitment” but she was not part of the
mainstream social gospel movement.)
- Use
of one or two examples from each of the primary sources that illustrate
the writer’s support for either Social Darwinism or Reform Darwinism. You
are encouraged to use quotations for the documents, but make sure you
provide comments about the meaning of these quotations.
Recommended Organization of the Essay:
Introduction:
Scope of
the essay (brief summary); a brief statement of what will be discussions, e.g.
name the reformers you will include; a statement of your point of view (thesis
statement), e.g. which approach to you believe was the most relevant for that
historical time --- Social Darwinism or Reform Darwinism.
Body Paragraphs
- Historical
context – statement and conditions of the problems facing the immigrant
working class.
- Definitions
of Social Darwinism and Reform Darwinism
- Analysis
of the ideas of Graham and Addams or Bellamy.
Conclusion: Which approach was best
for that historical time and why?
Primary Sources:
Top of
page
Exam
Essay 2:
Social and Reform Darwinism: Foundations for American
Foreign Policy in the 1890s
Exam
Question:
In
the last two decades of the 19th century, America engaged an
aggressive policy of expansionism beyond its geographic borders. Josiah Strong,
Albert Beverage and William McKinley, advocates of this aggressive
expansionism, made concepts of Social and/or Reform Darwinism the foundation of
their arguments.
In
this essay, select two of these advocates (Strong, Beverage, and McKinley).
Then evaluate how each applied the concepts of Social and/or Reform Darwinism
to justify America’s policy in the Philippines during and immediately following
the Spanish American War.
Required
Information:
- Definitions
of Social Darwinism and Reform Darwinism.
These must be in your own words.
- Historical
Context – Chapter 20
- Summary
of the rationales for expansionism in the 1890s (pp. 604 – 607)
- Summary
of actions in the Philippines (pp. 611- 612)
- Use
of one or two examples from each of the primary sources that illustrate
the writer’s use of Social Darwinism and/or Reform Darwinism. You are encouraged to use quotations for
the documents, but make sure you provide comments about the meaning of
these quotations.
Recommended Organization of the Essay:
Introduction: Scope of the essay (brief summary); a brief
statement of what will be discussions, e.g. name the reformers you will
include; a statement of your point of view (thesis statement), e.g. whether the
use of Social Darwinism and/or Reform Darwinism was appropriate in America’s
foreign policy actions in the 1890s.
Body Paragraphs
- Historical
context - Rationale for American
Expansionism and America’s actions in the Philippines (see pages noted in
Required Information)
- Definitions
of Social Darwinism and Reform Darwinism
- Analysis
of the ideas of two of the following: Strong, Beverage, McKinley
Conclusion: Which approach was best
for that historical time and why? You also might want to consider whether you
believe social and reform Darwinism is still an assumption in today’s foreign
policy.
Primary Sources:
- Josiah Strong,
from Our Country (1885)
2.
William McKinley,
"Decision on the Philippines" (1900)
3.
Albert Beveridge,
"The March of the Flag" (1898)
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