HISTORY 477

FALL 2005

FINAL EXAM ESSAYS

Directions: Please answer one of the following essays in a minimum of 5 pages, double spaced, 12 pt. font, and 1 inch margins all around. Your answer should be as complete as possible, make frequent reference to the relevant texts, lectures, films, etc that will be your sources. You should strive for completeness and conciseness in your answers.

1. Discuss the nature of revolutions in history. What is a revolution? What are a revolutions typical origins, processes, and outcomes? What is/are the purpose/s of revolutions? How do we periodize revolutions? Your answer should make use of evidence from at least four revolutions that were studied during the semester. Your answer should also cite the sources for your definition of revolution.

2. Discuss and compare the French, Mexican, Iranian, and Chinese Revolutions in terms of their respective origins and outcomes. How were those outcomes shaped by the origins and the process of each revolution?

3. Discuss and compare at least four of the theoretical formulations we have studied during the semester. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each? Which theories seem to explain the totality of revolutionary activity more effectively?

4. The state-centered or state-constructionist approach to revolutionary theory is employed by Goodwin (inherited from Skocpol) to explain the variations in revolutionary occurrence in Central America and Southeast Asia. With one of Goodwin’s regions as your base (either Central America or Southeast Asia), discuss the revolutions Goodwin studies using a non state-centered or state-constructionist approach. Your essay must account for the same variation that Goodwin posits in his study of these two revolutionary regions.