What do you think about the Paul Kennedy thesis?Does it make sense?How do you see it applying in various countries?What would an alternative explanation be to describe why some countries get so powerful?
Think about the three main forms of government that basically became standardized after the First World War –Communism (i.e., U.S.S.R.), Fascism (Italy and Germany) and Liberal Democracy (U.S., Great Britain, France).What are some of the benefits of each form of government for the people it serves?If you cannot think of even one benefit, then why would people in those countries allow these types of governments?(Remember all of these governments were either elected or put in place through revolutions that were popularly supported.)Again, this is a thinking question, your answers are based on what you know or what you learned from the lecture. Also, even if you can’t think of a benefit, be creative.I don’t want to see answers like “there is no good reason to have a fascist government”.While we may think of these governments as limiting, fascism was very popular in the 1930s and there were even Americans who supported Hitler, Mussolini, and fascism in general –what is it that was appealing?
How do you see the influences and consequences of World War II today?How does World War II (or its effects) influence the world as YOU see it?
Why do you think that you need to study history?How does what happened in the past affect what is going on today?Try to connect one thing that has happened over the past year and think about how that event came about and how it is connected to previous events.
I mentioned in the lecture that Alan Beattie wrote a book calledFalse Economy.In it, he states that history, especially economic history is “vulnerable to fatalism. Any study that takes as its endpoint the present day is always vulnerable to arguing backward from the conclusion.”Try to give one example of how people (or yourself) have made that error and why it was wrong. I.e. what are the dangers of starting in the present and assuming that history (or life) is fated to be the way that it is.(What I mean by that, is that in general, when people study history, we think that what is, is the way it “had to be”, so to speak.However, in reality, all through our lives (both public and private) we are constantly making decisions and they are stuck dealing with the outcomes of those decisions.We didn’t know when we made those decisions that the outcome would be what it is.The same is truefor leaders, politicians, etc.So, what I want you to actually think about is how does look at the world today affect how you see the past and why that can be a problem or at least
misleading?This is a critical thinking question, so there aren’t any “right” answers that I am looking for, but there can be “wrong” answers.What I will be looking for is that you have explained your logic in your answer.
In future weeks, I will usually ask for a brief synopsis of the chapter or some element of the chapter, but, since this is week 1 and some of you may struggle to get your books in time, I am going to ask you to read the following article instead. However, I will refer to this week’s chapter next week and ask you about it, so please don’t just “skip” reading it. The following article is fromThe Guardiannewspaper, a British publication and it is reflecting on all of the changes and surprises of 2016.I do realize that it is now a year old, but they didn’t do a new one for this year and I think that many of its points are still valid.So, while you should keep in mind that it is a little old, try to think about the issues that it raises and that it also is looking at some of the issues that are STILLimportant and looming in the next year (20180.After you read it, please answer the question that follows it. Keep in mind, that this is more of an opinion piece (really in this case it is more of a reflection), not just a headline piece. But I do think that it brings up quite a few issues that we should be aware of.Now that you have read the article, here are my questions:
A. Which of the issues mentioned concern you the most? Which concern you the least?
B. Which issues seem to be connected to broader historical concepts?
C. If you could investigate or study any single one of these issues in this class,which one would it be and why?