Description
You will choose one of the questions below. Be as specific as possible in your answers, using material from both the readings and lectures wherever you can do so. Get right to the heart of the question. Too much time spent on the introduction or conclusion will take away from the rest of your answer. Organize your answer to the questions in the form of an essay, not just an outline or a listing of answers to the questions in the order you find them here. Grading will be based upon accuracy, clarity of argument, specific evidence, comprehensiveness or completeness, and focus on the question.
1. Write an essay on Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Identify the constituents of Reagan’s coalition on the right. On what issues was the Reagan Revolution based? What made Reagan such a successful politician? What were the weaknesses of the Reagan Presidency? How are the tensions in the Republican coalition playing out in today’s politics?
2. Write an essay on foreign policy in post-cold war America. Identify and evaluate the different arguments made to explain the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war. Summarize the approaches of Presidents Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II to foreign affairs. What is the impact of the American empire both in foreign affairs and domestically? What challenges continue to plague American foreign policy today?
3. Explain the causes of the Great Recession of 2008. What was the role of banks and mortgage lenders? Credit rating agencies? Home buyers? Evaluate the relative importance of each of the causes. Discuss the Federal government’s response to the 2008 crisis. Compare the Government’s response to the Great Depression in the 1930s to today’s response to the Great Recession of 2008.