HIST2020 Exam3

HIST 2020 M50/D50: US History since 1877

Exam #3 Summer 2025

Assignment: In this document, there are two images each representing the last three textbook

chapters we read on the 1950s, the 1960s, and the 1970s/80s. You will select one image from

each of the three to write about. Please choose a primary source from each era that you think best captures some of the central issues of the time period.

Write a 200-250 word paragraph about each of your three sources . Each paragraph should begin with an opening thesis statement about the era and/or the primary source and end with a

concluding sentence. In each paragraph, briefly describe the source and then discuss its

relevance to the era and the larger issues associated with it. Why is this primary source symbolic

of its era? How is it significant historically and how does it connect to central issues of the time

period? Address these questions in each of your three paragraphs. You should be able to enlarge

the images to examine their details.

Please use Give Me Liberty!, the weekly overview videos, and the other class materials posted in the weekly discussion questions to contextualize your three historical sources. If you cite information from these sources, refer to the textbook page number or the video/article/title (for supplemental material I’ve posted) in parenthesis at the end of the sentence. Please do not cite other sources. No works cited page/bibliography is needed.

• Please clearly title each of your answers with the time period and image title.

• Answers should be double spaced, in 12-point font, spellchecked and proofread. Upload your exam in one Word document by Wednesday Aug 6th.

• Remember that all submissions go through TurnItIn plagiarism software so write in your own words, do not use AI, and cite your sources.

Examine/analyze the images thoroughly for each era chosen. Only one image per era for a total of three. Each paragraph should begin with an opening thesis statement about the era and/or the primary source and end with a concluding sentence. In each paragraph, briefly describe the source and then discuss its relevance to the era and the larger issues associated with it. Why is this primary source symbolic of its era? How is it significant historically and how does it connect to central issues of the time period? Address these questions in each of your three paragraphs. You should be able to enlarge the images to examine their details.

1. 1950s Suburbia & Civil Rights:

A. Levittown postcard, 1957.

A collage of houses Description automatically generated

B. “Integrated Bus Suggestions,” Montgomery Improvement Association, 1956.

Alabama Archives: Riding the Bus

2. The 1960s:

A. A Vietnam War protest.

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B. The introduction to Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, 1964.

A screenshot of a book Description automatically generated

3. 1970s-80s Conservative Backlash:

A. A STOP ERA event, 1972.

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B. Jerry Falwell Time magazine cover, 1985.

Jerry Falwell, Sr. – Pastor with a God-sized vision - The Christian Index

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Exam #3

This is due Wednesday Aug 6th, 2025

Has to be in MLA or Chicago Style Format preferably MLA format Give Me Liberty! Eric Foner Vol 2 Edition 7 2022

Please do not use any outside sources.

Assignment: In  this document,  there are two images each representing the last three textbook chapters we read on the 1950s, the 1960s, and the 1970s/80s.  You will select three images to analyze, each from a different time period we have examined since Exam #2. Please choose a primary source from each era that you think best captures some of the central issues of the time period. 

Write a  200-250 word paragraph about each of your  three sources. Each paragraph should begin with an opening thesis statement about the era and/or the primary source and end with a concluding sentence. In each paragraph,  briefly describe the source and then discuss its relevance to the era and the larger issues associated with it. Why is this primary source symbolic of its era? How is it significant historically and how does it connect to central issues of the time period? Address these questions in each of your three paragraphs. You should be able to enlarge the images to examine their details.

Please use Give Me Liberty!, the weekly overview videos, and the other class materials posted in the weekly discussion questions to contextualize your three historical sources. If you cite information from these sources, refer to the textbook page number or the video/article title (for supplemental material I’ve posted) in parenthesis at the end of the sentence.  Please do not cite other sources. No work cited page/bibliography is needed.

Again,  you will write three 200-250 word paragraphs total about three different sources representing the three periods we’ve studied in the last class unit. Choose one source each from three of the following four eras to write about.

Chapter 24: An Affluent Society 1950s Suburbia and Civil Rights

1. What does it mean to say that residential segregation defined the postwar suburbs? Use this video on Levittown and Give Me Liberty! to answer.

2. How did freedom come to take the form of consumption in the 1950s, as the authors notes in the beginning of the chapter?

3. Why was the practice of non-violence so central to the activism of Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? Use Give Me Liberty! and this  primary source from the Montgomery bus boycott that MLK led in your answer.

4. Brown v. Board of Education is considered the first major success of the Civil Rights movement. Using  this video and the Southern Manifesto primary source in "Voices of Freedom," discuss the significance of this Supreme Court case and the resistance to it. 

Chapter 25: 1960s

1. Using  this video Links to an external site.  and Give Me Liberty! to discuss how the Vietnam War was part of the larger Cold War. 

2. Why did such a large anti-war movement emerge during this time? Use the first 7:15 min of  this video Links to an external site.  and Give Me Liberty! in your answer. 

3. Using Give Me Liberty! and the feminist organization  Redstockings' manifesto,  Links to an external site. discuss why the Women's Liberation movement emerged at this time and some of their central demands. 

4. How did the  Black Panther's Ten Point Plan differ from the tone of  MLK's document  Download MLK's document we read last week? Why was the Black Power movement more radical than the Civil Rights movement had been? Use Give Me Liberty! here for context. 

Chapter 26: 1970s/80s Conservative Backlash

1. What was Watergate and how did it lead to the American public's decreasing trust in the government? Use Give Me Liberty! and this video with short video clips to answer. 

2. What was the significance of the ERA and why didn't it pass in the 1970s? Use Give Me Liberty! and this short video to answer. 

3. Using this very entertaining 1989  music video and Give Me Liberty!, discuss the significance of the "yuppie" in President Ronald Reagan's America. 

4. Why did groups like Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority emerge and what did they think of the changes brought about by the 1960s/70s social movements? Use Give Me Liberty! ("the Rising Tide of Conservatism") and this  primary source on Falwell to answer.