History Paper

Final Essay Choose one of the following questions to answer: 1. After the events of World War II, the United States abandoned the isolationist impulse of the 1920s and 1930s, and began to play a major role in the postwar world. How did postwar foreign policy between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. led to the emergence of a Cold War between the two nations? How did these strained relations dictate American recourse throughout the world in regards to other nations (i.e. Southeast Asia and the Middle East)? 2.It has been argued that World War II was a turning point in the struggle for equal rights among Africa-Americans, as they continued to confront racism and discrimination throughout the United States. How did the Second World War affect the issue of race relations in the United States? How did these notions influence the course of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s? Did the conflicts of the 1960s successfully change American attitudes in regards to race in the subsequent decades of the twentieth century (70s, 80s, & 90s)? Why or why not? 3.The last quarter of the twentieth century (1970s-2000s) bore witness to the rise of a social conservative backlash to the liberal policies of the post-WWII generation. Who were these social and political conservatives demographically in America (i.e. Nixon’s “silent majority” and the so-called “Moral Majority”)? What social and political issues were they rallying against? What role did this movement play in the Republican dominance of the White House?