CAF MODULE TITLE: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN STUDIES 1750-1900

CAF MODULE TITLE: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN STUDIES 1750-1900
STAGE: ONE
TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES:
Candidates answer THREE questions.
Not more than TWO questions may be answered from any section.
Students are encouraged to use historical documents, literary texts or works of art to answer
the questions wherever they feel it is appropriate.
Write each answer in a separate answer book.
DO NOT USE THE SAME MATERIAL TO ANSWER MORE THAN ONE QUESTION
No of pages 3
No of questions 16
SECTION A: HISTORY
1. Examine Thomas Jefferson’s claim that British imperial policy aimed “to reduce
the American colonies under absolute despotism”.
2. To what extent did the U.S. Constitution grant power to state governments?
3. What was the “Second Great Awakening” about and what was its impact on
American society?
4. Why did the differences over westward expansion prove so intractable in
American political life from 1830 to 1860?
5. Did African Americans benefit from Reconstruction?
6. To what extent did the railroad symbolise the growth of the United States as an
industrial nation during the Gilded Age?
7. Was Progressivism anything more than an urban version of Populism?
8. Why did the U.S. embark upon a period of overseas expansion from the 1890s
onwards?
SECTION B: LITERATURE AND VISUAL ARTS
9. Define and discuss the major characteristics of either documentary or feature
film. Refer in detail to at least one film text.
10. Discuss the ways in which either literature or the visual arts
(painting/photography) record the American Civil War.
Page 2 of 3
11. Do the writings of either Thomas Jefferson and/or Thomas Paine demonstrate
that all men are created equal?
12. Was the literature of the West entirely uncritical of the process of Westward
expansion?
13. How has modernity been defined?
14. In what ways are Sister Carrie or Maggie – A Girl of the Streets typical of the
Naturalist novel?
15. Immigrant literature often lamented the cultural change that accompanied
Americanisation. Discuss with reference to the work of two writers.
16. Were the photographs of Jacob Riis a more powerful statement than written
texts when representing the lives of immigrant tenement dwellers?