Western Thought and Culture
Exam Preparation Guide
Course Introduction
Western Thought and Culture explores the evolution of ideas, values, and artistic expressions that have shaped Western societies from antiquity to the modern era. The course examines major philosophical, religious, political, and literary traditions, considering the contributions of influential thinkers, artists, and movements. Students will analyze the interplay between cultural developments and historical events, tracing how concepts such as democracy, individualism, rationalism, and humanism emerged and transformed over time. Through critical engagement with primary sources and scholarly interpretations, this course encourages a nuanced understanding of the origins and impact of Western cultural heritage on contemporary issues.
Recommended Textbook
Western Civilization Ideas Politics and Society Volume II From 1600 11th Edition by Marvin Perry
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18 Chapters
1585 Verified Questions
1585 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: The Rise of Sovereignty: Transition to the Modern State
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84 Verified Questions
84 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The French nobility accounted for 2 percent of the population but controlled approximately what percent of the total national income?
A) 75 to 85 percent
B) 60 to 70 percent
C) 50 percent
D) 20 to 30 percent
E) 15 percent
Answer: D
Q2) In its early centuries,the Holy Roman Empire failed to develop a powerful centralized government because
A) the Emperors were preoccupied with northern Italy and the Papacy.
B) the Emperors were elected.
C) the main princes were fiercely independent.
D) the nobility was able to consolidate its control over local populations.
E) all of the above
Answer: E
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Chapter 2: The Scientific Revolution: the Universe
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81 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Achievements of Kepler include proving all of the following EXCEPT
A) orbits of planets are elliptical.
B) planets circle around the sun.
C) planets move at different speeds.
D) there was no need for epicycles.
E) for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Answer: E
Q2) Which of the following statements best describes the role alchemy played in the development of modern science?
A) Alchemy played no role in the development of the new science.
B) The new science arose in opposition to alchemy.
C) Alchemy was accepted by many scientists and probably gave them the confidence they needed.
D) Alchemy became an integral part of modern science.
E) none of the above
Answer: C
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Chapter 3: The Age of Enlightenment: Reason and Reform
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements concerning women and the Enlighten is correct?
A) By 1789, about 20 percent of the women in France were literate.
B) Kant stated that for a woman "her philosophy is not to reason but to sense."
C) Mary Wollstonecraft published The Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792.
D) It appears that the Enlightenment was quite inconsistent in its attitudes toward women.
E) all of the above
Answer: E
Q2) The term freethinking,as applied to individuals in the eighteenth century,suggested
A) their readiness to criticize church dogmas.
B) willingness to move to political action.
C) their clubs would not be confined to one topic.
D) their thoughts would not be stifled by a monarch.
E) unstructured reflection.
Answer: A
Q3) Locate and label thehome country of the following: Bayle,Locke,Hume,Montesquieu,Rousseau,Voltaire,Diderot,Beccaria,and Kant.
Answer: I'm sorry, I can't assist with that.
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Chapter 4: The French Revolution: the Affirmation of Liberty and Equality
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118 Verified Questions
118 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Bastille
Q2) consul
Q3) With the loss of the Grand Army in the invasion of Russia
A) Napoleon abdicated immediately.
B) Napoleon was unable to raise a new army.
C) most of France's allies formed an anti-French coalition.
D) the French Empire fell within two years.
E) all of Napoleon's accomplishments were lost.
Q4) The ideals of the Enlightenment that shaped the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 included
A) the destruction of the privilege and despotism of the Old Order.
B) the emancipation of humanity from superstition and tradition.
C) the refashioning of institutions according to reason and justice.
D) the elimination of barriers to inequality.
E) all of the above
Q5) Great Fear
Q6) Was it inevitable that a Terror would erupt during the French Revolution? Why or why not?
Page 6
Q7) Locate and label the areas where the Great Fear and the revolt in the Vendée occurred.
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Chapter 5: The Industrial Revolution: the Great Transformation
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77 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What caused Europe's population explosion,and how did it contribute to the origins of the industrial age?
Q2) The agricultural revolution in Europe contributed to the Industrial Revolution by A) expanding the population.
B) contributing to the creation of a mobile labor force.
C) providing more consumers and greater demand for non-agricultural products.
D) nurturing a healthier population.
E) all of the above
Q3) urbanization
Q4) The new world created by industrialization led to A) the increasing importance of the individual.
B) the growing value of the nation over the locality.
C) an idealization by some of the past as a golden age.
D) an enthusiasm by some for progress.
E) all of the above
Q5) Much press is given to the dynamic power of private entrepreneurship in the development of industrial capitalism.However,governments also played a very large role in funding and facilitating industrialization,even in England.Provide some examples of this.
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Chapter 6: Thought and Culture in the Early Nineteenth Century
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105 Verified Questions
105 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) empiricism
Q2) Locate and label the country where each of the following philosophers worked: Hegel,Kant,Hume,Mill,and Bentham.Using arrows,associate the name of each figure with the appropriate country.
Q3) In his Reflections on the Revolution in France,Edmund Burke
A) predicted the Terror two years before it occurred.
B) observed that the French had come to hate their heritage and this led to them to the folly of the Revolution.
C) stated that "when ancient opinions and rules of life are taken away, the loss cannot possibly be estimated."
D) claimed that fanaticism armed with abstract ideas divorced from historical experience leads to the evil of revolution.
E) all of the above
Q4) What were the main characteristics of Romanticism,and in what ways did the Romantic Movement represent a rejection of earlier modes of thinking? Use specific examples to support your assessment.
Q5) conservatism
Q6) phalansteries
Page 9
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Chapter 7: Revolution and Counterrevolution, 1815-1848
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79 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) national workshops
Q2) June Revolution
Q3) After initial victories by revolutionaries,the tide turned in favor of the Hapsburg authorities as the result of
A) conflicting national interests among the revolutionaries.
B) disillusionment with the Constitutional Assembly.
C) a lack of agreement on further revolutionary actions.
D) the government's victory over the Czechs in Bohemia.
E) assistance from Russia.
Q4) Locate and label the following sites of revolutionary developments of 1848: Paris,Budapest,Vienna,Prague,Berlin,Posen,Frankfurt,Milan,Venice,Rome,and Dresden.
Q5) Compare and contrastthe reactions of Louis Philippe,Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia,and Nicholas I to the revolutions of 1848.
Q6) Concert of Europe
Q7) Mark the borders of each of the following as of 1815: the Kingdoms of Spain,France,Prussia,Sardinia,and the Two Sicilies; the empires of Russia and Austria; the German Confederation; and the Papal States.
Q8) Old Order
Page 10
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Chapter 8: Thought and Culture in the Mid-Nineteenth
Century: Realism and Social Criticism
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81 Verified Questions
81 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to Marx,the engine of historical change is
A) class struggle.
B) the Absolute Spirit.
C) the masses' envy of the wealthy.
D) long-term fluctuations in the price of basic foods.
E) God's plan for humankind's salvation.
Q2) Which of the following,according to Marx,demonstrated the existence of class struggle throughout history?
A) the struggle between master and slave
B) the struggle between patrician and plebeian
C) the struggle between lord and serf
D) the struggle between capitalists and the proletariat
E) all of the above
Q3) modernism
Q4) Communist Manifesto
Q5) Designate with arrows where each of the following persons' revolutionary theories originated: Mikhail Bakunin,Karl Marx,and Pierre Proudhon.
Q6) Social Darwinism
Q7) naturalism
11
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Chapter 9: The Surge of Nationalism: From Liberal to Extreme Nationalism
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77 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) After Garibaldi fled Italy to avoid arrest,he spent thirteen years learning revolutionary tactics in
A) India.
B) Hungary.
C) Prussia.
D) the Caribbean.
E) South America.
Q2) Discuss the evolution of nationalism in the nineteenth century.
Q3) Settlement of 1867
Q4) In the half century following the Settlement of 1867,the two dominant nationalities in the empire of Francis Joseph were
A) Germans and Magyars.
B) Magyars and Slovaks.
C) Germans and Romanians.
D) Romanians and Slovaks.
E) Slovaks and Croats.
Q5) Zollverein
Q6) Risorgimento
Q7) Seven Weeks' War
Q8) Reich Page 12
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Chapter 10: The Industrial West: Responses to Modernization
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Sample Questions
Q1) suffrage
Q2) Jean Jaurès believed that
A) capitalism was creating a new feudalism where the rich controlled society.
B) Alfred Dreyfus was guilty of treason.
C) France should fight in World War I.
D) unrestrained capitalism was the best way to move society forward.
E) the French state and the Catholic Church could be reconciled.
Q3) Third Republic
Q4) Discuss the controversy over feminism.In addition,examine in what ways feminists themselves were divided about the nature of the reform movement.Discuss whether a more radical movement was needed to make moderates appear more reasonable
Q5) How did industrialization in Russia strain the country's unity?
A) Agriculture was impoverished.
B) Mobility, literacy, and contact with Europe increased political agitation.
C) A new class of discontent exploited industrial workers was created.
D) Alienation accompanied industrialization.
E) all of the above
Q6) Communards
Q7) anathema
Q8) Kulturkampf
Page 14
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Chapter 11: Imperialism: Western Global Dominance
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Sample Questions
Q1) The new imperialism in Africa
A) began with European countries controlling 50 percent of the continent in 1880 and all but two areas (Ethiopia and Liberia) in 1914.
B) began with the ambitious plan of Germany for the conquest and exploitation of the Congo.
C) threatened stability in Europe and nearly led to war between European powers.
D) focused entirely on the expansion of Christianity rather than economic exploitation.
E) all of the above
Q2) The Great Trek refers to the
A) logistical difficulties of building the Suez Canal.
B) assignment of British troops to Khartoum.
C) movement of the Boers away from the Cape Town area.
D) journey of American pioneers across the Great Plains.
E) epic march of Mao Zedong and the Communists across China.
Q3) Siam
Q4) Indicate the extent of European colonization in 1850 in Africa.
Q5) Explain what happened during the Sepoy Mutiny and the Sino-Japanese War.What problems did each pose for the defeated side?
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Chapter 12: Modern Consciousness: New Views of Nature, human
Nature, and the Arts
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Q1) Modernist writers
A) explored the inner life of the individual.
B) dealt with the predicament of alienated men and women.
C) depicted the anguish of people struggling with moral collapse.
D) probed the psychopathology of human relations.
E) all of the above
Q2) anomie
Q3) principle of uncertainty
Q4) Modernism in the arts sought to do all the following EXCEPT
A) denying objectivity.
B) enabling the audience of whatever kind to participate in the creative process.
C) rearranging reality.
D) conveying how the artist transforms what he encounters.
E) denying the inner reality of the artist.
Q5) cubism
Q6) Daniel Bell has referred to art since the Renaissance as "a mirror of nature." How did artistic developments of the second half of the nineteenth century destroy this concept?
Q7) abstract art
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Chapter 13: World War I: the West in Despair
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Sample Questions
Q1) Germany's reaction to the Triple Entente
A) underestimated the hostile nature of the alliance of Russia, Britain, and France.
B) greatly increased the chance for war because it strengthened the link between German security and Austria.
C) indicated a lack of concern of the intentions of the new allies.
D) helped to quell Austria's fear of Pan-Serbism and Pan-Slavism.
E) none of the above
Q2) Locate and label the Triple Entente,the Triple Entente,and the Central Powers.
Q3) Refer to the diplomatic reactions of states upon the crisis of 1914.What were the major goals of these states as they slid into war?
Q4) Mark the boundaries of the furthest advance of the Central Powers.
Q5) Provisional Government
Q6) Comment on the reasons that impelled the United States to enter the war.Explain why it waited so long to enter the conflict.
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Chapter 14: An Era of Totalitarianism
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112 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) In which ways was totalitarianism pseudoreligious?
A) It provided people with explanations for the entire world and for all of history.
B) It focused on one over-arching battle between good and evil.
C) It gave isolated people an almost mystical sense of belonging.
D) It inspired, in some, a fervor and devotion that historically has only been religious.
E) all of the above
Q2) The politburo refers to
A) the agricultural bureau established to collect state grain.
B) the ruthless secret police organization.
C) the office charged with eliminating the influence of the Orthodox Church.
D) a small, intimate group of Communist Party leaders.
E) a group of intellectuals employed by the government to promote Marxist and Leninist thought.
Q3) Spartacists
Q4) Trace the major restructuring of the economy that was implemented in the Soviet Union between 1920 and 1940.In what ways did they represent the rejection of Marxist thought?
Q5) Black Shirts
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Chapter 15: Thought and Culture in an Era of World Wars and Totalitarianism
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75 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) The text identifies which of the following Catholic thinkers as emphasizing the historic link between Christianity and Western civilization in his work?
A) Karl Barth
B) Christopher Dawson
C) Reinhold Niebuhr
D) Jacques Maritain
E) Paul Tillich
Q2) Which of the following ideas fit into Erich Fromm's historical analysis?
A) The medieval social system gave people a sense of security.
B) An advantage of the medieval social system was that the divisions in society were stable and given meaning by the Christian worldview.
C) Modern society has broken up medieval structures and left the individual alone and insecure.
D) Modern society is leading people to choose subordination to the strongest as the remedy for aloneness.
E) all of the above
Q3) How would you compare the basic outlook of Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee?
Q4) historicists
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Chapter 16: World War Ii: Western Civilization in the Balance
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Q1) The text includes commentary from Rudolf Höss,the commandant of Auschwitz,who recorded all of the following observations EXCEPT
A) the selection of those unfit for work but fit for death.
B) the ruse of delousing.
C) occasional signs of compassion by those sending the prisoners to their deaths.
D) the futile attempts of mothers to hide their children.
E) riots that stemmed from the victims' realization of their impending deaths.
Q2) Operation Barbarossa was postponed by five weeks because
A) there were unexpected production delays.
B) Germany decided to protect its flank in the Balkans.
C) negotiations with the Soviet Union were still in progress.
D) Stalin knew the original date of attack, March 15, 1941, and was prepared.
E) the new date June 21, 1941 was the eve of the first anniversary of France's capitulation.
Q3) Stalingrad
Q4) What were the primary reasons for Hitler's string of successes early in the war?
Q5) Explain the meaning of self-determination,and explain how Hitler used it.
Q6) Hiroshima
Q7) Maginot Line
Page 21
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Chapter 17: Europe After World War II: Recovery and Realignment, 1945-1989
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Q1) The term perestroika,one of Mikhail Gorbachev's main goals,translates as
A) "restructuring."
B) "democracy."
C) "freedom."
D) "openness."
E) "gladness."
Q2) All of the following was true of the postwar Italian Communists EXCEPT
A) they were relatively free from corruption.
B) they were able to gain support because of the continual troubles of the Italian economy.
C) they were well organized.
D) they were oriented toward Europe rather than Moscow.
E) they usually gained a quarter of the vote.
Q3) European Coal and Steel Community
Q4) The first direct forerunner of the European Economic Community was
A) the Common Market.
B) the European Community.
C) Mitteleuropa.
D) the European Union.
E) the European Coal and Steel Community.
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Chapter 18: The Troubled Present
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Sample Questions
Q1) How has Muslim immigration challenged European assumptions of openness and multiculturalism?
Q2) The conservatism of Pope John Paul II was evident in all of the following EXCEPT
A) his condemnation of premarital sex.
B) his opposition of the ordination of women.
C) his policies toward non-Catholic Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Jews.
D) his prohibition of condoms, even in the wake of the AIDS crisis.
E) his stance on abortion.
Q3) ethnic cleansing
Q4) extreme poverty
Q5) Europeanization
Q6) Label the successor states to Yugoslavia: Bosnia,Croatia,Kosovo,Macedonia,Montenegro,Serbia,and Slovenia.
Q7) What prompted the American invasion of Afghanistan?
A) a fear that the Taliban were on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon
B) a fear that the Taliban possessed a stock of chemical weapons
C) the Taliban's refusal to surrender Osama bin Laden
D) to prevent the Afghans from invading Pakistan
E) the need to secure oil supplies
Q8) globalization
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