Midterm Examination Study Guide
I. Identifications
II. Questions on the Readings
III. EssayThe midterm examination for History 301 will be divided into three parts. The first part will consist of identifications; in the second part, you will be asked to write about two short essays on the primary sources we read during the first three weeks of term; the third part will be an interpretive essay question. As you prepare for the exam, don't think about how much or little you should write on each element. Think instead about time: you'll have all 80 minutes in which to complete the exam, which will give you about 25 minutes for each section. That being the case, you should time yourself so that each ID in section I gets five minutes; each mini-essay in section II gets about twelve minutes; and so on.
On your examination form, you will find ten (10) items from this list of historically important persons, places, and things; of these, you will be asked to identify five (5). In composing your response, you should identify the person or define the phenomenon as accurately as you can, specify its date as closely as possible, and—most importantly—assess the historical significance of the person or phenomenon. Note that these identifications are taken from both lectures and from the textbook for this course, Raymond Birn's Crisis, Absolutism, Revolution. Be sure to consult Birn, in addition to your notes from the lectures, in preparing for the exam.
| The corpus mysticum The King’s ‘Two Bodies’ Jean Bodin (1530-1596) Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) Jacques-Bénigne de Bossuet (1627-1704) Robert Filmer (1588-1653) Frederick William, the “Great Elector” of Brandenburg-Prussia (r. 1640-1688) Charles XI, King of Sweden (r. 1660-1697) Peter I, Tsar of All the Russias (r. 1682-1725) William III, Stadhouder of the Dutch Republic (1672-1702) and King of England (1688-1702) The Open Field System Dominium directum and dominium utile The “tricameral” system of representation |
The Estates-General of France The Swedish Riksdag The Dutch ‘States General’ “Regents” and “Orangists” The Table of Ranks The ‘Demographic Regime’ The Patriarchal Household The “Glorious Revolution” (1688) The Bill of Rights (1689) Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1602-1661) The Fronde (1648-1653) The “Rule of Compensation” Raison d'Etat |
Part two of the midterm examination consists of short essays on the primary source readings assigned in the first half of this course. Four (4) of the following examination questions will appear on your examination; be prepared to write a short answer in response to two (2) of these questions.
1) Think about the excerpt we read of the Peace of Westphalia (1648). In your view, did this treaty lay the groundwork for religious toleration in Europe? What clauses from the treaty would lead you to answer in the affirmative? Alternately, what answers would lead you to reject this interpretation?
2) Many historians have argued that the Peace of Westphalia (1648) was designed to eliminate religious conflict from the European state system. Henceforth, so the argument goes, conflicts over religion might occur within states, but not between them. Do you agree or disagree? What evidence in the treaty's text do you find in support of this interpretation? Alternately, what evidence argues against it?
3) Think about the autobiography of Ulrich Bräker, The Real Life and True Adventures of the Poor Man of Toggenburg. Would you say that Bräker's sense of his own individuality is the same sense that people have of their individuality today? Or was his sense of self different from ours? What evidence leads you to take your position?
4) How would you characterize the circumstances of Ulrich Bräker's childhood and upbringing? What sorts of people did he grow up with? What did he do as a child? How did his childhood differ from the typical, twenty-first century childhood?
5) Everyone faces profound choices in young adulthood—how to make a living, whom to marry, etc.—and in this Ulrich Bräker is no different from us. But his life was affected by social and economic forces that are very different from those that affect young people today. What forces shaped Bräker's life as he became an adult? How, in other words, were the social and economic forces of Bräker's day and age reflected in his autobiography?
6) Many historians and sociologists have argued that Louis used the court of Versailles as an instrument of absolutism. By that they mean that Louis used the rituals of court life to “tame” the French nobility. Do you agree or disagree with this interpretation? What evidence from our readings on daily life at the court of Versailles, in your view, argues in its favor? Alternately, what evidence would seem to refute this interpretation?
7) King Louis XIV clearly had the right stuff to preside over his court at Versailles, complex as it was. What, based on our readings on daily life at Versailles, would you say were the qualities of personality and character that were needed to make the court function as an instrument of social control? What would happen, do you suppose, if the king had a weaker personality?
The third portion of the midterm examination will be an interpretive essay.
Unlike Parts I and II, this study guide does not divulge the specific questions for you in advance. There will be only one essay question on the examination, and you will be expected to give your best answer to it, drawing on as much argument and evidence as you can summon from the lectures and course readings. That said, you can expect that your examination question will concern one of the three following topics: (a) the relationship between religion and secular authority; (b) the nature of representation; and (c) the theory and practice of absolutism.