History 445 Final Exam Study Guide

Below are some ideas, themes, issues, and questions you should be prepared to address in the first exam.  Warning: This study guide is not comprehensive but does cover most of the material relevant to the final exam.  When preparing for this exam, be sure to remember some of the following key themes of CA history:

1)       Land of opportunity / CA Dreams

2)       Racial and ethnic diversity

3)       Relationship between CA and the nation

4)       Water/environment 

1)       How did World War II affect and change CA?  Be sure to consider the state’s economy, Hollywood, gender relations, and race relations?  Be sure to consider Gregory’s WWII chapter.

2)       How did the Cold War affect Hollywood and CA politics?   How did Disneyland reflect the impact of the Cold War?  What messages regarding race did its exhibits and “lands” present to the visitor? 

3)       Be able to outline the rise of surfing by the early 60s, including key figures, new technology, and media’s influence in bringing it to national audience.  How was surfing a counterculture?  How did it fit in with the growing radical critique and political sentiment of the 1960s?

4)       How did Pat Brown’s victory in the 1958 governor’s race change CA politics?  What liberal policies and programs did he advocate? Why did he lose his reelection campaign in 1966?

5)       Why was the University of California, Berkeley home to the Free Speech movement in 1964-65? What did the students want and how did they go about it?  What was the larger impact of the Free Speech movement?  How was this event tied to rising antiwar movement?  What methods did student activist employ in their effort to weaken support for the war in Vietnam?

6)       Why was CA a critical shaping factor in American music during the 60s and early 70s?  What were the different sounds and how did they reflect the mood and changing attitudes of CA in this period?  What was the counterculture?  Why was San Francisco home to the counterculture?  What were the hippies values and ideas and how did these challenge mainstream American ideas? How did the social and political environment of 60s CA influence budding feminist movement in late 60s and early 70s? How did the counterculture and the Bay Area political scene contribute to the Manson murders and the Symbionese Liberation Army movement.  Be sure to consider Fadiman's The Other Side of Haight novel.

7)       What social, political, and economic factors help explain the Watts Riot and the rise of the Black Panthers?  Why explains the rapid demise of the Panthers? Why, according the film, did white activists at Berkeley find the Panthers so appealing?  Why was Cesar Chavez successful in his initial efforts to unionize farmworkers and win a successful strike by 1965?  How was the conflict over Chicano Park a symbol of the Chicano movement?    What issues and/or ideas shaped the Red Power and Yellow Power movements of the late 60s? 

8)       What factors help explain the rise of the New Right and Ronald Reagan in 1960s CA?  What ideas and policies did Reagan advocate? Why did Jerry Brown win in 1974?  What problems did he face?  What is meant by his idea of an “era of limits?”  What explains passage of Prop 13 and what impact did it have?

9)       What factors and events explain the rise of a modern environmental movement in CA by 1970?  How did modern environmentalist see the environment and what ideas or beliefs did they emphasize? What environmental issues entered public debate and how did environmentalists attempt to address these?  What resistance did they face over time? 

10)    What issues, events, etc. would you cite to explain the shift from the CA Dream to the CA Endangered Dream?  What social and economic factors influenced the King Riots? Why and how has race continued to shape CA and CA politics over the last 50s years?