HISTORY 471
HISTORY OF BRAZIL
PRIMARY SOURCE CRITIQUE GUIDE
http://www.history.umd.edu/Faculty/DWilliams/Fall08/HIST471/final.html

The final examination will begin promptly at 8:00am Monday, December 19, 2008, in FSK 0102 (where we normally meet). The exam will last two hours.

The exam will be divided into two parts:

Part I: Identifications (20% of exam grade):

You will be given four terms drawn from the major figures, slogans, events, places, and concepts discussed the course. You will be asked to give a brief (2-4 sentence) definition of each term, placing the term in its proper historical context.

Part II: Essays (80% of exam grade):

Three of the following six questions will appear verbatim on the exam. You will be asked to answer two of the three options.

1) The positivist motto of "Order and Progress" has shaped political and economic policy rule since the inception of the Republic. Compare and contrast the political economies of the Belle Époque and the Miracle Years in relation to the ideal of "order and progress." 

2) Within a few short days of the overthrow of theJoão Goulart administration, the newly-installed military regime began to describe the coup d'etat as a Revolution. By the promulgation of Institutional Act 5, in December 1968, the "Revolution of March 31, 1964" had become a fundamental part of the regime's legitimacy. Historically situate the idea of "revolution" in the institutionalization of military rule.

3) Although left-wing radicals played very important roles in articulating open resistance to military rule, moderates in the military regime and national political parties, in negotiation with industrial elites and the Catholic Church hierarchy, tended to have greater influence over the pace and direction of distensão and abertura. Analyze the composition, motivation, and interaction of such actors, describing how they worked—independently and collectively—to set a moderate agenda for the end of military rule.

4) After 1954, a number of social movements departed from the nationalist-populist model of trabalhismo celebrated during the Vargas era. On the eve of the 1964 coup, middle-class women took to the streets to agitate for the protection of God and Liberty. The counterculture of the late 1960s and 1970s encouraged urban youth to embrace international rock and soul music. In the 1970s, "new social movements" proliferated among lay Catholics, women's and gay-rights advocates, the urban poor, and unionized labor. Analyze the historical forces that created the conditions for new, post-Vargas kinds of social movements in modern Brazil.

5) Modern Brazilian cultural history is shaped by highly politicized struggles over claims to Brazilian identity. Develop an argument that historically situates the cultural politics of claims to "Brazilianness" in the twentieth century. Your argument should make special note of the long, difficult relationship between national identity and the ideology of racial democracy.

6) What has democracy meant in the history of the Brazilian Republic? Your answer should engage Francisco Weffort's 1984 essay Why Democracy? and its arguments about the nature of democracy in Brazil.
 

You will be allowed to bring in one 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper, filled with whatever information you would like, to the exam. You will be required to turn in the sheet at the end of the exam.

The final exam represents 20% of your final grade.

 Final course grades should be available through Testudo on or about December 23.