1. The Muslim community received the basic teachings of Islam through the prophet Muhammad. To what extent did the religious doctrines and social practices of Islam reflect the personal experiences of Muhammad? Be sure to consider Muhammad's knowledge of Judaism and Christianity as well as his life, career, and family circumstances.What was the philosophy that Hasan al-Banna (d. 1949) used in founding the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt? Why have it and later modernist Islamic organizations been so successful with middle class and urban poor social strata in Muslim states in the 21st century?
2. What caused the financial crisis that began in 1929 to become a world depression by 1932? Discuss the role of autarky and protectionism in it (e.g. the US Hawley-Smoot tariff of 1930). (Autarky is economic self sufficiency.)
3. Explain the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939 and what was the strategic logic of both parties in making the deal?
4.Provide the basic outlines of the view of Zygmunt Bauman that the Nazis’ Final Solution was a totally modern phenomenon.
5.Explain Hannah Arendt’s term, the ‘banality of evil,’ which became the title of a book she wrote after attending the trial of Adolph Eichmann?
6.What was Mao’s Great Leap Forward and what was its effect on China?
7.Why were the Opium Wars (1839-42, 1856-60) waged between China and Britain and other western states? What were the results? What is extraterritoriality?
8.What was the effect of the Chinese Communists’ Long March from Oct 1934-Oct 1935? How did they ultimately win the civil war with the Nationalists in 1949 and force Chiang Kai-shek and his forces to run to Taiwan?
9.Discuss the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944, include points about the IMF, the WB, and the GATT. Set up by which governments? Why did these governments do all of this?
10.As Zionists tried to settle in Palestine in the first part of the 20th century, what were the arguments used by Zionists and those used by Palestinian Arabs about which group should be in control? Include in your answer what the Balfour Declaration of 1917 did.
11.Why did industrialization begin in Great Britain?