Your essays are required to be in paragraph form with topic sentences. Use specific details and form complete sentences. While your examples may be drawn from all our class materials as well as from information you have gathered on your own, they must be fully paraphrased in your own words. Since you are writing this outside of a classroom where time is limited, your answers are expected to be more comprehensive, thoughtful, and detailed than in an in-class essay. Choose one of the questions below, and plan on typing at least two double-spaced pages for your essay. It can be longer if you like. Warning: Any detected plagiarism, cut and paste from another source, duplicate efforts, or similar attempts at cheating will result in a grade of 0 for the final exam. Completed exams are due Monday, June 8 by midnight.
1. Fully discuss and examine the limitations placed on freedom after September 11. Then compare the surrounding circumstances with those during the McCarthy Era (Cold War), World War II, and World War I. What is the balance between security and freedom during war? Does the Constitution protect peoples rights during wartime? Should dissent be equated with a lack of patriotism? Why or why not?
2. As the national holiday of Martin Luther King Jr. Day suggests, Americans have by and large embraced the Civil Rights Movement as a source of pride in their national history. But did the Civil Rights Movement win? Assess the changes, obstacles, legacy, and challenges to civil rights in the United States between 1954 and the present.