BACK to HIUS 154 Syllabus

The midterm will include a geography section (10% of total), a brief question section on the readings (10%), and a short essay (80%) asking you to consider two of the readings relative to each other and to the material covered in class. If you can do the tasks asked of you on this guide, you should be in good shape for the exam.
You should bring at least 1 blue book for the exam, and extra pens/pencils.

I) Be able to identify and accurately locate on a map the following:

• Center of severe wind erosion (Dust Bowl) in the 1930s.

• Wyoming Basin

• Northern Rockies

• Southern Rockies

• Great Basin

• Salt Lake City

• Sierra Nevadas

• The line marking the eastern edge of the American West (be prepared to explain why).

• Nevada Nuclear Test Site

• Denver

• Route of the transcontinental railroad.

II) Be prepared to answer the following questions:

• To what or whom does “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” refer?

• Who wrote about Crazy Horse? What is Crazy Horse’s name in Lakota?

• What was the name of the important report submitted by John Wesley Powell in 1878?

• Who interviewed Tu-Pi? What does Tu-Pi’s name mean?

• Who describes meeting Le War Lance, and where was he at the time?

• What are five ways of describing the Mountainous West?

• Who wrote The Big Rock Candy Mountain? Whose life was it based on?

• What are two major Western themes emphasized in this course?

III) Finally, you will be asked to make comparisons between two of the readings (by Stegner, Frazier, Wyckoff and Dilsaver, Williams, and Matthiessen) regarding the way the authors depict the American West, and consider those depictions relative to the themes of the course.

On the exam, you will compare one chosen from “Column A” and one from “Column B,” and should be prepared to use the lectures to develop your argument.

Your analysis should be made with an eye for continuities, connections, and distinctions within and between (sub)regions. Since this is a history course, you should also be prepared to consider change over time.