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Brinkley Chapter 31 Guiding Questions
1. How did his pardon of Richard Nixon affect Gerald Ford's political standing?
2. What economic challenges did Ford face? How did he respond?
3. How did Jimmy Carter's background and personality shape the tone of his presidency and people's reaction to
him?
4. What economic and energy-related problems did Carter face?
5. What general principle formed the basis of Carter's approach to foreign policy?
6. How did Carter manage to facilitate the Camp David accords, which led to peace between Egypt and Israel?
7. What led to the Iranian hostage crisis?
8. How did the Carter administration react to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan?
9. Where is the "Sunbelt"? What were the political implications of its rise?
10. Describe the basis of Christian evangelicalism. How did it lead to cultural conservatism, as in Jerry Falwell?
11. What were the elements of the new right movement? How did it come to have such influence in the
Republican Party? Why did the new right disapprove of President Ford?
12. To what extent was the tax revolt of the 1970s and 1980s as much an attack on government programs as on
taxes? How did the tax cut activists avoid specific confrontations with supporters of key programs?
13. Why did Ronald Reagan win such a decisive victory in 1980? What happened in the congressional races?
14. How did the nation react to the release of the Iranian hostages?
15. What personal factors helped make Reagan politically effective at balancing various conservative factions?
16. Explain the assumptions made by "supply-side" economists ("Reaganomics").
17. What led to the recession of the early 1980s and the mid-decade recovery? Was the recovery due to
Reaganomics or other factors?
18. What happened to the stock market from the mid 1980s through the 1990s?
19. Why did the federal budget experience massive deficits? How effective was the Reagan administration in
countering the deficit?
20. What stance toward the Soviets and communism in general constituted the so-called Reagan Doctrine? How
did the doctrine play out in Grenada and elsewhere in Latin America?
21. What did the attack on the U.S. military barracks in Beirut and other terrorist incidents against Americans
and other westerners reveal about a new worldwide danger? How did Ronald Reagan react to these episodes?
22. Was the election of 1984 more a personal victory for Ronald Reagan, or the mark of a new Republican era?
23. Describe the process by which the Soviet bloc and the Soviet Union itself ceased to exist. What emerged in
its place?
24. How did Ronald Reagan react to Mikhail Gorbachev? What concrete agreement resulted?
25. Describe the Iran-Contra scandal. What was its political impact?
26. What main campaign strategy did George Bush use to come from behind and defeat Michael Dukakis?
What happened in the congressional elections?
27. What budgetary and economic problems dominated domestic concerns during the Bush presidency? How
did the budget package in 1990 violate Bush's campaign pledge?
28. What precipitated the Gulf War? What were the long-term outcomes after the relatively easy victory?
29. Why did Bill Clinton win the presidency in 1992?