Sources:

• textbook:  pg. 905 to mid-pg. 912.    [8th ed. --> pp. 1065 - mid-pg. 1074]
• PowerPoint:  "World War II."

Questions:

1. What was the blitzkrieg form of attack?  Why was it so successful?
2. Why could World War II have ended quickly on the beaches of Dunkirk?
3. Why did France fall to the Germans so quickly?  How did the Germans divide and govern France?
4. What military mistake did Hitler make in regard to England?
5. Why did the Germans invade the Soviet Union, even though they had a non-aggression pact with Stalin?
6. How did Stalin's appeal to Russian patriotism contradict traditional Marxist views?
7. Why did the United States enter World War II at the end of 1941?  Why could it be said that the United States was really a combatant nation early in 1941?
8. Why was the Battle for Stalingrad [Volgograd] a turning point in the war on the Eastern front?
9. How did the Allied forces regain control of the Mediterranean in 1942?
10. Why were the Battles for the Coral Sea and Midway Island crucial to the Allied victory over Japan in the Pacific theater of operations?

Sources:

• textbook:  mid-pg. 912 to top of pg. 918.    [8th ed. --> mid-pg. 1074 - top of pg. 1081]

Questions:

1. What were some of the problems/inconveniences that the British and Americans on the home front had to cope with during the war?
2. What were the similarities in how the Allied governments coped with the war at home during World War I and World War II?
3. How was German slave labor, particularly in Eastern Europe and the occupied areas of the Soviet Union, a justification of Nazi racial theories?
4. How was the Nazi concentration system the ultimate nightmare of Western industrialization?
5. What were some of the methods used by the conquered peoples of Europe to "resist" Nazi occupation?  Identify some of the examples of Nazi retribution for this resistance.
6. What were some of the differing historical opinions as to why the Germans succumbed to genocidal practices during World War II [see doc. on pp. 916-917]?

Sources:

• textbook:  pg. 918 to mid-pg. 927.    [8th ed. --> top of pg. 1081 - top of pg. 1092]
• chart:  "World War II Conferences."

Questions:

1. What war strategies were decided at the Casablanca and Teheran Conferences?
2. What happened to Mussolini once Italy surrendered to the Allies?
3. Why was the Normandy invasion so crucial to the final Allied victory in Europe?
4. How did the Allies almost lose the war at the end of 1944?
5. What were the decisions made by the Big Three at the Yalta Conference?  Why were they so controversial?
6. What were Stalin's long-term plans for the countries they already occupied?
7. Why did it take four more months to defeat Japan after Germany surrendered in early May of 1945?
8. What were the immediate results of World War II?   the demographic losses and shifts of population?
9. What were the terms of peace arrived at at Potsdam in mid-1945?
10. Why were the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials necessary?  What basic international legal principle of conduct was established there?
11. How was the new United Nations organized?  Who had the most power in this new international organization?  Why?
12. Why were the I. M. F. and the World Bank established at the Bretton Woods Conference?

Quizzes:

1. Textbook Quiz --> chapter 29
2. Other Quizzes:  A   B 

Outlines / Lecture Notes:

1. "1914-1945" (Mr. Mercado)
2. "World War II" (Paul Halsall, Fordham University)
3. lecture outline --> "World War II" (Prof. David McGee, Central Virginia Community College)

Review Sheets:

1. Giant EHAP Review Sheet by a student from the class of '04, Horace Greeley HS

Ten Commandments of Good Historical Writing

College Board A. P. European History Course Description (.pdf file)