AP EUROPEAN CHAPTER 24 STUDY GUIDE

“The Birth of Modern European Thought”

Section 1 – The New Reading Public

  1. Identify the reasons that most European governments promoted primary education in the latter half of the 19th century.
  2. What impact did increased literacy have on the publication of reading material?

Section 2 – Science at Midcentury

  1. Explain the stages of human thought development as put forth in Auguste Comte’s philosophy of positivism.
  2. Discuss the basic tenets of Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. How did this theory come into conflict with biblical teaching?
  3. Explain the concept of Social Darwinism. Who was its greatest advocate? What were its implications for society?

Section 3 – Christianity and the Church Under Siege

  1. Discuss the historical, scientific, and moral attacks that would lay siege to Christianity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
  2. Examine the conflict between church and state in England and France as it relates to the issue of education.
  3. Explain the motivation of Bismarck’s Kulturkampf. How was it carried out by the “May Laws”? Did it succeed?
  4. Discuss the religious revival of the late 19th century as it relates to the actions of the various Roman Catholic popes.
  5. Describe the attitudes of European authors and Christian missionaries toward the Arabic world. What impact would these attitudes have on Muslims?

Section 4 – Toward a 20th Century Frame of Mind

  1. Identify the scientific contributions of Roentgen, Rutherford, Planck, Einstein, and the Curries.
  2. Discuss the characteristics of the literary movement known as Realism. Who was its greatest author? What subject matter did he explore?
  3. What were the major concerns of the literary movement known as modernism?
  4. Discuss the characteristics of the artistic movements Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Cubism.
  5. Explain the ideas put forth by Friedrich Nietzsche in the poemThus Spake Zarathustra.
  6. Describe the struggle and conflict that exists within the human mind according to Sigmund Freud.
  7. How did Max Weber come into conflict with Karl Marx in his essay The Protestant Ethic?
  8. Discuss the ways that the ideas of Gobineau and Chamberlain contributed to racism and extreme nationalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
  9. Explain the motivation for Theodor Herzl’s concept of Zionism. What would its purpose be?

Section 5 – Women and Modern Thought

  1. What impact did the scientific discoveries of the 19th century have on the perceived role of women in society?
  2. How did the Contagious Diseases Act reflect a double standard in English society?