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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Lincoln do when he returned to Illinois?

2. Describe the relationship between Lincoln's wife and his business partner.

3. Why was Lincoln called the 'Lone Star'?

4. Why did Lincoln decline to serve in the seat he was elected to in 1852?

5. How did Lincoln complete his journey from Springfield to Washington, DC?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was Lincoln's relationship with his stepmother like?

2. What was Lincoln's early relationship with his father like?

3. What was Lincoln's relationship with the image his supporters presented of him?

4. What was the state of the Whig party in Illinois and elsewhere, during Lincoln's tenure?

5. What part did Lincoln's private life play in the years after he returned to Springfield?

6. Describe the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

7. What issue was returned Lincoln to politics?

8. How were senators chosen in the 1850s?

9. What was the outcome of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858?

10. Describe Abraham Lincoln's period of aimlessness in Illinois.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How did Lincoln withhold or divulge information over time, and how did his thinking about what to divulge and when to divulge it change? What did he learn about managing information? What did he have to suffer in order to learn this lesson?

Essay Topic 2

Who were the power brokers behind Lincoln's Presidential nomination and his ultimate election? What coalitions and influences worked together to elect him? What were Lincoln's bases of support, and what did he and his advisers do to expand that base? Was Lincoln his own force in politics, or was he the face of a system that backed him.

Essay Topic 3

How would you characterize Donald's biography of Lincoln? What are Donald's methods of writing the biography of Lincoln, and what are the benefits and risks of that method? How well does Donald succeed in his undertaking? Is the reader left wanting more or deeper treatment of a topic? If so, what topic?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 841 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample