Please answer four of the following questions. Please use no less than five nor more than seven pages of computer generated, double spaced, and reasonably margined material per answer. Also, every question must refer back to the pertinent class readings. Finally, you may not answer both 1 and 2.

1. You created for this class an autobiographical attempt of a seventeenth- or eighteenth-century figure. It was a unique attempt, to say the least; and for the most part highly successful. Please retell in this essay your efforts to recreate this autobiographical statement: elaborate on the reasons you chose the particular person, the particular approach, the difficulties you encountered, the textual representation you created and, in reviewing your opus, your perception of your greatest success and downfall.

2. You have all experienced that writing autobiography and biography is no easy task. Every sort of major and minor historian has attempted this venue over the years and taken stands on peculiar approaches. Tell me about the general purposes for writing autobiography, some considerations for including and leaving out matieral, and your evaluation of this vehicle as a tool for the historian.

3. I would be particularly intreagued for you to elaborate on the parallel findings of your and one other persons research and subsequent discussions of them in class.

4. The concept of enlightened absolutism has undergone considerable reevaluation, particularly over the the last twenty or so years. First highlight the major limitations faced by late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century monarchs and then endeavor to discern why modern historians have once more been intrigued by these limitations.

5. While many biographies and autobiographies deal with ordinary life, many autobiographers in particular highlight a public life. I would like for you to deal with several common place issues in the eighteenth century that might have intreagued other contemporary readers; it may be useful to restrict yourself in the discussion to the elite. I am thinking of aspects of childrearing, family life, travel, the sorts of education available, and the emergence of the concept of privacy.

6. Please pick two of the autobiographical works we read for this class and discuss the role of select women and artists in eighteeenth-century society. As we said in the discussion that created the underlying context of this examination, I am particularly interested in discovering from you how you see in these works, and those of other historians, women’s ability to change their role assignment, their relationships with men and their social placement.

7. Because of several class reports and Bougainville, we have talked several times about warfare. Please compare the warfare carried on in Europe (Islands included) with that carried on in North America; no need to restrict yourself to the Seven Years War. I am particularly interested in seeing elaborations on everything from actual combat to positioning for combat.