| Chardin | Gandhi | Toer | Ba |
| Japan | Industry | Genocide | Bao Ninh |
Chardin
1. What impelled Chardin to travel through Persia? What were his motives?
2. Did his work provide any useful information about the Persian society in the seventeenth century? For example, what?
3. What was Chardin's attitude toward the Persians?
4. How did Chardin compare Persian political practices with then current European kingship?
Gandhi
1. What impelled Gandhi to dedicate his life to taking up the cause of the under-privileged?
2. What were the main influences on his ideas of satyagraha and non-violence?
3. Did Gandhi consider himself a success?
4. How much was Gandhi influenced by Hindu ideas?
5. Did Gandhi's efforts inspire any other revolutionary thinkers of the later twentieth century?
Toer
1. As a historian, what kind of information about Indonesian society, at the turn of the twentieth century, can you discover in the book?
2. Was this novel an accurate description of the effects of Dutch colonization on the societies of Indonesia?
3. What was the political basis of Indonesian society?
4. What was the economic basis of Indonesian society?
5. Did the Dutch understand (and react to) Indonesian society and its customs? Explain.
Ba
1. As a historian, what kind of information about Mali society, in the early decades of the twentieth century, can you discover in the book?
2. Was this novel an accurate description of the effects of French colonization on Mali society?
3. What was the political basis of Mali society?
4. What was the economic basis of Mali society?
5. Did the French understand (and react to) Mali society and its customs? Explain.
6. How did the French alter Mali society?
Bao Ninh
1. Why did Bao Ninh write this novel?
2. How did the war affect the lives of the men who fought it? or, Does Bao Ninh offer a realistic picture of the war's impact upon the individual soldier?
3. Why was the book banned in Vietnam when first available in 1991?
4. Was Kien a communist?
5. Why did Kien have a hard time integrating himself back into civilian life? What did he find unnerving about civilian
life?
6. What role did respect and remembrance of the dead play in Vietnamese society?is a central part of family life in Vietnam
Japan
1. How was Christianity suppressed in Japan?
2. How did the 1635 and 1639 edicts differ?
3. What steps were taken to restrict foreign trade?
4. What elements of Japanese society did the exclusionary edicts most benefit?
Industry
1. Was Manchester in the 1840s a pleasant place to live?
2. What was the environmental impact of the early Industrial Revolution?
3. What were some of the living conditions for workers?
Genocide
1. How long had Japan and China been at war before the capture of Nanking?
2. Was there a Chinese resistance movement in the city during the Japanese occupation?
3. What role did foreigners play in Nanking during Japanese control of the city?
4. Were the Japanese ever held accountable for their actions in Nanking?