The major economic and political trends among the nations of Western Europe
Domestic developments within the United States from 1970 to the present
Domestic developments within the Soviet Union from 1945 to the present
The course and results of Soviet-American relations from 1970 to the present
The causes of the changes in international relations since 1970
The major global problems confronting the world in the first decade of the twenty-first century
The major intellectual and cultural movements and their leaders since 1970
The discoveries and inventions in science and technology and their impact on Western culture from 1970 to the present
The general characteristics of Post-Modernism and its most important features
The Post-Modern novel and novelists
The trends and changes in the Post-Modern theater
The characteristics, innovations, and themes of Post-Modern painting, examples of these changes, and the leading artists
The major developments, trends, and sculptors of Post-Modernism
Post-Modern architecture and architects
The Post-Modernist painters, sculptors, installation artists, video artists, and architects and representative works
The key developments, important innovations, and leading composers in Post-Modern music
The rise and meaning of mass culture
The world in the first decade of the twenty-first century, reflecting its heritage from earlier civilizations: making militant nationalism once again a force for disruptive change around the world, specifically in the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia; moving away from an international scene dominated by the superpowers to one governed by a multipolar arrangement; the conflict of the United States with fundamentalist Islamic terrorism; continuing Classical influences in the Post-Modernist arts and architecture; updating nineteenth-century Expressionism and Realism as trends in Post-Modernism; reviving and drastically refurbishing Hellenistic attitudes in Post-Modernist literature and philosophy and in the multiethnic, multiracial, multicultural states that seem to be emerging, particularly in the United States and Great Britain; returning to the roots of Western civilization in Mesopotamia and Egypt in the works of Anselm Kiefer, perhaps the most influential artist working today; restoring harmonious sounds and simple techniques to the music of Post-Modernism; and making American mass culture the world's common denominator
