TASK DEFINITION: In this task you will be given a text passage from a trivia quiz. You should choose the category this question belongs to from these categories: History, Science, Social Science, Fine Arts, Literature. You can only choose one category, so if in doubt, please choose the closest match.
PROBLEM: One character in this novel receives news of her brother's death from her father while he uses a lathe. This novel's protagonist develops a friendship with Platon Karataev, a peasant he meets in a prisoner of war camp. Another character, Nikolai, is led to financial ruin after(*) losing 40,000 roubles to Dolokov. Andrei Bolkonski is wounded in battle following the end of his engagement to Natasha Rostova, who falls in love with the novel's protagonist. For 10 points, name this gargantuan Leo Tolstoy novel about Pierre Bezukhov set during the Napoleonic Wars.

SOLUTION: Literature

PROBLEM: One poem by this author claims that "there's nothing sentimental about the technique of writing," which can be mastered by "any young man with a mind bursting to get out." This author argued that "The United States without self- seeking has given more of material help to Europe and to the world than have all other nations of the world put together in the entire history of mankind" in the chapter "Jacataqua," from a book which contains short biographies of people like Eric the Red, Walter Raleigh, and Daniel Boone. Another book by him begins with the section "The Delineaments of the Giants," which mentions "blank faces of the houses and cylindrical trees" to reinforce that there are "no ideas but in things," and describes a place that  "lies in the valley under the Passaic Falls, its spent waters forming the outline of his back." For 10 points, name this author of In the American Grain and an epic about his New Jersey hometown, Paterson.

SOLUTION: Literature

PROBLEM: He stepped down as president of his country in 1985, but continued as head of the ruling party until 1990. His government emphasized a form of rural socialism known as ujamaa, and, in 1978, troops under his leadership entered Uganda, deposing Idi Amin. After his retirement he remained active in African politics, and was known throughout the continent as Mwalimu, Swahili for teacher. FTP, identify this first president of Tanzania, who died in October, 1999.

SOLUTION:
History