STUDY GUIDE

HIST 1302: Instructor Kristine Boeke

 

UNIT 2 STUDY GUIDE

Study Sheet for Exam 2: Chapters 21, 22, 23, 24

 

1. List the beliefs and circumstances that fostered a desire for US expansion in the late 1800s, and arguments made against expansion.

2. Name the territories that the US acquired as part of its imperial expansion in the 1890s, as well as very brief descriptions of the process of acquisition of those territories. 

3. Discuss the cause, course and outcome of the Spanish-American War.  Was the US justified in declaring war?

4. Discuss the experiences of African American soldiers during the Spanish-American War.

5. Explain the origin and purpose of the Open Door policy in China.

6. Describe American foreign policy regarding Latin America in the late 1800s.

7. Define the beliefs and assumptions associated with progressivism.

8. Relate the role of “muckraking” to the broader movement of progressivism.

9. Describe the settlement house movement and the views of Jane Addams.

10. Describe the democratic forms of government that progressives instituted to bring more power to the common people, such as the initiative, referendum, direct primary, and recall.

11. Describe the goals of the prohibition movement, the birth control movement, and the women’s suffrage movement.  Show what they had in common and how they differed in their arguments, tactics, and successes/failures.

12. Contrast the goals and tactics of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois.

13. Roosevelt is considered the first progressive president.  Describe the various progressive issues that were important to him (such as his position toward trusts/monopolies).

14. Analyze Roosevelt’s general position toward labor (workers) and management (business owners).  How did he differ from earlier presidents?  What did he call his position?

15. In the 1912 election, Republican Teddy Roosevelt explained his philosophy of government in his “New Nationalism” plan, while Democrat Woodrow Wilson did the same in his “New Freedom” plan.  Explain their philosophies about how government should be run, and then how the government actually ended up. 

16. Describe the Clayton Anti-Trust Act and who benefited from it the most.

 

17. Describe what happened at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, the reasons for it, and what changes resulted from it.

18. Describe the characteristics and members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

19. Discuss how most Americans initially reacted to the outbreak of war in Europe (i.e., World War I). What about progressives? Organized labor? President Wilson? 

20. Discuss the ways that Germany threatened American national security.

21. Describe Wilson’s neutrality position regarding the war.  What did it enable?  What was its grander purpose?

22. Discuss at least three reasons that the United States entered World War I.

23. Describe and critique the US government’s propaganda campaign during World

War I, including the Committee on Public Information.

24. Name the responsibilities of the War Industries Board, and the ways it changed how the economy was run. 

25. Describe how and why the US government curbed civil liberties during World War I.

26. Describe Woodrow Wilson’s goals at the Paris Peace Conference, and why Congress opposed them.

27. Describe the major points of the Treaty of Versailles.

28. Name some effects of World War I upon American society.

 

 


UNIT 3 STUDY GUIDE

Study Sheet for Exam 2: Chapters 25, 26, 27, 28

 

1. Describe the economy in the 1920s; its strengths and weaknesses.

2. Describe the culture of both the black and white literary communities during the 1920s.

3. Describe the characteristics of the changing categories of dating, marriage, woman, family and sexuality that emerged in the 1920s.

4. Describe the rural reaction to the modern, urban conditions of the 1920s; include specific instances or examples.

5. Compare the approaches of Hoover and FDR to dealing with the Depression.

6. Define the goals of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, the Works Progress Administration, and the Social Security Act.

7. Compare and contrast the First New Deal with the Second New Deal.

8. Describe the criticisms and programs proposed by Roosevelt’s major critics during the Great Depression and their effects on his policies.

9. Describe the National Labor Relations Act; and in what way it served as a major turning point.

10. Contrast the Committee for Industrial Organization with the American Federation of Labor.

11. Describe Roosevelt’s New Deal Coalition, and its long-term importance.

12. Discuss the influence of the New Deal on women and minorities.

13. Discuss some of the long-lasting effects of the New Deal; what brought the Great Depression to an end.

14. Define the Good Neighbor Policy with regard to Latin America.

15. Describe the deep-rooted foreign-policy stance of isolationism in the 1930s, and the effect this policy had on the Second World War.

16. Describe the significance of the Kellogg-Briand Pact.

17. Discuss when and how World War II began in Europe.

18. Discuss the significance of the Neutrality Act, and its relation to World War II.

19. Describe the “policy of appeasement” in relation to Hitler, and its significance to World War II.

20. Discuss FDR’s response when World War II broke out in Europe.

21. Describe the Lend-Lease program; and its underlying purpose for Americans.

22. Describe the particulars of what happened in US-Japanese relations that led up to the Pearl Harbor incident.

23. Discuss the arguments used both for and against dropping the atomic bomb(s) on Japan during World War II.

24. Discuss how the outbreak of war influenced American perceptions and treatment of non-white racial groups, including Japanese Americans, Mexican Americans, African Americans, and European Jews

25. Compare the role of women during the Great Depression and World War II.

26. Discuss the incident that caused the US to join World War II, and its impact on Americans.

27. Describe the origins of the Cold War, including the actions by both the Soviets and the Allies

28. Describe American assumptions about Communism that contributed to the “icy” relationship between the two superpowers.

29. Identify the goals of the US and the Soviet Union immediately after World War II.

30. Describe the containment policy, its purpose and consequences, and possible alternative policies.

31. Describe the Marshall Plan; its purpose; effects; and eventual influences on the three major superpowers (Europe, US, Soviet Union).

32. Define the purpose of NATO and its effects on US-Soviet relations


33. Define the Geneva Convention and the role it is supposed to play in warfare.  In what ways was the Geneva Convention violated by all the countries at war during World War II?

 

NOTE:  Two of the questions below will be chosen for the exam.  You will answer one.

 

Question 6: The Twenties: Describe the “culture wars” in the 1920s (or the rural vs urban conflicts).  Provide examples of these clashes during this decade.

 

Question 7: The New Deal: Compare and contrast how Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt attempted to deal with the financial woes of the early 1930s during the Great Depression.  How did each attempt to solve the problems?  NO LEGISLATION OR LAWS; just a summary of the difference in their philosophies.

 

Question 8: Origins of World War II: Discuss the goals of Japan during the 1930s.   What series of actions did they take in pursuit of those goals that led to a spiraling conflict with the US, culminating in the beginning of World War II?

                                                                    

Question 9: Race and World War II: Race played a significant role during this war.  Describe how—in at least three different examples.

 

Question 10: The Cold War:  What factors, decisions, emotions, actions, and beliefs of Stalin and Truman contributed to the beginning of the Cold War? Consider the question from the point of view of BOTH the US and the Soviet Union .


UNIT 4 STUDY GUIDE
Study Sheet for Exam 2: Chapters 29, 30, 31, 32

 

1. Describe the culture of “conformity” in the 1950s and its critics.

2. Describe economic conditions in the 1950s.

3. Describe the goals and values of the Beats in the 1950s.

4. Describe McCarthyism, its targets, and its long-term effects.

5. Identify Betty Friedan’s arguments in her famous book The Feminine Mystique.  What did she say women were unhappy about?  Why is she considered an important historical figure?

6. Describe the origins of rock and roll, and its role among young people.

7. Describe the Bay of Pigs invasion and how it reflected Kennedy’s foreign policy in relation to the cold war.

8. Describe the origins, causes, events, and results of the Cuban missile crisis.

9. Describe life in the segregated south for both whites and African Americans.  Be able to include specific examples.

10. Describe the background and philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the tactics he supported.

11. Describe the role of both black and white college students in the civil rights movement, such as strategies, tactics and events. in

12. Describe the changes brought about by the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

13. Describe President Johnson’s Great Society program.

14. Describe US involvement in Vietnam: initial circumstances, events leading to war, relation to Cold War theory, and outcome.

15. Describe Johnson’s communication strategy during the Vietnam War.

16. Identify the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and its importance.

17. Describe the Tet Offensive and how it changed the course of the war.

18. Describe the characteristics of the average American soldier in Vietnam.

19. Describe the major turning points in the war.

20. Describe the underlying principles of participatory democracy, individualism and identity that shaped the beliefs of the following groups in the 1960s: the Students for a Democratic Society/the New Left, women’s liberation, gay liberation, black power, and Chicano movements in the late 60s.  In what ways were they responding to the conformity of the 1950s?

21. Briefly describe the events leading up to the Watergate scandal, the scandal itself, its outcome, and its consequences. 

22. Describe Nixon’s foreign policy approach to the cold war and to communist countries.  How did he differ from his predecessors? 

23. Describe one of President Carter’s greatest successes in office: the Camp David Accords.

24. Describe one of Carter’s biggest failures: the hostage situation in Iran in the early 1980s. 

25. Discuss how politicians responded to the oil crisis of the 1970s.

26. Discuss the conditions surrounding the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

27. Discuss the participants, their goals, the actions, and the crimes committed in the Iran-Contra affair.

28. Define the tenets of Reaganomics and its strengths and weaknesses.

29. Describe the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and the initial response of the government and the American public. 

30. Describe the emergence of the Christian political coalition in the 1980s, and the rise of conservatism in general.

31. Describe Reagan’s foreign policy.

32. Describe the relationship between the US and the Soviet Union from the beginning of Reagan’s administration to its end.  Describe the major defining issues, and how things changed over time.

33. Describe the end of the Cold War.

 

NOTE:  Two of the questions below will be chosen for the exam.  You will answer one.

 

Question 11: The Culture of Conformity: Many scholars describe the 1950s as an “age of conformity.” How did each sociologist, William Whyte, David Riesman, and C. Wright Mills, explain what was disturbingly flawed about life in the 1950s? What about Betty Friedan? Were their concerns justified? Why or why not? 

 

Question 12: The Civil Rights Movement: The civil rights movement was successful because everyday local people took action, and sometimes risked their lives in the face of extreme violence. At the national level, the different presidents’ involvement in support of the movement was mixed. Trace the response of Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson to the civil rights movement. Who was the most/least helpful, and why? Provide examples. 

 

Question 13: Identity Politics: The youth protest groups of the 1960s have acquired stereotypical images, especially among those not actually. Convey the goals and principles of Students for a Democratic Society. How are these different from what you expected? Choose two other groups and examine their principles as well: college students, antiwar activists, (please do not do black power advocates—the book’s research on them is wrong), Chicanos, Native Americans, gays and lesbians, “hippies” (counterculture), and women’s liberationists. 

 

Question 14: The Seventies: Describe the Watergate scandal. What were the numerous moral and legal wrongdoings that Richard Nixon did during the Watergate scandal. What were the charges he was eventually found guilty of? 

 

Question 15: The Eighties: Discuss the different components of President Ronald Reagan’s economic policy, and its effects on the economy, the poor, the middle class, and the wealthy.