Chapter 28 Focus Questions
1.) Explain how progressive reformers worked to reform existing social and political institutions at the local, state, and national level by creating new organizations aimed at addressing social problems associated with an industrial society.
2.) Explain how progressive reformers responded to economic instability by calling for government intervention in the economy and promoted federal legislation to regulate abuses of the economy.
3.) Explain how progressives supported government agencies and conservation organizations to contend with corporate interests that desired to exploit the environment.
4.) Read the opening quote of the chapter and provide examples of the "crookedness" Roosevelt referred to when he promised a square deal for U.S. citizens.
5.) Explain how socialists, populists, progressives, muckrakers, and members of the social gospel movement combined to insist on change.
6.) Create a chart with the headings Socialism and Capitalism and list the beliefs and practices of each system. Read "Thinking Globally" and answer the question.
7.) Read the essay about progressives at www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp-textbook.cfrn.
8.) Make a list of present day situations that progressives would say are ripe for reform.
9.) Read "Examining the Evidence" about Muller vs Oregon and answer the questions in the third column.
10.) Create a chart helping to prove that Roosevelt was a trustbuster. Put specific abuses by big business in one column and a list of legislation passed in the Roosevelt administration to correct the abuses in the other column.
11.) Explain how and why debates over the use of natural resources and the environment generally have changed since the 1880s.
12.) Read "Makers of America, The Environmentalists and create your own argument advocating use, conservation or preservation.
13.) "Conservation and reclamation were Theodore Roosevelt's most lasting achievement. " Support, refute, or modify this statement.
14.) Compare the beliefs and strategies of Populists, Progressives, Organized Labor, and Socialists in their movements to advocate changes to the U.S. economic system. Which group was most effective?
15.) Explain how and why Big Business and Roosevelt clashed in the "Roosevelt Panic" of 1907.
16.) Compare and contrast the presidential administrations of Taft and Roosevelt in regards to diplomacy and progressive reforms. Who is more progressive? Who protected U.S. interests better? Who was more imperialistic?
17.) Create a chart with the headings Republican, Democrat, and Bull Moose and list the goals, beliefs, and platforms of each party.
18.) Read Varying Viewpoints and assess which historian's view is correct regarding progressive reformers.
Chapter 29 Focus Questions
Chapter 30 Focus Questions
Chapter 31 Focus Questions
Chapter 32 Focus Questions
Chapter 33 Focus Questions
11. Watch a Triumph of the Will on youtube and define propaganda and analyze Nazi propaganda techniques.
12. Compare the attempts to appease abolitionists and slaveowners in the compromises of 1820 and 1850 with the attempts to appease Hitler in the 1930s. Why did the attempts ultimately fail?
13. Was the Neutrality Act of 1939 neutral? Explain.
14. In what way is the swift fall of France to the German blitzkrieg a turning point in U.S. foreign policy?
15. Read Contending Voices on pg 777 and explain the factors that would explain the intense divisions in American opinion about intervening in WWII.
16. Read Examining the Evidence Public Opinion Polling in the 1930s and answer the following questions:
18. Discuss FDR running for a third term. Why did he run again? Is it possible for a president to have too much power? Any other presidents have as much power as FDR? Who? When? Justify. Has it ever happened in U.S. history that the legislative or judicial branches dominated for a time? Which? When ? Justify.
19. Why did FDR win the election of 1940 and defy the two term tradition?
20. Why did FDR feel that Lend Lease was a necessity? Why was it opposed? Rank the top three reasons as of late 1940 for both isolationism and interventionism.
21. Explain the cartoon on page 784.
22. What event or series of events was the turning point that shifted U.S. foreign policy from isolationism to interventionism in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
23. Why was the United States surprised by the attack on Pearl Harbor? Why did the Japanese attack?
Chapter 34 Focus Questions
22. Identify the Potsdam conference. Who are the Big Three Now? What were their points of agreement? How might Truman have changed his negotiating strategy as he learned about the success of the atomic bomb test?
23. Identify the Manhattan Project. Put the quote from Oppenheimer on page 811 in context.
24. Read Thinking Globally on pages 812-13 and create a three column chart. In the first column put the problems , in the second column FDR’s Solution and in the third column Hitler’s solution to the problems. Why did FDR and the U.S. succeed and why did Hitler and Germany fail?
25. One of the slogans in George Orwell’s book 1984 about three world superpowers in perpetual war is “War is Peace.” How applicable is this in U.S. history since 1941?
26. After reading Varying Viewpoints: The Atomic Bombs: Were they justified, create a chart with each of the historians on the left and their point of view on the right.
1.) Explain how progressive reformers worked to reform existing social and political institutions at the local, state, and national level by creating new organizations aimed at addressing social problems associated with an industrial society.
2.) Explain how progressive reformers responded to economic instability by calling for government intervention in the economy and promoted federal legislation to regulate abuses of the economy.
3.) Explain how progressives supported government agencies and conservation organizations to contend with corporate interests that desired to exploit the environment.
4.) Read the opening quote of the chapter and provide examples of the "crookedness" Roosevelt referred to when he promised a square deal for U.S. citizens.
5.) Explain how socialists, populists, progressives, muckrakers, and members of the social gospel movement combined to insist on change.
6.) Create a chart with the headings Socialism and Capitalism and list the beliefs and practices of each system. Read "Thinking Globally" and answer the question.
7.) Read the essay about progressives at www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp-textbook.cfrn.
8.) Make a list of present day situations that progressives would say are ripe for reform.
9.) Read "Examining the Evidence" about Muller vs Oregon and answer the questions in the third column.
10.) Create a chart helping to prove that Roosevelt was a trustbuster. Put specific abuses by big business in one column and a list of legislation passed in the Roosevelt administration to correct the abuses in the other column.
11.) Explain how and why debates over the use of natural resources and the environment generally have changed since the 1880s.
12.) Read "Makers of America, The Environmentalists and create your own argument advocating use, conservation or preservation.
13.) "Conservation and reclamation were Theodore Roosevelt's most lasting achievement. " Support, refute, or modify this statement.
14.) Compare the beliefs and strategies of Populists, Progressives, Organized Labor, and Socialists in their movements to advocate changes to the U.S. economic system. Which group was most effective?
15.) Explain how and why Big Business and Roosevelt clashed in the "Roosevelt Panic" of 1907.
16.) Compare and contrast the presidential administrations of Taft and Roosevelt in regards to diplomacy and progressive reforms. Who is more progressive? Who protected U.S. interests better? Who was more imperialistic?
17.) Create a chart with the headings Republican, Democrat, and Bull Moose and list the goals, beliefs, and platforms of each party.
18.) Read Varying Viewpoints and assess which historian's view is correct regarding progressive reformers.
Chapter 29 Focus Questions
- Is Woodrow Wilson a Realist or an Idealist? Read Varying Viewpoints at the end of the chapter and clarify how the views of the historians differ. What do you think?
- Looking at President Woodrow Wilson and Wilsonian Progressivism, think back to chapter 26 and 28 and compare and contrast the Populists and Progressive movements.
- How did WW I create a repressive atmosphere for civil liberties? What were the cases that resulted in official restrictions on free speech? What were the restrictions and how did the Supreme Court justify them?
- Explain and give reasons of and examples for the Great Migration.
- Discuss the extent to which WW I and its aftermath intensified debates about the nation’s role in the world and how best to achieve national security and pursue American interests.
- Explain how the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations generated substantial debate within the United States. What was the U.S. decision regarding the League and the Treaty? Why would the League and the Treaty be long term causes of World War II?
- Create a T chart comparing the Progressivism of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
- Explain and identify the following legislation that Wilson promoted to regulate abuses in the economy: the Underwood Tariff, the Federal Reserve Act, Federal Trade Commissions Act, Progressive Income Tax Amendment.
- Address the evolving desire to reform the excesses of capitalism through the growing organized labor movement, populist movement and progressive movement.
- Compare how the U.S. is involved in Latin America in the 21st Century with its involvement in the early 20th century.
- Compare U.S. involvement in Mexico 1911-1916 with U.S. involvement in a country in the 21st century. Are the same fundamental interests of the country involved?
- Trace the list of reasons and events, both long and short term, that led the United States away from neutrality and into WWI on the side of the allies.
- Create a list of innovations and new technologies that have impacted wars from the Civil War through WWI. What do you see coming by WWII?
- Should the U.S. have entered WWI? Why or why not? Create a T chart and a complex thesis to answer this question.
- Read Wilson’s 14 points and compare them to reasons/causes of WWI.
- Analyze the role of culture and the arts in 19th and 20th century movements for social change by analyzing the posters and cartoons in the powerpoints from the Gilded Age, Progressive Movement and WWI. Create a poster making a similar emotional appeal to support a modern day cause like conservation (climate change), or minority rights or gun rights or others.
- Compare the Espionage Act 1917, and Sedition Act of 1918 with the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Defend or refute the necessity of these measures.
- Taking a look at Eugene Debs actions in WWI, and recalling Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence and Thoreau’s civil disobedience, define and then create a T chart attacking and defending civil disobedience as a doctrine.
- Explain the effects of WWI on labor unions, home front efforts, African-Americans, and women’s suffrage. Pay particular attention to the Great Migration and rises social tensions (using examples), the steel strikes of 1919 and the suffragette movement.
- Assess the U.S. military role in ending WWI in November 1918.
- What were the advantages and disadvantages for each side in WWI? Why did the Allies win?
- Explain Woodrow Wilson’s errors as the war drew to a close that would profoundly influence the postwar world.
- Start a list of the long term causes of WWII.
- Explain why the U.S. is growing more isolationist following WWI and relate this to the constant debate over U.S. national identity and role in the world.
- Create a T chart with the pros and cons of joining the League of Nations.
Chapter 30 Focus Questions
- Account for continuities and changes in life and culture in America in the 1920s.
- What is the historical context for the “Red Scare” in the U.S. in the late 1910s and early 1920s? What factors and beliefs in the U.S. made this reaction almost inevitable.
- There are many cultural and political conflicts from the 1920s. Apply them to the historical periods, contexts and circumstances prior to 1900.
- Explain how the United States transition from a rural, agricultural society to an urban, industrial one offered new opportunities for women, internal migrants and immigrants.
- Explain how technological change, modernization, and changing demographics led to growing political and cultural conflict b/t blacks and whites.
- Explain the imbalance b/t acts of Congress establishing restrictive immigration quotas, with national policy allowing for unrestricted immigration from nations in the Western Hemisphere. Compare current attitudes and objections to immigrants from Central America with those of the 1920s.
- Evaluate the extent to which an urban, industrial society encouraged the development of a variety of cultural expressions for migrant, regional, and African-American artists. Address how this also contributed to a national culture.
- Labor strife and racial tensions, along with the Red Scare and growing xenophobia created disharmony after WWI. Support with evidence.
- Compare and contrast the debate over prohibition in the 1920s with the current debate over the legalization/decriminalization of marijuana. How did prohibition encourage organized crime?
- Construct a T chart comparing an eastern European immigrant experience with an Asian immigrant experience.
- Compare the Scopes trial and the conflicts it illuminated in American society with early 21st century conflicts in the U.S. today. Highlight the differences in both eras b/t Liberal, Conservative, and Fundamentalist viewpoints.
- Compare the explosion of advertising in the 1920s due to the explosion of print media and am radio with advertising and social media today.
- Explain the effects of the automobile industry on the U.S. How did improved transportation and urbanization lead to disharmony? What were the tradeoffs associated with the growth of the auto industry?
- Explain the effects of the internal combustion gasoline engine on U.S. society.
- Create a T chart comparing a Flapper with the modern ideal young woman.
- Identify Margaret Sanger and create a list of possible effects that increased use of birth control could have on women’s rights and the status of women in general. Why might some Americans oppose her?
- Catalogue the fads and popular culture of your own generation with 1920s pop culture and the birth of jazz.
- Create a chart with the accomplishments of Marcus Garvey. Now look back at U.S. History and add African-American people and accomplishments to the chart. Who might you add as we move forward in history?
- Identify Modernism and its roots. Give examples in the 1920s of the ideology of Modernism. Link Modernism and its ideas to the literature of the Lost Generation and the disharmony of the 1920s.
- Explain how and why modern cultural values and popular culture have grown since the 1920s and how they have affected American politics and society by choosing one venue of Modernism mentioned in Thinking Globally and research trends in that area.
- Create a chart comparing the Hudson River School to the art of the Modernists. Explain how the art reflects the attitudes and self-images of each era.
- Read the excerpt from Langston Hughes on page 716 and analyze the role the arts play in social and political change.
- List and Explain the short and long term effects of the tax changes implemented by Andrew Mellon in the 1920s.
Chapter 31 Focus Questions
- Explain the effects of the large corporations that came to dominate the economy and focus on mass production of consumer goods. Explain the social transformations that improved the standard of living while contributing to political and cultural conflicts and future economic problems.
- Analyze and source the Hoover quote from the very beginning of the chapter.
- Explain how the Republican Old Guard led by Harding largely started to dismantle the work of the Progressives. Give examples.
- What approach did the Old Guard take concerning foreign policy? Give examples.
- Compare the scandals of the Grant and Harding administrations using a T chart.
- Explain how an agricultural surplus started to happen by the mid 1920s and how this was a long term cause of the Great Depression. Did Coolidge do anything to help farmers in the U.S.?
- Explain how and why U.S. foreign policy in the 1920s would contribute to both the Great Depression and WWII.
- What did Hoover do as the economy worsened in the late 1920s? Give examples.
- Create a list of the long and short term causes of the Stock Market Crash of 1929. Rank them according to importance. Be prepared to defend your rankings.
- Create a T chart with reasons why Hoover should not have done more to alleviate the coming Great Depression on one side and reasons for why he did what he did on the other. Evaluate Hoover’s measures.
- Discuss the early events of the 1930s that allowed the Japanese to be increasingly aggressive in China. What was the U.S. reaction?
- List the short and long term reasons for the Great Depression and rank them according to importance.
Chapter 32 Focus Questions
- Create a T chart and identify similarities and differences between the beliefs and strategies of the Progressives and New Deal liberals.
- Read Varying Viewpoints at the end of the chapter and be able to answer the question, “How radical was the New Deal” by the end of our time with this unit.
- Evaluate the extent to which Roosevelt’s New Deal initiatives relating to relief, recovery and reform got in one another’s way.
- Give examples of relief, recovery and reform in FDR’s New Deal and create a list of long-term effects and legacies of the New Deal.
- 1932 was a critical election that led to the creation of the New Deal coalition. Who made up this new political coalition and how was the coalition maintained?
- What were the political, social and economic impacts of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt on the United States?
- Create a T chart comparing Socialism with Capitalism.
- African-Americans changed from voting Republican to voting for FDR and joining the New Deal coalition. Why?
- Breakdown table 32.1 and write an explanation of what purpose each act served under relief, recovery, and reform.
- Compare the New Deal to the Square Deal and New Nationalism of the Progressive Movement.
- Credit market instability led to what measures? Were they effective?
- Repeat the exercise in question 9 for table 32.2.
- Who opposed FDR’s New Deal? Was the opposition from the left? The right? Both?
- Discuss how the great social and economic changes ushered in by the New Deal gave women the chance to play an expanding role in events.
- Was the National Recovery Administration unconstitutional? Why?
- Explain how and why the role of the federal government in regulating economic life and the environment has changed since the end of the 19th century.
- How did the TVA fit FDR’s goals of relief, recovery and reform?
- Evaluate the extent to which the New Deal was designed to protect society and citizens. Would FDR agree with the protections provided by gov’t today?
- Assess why organized labor was able to grow stronger and more assertive in the New Deal era even though the country was in depression and unemployment was high.
- How did conservatives in Congress and on the Supreme Court attempt to rein in the New Deal?
- Read Contending Voices and evaluate which side you agree with more and defend it-Roosevelt or Hoover. Think of both the short and long term effects.
- Why did FDR’s court packing plan encounter opposition from Democrats and Republicans?
- Look at figure 32.4. Why did Germany recover from the Great Depression faster?
- Create at T chart assessing Roosevelt’s New Deal. Pros and Cons
Chapter 33 Focus Questions
- How many nation shaking turning points can you identify in this chapter that turned the United States from a policy of isolationism to a policy of intervention? Rank them and justify your ranking.
- The United States abandoned any pretense of neutrality long before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Support, refute, or modify this statement.
- Explain why the involvement of the United States in World War II was opposed by most Americans prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
- Create a T chart comparing the views of interventionists and isolationists in the 1930s.
- Explain with material in this chapter and the next how involvement of the United States in WWII vaulted the United States into global and military prominence and transformed the relationship b/t the United States and the rest of the world.
- In the 1930s, what caused FDR to shift from the internationalism of Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson back to the isolationism associated with the Monroe Doctrine and the focus on the western hemisphere?
- Create a T chart that indicates the factors that influenced U.S. military, diplomatic, and economic involvement in WWI in comparison to WWII. Include both similarities and differences and the aggressors in each case.
- Explain how the Treaty of Versailles is a long term cause of both the rise of dictators and WWII.
- Using the cartoon on pg 773 answer the following short answer question.
- Briefly explain the point of view of the cartoonist concerning U.S. isolationism.
- Briefly explain how one development from 1932-41 not directly mentioned in the cartoon supports the cartoonist’s point of view.
- Briefly explain how one development from 1932-41 not directly mentioned in the TRG excerpts challenges the cartoonist’s point of view.
11. Watch a Triumph of the Will on youtube and define propaganda and analyze Nazi propaganda techniques.
12. Compare the attempts to appease abolitionists and slaveowners in the compromises of 1820 and 1850 with the attempts to appease Hitler in the 1930s. Why did the attempts ultimately fail?
13. Was the Neutrality Act of 1939 neutral? Explain.
14. In what way is the swift fall of France to the German blitzkrieg a turning point in U.S. foreign policy?
15. Read Contending Voices on pg 777 and explain the factors that would explain the intense divisions in American opinion about intervening in WWII.
16. Read Examining the Evidence Public Opinion Polling in the 1930s and answer the following questions:
- Why did a majority of Americans not want to fight against Germany in 1939 but were more willing to fight in 1941 when the situation in Europe was far worse?
- Why were the southern states more in favor of action against Germany in 1939 than the east central states?
- What do the poll results suggest about how FDR was handling the issue of isolationism vs. interventionism.
18. Discuss FDR running for a third term. Why did he run again? Is it possible for a president to have too much power? Any other presidents have as much power as FDR? Who? When? Justify. Has it ever happened in U.S. history that the legislative or judicial branches dominated for a time? Which? When ? Justify.
19. Why did FDR win the election of 1940 and defy the two term tradition?
20. Why did FDR feel that Lend Lease was a necessity? Why was it opposed? Rank the top three reasons as of late 1940 for both isolationism and interventionism.
21. Explain the cartoon on page 784.
22. What event or series of events was the turning point that shifted U.S. foreign policy from isolationism to interventionism in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
23. Why was the United States surprised by the attack on Pearl Harbor? Why did the Japanese attack?
Chapter 34 Focus Questions
- As you read this chapter, how many long and short term causes of the Allied victory in WWII can you detect? What do you think was the primary cause of the Allied victory? Defend your choice.
- What is the historical context for Japanese internment? Read Makers of America-The Japanese on pages 792-3 to help.
- Read Varying Viewpoints: The Atomic Bombs: Were they Justified? Create a list of reasons for dropping the bombs and rank and justify your ranking.
- Explain how economic dislocations, social pressures, and the economic growth spurred by World War II led to a greater degree of migration within the United States, as well as migration to the United States from elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere.
- Explain how the mass mobilization of American society to supply troops for the war effort and a work force for the home front ended the Great Depression and provided opportunities for women and minorities to improve their socioeconomic positions.
- Explain how wartime experiences, such as the internment of Japanese Americans, challenges to civil liberties, debates over race and segregation, and the decision to drop the atomic bomb, raised questions about American values.
- Identify the Atlantic Charter and the Hitler First Strategy. Why Hitler first?
- Identify executive order 9066. Was it a breach of the Constitution? Explain.
- Identify Korematsu vs. the U.S. (1944) and try to link the case and Japanese internment to the current ongoing debate regarding extreme vetting and fear of terrorists.
- Explain how the U.S. involvement in WWII set the stage for domestic social changes. Give examples.
- Create a T chart with steps the federal gov’t took to create a war machine on one side and assess the extent to which each step was successful on the other side.
- Why is it patriotic for women to first get jobs on the homefront and then give up after VE and VJ day?
- Using Map 34.1 what reasons would massive numbers of people have for relocating to a different part of the country during the period 1940-50. Create a three columned chart, north, south and west to do this.
- Explain the significance of the Double V and give examples of racism in civilian and military life during WWII.
- How did World War II end the Great Depression and increase the role of the federal government in the lives of American citizens?
- Look at table 34.1 and consider the following: Alexander Hamilton would be pleased at the increase in the national debt. How about the debt in the 21st century?
- Which of the four strategies proposed in the map inset on pg 801 is the best strategy for defeating Japan? Why?
- Explain the key turning point events in1941 and 1942 that turned the tide in favor of the Allies.
- Create a T chart giving reasons why FDR should and should not have run for a fourth term. Why did he win?
- Read Examining the Evidence: Franklin Roosevelt at Tehran, 1943 and answer the following questions:
- What were the principal objectives that each leader pursued?
- In what ways was the future of the war and postwar world foreshadowed?
22. Identify the Potsdam conference. Who are the Big Three Now? What were their points of agreement? How might Truman have changed his negotiating strategy as he learned about the success of the atomic bomb test?
23. Identify the Manhattan Project. Put the quote from Oppenheimer on page 811 in context.
24. Read Thinking Globally on pages 812-13 and create a three column chart. In the first column put the problems , in the second column FDR’s Solution and in the third column Hitler’s solution to the problems. Why did FDR and the U.S. succeed and why did Hitler and Germany fail?
25. One of the slogans in George Orwell’s book 1984 about three world superpowers in perpetual war is “War is Peace.” How applicable is this in U.S. history since 1941?
26. After reading Varying Viewpoints: The Atomic Bombs: Were they justified, create a chart with each of the historians on the left and their point of view on the right.