Chapter 23 Focus Questions
1.) How and why did Gilded Age Politics tie themselves to big business and focus on economic issues like tariffs, currency, corporate expansion, patronage and laissez-faire economic policy and engender numerous calls for reform?
2.) How and why did corruption in government energize the public to demand increased popular control and reform of local, state, and national governments?
3.) Assess how increasingly prominent racist and nativist theories, along with Supreme Court decisions, were used to justify violence, and segregation.
4.) Explain how U.S. interest in expanding trade led to economic, diplomatic and cultural initiatives westward to Asia.
5.) Assess the effectiveness of U. S. Grant as president compared to other famous generals that became president like George Washington, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor.
6.) Explain how and why U.S. Grant, who was never a Republican, and Horace Greeley, who was never a Democrat ran against each other in 1872.
7.) What were the causes of the financial panic of 1873? What were the effects? Did national government policy make it worse?
8.) Discuss the influence of patronage on Gilded Age politics and explain how it led to the Stalwart, Half Breed and Mugwump factions of the Republican party.
9.) Explain why Republicans would agree to the Compromise of 1877. What were the effects of the compromise?
10.) What was the bigger turning point in history, 1865 or 1877?
11.) What two groups arguably faced the greatest amount of racism in the Gilded Age. Support your position with examples.
12.) Who benefitted and who lost in the process of curbing patronage and reforming the civil service? Make sure to explain the Pendleton Civil Service Act in your answer and discuss its effects.
13.) List and analyze the reasons behind the mass movement of people into the cities and the American West from 1865-1898.
14.) Explain the role of Chinese immigrants in the shaping of the American West, including the building of the transcontinental railroad and the California gold rush. Compare their experience to one other prominent immigrant group already discussed.
15.) How did the election of 1884 reflect the larger political themes of the Gilded Age? Address the topics of partisan politics, corruption, and voting blocs of the American electorate.
16.) Explain how arguments about market capitalism, the growth of corporate power and government policies influenced economic policies in the Gilded Age.
17.) Assess the first term of the Grover Cleveland presidency.
18.) Explain how the tariff reform of 1888, the corruption of the election of 1888 and the policies of the billion dollar Congress served as catalysts for the Populist movement of the 1890s.
19.) Construct a T chart comparing the elections of 1884 and 1888. How were these elections emblematic of the Gilded Age?
20.) Explain the effect of the billion dollar Congress o farmers in the 1890s.
21.) Identify the Homestead Strike and link its importance to the Populists movement.
22.) How did the issue of race derail the Populist movement in the South in the late 19th century?
23.) How have historians interpreted the Populist movement over time?
Chapter 24 Focus Questions
1.) Discuss how cultural and intellectual arguments justified the success of those at the top of the socioeconomic structure in the Gilded Age.
2.) Explain how some argued that the wealthy had an obligation to help those less fortunate.
3.) Assess the relative importance of large scale production, massive technology changes, expanding international communication networks and pro-growth government policies on the fueling of industrial development in the Gilded Age.
4.) Explain how technological innovations and redesigned financial and management structures sought to maximize the exploitation of natural resources and a growing labor force.
5.) How did business leaders consolidate their corporations into trusts and holding companies and defend their status and privilege through intellectual theories?
6.) Who would start to challenge the dominant corporate ethic and even capitalism itself?
7.) Explain how the completion of the railroad network enabled significant internal migration and the growth of American cities. How did U.S. government policies promote the completion of the network? Which area did not benefit from these policies? Why?
8.) What was the role of immigrant labor in shaping the industrial growth of America during the Gilded Age? Was this role more important than technological innovation in spurring economic development?
9.) Why are cartoonists often using the octopus to portray monopolies and railroads of the Gilded Age?
10.) Identify the major methods of business organization in the Gilded Age including trusts, holding companies, interlocking directorates, vertical and horizontal integration. Which ones were the most effective? Why?
11.) Are John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie Captains of Industry or Robber Barons?
12.) Identify the theories of Laissez-Faire, Gospel of Wealth, and Social Darwinism and assess their relative influence in the Gilded Age.
13.) Explain how the growing rich-poor gap manifested itself in the Gilded Age.
14.) What was the New South? What were the impacts of J.B. Duke and Henry Grady on the development of the New South.
15.) What were some key changes that identify the movement of the United States from an agrarian economy to an industrial one during the Gilded Age.
Chap 25 Focus Questions
1.) Analyze the causes and effects of major internal migration patterns such as urbanization, suburbanization, westward movement and the great migration in the United States.
2.) Discuss the evolution of greater opportunities for and restrictions on immigrants in the Gilded Age.
3.) Discuss growing socioeconomic inequality in the United States and its impacts. What groups formed to help counteract this gap? Were they effective?
4.) Compare and contrast old and new immigration and its impacts on the United States and assess the degree to which changes in types of people coming and their own reactions to U.S. life fueled nativists sentiment.
5.) List and explain the reasons for the massive increase in immigration 1880-1930. How did changes in migration and population patterns affect American life and influence American identity?
6.) Explain how the new cultural and intellectual movements both buttressed and challenged the social order of the Gilded Age.
7.) Analyze the role of culture and the arts in the Gilded Age and assess their role in promoting social and political change.
8.) Compare immigrant experiences across time.
9.) Compare and contrast the viewpoints of W.E.B Dubois and Booker T. Washington. Whose strategy was more effective given the time period in which each lived?
10.) Explain the key aspects and characteristics that epitomized the explosion of print media during the Gilded Age.
11.) Analyze how changes in class identity and gender roles have related to economic, social, and cultural transformations since the late 19th century.
12.)Compare the landmark court cases of Shelby County v Holden, Fisher v University of Texas, Arizona v ITCA with other Supreme Ct. decisions of the 19th century.
13.) Denote turning points and events of significance in the suffragette movement 1870-1920.
14.) Describe and give examples of notable women challenging their prescribed place in society 1870-1920.
15.) Describe the evolution of American literature during the Gilded Age and how it is different from the antebellum era and give examples.
16.) Explain how and why modern cultural values and popular culture have grown since the early 20th century and how they have affected American politics and society.
Chapter 26 Focus Questions
1.) Explain how post Civil War migration west caused the federal government to break treaties with Native Americans to expand the amount of land available to settlers. What techniques did the national government use?
2.) Explain the factors/policies that led to the reduced number of Native Americans and threatened their culture and identity.
3.) How did farmers react/adapt to the new realities of mechanized agriculture and dependence on the railroad? Were they successful?
4.) What factors caused the rise of the Populist party? Was the party successful in their aims?
5.) Compare the Turner and Washakie quotes on the first page of the chapter. How might Washakie view the Turner quote?
6.) Compare the cause and effect of the destruction of the buffalo to a current conservation issue. Consider the effects on both the environment and humans.
7.) Discuss the role of racial prejudice in the treatment of Native Americans and African-Americans and the perceptions of rights for each group during the 1870-1930 time period.
8.) Discuss the role technology played in the bloody conflicts during the settlement of the trans-Mississippi west.
9.) Discuss the continued difficulties involved in assimilating Native Americans into white culture.
10.) Compare current issues and complaints of Native Americans today with the issues and complaints 1870-1920.
11.) What alternative paths might U.S.-Native-American relations have followed during the era of intensive westward migration?
12.) How have policies concerning the use of natural resources changed since the late 1890s?
13.) Compare the short and long term effects of the cattle drives.
14.) Describe the pioneer experience. What were some unique cultural developments that emerged?
15.) Compare the land under Native American control in 1870 with land under their control in 1900. What are the characteristics of the land Native Americans inhabit in 1900?
16.) List and explain the reasons why many Americans thought that the frontier was closed by 1900.
17.) Discuss how farmer's troubles intensified as 1900 drew closer.
18.) What is the farmer's point of view regarding what they do for society? How did they organize to defend their interests? Were they successful?19.) Discuss how labor and big business continued to clash.
20.) Compare the causes and effects of using gold vs. a bimetal standard.
21.) Evaluate the changing views over the role government should play in society, the economy, and protecting the environment.
22.) Compare Frederick Jackson Turner's view of the closing of the west with more modern historians.
Chapter 27 Focus Questions
1.)Explain how the American victory in the Spanish-American War renewed the debate over the nation's values and the U.S. role in the world.
2.) Explain the wide variety of views and arguments of the Anti-Imperialists and the Imperialists by creating a T-chart.
3.) Explain the many reasons behind the increase in overseas expansion in the late 19th century and identify the groups that backed the reasons.
4.) Explain the short and long term effects of the Spanish-American War.
5.) Analyze the goals of U.S. policy makers in the Spanish-American War and World War I and explain how involvement in these conflicts altered the U.S. role in world affairs.
6.) Compare U.S. treatment of Filipinos with Spanish treatment of Cubans.
7.) Create a chart with the headings economic, military, and spreading our ideals/culture and under each heading list reasons for U.S. expansion and examples to support the reason.
8.) Create a T chart to compare the views of interventionists and isolationists and compare this to the previous T chart on Imperialists and Anti-Imperialists.
9.) Compare and contrast the Teller Amendment, the Platt Amendment and the Foraker Act.
10.) What are the defining characteristics of imperialism? What actions of McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft are evidence of imperialism by the United States?
11.) Along the lines of the question above, what are the characteristics of Progressives and what actions by the three presidents above are evidence of Progressivism by the United States?
12.) How did the United States acquire the rights to the Panama Canal? Should the canal have been returned to Panama by the James Carter adm. 1976-1980?
13.) What strategic motives motivated Roosevelt to acquire the rights to and build the Panama Canal?
14.) Read Thinking Globally in the chapter and compare imperialism of the 1890s with Manifest Destiny of the 1840s and mercantilism of the 1700s.
1.) How and why did Gilded Age Politics tie themselves to big business and focus on economic issues like tariffs, currency, corporate expansion, patronage and laissez-faire economic policy and engender numerous calls for reform?
2.) How and why did corruption in government energize the public to demand increased popular control and reform of local, state, and national governments?
3.) Assess how increasingly prominent racist and nativist theories, along with Supreme Court decisions, were used to justify violence, and segregation.
4.) Explain how U.S. interest in expanding trade led to economic, diplomatic and cultural initiatives westward to Asia.
5.) Assess the effectiveness of U. S. Grant as president compared to other famous generals that became president like George Washington, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor.
6.) Explain how and why U.S. Grant, who was never a Republican, and Horace Greeley, who was never a Democrat ran against each other in 1872.
7.) What were the causes of the financial panic of 1873? What were the effects? Did national government policy make it worse?
8.) Discuss the influence of patronage on Gilded Age politics and explain how it led to the Stalwart, Half Breed and Mugwump factions of the Republican party.
9.) Explain why Republicans would agree to the Compromise of 1877. What were the effects of the compromise?
10.) What was the bigger turning point in history, 1865 or 1877?
11.) What two groups arguably faced the greatest amount of racism in the Gilded Age. Support your position with examples.
12.) Who benefitted and who lost in the process of curbing patronage and reforming the civil service? Make sure to explain the Pendleton Civil Service Act in your answer and discuss its effects.
13.) List and analyze the reasons behind the mass movement of people into the cities and the American West from 1865-1898.
14.) Explain the role of Chinese immigrants in the shaping of the American West, including the building of the transcontinental railroad and the California gold rush. Compare their experience to one other prominent immigrant group already discussed.
15.) How did the election of 1884 reflect the larger political themes of the Gilded Age? Address the topics of partisan politics, corruption, and voting blocs of the American electorate.
16.) Explain how arguments about market capitalism, the growth of corporate power and government policies influenced economic policies in the Gilded Age.
17.) Assess the first term of the Grover Cleveland presidency.
18.) Explain how the tariff reform of 1888, the corruption of the election of 1888 and the policies of the billion dollar Congress served as catalysts for the Populist movement of the 1890s.
19.) Construct a T chart comparing the elections of 1884 and 1888. How were these elections emblematic of the Gilded Age?
20.) Explain the effect of the billion dollar Congress o farmers in the 1890s.
21.) Identify the Homestead Strike and link its importance to the Populists movement.
22.) How did the issue of race derail the Populist movement in the South in the late 19th century?
23.) How have historians interpreted the Populist movement over time?
Chapter 24 Focus Questions
1.) Discuss how cultural and intellectual arguments justified the success of those at the top of the socioeconomic structure in the Gilded Age.
2.) Explain how some argued that the wealthy had an obligation to help those less fortunate.
3.) Assess the relative importance of large scale production, massive technology changes, expanding international communication networks and pro-growth government policies on the fueling of industrial development in the Gilded Age.
4.) Explain how technological innovations and redesigned financial and management structures sought to maximize the exploitation of natural resources and a growing labor force.
5.) How did business leaders consolidate their corporations into trusts and holding companies and defend their status and privilege through intellectual theories?
6.) Who would start to challenge the dominant corporate ethic and even capitalism itself?
7.) Explain how the completion of the railroad network enabled significant internal migration and the growth of American cities. How did U.S. government policies promote the completion of the network? Which area did not benefit from these policies? Why?
8.) What was the role of immigrant labor in shaping the industrial growth of America during the Gilded Age? Was this role more important than technological innovation in spurring economic development?
9.) Why are cartoonists often using the octopus to portray monopolies and railroads of the Gilded Age?
10.) Identify the major methods of business organization in the Gilded Age including trusts, holding companies, interlocking directorates, vertical and horizontal integration. Which ones were the most effective? Why?
11.) Are John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie Captains of Industry or Robber Barons?
12.) Identify the theories of Laissez-Faire, Gospel of Wealth, and Social Darwinism and assess their relative influence in the Gilded Age.
13.) Explain how the growing rich-poor gap manifested itself in the Gilded Age.
14.) What was the New South? What were the impacts of J.B. Duke and Henry Grady on the development of the New South.
15.) What were some key changes that identify the movement of the United States from an agrarian economy to an industrial one during the Gilded Age.
Chap 25 Focus Questions
1.) Analyze the causes and effects of major internal migration patterns such as urbanization, suburbanization, westward movement and the great migration in the United States.
2.) Discuss the evolution of greater opportunities for and restrictions on immigrants in the Gilded Age.
3.) Discuss growing socioeconomic inequality in the United States and its impacts. What groups formed to help counteract this gap? Were they effective?
4.) Compare and contrast old and new immigration and its impacts on the United States and assess the degree to which changes in types of people coming and their own reactions to U.S. life fueled nativists sentiment.
5.) List and explain the reasons for the massive increase in immigration 1880-1930. How did changes in migration and population patterns affect American life and influence American identity?
6.) Explain how the new cultural and intellectual movements both buttressed and challenged the social order of the Gilded Age.
7.) Analyze the role of culture and the arts in the Gilded Age and assess their role in promoting social and political change.
8.) Compare immigrant experiences across time.
9.) Compare and contrast the viewpoints of W.E.B Dubois and Booker T. Washington. Whose strategy was more effective given the time period in which each lived?
10.) Explain the key aspects and characteristics that epitomized the explosion of print media during the Gilded Age.
11.) Analyze how changes in class identity and gender roles have related to economic, social, and cultural transformations since the late 19th century.
12.)Compare the landmark court cases of Shelby County v Holden, Fisher v University of Texas, Arizona v ITCA with other Supreme Ct. decisions of the 19th century.
13.) Denote turning points and events of significance in the suffragette movement 1870-1920.
14.) Describe and give examples of notable women challenging their prescribed place in society 1870-1920.
15.) Describe the evolution of American literature during the Gilded Age and how it is different from the antebellum era and give examples.
16.) Explain how and why modern cultural values and popular culture have grown since the early 20th century and how they have affected American politics and society.
Chapter 26 Focus Questions
1.) Explain how post Civil War migration west caused the federal government to break treaties with Native Americans to expand the amount of land available to settlers. What techniques did the national government use?
2.) Explain the factors/policies that led to the reduced number of Native Americans and threatened their culture and identity.
3.) How did farmers react/adapt to the new realities of mechanized agriculture and dependence on the railroad? Were they successful?
4.) What factors caused the rise of the Populist party? Was the party successful in their aims?
5.) Compare the Turner and Washakie quotes on the first page of the chapter. How might Washakie view the Turner quote?
6.) Compare the cause and effect of the destruction of the buffalo to a current conservation issue. Consider the effects on both the environment and humans.
7.) Discuss the role of racial prejudice in the treatment of Native Americans and African-Americans and the perceptions of rights for each group during the 1870-1930 time period.
8.) Discuss the role technology played in the bloody conflicts during the settlement of the trans-Mississippi west.
9.) Discuss the continued difficulties involved in assimilating Native Americans into white culture.
10.) Compare current issues and complaints of Native Americans today with the issues and complaints 1870-1920.
11.) What alternative paths might U.S.-Native-American relations have followed during the era of intensive westward migration?
12.) How have policies concerning the use of natural resources changed since the late 1890s?
13.) Compare the short and long term effects of the cattle drives.
14.) Describe the pioneer experience. What were some unique cultural developments that emerged?
15.) Compare the land under Native American control in 1870 with land under their control in 1900. What are the characteristics of the land Native Americans inhabit in 1900?
16.) List and explain the reasons why many Americans thought that the frontier was closed by 1900.
17.) Discuss how farmer's troubles intensified as 1900 drew closer.
18.) What is the farmer's point of view regarding what they do for society? How did they organize to defend their interests? Were they successful?19.) Discuss how labor and big business continued to clash.
20.) Compare the causes and effects of using gold vs. a bimetal standard.
21.) Evaluate the changing views over the role government should play in society, the economy, and protecting the environment.
22.) Compare Frederick Jackson Turner's view of the closing of the west with more modern historians.
Chapter 27 Focus Questions
1.)Explain how the American victory in the Spanish-American War renewed the debate over the nation's values and the U.S. role in the world.
2.) Explain the wide variety of views and arguments of the Anti-Imperialists and the Imperialists by creating a T-chart.
3.) Explain the many reasons behind the increase in overseas expansion in the late 19th century and identify the groups that backed the reasons.
4.) Explain the short and long term effects of the Spanish-American War.
5.) Analyze the goals of U.S. policy makers in the Spanish-American War and World War I and explain how involvement in these conflicts altered the U.S. role in world affairs.
6.) Compare U.S. treatment of Filipinos with Spanish treatment of Cubans.
7.) Create a chart with the headings economic, military, and spreading our ideals/culture and under each heading list reasons for U.S. expansion and examples to support the reason.
8.) Create a T chart to compare the views of interventionists and isolationists and compare this to the previous T chart on Imperialists and Anti-Imperialists.
9.) Compare and contrast the Teller Amendment, the Platt Amendment and the Foraker Act.
10.) What are the defining characteristics of imperialism? What actions of McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft are evidence of imperialism by the United States?
11.) Along the lines of the question above, what are the characteristics of Progressives and what actions by the three presidents above are evidence of Progressivism by the United States?
12.) How did the United States acquire the rights to the Panama Canal? Should the canal have been returned to Panama by the James Carter adm. 1976-1980?
13.) What strategic motives motivated Roosevelt to acquire the rights to and build the Panama Canal?
14.) Read Thinking Globally in the chapter and compare imperialism of the 1890s with Manifest Destiny of the 1840s and mercantilism of the 1700s.