28: FOCUS QUESTIONS

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1 Homework Questions Chapter 28: Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt, What were the roots of the Progressive movement in the United States? 2. Describe how the Muller and Lochner cases contributed to or hurt the Progressive movement. 3. What were the three C s of Roosevelt s political platform? How were these implemented? 4. Explain the differences between Taft and Roosevelt. How did this difference split the Republican Party in the election of 1912? 5. What was Taft s dollar diplomacy? 1. Why did the progressives believe that strong government action was the only way to tackle the social and economic problems of industrialization? How did this approach differ from traditional American emphasis on voluntary solutions to social reform? 2. Why were women so critical to the successes of the progressive movement? Were there any weaknesses in their ideas and approaches to social reform? 3. Why was Roosevelt such a popular progressive leader? In what ways did he sound like a more ardent reformer than he really was? 4. To what extent was progressivism really a middle-class reform effort that did not really rerlect the interests or concerns of the poor and working classes it claimed to benerit? How did some of the progressive concern for conservation and environment rerlect the perspectives of more afrluent Americans? 5. Did the progressive movement make any long lasting contributions to American society? 6. What were the main issues in the election of 1912 and how was Woodrow Wilson a minority president? Chapter 29: Wilsonian Progressivism in Peace and War, What was the triple wall privilege that Wilson set out to deal with in his Rirst term as president? 2. How was Wilson s foreign policy different from that of Roosevelt and Taft? 3. What events happened in Mexico that challenged Wilson s foreign policy? 4. What were the circumstances surrounding Wilson s reelections win in 1916? 5. What major challenges did the president face as Europe entered World War I? 6. What were the steps that lead America to enter World War I? 7. After his campaign promise of keeping America out of the war in 1916, how did Wilson garner American support for the war? 8. How did America convert from a peacetime economy to a wartime economy? 9. What were the reasons for the failure of both the League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles?

2 10. What were the reasons for the conrlict between Wilson and the U.S. Senate, especially Lodge? 1. Were Wilson s progressive legislative achievements in his Rirst term consistent with his New Freedom campaign? Why or why not? 2. How was Wilson s progressive presidency similar to Theodore Roosevelt s, and how was it different? Were the differences ones of personality or policy? 3. Why did Wilson fail in his attempt to develop a more moral, less imperialistic policy in Latin America? Were his involvements really an attempt to create a new mutual relationship between the United States and the neighboring republics, or was it just an alternative form of American domination? Was the United States genuinely neutral during the Rirst years of World War I, or was it biased in favor of the Allies and against Germany? Was it possible for the United States to remain neutral? Why or why not? 4. What were the ideological results of Wilson s proclamation of World War I as a war to end all wars and a war to make the world safe for democracy? 5. Was it necessary to suppress dissent in order to win the war? Was the Treaty of Versailles a violation of Wilson s high wartime ideals or the best that could have been achieved under the circumstances? 6. What was the fundamental reason America failed to join the League of Nations? Chapter 30: American Life in the Roaring Twenties, How did the Red Scare translate into the Ku Klux Klan and the anti-immigrant movements in American society? 2. What were the arguments both for and against Prohibition and what were its consequences? How did the Eighteenth Amendment come about? 3. What was it about the 1920s that made it Roaring? 4. Who were some of the major literary Rigures and how did the literature rerlect the mood of the 1920s? 1. Why did the United States, which had welcomed so many millions of immigrants for nearly a century, suddenly become so fearful of immigration in the 1920s that it virtually ended mass immigration for two decades? 2. To what extent was the Scopes Trail only about competing theories of human origins, and to what extent was it a focal point for deeper concerns regarding the role of religion and traditional moral authorities in American life and the new cultural power of science? 3. Was the new mass culture, as rerlected in Hollywood Rilms and radio, a source of moral and social change, or did it really reinforce the essentially conservative business and social values of the time? Consider the role of commercial advertising in particular.

3 4. Were the intellectual critics of the 1920s really disillusioned with the fundamental character of American life, or were they actually loyal to a vision of a better America and only hiding their idealism behind a veneer of disillusionment and irony? Chapter 31: The Politics of Boom and Bust, What was the economic philosophy of the Republican president of the 1920s? Did this environment help create the Great Depression? 2. What were the Rirst tasks of the Harding 3. What was the foreign policy philosophy of Coolidge and was he consistent? 4. Describe the political environment of the election of 1928? How did Hoover win the election? 5. What ere the causes of the Great Depression? 6. What were the major foreign policy issues faced by the Hoover 1. In what ways were the 1920s a reaction against the progressive era? 2. Was the American isolationism of the 1920s linked to the rise of movements such as the Ku Klux Klan? In what ways did movements such as fundamentalism rerlect similar anti-modern outlooks, and in what ways did they rerlect more basic religious disagreements? 3. To what extent did the policies of the booming 1920s contribute to the depression? Was the depression inevitable, or could it have been avoided? Why or why not? 4. How did the depression challenge the traditional belief of Hoover and other Americans in rugged individualism? Chapter 32: The Great Depression and the New Deal, What were the differences between Hoover and Roosevelt, both personally and politically? 2. What were Roosevelt s goals of relief, recovery, and reform to help America get out of the Great Depression? 3. What were the main criticism, from both the left and the right, of Roosevelt s New Deal program? 4. How did Roosevelt deal with the business community and what gains did labor make under his 5. What were the long- and short- term benerits to Roosevelt s New Deal? 1. Which of Roosevelt s measures were most effective in Righting the depression? Why? 2. How did Roosevelt alter the role of the federal government in American life? Was this necessary for American survival? 3. How did ordinary workers and farmers effect social change in the 1930s?

4 4. What were the positive and negative effects of the New Deal s use of the federal government as an agency of social reform? Chapter 33: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War, What ere the main characteristics of Roosevelt s foreign policy and why was the American public bent on isolationism during the 1930s? 2. What were the steps that America took to try and remain neutral as Europe headed into World War II? 3. What steps did Germany and Japan take to lead America into the European conrlict? 1. Why did the neutrality laws fail to prevent America s growing involvement with the military conrlicts in Europe and Asia? 2. How did the process of American entry into World War II compare with the entry into World War I? 3. Would it have been more straightforward of Roosevelt to have openly called for a declaration of war against Hitler rather than increasing involvement gradually while claiming that he did not want war? 4. Would the United States have entered World War II even if the Japanese had not attacked Pearl Harbor? Chapter 34: America in World War II, How was America transformed from peacetime to a wartime economy? What were the steps that America took to mobilize for their war with the Axis government? 2. What was the impact of the war on domestic America? 3. What was America s strategy for winning the war against the Axis powers? 4. What turned the tide of the war in the PaciRic for American troops? 5. How did World War II end and what were the terms of settlement? 1. How did America s domestic response to World War II differ from its reaction to World War I? 2. What was the wisest strategic decision in World War II, and what was the most questionable? 3. How were the European and PaciRic wars similar and how were they different? 4. What was the signiricance of the dropping of the atomic bomb, then and now? Chapter 35: The Cold War Begins, What were some of the reasons for the postwar anxieties and prosperity brought about after World War II? 2. What were the reasons for the standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union?

5 3. What major issues needed to be resolved in the postwar years in Europe and Japan? 4. What role did each of the following play with regard to the Cold War; Berlin airlift, containment policy, Marshall Plan, Truman Doctrine, NATO, and the Korean War? 5. What domestic concerns were brought about as a result of the Cold War? 1. Which development caused the greatest change in American society in the immediate postwar years: increased afrluence, the migration to the suburbs, the entry of women into the workforce, or the baby boom? 2. Was the primary threat from the Soviet Union military or ideological that is, was the danger that the Soviet army would invade Western Europe or that more and more people in Europe and elsewhere would be attracted to communist ideas? 3. Were there any legitimate concerns behind the red-hunting anticommunism of the late 1940s and early 1950s? How were McCarthy and others able to turn the search for spies and subversives into an assault on freethinkers, adulterers, homosexuals, and others deemed different in some way? 4. Was Truman right to Rire MacArthur when and how he did? What would have happened if MacArthur had gotten his way and expanded the conrlict with the Chinese? Chapter 36: American Zenith, What was the driving force behind the afrluence and the consumer culture of the 1950s? 2. How did the Brown decision and the confrontation in Little Rock set the stage for the civil rights movement of the 1950s? 3. What were the differences between Eisenhower s foreign policy and those of his predecessors in the battle of the Cold War? 4. What were the major issues facing Eisenhower in Europe and Asia? 5. How did the literature rerlect the attitudes and feelings during the 1950s? 6. What was Kennedy s New Frontier? How was that philosophy played out, both domestically and internationally, within the Rirst few years of Kennedy 7. What was Rlexible response and how was that different from the foreign policy philosophy of the previous administrations? 8. Compare and contrast the literary outpouring of World War I with that of World War II. What caused the shift from realism in literature to a more fantasized and psychedelic prose? 1. How does Eisenhower s political leadership compare with that of other general-presidents: Washington, Jackson, Taylor, and Grant? 2. Was Eisenhower s seeming caution and inactivity a lack of vigorous leadership or a wise prudence in the exercise of power?

6 3. Was the 1950s a time of American triumph abroad and afrluence at home, or was it a period that actually suppressed many problems of race, women s roles, and cultural conformity? 4. Which writers and artists best expressed the concerns of American culture in the 1950s? Was there a connection between the rise of pop-culture Rigures such as Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe and the changes in art and writing (such as the Beats and the new southern writers)? 5. What was Kennedy s New Frontier? How was that philosophy played out, both domestically and internationally, within the Rirst few years of Kennedy 6. What was Rlexible response and how was that different from the foreign policy philosophy of the previous administrations? Compare and contrast the literary outpouring of World War I with that of World War II. What caused the shift from realism in literature to a more fantasized and psychedelic prose? Chapter 37: The Stormy Sixties, How did Kennedy and Johnson deal with the civil rights issue? What were their goals and were these goals actualized by the end of the decade? 2. What role did each of the presidents have within the Vietnam conrlict? 3. What were the major goals of Johnson s Great society? How successful were they? 1. Did Kennedy fulrill his promise to get America moving again? Why or why not? 2. Was the nonviolent civil rights movement of the 1960s a success? Why or why not? Can it be argued that the violent protests of the civil rights movement were more successful than the nonviolent protests? 3. What were the causes of the Vietnam War? 4. Was America justiried going into Vietnam? What if the Communist countries invaded a country to contain the spread of Democracy, would this be justiried? What is the difference between the two situations? 5. Were the cultural upheavals of the 1960s a result of the political crisis, or were developments like the sexual revolution and the student revolts inevitable results of afrluence and the baby boom? Chapter 38: Challenges to the Postwar Order, What were the causes of the economic stagnation during the 1970s? 2. How did Nixon s foreign policy of détente differ from the previous administrations? How did détente help or hurt relations with China and the Soviet Union? 3. How did the Vietnam conrlict escalate under the Nixon

7 4. What was Watergate and how did the episode tarnish the ofrice of the presidency? 5. What were the major challenges faced by the Carter administration, both foreign and domestic? 1. Could any of Nixon s achievements in ofrice compensate for his Watergate crimes? What should history say about the Nixon presidency? 2. What were the short- and long-term consequences of the communists victory in Vietnam? How do these affect an assessment of the war? What could America have done differently to win the war in Vietnam? 3. How was the civil rights movement affected by federal policies in the 1970s, especially afrirmative action? 4. What were the consequences on America s new economic vulnerability? How did it affect policies at home and abroad during the 1970s? Chapter 39: The Resurgence of Conservatism, What were the causes for the rise of the New Right and how did that movement differ from the Old Right? 2. What were the domestic goals of the Reagan administration, and was he successful in achieving those goals in his two terms as president? 3. What is going to be Reagan s legacy, both in terms of domestic and foreign policy? 4. How was the New Right inrluential in both religion and the Supreme Court? 5. What were the major issues faced by George H. W. Bush in his 1. To what extent was the election of Reagan an endorsement of his conservative ideology, and to what extent was it a repudiation of the perceived failures of federal government policies in the stalemated 1970s? 2. In what ways might the 1980s and 1990s be compared with the 1920s in economic, social, and foreign polices? Did the economic boom of each period represent a genuine revival of American innovation, or was it fundamentally marred by the growing gap between rich and poor? 3. What were the successes and failures of American foreign policy in the post Cold War era? Was the use of American military power in the Persian Gulf War and the Balkans a model for how American power could be effectively brought to bear, or did it demonstrate the limits of even the sole superpower s ability to resolves regional conrlicts? 4. What was the real cause of the end of the Cold War? Did America win the Cold War, or did the Soviets lose the Cold War? Is there a difference? 5. Compare and contrast the rise of the Moral Majority in the 1980s with that of the Beats of the 1950s and the Hippies of the 1960s and 1970s. What commonalities do they have with each other? 6. How should history view the presidency of Ronald Reagan? Was he a great, good, fair, or bad president and why?

8 Chapter 40: America Confronts the Post Cold War Era, What were the main issues facing Bill Clinton when he entered ofrice? How did he reconcile the traditional liberal values of the past Democrats and his vision for a different America? 2. What were the main causes of the economic prosperity of the 1990s under Clinton s 3. How did the attack of 9/11 affect the country, both politically and spiritually? 4. What effect did the election of 2000 have on the American political scene? Was the rift that was driven between America healed under the Bush 5. What were the successes and failures of George W. Bush s How did these affect the outcome of the election of 2008? 1. What is likely to be the enduring legacy of Bill Clinton in American politics? Did the focus on his personality and the scandals leading to impeachment drastically alter the way he is likely to be viewed by future historians, or will his economic policies and his political success in steering the Democratic Party toward the political center be viewed as substantive achievements outweighing the weakness? 2. Compare and contrast American foreign policy at the beginning of the twentieth century to that of the beginning of the twenty-rirst century. What differences are there? Are there any similarities? 3. What similarities are there to the spread of Communism during the post- World War II era to the spread of Democracy in the post-cold War era? If America was justiried in intervening in halting the spread of communism in Asia, would Iraqi insurgents be justiried in intervening in halting the spread of democracy in Iraq? Why or why not? 4. How successful was America in punishing the attackers of 9/11? Was America s war on terror a success or failure? Why or why not? 5. What is likely to be the enduring legacy of George W. Bush in American politics? How will American history view his presidency; great, good, fair, or poor? Justify and support your answers. Chapter 41: The American People Face a New Century, ! 8 1. How has the new technology, as well as developments in science and medicine, altered the landscape of American society? 2. What are the major issues that American s will have to face as they move into the twenty-rirst century? 3. What changes have taken place for groups such as feminists, Hispanics, and other minorities to alter the American scene and will take America into the twenty-rirst century?

9 4. How has immigration inrluenced policies and practices of America? What possible change might take place? 5. How has art literature, and the media rerlected the American character? 1. Was the growing inequality in American wealth and incomes the result of natural economic market forces, or was it encouraged by deliberate political polices, especially the tax cuts and trade policies of the 1980s? 2. Has the American family been in decline, or has it simply changed forms while developing different kinds of strengths? What causes the fears of a generational war between the expanding numbers of elderly and younger Americans? 3. Has the nature of American race relations been substantially altered since the 1960s civil rights movement, or are relations between whites and African Americans fundamentally the same? Has African American society itself undergone substantial changes? 4. Why has culture become the focus of a series of wars between different intellectuals and social groups in the past ten years? Why are many of these wars over issues fought in American colleges and universities? 5. What lies in America s future? What kinds of cultural, economic, and foreign dilemmas will future American politicians face? What will be the derining moment in the twenty-rirst century?

I Can Statements. Chapter 19: World War II Begins. Chapter 20: America and World War II. American History Part B. America and the World

I Can Statements. Chapter 19: World War II Begins. Chapter 20: America and World War II. American History Part B. America and the World I Can Statements American History Part B Chapter 19: World War II Begins America and the World 1. Describe how postwar conditions contributed to the rise of antidemocratic governments in Europe. 2. Explain