Test Preview

The test will be based on readings, discussions, PowerPoints, activities, and lectures related to Chapters 21 – 22 in your textbook. This means that the exam will cover US history from the 1890s-1919.

Part I – Matching
You will be given ten items and asked to connect each of these with the most appropriate definition or explanation provided. This section should take ten minutes and is worth eleven percent of your test grade.

Part II -- Identifications.
From a list of six terms, you will be asked to identify five in several sentences. These terms will be drawn from the terms sheets provided for each chapter and from our discussions. This section should take about fifteen minutes and is worth 22 percent of your test grade.

Part III – Short Answer Questions.
You will be given seven questions and asked to answer six of them in a concise, but thorough manner. Two starred questions will be answered by all students. These questions will emphasize a bit of analysis, but primarily explanation. This section should take thirty minutes and is worth 67 percent of your test grade.

Topics to review for the test:

1) Progressivism. How does the movement emerge? What are its main themes, concerns, intentions, divisions? What is the impact of Progressive ideals on education, gender, labor, law, and social sciences? How are the various Progressive ideas different and similar? How do different reform interests affect each other?

2) Examples of Progressivism. What is the relationship between TR’s social, political, and economic ideas and his actions as president? Likewise, how do Wilson’s beliefs shape his actions and approaches? Study the similarities and differences between TR and Wilson. How does Progressivism change city and state laws and political structures? What are the issues and legacies of the Election of 1912? What are the successes and failures of Progressive reform?

3) World War I. What are the short and long term causes of the First World War? How do these correspond to other periods we have studied? How does the US become involved in the war? How does Wilson negotiate the politics of neutrality and of war? In particular, what is “peace without victory”? What was Wilson’s role in the Paris Peace Conference? How do the changing attitudes toward the war reveal the United States’ ideas about its role internationally?

4) The Home Front during WWI. How did Americans respond to the First World War and the US eventual entry into it? What impact does the war have on the home front? How does the war affect the federal government, business and industry, labor organizations, African Americans, and women? What kinds of legislation are passed during the war, and how do these bills and organizations bring up civil liberties concerns? What are the elements of the debate over the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles and American participation in the League of Nations? Why does the Senate reject the treaty?

5) Differences. American experience varies based on gender, class, race, ethnicity, occupation, and location. Demonstrate awareness of these dissimilarities in your response.

On Blog!

Welcome to the blog created for various and sundry activities related to our US history class! This week and next this space will be devoted to study for the unit test (un)covering Progressivism and World War I.

As discussed in class, I will post below a version, possibly redacted, of the questions you all have submitted. Your task is to respond in a productive way to 3 questions by Monday, April 23rd at 9pm. What is a "productive way"? It means that you should attempt to answer the questions you select in a detailed and thoughtful manner. Or, if you don't feel informed enough to answer a particular question, try to contribute to the discussion by asking related questions, pointing out connections to other topics or events, revising or repositioning the original question, etc. This ought to help us to identify blind spots in our knowledge about these topics and to begin to fill in those spots.

What will we do with this blogular location in the weeks that follow? The possibilities are, you know, endless. And I will entertain all suggestions. I think, however, that we will use this blogtastic space to prepare for our second -- and final! -- quarter test and the semester exam. And also to discuss ideas and concerns related to the Decades Film project.

WWI Questions

Below are the questions submitted that relate to World War I:

• Could the US involvement in the Great War have been prevented? How?
• Why didn't the U.S. follow its expansionist beliefs during WWI and try to gain more land or spread American beliefs at the Peace conference in Paris?
• Did America really believe that they were going to war to protect the world from the new Bolshevik government in Russia?
• How was the United States relationship with Italy during World War I?
• With all of the different treaties and alliances happening in World War I, what were the effects on trading?
• Was WW1 inevitable even if Franz Ferdinand did not get murdered?
• Would the Allies have fallen if the U.S. had not entered WW1?
• How did the U.S joining the war affect the outcome? What would the war have been like if the U.S did not join?
• What were the benefits of World War I for the United States, if any?
• How was World War I made into a “patriotic crusade” by the American people? Similarly, why was lynching of Germans seen as “patriotic murder”?

Use the comments to reply to these questions. Be sure to identify in your comment the specific question to which you are responding.

Progressivism Questions

Below are the questions submitted that relate to Progressivism:

• How did the woman sufferage movement relate to progressivism?
• Was progressivism successful with the consideration that World War 1 was a step backwards for the U.S.?
• How did Progressivism lead to the 16th-20th amendments?
• What were the major differences between the progressive candidates Roosevelt and Wilson?
• Did everyone in America agree with the progressive beliefs of reform? Who were they?
• Did Progressive ideas affect the stance of America in the Great War? How?
• How did Progressivism change the role of women in the early 1900's? Did their role change for the better, if at all?
• Who, in your opinion, did progressivism benefit most and why?
• How did factors such as Henry George’s Progress and Poverty help shape the movement of progressivism?

Use the comments to reply to these questions. Be sure to identify in your comment the specific question to which you are responding.

TR and the Song of Roland

Remember I mentioned that Theodore Roosevelt could recite the entire Song of Roland in its original Old French? Well, I did mention it. And they say he could do it. All 4000 lines of it. If you're looking for some exciting beach reading this summer, look no further. Roland is an eleventh or twelfth (it's hard to know for sure) action story about the 8th century exploits of Charlemagne's army.

For an English translation: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/roland-ohag.html or http://omacl.org/Roland/

For a look at Old French: http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/gallica/Chronologie/11siecle/Roland/rol_ch01.html

For audio clips of the Old French: http://eee.uci.edu/programs/medieval/ofclips.html