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.