Download Final Exam Information and Essay Questions

Final Exam Information and Essay Questions
American Society and Culture, 2003-2004
Dr. Murray
Please note: the study questions for all of the units are available at my Pingry
website: http://faculty.pingry.k12.nj.us/jmurray/ My website can be accessed
from the Pingry homepage by going to the "Academics" drop-down menu,
clicking on "History," scrolling down the "History" page, and then clicking on
my name.
The final exam in American Society and Culture 11 will be on Tuesday, June 1st, at 8:30 am. The
exam will have four parts:
• Twenty-five multiple choice questions
• Fifteen people ID matching questions
• Four short answer questions
• One essay
• TOTAL
50 points (2 points each)
15 points (1 point each)
40 points (10 points each)
85 points
190 points
PART 1 will consist of 25 multiple-choice questions. You will have to answer ALL 25
questions. You will use a Scantron sheet for this part of the exam.
PART 2 will consist of 15 people ID matching questions. You will have to answer all 15
questions. You will be given fifteen descriptions of important people in American history. You
will also be given fifteen names. Your job is to match each of the names with its appropriate
description. You will use the back of the Scantron sheet for this part of the exam.
PART 3 will consist of short answer questions. You will be given a list of ten questions, and you
will have to answer four of them. Your answers should be 3-5 sentences in length. You will
write your answers in a blue book.
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PART 4 will be an analytical essay. You will write your essay in a blue book.
The question will be chosen from the list of five questions below:
1.
Compare and contrast the Populist movement of the 1890s with the Progressive
movement of the early twentieth century. Be sure to consider each movement's guiding
assumptions, objectives, and suggested reforms. Which movement was more successful, and
why?
2.
To what extent was the imperialism of the late 1890s and early 1900s a continuation of
earlier forms of American expansionism (i.e., Manifest Destiny)? To what extent was it
different? Be sure to consider developments such as the Spanish-American War, the annexation
of the Philippines and Hawaii, the building of the Panama Canal, and U.S. intervention in the
Mexican Revolution.
3.
How did America’s experience during World War I (both before and after U.S.
intervention in 1917) and the postwar treaty negotiations affect its response to and eventual
involvement in World War II? Did the U.S. learn the appropriate lessons from our experience in
World War I and the argument over the Treaty of Versailles? Why or why not? Be sure to
connect our experience in 1914-1920 with the events leading up to our intervention in World War
II.
4.
To what extent was the New Deal effective in addressing the problems of the Great
Depression? Assess the effectiveness of the New Deal with respect to ALL of the following:
Relief
Recovery
Reform
5.
To what extent was American society in the 1950s similar to American society in the
1920s? To what extent were they different? Consider the following areas: technological change,
economic prosperity, race relations, popular culture, the political climate, and the role of women.
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Dr. Murray
American Society and Culture 11, 2003-04
List of Important People
The fifteen names for the personality matching exercise will be chosen from this list:
Andrew Johnson
Jacob Riis
J.P. Morgan
William “Boss” Tweed
Samuel Gompers
Eugene V. Debs
William Jennings Bryan
Andrew Carnegie
John D. Rockefeller
Jane Addams
Grover Cleveland
Booker T. Washington
Henry George
William McKinley
W.E.B. Du Bois
Louis Sullivan
Thomas Eakins
Winslow Homer
John Dewey
Upton Sinclair
Theodore Roosevelt
William Howard Taft
Woodrow Wilson
Henry Cabot Lodge
A. Mitchell Palmer
Carrie Chapman Catt
Charles Lindbergh
Henry Ford
Louis Armstrong
Langston Hughes
Marcus Garvey
Herbert Hoover
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
George Gershwin
Edward Hopper
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Huey Long
Robert Wagner
Harry S Truman
George Kennan
Dean Acheson
Douglas MacArthur
Alger Hiss
Joseph McCarthy
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Richard Nixon
John Foster Dulles
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Allen Ginsberg
Jack Kerouac
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Betty Friedan
George Wallace
Hubert Humphrey
Eugene McCarthy
Earl Warren
Malcolm X
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Dr. Murray
American Society and Culture 11, 2003-04
2ND SEMESTER—MAJOR ISSUES
The Civil War & Reconstruction (Unit 6)-Major Issues
Once secession began, why did efforts at compromise fail to save the Union?
At the beginning of the war, what were the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two sides? What were
their war strategies?
Why did the first two years of the war go so badly for the Union? By the end of 1862, what had the Union
achieved diplomatically and on the battlefield? Why was 1863 such a crucial year? What were the
important events? How would you characterize the war after Gettysburg? Why was Lincoln convinced
that he couldn't win the 1864 presidential election? How do you explain the outcome?
In the final analysis, why did the Union win the war? Could it have turned out differently?
What do you make of Lincoln's restrictions on civil liberties during the war? Were they justified?
The Gilded Age (Unit 7)-Major Issues
What were the difficulties that the nation faced as the president and Congress set out to create and
implement a Reconstruction policy? Why were Congressional Republicans dissatisfied with Johnson's
policies? How did Congressional Reconstruction differ from the president's plan? To what extent did it
embody the ideas and demands of the Radical Republicans?
Why did Congressional Reconstruction ultimately fail to create a society marked by racial equality and
economic opportunity for African-Americans?
What was the sequence of policies that governed the U.S. government's relationship with the Plains Indians
in the nineteenth century? Was the destruction of the Plains Indians' way of life inevitable? Why or why
not?
How does the reality of western settlement differ from the myth constructed by Western novels and
movies?
How did African-Americans respond to the creation of the Jim Crow regime in the American South during
the decades that followed the end of Reconstruction?
How did the American economy change in the last three decades of the nineteenth century? What factors
contributed to the transformation? How was this new economic order justified? How did workers respond
to these new economic conditions? What factors limited the success of the American labor movement?
How did patterns of immigration change in the late nineteenth century? How did large-scale
industrialization and immigration transform the American city?
How was the transformation of American life in the late nineteenth century reflected in literature and the
visual arts?
What were the origins of middle-class reform in the Gilded Age? What were the origins of the Populist
movement? To what extent was the Populist critique of industrial capitalism persuasive? What impact did
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the Depression of 1893 have upon the way Americans viewed industrial capitalism and the role of the
government in economic matters? What was the significance of the election of 1896?
To what extent was the imperialism of the 1890s a continuation of earlier forms of American
expansionism? To what extent was it unique? Why did many Americans in the late 19 th century come to
believe that overseas colonies were a good thing?
How did America justify going to war against Spain in 1898? Did it remain true to its principles? Do you
believe that America was justified in annexing the Philippines?
Progressivism, World War I, and the 1920s (Unit 8)--Major Issues
What were the main characteristics of Progressive reform? How would you describe the philosophical
orientation of the Progressive reformers? In what sense were the Progressives recognizably “modern”?
To what extent did the Progressives achieve their objectives on the state and national level? Was Theodore
Roosevelt a true Progressive? Why was Taft unable to hold the allegiance of Republican Progressives? In
the election of 1912, how did the “New Nationalism” differ from the “New Freedom”? What were
Wilson’s legislative achievements?
In the final analysis, what did the Progressives achieve? To what extent did Progressivism permanently
change America?
What were the main contours of American diplomacy between 1900 and 1914? In viewing the foreign
policy of Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson, do you see change or continuity?
Why did America intervene in World War I in 1917? How do you explain the 180-degree turn in Wilson's
foreign policy between 1914 and 1917?
What was the impact of America's intervention in World War I on American society?
Why was the Treaty of Versailles ultimately rejected by the U.S. Senate? Who was responsible for the
U.S. decision to reject the treaty and the League of Nations?
What was the prevailing attitude toward American capitalism in the 1920s? What were some of the
underlying weaknesses in the American economy?
How did American culture change in the 1920s? In what sense did the 1920s witness a "culture clash"
between the new urban values and more traditional rural attitudes? What points of view did the two major
political parties reflect?
The Great Depression & World War II (Unit 9)--Major Issues
What factors contributed to the outbreak and severity of the Great Depression? Could it have been
prevented? If so, how?
How did Hoover address the crisis that began in the fall of 1929? As the crisis deepened, what programs
did he develop? What principles governed his actions?
To what extent did FDR’s approach differ from Hoover’s? What were the main characteristics of the first
New Deal (1933-35)? Why did FDR change direction in 1935? How did the second New Deal differ from
the first? What was the significance of the Social Security Act? What was the significance of the Wagner
Act? Why did the New Deal come to an end in 1938?
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In the final analysis, what was the significance of the New Deal? How did it alter American society and
politics?
Why was America so committed to neutrality in the early to mid-1930s? What were the steps by which the
nation moved away from “isolationism”?
What lasting impact did the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 have upon American
policymakers? What became the basic strategy of the Allies in World War II, after America joined in
1941? What factors strained the wartime alliance?
How did the war affect American society? What was the war’s impact on women? On African
Americans? On Japanese-Americans? In your view, was Japanese internment justified by wartime
necessities?
In what sense did the Cold War take shape even before World War II had ended? How did the meetings of
the “Big Three” at Yalta and Potsdam fit into this story? In your view, was the atomic bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki justified? In what sense had World War II produced a new world order?
The Cold War & the Age of Affluence (Unit 10)--Major Issues
What were the causes of the Cold War? What were the immediate postwar disagreements that divided the
U.S. and the USSR? How did the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, NATO, the National Security Act,
and NSC-68 become the pillars of America’s containment policy? Between 1948 and 1953, how did the
Cold War become a global conflict? What were the consequences of the Korean War?
Why did fears of domestic communism rise to such a fevered pitch in the late 1940s and early 1950s? Who
was to blame for McCarthyism?
What were the main features of the Cold War during the Eisenhower years? To what extent did American
policy change under Eisenhower? What were the roots of America’s involvement in Indochina?
What were the main characteristics of American culture in the Eisenhower years? What factors contributed
to the "conformity" that supposedly characterized the 1950s? To what extent was the "conformist" label
accurate? Does the "consensus" politics of the post-McCarthy years support this view?
Why did the civil rights movement emerge when it did? Was it a "top-down" movement led by white
political leaders (e.g., Truman)? Or was it a "bottom-up" movement led by ordinary black Americans?
How would you characterize JFK's presidency? What were his primary concerns? What principles and
assumptions guided his behavior? To what extent did he fundamentally challenge the consensus politics of
the mid-to-late 1950s? How "successful" was his presidency? Had he lived, would America's involvement
in Vietnam have turned out differently?
How successful was LBJ in the early years of his presidency? How responsible was he for the Vietnam
debacle?
What were the defining characteristics of the New Left? How did it change between 1962 and 1968? How
did Black Power differ from the mainstream civil rights movement? What happened to the politics of the
"liberal consensus" between 1965 and 1968? What were the consequences for the Democratic party's "New
Deal coalition"? What was the significance of the election of 1968?