Download Essay Questions: Test #2

Essay Questions: Test #2
Revolutionary Era
1.
2.
Evaluate the relative importance of three of the following as
factors prompting Americans to rebel in 1776:
Parliamentary taxation
Restriction of civil liberties
British military measures
The legacy of colonial religious and political ideas
Essay Questions: Test #3
The New Nation
1.
Why were political parties formed in the new nation and what
were the major differences among political parties in the years
1791 – 1820?
2.
With respect to the federal Constitution, the Jeffersonian
Republicans are usually characterized as strict constructionists
who were opposed to the broad constructionalism of the
Federalists. To what extent was this characterization of the
two parties accurate during the presidencies of Jefferson and
Madison?
3.
Identify THREE of the following and evaluate the relative
importance of each of the THREE in the decline of the
Federalists and the ascent to power of the Jeffersonian
Republicans.
Midnight Judges
The Alien and Sedition Acts
The Twelfth Amendment
The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
4.
“Since the Treaty of Ghent addressed none of the issues for
which the United States had fought, the War of 1812 had no
positive consequences for the American nation.”
Assess the validity of this statement.
5.
Explain the influence of THREE of the following on the U.S.
decision to go to war in 1812:
Embargo policies of Jefferson and Madison
British impressments of American seamen
Settlers’ conflicts with the Native Americans
Expansionist goals of the War Hawks
Analyze the extent to which the American Revolution
represented a radical alteration in American political ideas and
institututions.
Confine your answer to the period 1775 to 1789.
3.
Analyze the degree to which the Articles of Confederation
provided an effective form of government with respect to any
two of the following:
Foreign relations
Economic conditions
Western lands
4.
“The Declaration of Independence issued a call for a
democratic government of equal citizens that was rejected by
the writers of the Constitution, who created an aristocratic
government that benefited only the wealthy few.”
Assess the validity of this statement.
5.
To what extent had the colonists developed a sense of their
identity and unity as Americans by the eve of the Revolution?
Essay Questions: Test #4
Nationalism and Sectionalism
1.
“The Jacksonian Democrats of the 1830s had virtually the
same political views as the Jeffersonian Democrats of an
earlier era.”
Assess the validity of this statement.
2.
“Although Americans perceived Manifest Destiny as a
benevolent movement, it was in fact an aggressive imperialism
pursued at the expense of others.”
Essay Questions: Test #5
Civil War and Reconstruction
1.
Identify THREE of the following and evaluate the relative
importance of each of the THREE in laying the groundwork
for the Civil War
Abolitionism
Electoin of Lincoln, 1860
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Dred Scott Decision
2.
“I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in
any way the social and political equality of the white and
black races.”
Assess the validity of this statement with specific references to
American expansionism in the 1840s.
3.
4.
“American reform movements of the 1830s – 1840s reflected
both optimistic and pessimistic views of human nature and
society.”
Assess the validity of this statement to reform movements in 3
of the following areas:
Education
Temperance
Mental institutions
Utopian Experiments
5.
How can this 1858 statement of Abraham Lincoln be
reconciled with his 1862 Emancipation Proclamation?
Describe the factors that led to the women’s rights movement
of the 1830s – 1840s, the goals of that movement, and the
success achieved in obtaining those goals during those years.
How did TWO of the following contribute to the reemergence
of a two party system in the period 1820 to 1840?
Major political personalities
States’ rights
Economic Issues
3.
Compare and contrast the goals and strategies of the Lincoln,
Johnson, and Congressional plans of Reconstruction.
4.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the idea that the
North had won the Civil War before it began?
5.
“Reconstruction was, for blacks, largely a failure.”
Assess the validity of this statement.
Essay Questions: Test #6
The Gilded Age
1.
2.
3.
Compare and contrast the attitudes of THREE of the
following toward the wealth that was created in the
United States during the late nineteenth century.
Andrew Carnegie
Eugene V. Debs
Horatio Alger
Booker T. Washington
Ida M. Tarbell
“Although the economic growth of the United States
between 1860 and 1900 has been attributed to a
governmental policy of laissez-faire, it was in fact
encouraged and sustained by direct governmental
intervention.”
Assess the validity of this statement.
In what ways did THREE of the following affect the
development of the West?
Introduction of barbed wire
Building of the railroads
Introduction of the McCormick reaper
End of the Indian wars
4.
Analyze the impact of any TWO of the following on the
American industrial worker between 1865 and 1900.
Government actions
Immigration
Labor Unions
Technological Changes
5.
Compare and contrast immigration to the United States in
the period from 1800 to 1860 and from 1880 to 1924.
Essay Questions: Test #7
Imperialism and Progressivism
1.
In the late 1800s, the United States embarked on a new
wave of expansionism during which it acquired overseas
territories. Explain the reasons for this new wave of
expansionism.
2.
“The Spanish-American War was the result of shrewd
maneuvering on the part of a number of Washington
imperialists, such as Theodore Roosevelt, who pressured
the weak and vacillating McKinley into war in order to
gain a colonial empire in the Caribbean and the Western
Pacific.”
Evaluate this statement.
3.
Analyze the reasons for the popularity of the Progressive
movement during the first two decades of the twentieth
century.
4.
Compare the work of the Progressives at the local and
state levels.
5.
Compare the goals and proposals of TR’s New
Nationalism and Wilson’s New Freedom.
Essay Questions: Test #8
World War I and the Roaring Twenties
1.
2.
Analyze the ways in which THREE of the following indicated
the tension between conservative and liberal views in
American society during the 1920s.
4.
5.
1.
“The United States entered the first World War not ‘to make
the world safe for democracy’ as President Wilson claimed,
but to safeguard American economic interests.”
Assess the validity of this statement.
Explain the impact of U.S. involvement in World War I on
THREE of the following:
African Americans
Civil liberties
Business
Women
Labor unions
“Discrimination continued during World War II despite
the patriotism of all groups of Americans.”
Assess this statement with reference to the following:
African-Americans
Japanese-Americans
Mexican-Americans
“While many Americans were enjoying economic prosperity
during the 1920s, there was also increasing social conflict.”
Assess the validity of this statement with reference to THREE
of the following:
Fundamentalism
Ku Klux Klan
Prohibition
Nativism
Sacco and Vanzetti case
3.
Essay Questions: Test #9
Great Depression and World War 2
2.
“President Roosevelt recognized the dangers of fascism
early and did all that he could, under the circumstances, to
lead the nation away from a policy of isolationism.”
Assess the validity of this statement by analyzing THREE
of the following:
Cash and carry
Quarantine speech
Destroyers-for-bases deal
Lend-Lease
3.
“Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal represented a radical
departure from previous American traditions in
government and political economy.”
Evaluate this statement.
4.
Which of the following was most responsible for the U.S.
being attacked by surprise at Pearl Harbor on December
7, 1941?
a. Government leaders in Washington D.C.
b. Military commanders at Pearl Harbor
5.
Compare and contrast Herbert Hoover’s economic
policies with those of Franklin Roosevelt. (those
designed to solve the Depression.)
6.
Analyze the ways in which the Great Depression altered
the American social fabric in the 1930s.
“Woodrow Wilson’s refusal to compromise was chiefly
responsible for the defeat of the Treaty of Versailles.”
Assess the validity of this statement.
Essay Outlines: Test #10
Postwar America (1945 – 1960)
1.
Compare and contrast Truman’s Fair Deal with Roosevelt’s
New Deal. In your answer, assess whether the Fair Deal broke
any new ground in domestic reforms.
2.
“The Cold War hostility between the United States and the
Soviet Union was inevitable.”
Assess the validity of this statement.
3.
“Truman was slow to react to the threat of communism, but
when he did, he overreacted.”
Assess the validity of this statement.
4.
“The chief impetus for the civil rights movement came from
African Americans, not from elected officials.”
Assess the validity of this statement by analyzing THREE of
the following:
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Little Rock crisis
Sit-ins
Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960
5.
6.
Analyze the influence of TWO of the following on AmericanSoviet relations in the decade following the Second World
War.
Yalta Conference
Communist Revolution in China
Korean War
McCarthyism
To what extent did the decade of the 1950s deserve its
reputation as an age of political, social, and cultural
conformity?
Essay Questions: Test #11
Kennedy through Nixon
1.
“Even though Lyndon Johnson was not as greatly admired as
President Kennedy, he was a more effective leader than Kennedy
in domestic affairs.”
Assess the validity of this statement.
2.
Explain how THREE of the following contributed to the social
revolutions of the 1960s.
New Left
Civil Rights Movement
Counterculture
Women’s Movement
3.
“President Johnson’s policy in Vietnam was doomed to fail for
both political and military reasons.” To what extent is this
assessment of Johnson’s policy supported by the historical
evidence?
4.
What were the abuses in the Watergate scandal, and what impact
did Nixon have on the office of the president?
5.
“1968 was a turning point for the United States.” To what extent is
this an accurate assessment? In you answer, discuss TWO of the
following:
National politics
Vietnam War
Civil Rights Movement
6.
Analyze the changes that occurred during the 1960s in the goals,
strategies and support of the movement for African-American civil
rights.