2016Final Long Essay Exam Questions

  1. Compare and contrast the leadership roles, social, and geographical differences and similarities between the First Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening.
  1. Evaluate the impact of the Civil War on political and economic developments in TWO of the following regions. Focus your answer on the period between 1860 and 1900.

•The South•The North•The West

  1. Describe and account for presidential ability to effectively reform domestic policy in the American presidency between 1960 and 1975.
  1. Analyze TWO of the following main motivational factors on U.S.Imperialism during the span of 1865-1915. Provide at least TWO examples for each factor.

  1. Economic factors
  2. Strategic military factors
  3. Moral factors
  4. Political factors

  1. Early Colonialism: Compare and contrast the political, social, and economic differences between two of the following
  2. The New England Settlement
  3. The Middle Colonies
  4. The Settlement of the Chesapeake Bay.
  1. Analyze the influence of TWO of the following on American-Soviet relations in the decade following the Second World War.

Yalta Conference, Communist revolution in China, Korean War, McCarthyism

  1. In your opinion, how successful was FDR’s New Deal at addressing each of the three “R’s” (Relief, Reform, Recovery) and confronting the problems of the Great Depression?
  1. New Imperialism (“neo imperialism”)vs. Old Imperialism (expansion): "Both the Mexican War and the Spanish-American War were premeditated affairs resulting from deliberately calculated schemes of robbery on the part of a superior power against weak and defenseless neighbors." Assess the validity of this statement. (1986, question 4)
  1. Evaluate the relationship between the federal government and Native Americans from 1830-1850 and 1880-1940.
  1. The economic, political, and social aspects of the 1920s and 1950s were very similar. Support, refute, or modify this statement.
  1. Prior to American involvement in both the First and Second World Wars, the United States adopted an official policy of neutrality. Compare the policy and its modification during the period 1914-1917 to the policy and its modification during the period 1939-1941. (1982, question 5)
  1. "American reform movements between 1820 and 1860 reflected both optimism and pessimistic views of human nature and society." Assess the validity of this statement in reference to reform movements in THREE of the following areas:

  • Education
  • Temperance
  • Women's rights
  • Utopian experiments
  • Penal institutions (1988, question 3)

2016 predictions

Minority rights 1960 to 1980

Causes of the American Revolution

Causes of the Civil War

Columbian Exchange

Encomienda System

Articles of Confederation vs. Constitution

Success of Reconstruction

Predictions 2011 Exam

  1. Civil Rights DBQ
  2. New Deal
  3. Compare WWI and WWII American entry
  4. Old Imperialism/New Imperialism
  5. The Imperial President: Abuse of executive power
  6. Utopian movements in 1820-1850
  7. War 1812
  8. Era of Good Feelings
  9. Close Presidential Elections: The Corrupt Bargain, Compromise of 1877, other?
  10. Red Scares/McCarthyism and the Cuban Missile Crisis
  11. T.R or Andrew Jackson
  12. Compare and contrast Virginia Colony with Massachusetts Bay
  13. Progressive Era Social Reform

The postwar era witnessed tremendous economic growth and rising social contentment and conformity. Yet in the midst of such increasing affluence and comfortable domesticity, social critics expressed a growing sense of unease with American culture in the 1950s.

  1. "Analyze the ways in which TWO of the following influenced the development of American society. Puritanism during the seventeenth century The Great Awakening during the eighteenth century The Second Great Awakening during the nineteenth century" (1994, question 2)
  1. Early Colonialism: Compare and contrast the political, social, and economic differences between two of the following
  2. The New England Settlement
  3. Restoration Colonies
  4. The Settlement of the Chesapeake Bay.

"Between 1783 and 1800 the new government of the United States faced the same political, economic, and constitutional issues that troubled the British government's relations with the colonies prior to the Revolution." Assess the validity of this generalization. (1980, question 4)

Analyze the degree to which the Articles of Confederation provided an effective form of government with respect to any TWO of the following. A. Foreign relations B. Economic conditions C. Western lands (1996, question 2)

3. Americans have been a highly mobile people. Describe and account for the dominant population movements between 1820 and 1900. (1982, question 3)

Jacksonian Democrats viewed themselves as the guardians of the United States Constitution, political democracy, individual liberty, and equality of economic opportunity. In light of the following documents and your knowledge of the 1820's and 1830's, to what extent do you agree with the Jacksonians view of themselves? (1990, DBQ)

"American reform movements between 1820 and 1860 reflected both optimism and pessimistic views of human nature and society." Assess the validity of this statement in reference to reform movements in THREE of the following areas: Education; Temperance; Women's rights; Utopian experiments; Penal institutions (1988, question 3)

. "Although Americans perceived Manifest Destiny as a benevolent movement, it was in fact an aggressive imperialism pursued at the expense of others." Assess the validity of this statement with specific reference to American expansionism in the 1840's. (1990, question 3)

4. "Both the Mexican War and the Spanish-American War were premeditated affairs resulting from deliberately calculated schemes of robbery on the part of a superior power against weak and defenseless neighbors." Assess the validity of this statement. (1986, question 4)

6. John Brown's raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in October 1859, involved only a handful of abolitionists, freed no slaves, and was over in two days. Although many Northerners condemned the raid, by 1863 John Brown had become a hero and a martyr in the North. To what extent and in what ways do the views about John Brown expressed in the documents illustrate changing North-South relations between 1859 and 1863?

2. In what ways were the late-nineteenth-century Populists the heirs of the Jacksonian Democrats with respect to overall objectives AND specific proposals for reform? (1989, question 4)

7. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois offered different strategies for dealing with the problems of poverty and discrimination faced by Black Americans at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. Using the documents and your knowledge of the period 1877-1915, assess the appropriateness of each of these strategies in the historical context in which each was developed. (1989, DBQ)** 8. Compare the goals and strategies of Black reform movements in the period 1890-1910 to the goals and strategies of Black reform movements in the period 1950-1970. (1982, question 6)

4. Why did U.S. foreign policy after the Second World War (1945-1960) take a different direction from that after the First World War (1918-1939)? Give approximately equal attention to both periods. (1981, question 4)

11. Why did socialism fail to become a major force in American politics between 1900 and 1940 despite widespread dissatisfaction with the social and economic order and significant support for radical movements during that period? (1988, question 6)

  1. "United States foreign policy between 1815 and 1910 was determined less by economic than by strategic, moral, or political interests."

“The severe depression that began in 1893 strengthened an idea developing within the political and financial elite of the country: that overseas markets for American goods might relieve the problem of underconsumption at home and prevent the economic crises that in the 1890s brought class war.”

-Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States

Which of the above statements is most valid? Reference at least TWO major episodes (for example, treaties, proclamations, annexations, wars, etc.) in the foreign policy of the U.S. between 1815 and 1910. (1980, question 3)

  1. Please explain how the U.S. economy and foreign policy (1865-1914) moved from a state of isolation to the formation of the world empire by the start of WWI. (Chapter 23, Video Guide, Newman Chapter 20)
  2. "United States foreign policy between 1815 and 1910 was determined less by economic than by strategic, moral, or political interests." Assess the validity of this generalization with reference to at least TWO major episodes (for example, treaties, proclamations, annexations, wars, etc.) in the foreign policy of the U.S. between 1815 and 1910. (1980, question 3)
  1. Prior to American involvement in both the First and Second World Wars, the United States adopted an official policy of neutrality. Compare the policy and its modification during the period 1914-1917 to the policy and its modification during the period 1939-1941. (1982, question 5)
  1. Early Colonialism: Compare and contrast the political, social, and economic differences between two of the following
  2. The New England Settlement
  3. Restoration Colonies
  4. The Settlement of the Chesapeake Bay.
  1. "American reform movements between 1820 and 1860 reflected both optimism and pessimistic views of human nature and society." Assess the validity of this statement in reference to reform movements in THREE of the following areas:
  2. Education
  3. Temperance
  4. Women's rights
  5. Utopian experiments
  6. Penal institutions (1988, question 3)
  1. "Both the Mexican War and the Spanish-American War were premeditated affairs resulting from deliberately calculated schemes of robbery on the part of a superior power against weak and defenseless neighbors." Assess the validity of this statement. (1986, question 4)
  1. Prior to American involvement in both the First and Second World Wars, the United States adopted an official policy of neutrality. Compare the policy and its modification during the period 1914-1917 to the policy and its modification during the period 1939-1941. (1982, question 5)