History 7
Fall 2016
Professor Borses
Midterm Exam #1 Study Guide
The exam consists of 200 points, constituting a total of 20% of your grade
· I'll put eight Term IDs on the exam. Answer four of them. (30 points each)
· I'll include two essay questions. Write on one. Construct an argument in response to the prompt. (80 points)
· You will have about 75 minutes for the exam. (It will take a few minutes to hand out bluebooks and test sheets.)
· Please note that if you answer more than the required number of questions I will only grade the number of required questions in the order presented. (4 term IDs, 1 essay)
Please bring three BLANK blue books to class or office hours by Monday, September 26 (I have office hours from 12:30-2:30 that day). They should be full size, 16 pages (8 sheets). Do not write your name on them. Also, please obtain 1 or 2 blue or black pens. You will need to write your exam in blue or black ink.
Part 1: IDENTIFICATIONS: (be able to identify each term in 1-2 sentences and then provide 2-3 sentences describing its SIGNIFICANCE in terms of the themes of the course)
Freedmen’s Bureau
“The Lost Cause”
sharecroppers
Ida B. Wells
“Southern Horrors”
Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis
Custer’s Last Stand
Battle of Wounded Knee
Myth of the Yeoman Farmer
Currier and Ives prints
Horatio Alger
The patronage system
Jane Addams’ Hull House
temperance movement
Ellis Island
Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus”
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
Rock Springs Massacre
Angel Island
Paper Sons
The Populist Party
Knights of Labor
Homestead Lockout
The Haymarket “Riot”
Pullman Company Town
Election of 1896
"Benevolent Assimilation"
"water cure"
Evangelina Cisneros
The Rough Riders
"Filipino Insurrection"
Samar "The Howling Wilderness"
Thomasites
Pensionados
Igorot Village
Part 2: Essay Questions: For each question, develop an argument and support that argument with specific information from the lectures, readings and films. These questions may be approached in very different ways and there is no SINGLE way to frame your answers.
Question #1: At the end of the 19th century, how did Americans ascribe meaning to the land? What types of popular mythology informed Americans in their views, and how did that mythology develop? What type of resistance did Americans face in attempting to live up to that mythology? The best responses will consider the multiple influences of late 19th century history, including the development of agribusiness, resistance from Native Americans, and resistance on the part of farmers to what they saw as exploitative east-coast capital.
Question #2 Why have historians used Mark Twain’s term, “the Gilded Age” to refer to the United States during the last quarter of the 19th century? What broad processes were occurring during this time period, and how did they affect the lives of Americans? To what degree were the experiences of Americans differentiated according to race, class and sex, and what were some of the ways in which Americans resisted some of these broad processes?
Question #3: Consider the most common narrative used to explain the role of immigrants in the United States in the late-19th and early-20th century, that the United States is a “nation of immigrants.” What are the strengths of such a narrative in elucidating American history? Be sure to support your answers with specifics from the textbook, videos and lectures.
Question #4: Why did American engage in a concerted exercise of empire building at the turn of the twentieth century? What domestic factors spurred this effort, and how did Americans view these efforts once they were under way? Finally, what did being part of an American empire mean for the subjects of that colonization?