Reading+&+Free+Response+Questions


 * On this page you will find reading questions for the chapters and free response questions. **
 * Reading Questions: **



** Free response questions for your careful consideration. **

 * Meeting of Cultures & English Transplation: **

1. Compare and contrast the English, Spanish and French colonial systems - how they functioned, their successes and failures, and their effect of the American Indians.
==== 2. What conditions existed in Europe that helped to promote the exploration and settlement of AMerica? How did the geographic situation of European countries influence patterns of colonial settlement? ==== ==== 3. Notice the differences in the geographic features of New England and the Chesapeake region. Consider the different motives for settlement and the societies that settled in these regions. Now describe how geographic conditions in the New World, combined with the cultural attitudes brought from the Old World, shaped the pattern of settlement in the Emnglish societies. ====

** Life in Provincial America & Empire under Strain: **
==== 1. Why was labor such a problem for colonists in the 17th century? How was this problem addressed in the middle and New England colonies? What effect did these efforts to solve the labor shortage have on the social and economic systems of the region. ====

2. Who were the Americans? Describe the diverse population that settled the British American colonies in the 16th & 17th centuries and assessits growth during the period.
==== 3. What were the goals of the British and the Americans in the Great War for the Empire? How did the war affect the attitudes of British leaders as well as American colonists toward the proper relationship between colonies and the mother country? ====

Reconstrucion: 1. Describe the social and economic conditions of the South in the aftermath of the war. Discuss the political, economic and emotional issues facing Northern leaders in devising a plan of Reconstruction. 2. Compare and contrast Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction, the Wade-Davis Bill, Johnson's plan, and Radical Reconstruction. Consider provisions, motives, goals and results.

The West:

1. What factors promoted settlement of the West? Why did the unsettled West hold a particularly strong romantic appeal for Americans? How has the romantic vision of the frontier been perpetuated in American culture? 2. Explain the cultural system that developed in the American Southwest under Spanish and Mexican rule, and explain how Anglo-Americans respond to this immigration and what was the result ?

Industry & The City:

1. What philosophies of the late 19th century allowed industrial tucoons to rationalize their methods and powers? 2. What factors combined to attract the great masses of people to the cities of America? What were the characteristics of these migrants? 3. Analyze the impact of industrialization and urbanization on shifting trends in American art. literature, and education in the latter 19th century. 4. Analyze the impact of Darwinism on American scientific and social thought.

Politics in the Last part of the 19th Century:

1. Do you agree that Populism was a reasonable and realistic response to agrarian grievances? 2. In a series of cases incl. Wabash and US v. EC Knight, the Supreme Court restricted all efforts to regulate business. What effect did these decisions have on business?

Imperialism:

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">1. What impact did the Yellow Press have on American opinon on expansionism in the 1890s? What criticism was leveled at the Yellow Press? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">2. Was the Spanish-American War indeed a "splendid little war"? What was splendid and what was sordid? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">3. Discuss the background and results of the Open Door policy in China for the US.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Progressive Movement:

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">1. Explain how progressivism affected women and conversely how women affected progressivism.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">2. Explain the three "impulses"of the progressive movement. What specific programs embodied those impulses?

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">National Reform:

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">1. Compare and contrast the personalities of presidents Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson. How did these personal factors affect their leadership styles and accomplishments in domestic affairs?

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">2. Was Theodore Roosevelt a conservative or a progressive? Build a convincing argument for **both** viewpoints.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">America & The Great War:

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">1. Was American involvement in WWI inevitable? What forces worked to maintain neutrality? What forces propelled the country away from neutrality and into full belligerency?

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">2. Compare Wilson's 14 Points and the Treaty of Versailles. Analyze the documents to determine if they proposed fair and adequate plans for a new world order following WWI.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The New Era:

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">1. Analyze the forces which contributed to the emergence of a modern secular American culture in the 1920s.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">2. To what extent did urban and rural culture become blended in the 1920s? How did they remain distinct?

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Great Depression:

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">1. Why did the nation so thoroughly reject Herbert Hoover? What was expected from FDR?

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">2. Discuss the impact of the Great Depression on American popular culture as wellas serious artistic expression.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">3. List & explain the factors identified as having been principally responsible for the Great Depression.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The New Deal:

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">1. In the beginning, FDR said, "Try something. If it works, keep doing it. If it doesn't, try something else." Which programs and policies of the First New Deal worked and which did not?

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">2. Analyze FDR's strengths and weaknesses asa politician. Was he a successful president? Explain.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Global Crisis & America in a World at War: <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">1. Describe adn explain the process by which American public opinion gradually shifted from favoring a policy of neutrality in 1935 to one of interventionism in 1941. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">2. Many of the broad strategy and social decisions of WWII are still debated. Describe the key issues involved in the Germany -first decision, the second front debate, the Japanese - American internment, and the dropping of the atomic bombs.Were the right decisions made? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">3. The US obtained evidence of the Holocaust as early as 1942. What was the response of the Roosevelt administration and why did it act as it did? What other options were open? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">4. Describe the relationship between the US and the Soviet Union that emerged during the 1930s and WWII. What seeds for discord were planted despite the concerted effort against Germany and later Japan?