Mr. Maurer
American Cultures 6.0
Mid-Term Review
Chapter 22 – World War I
1. How could you make the case that the U.S. wasn’t truly neutral even before it officially
entered World War I?
2. What German action was most important in bringing the U.S. into WWI?
3. Describe what happened to civil liberties (e.g. freedom of speech) during WWI.
4. How did WWI affect the U.S. economy?
5. Describe the main purpose of Wilson’s Fourteen Points.
6. How did WWI affect immigration from Europe?
7. Which of his Fourteen Points (and which part of the Treaty of Versailles) was most important
to President Wilson?
Chapter 23 – The 1920s
1. Briefly describe U.S. foreign policy during the 1920s. Were we relatively more or less engaged in
international affairs than we had been in the late 1910s?
2. Briefly characterize (describe) the Harding administration. What was the most notable aspect of his
Presidency?
3. What were the causes of the Red Scare of the 1920s?
4. Explain the policy of “laissez-faire.”
5. Explain the Teapot Dome scandal.
6. In general what happened to membership in organized labor unions during the 1920s?
7. Summarize the economic changes that helped bring prosperity to American in the 1920s.
8. Identify the events and trends that illustrated the growing clash between the modern and the
traditional in the 1920s.
9. What was the central issue in the Scopes trial?
Chapter 24 – The Great Depression and the New Deal
1. Identify the underlying weaknesses of the American economy in the late 1920s
2. Why did stock market prices plummet so quickly in October 1929?
3. Why did President Hoover oppose direct relief payments to the unemployed?
4. What did Franklin Roosevelt pledge to do to fight the Depression during the 1932 election
campaign?
5. What was the “Hundred Days?”
6. How did Roosevelt’s most important programs, like the CCC and the PWA try to aid the
unemployed?
7. Why did Hey Long and Francis Townsend criticize the New Deal?
8. What was the major accomplishment of the Social Security Act?
9. What were Roosevelt’s conservative critics afraid of as he expanded the power of the federal
government?
10. How did Franklin Roosevelt respond when the Supreme Court struck down parts of the New
Deal? What was the end result of his efforts?
11. In the end, how successful was the New Deal in ending the Great Depression?
12. What was the most important legacy of the New Deal?
13. Where was the Dust Bowl?
14. What did the Works Progress Administration do?
Chapter 25 – World War II
1. How did Americans in general respond to growing aggression by Japan, Italy, and Germany in
the 1930s?
2. List the provisions of the Neutrality Acts of the 1930s.
3. How did the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact affect Poland’s fate after the German invasion?
4. Explain the Allies’ “Germany First” strategy for fighting the war.
5. What does the term “Arsenal of Democracy” signify about America’s contribution to the
Allied war effort?
6. What effect did the war have on women’s employment in the U.S.?
7. How did World War II help bring an end to the Great Depression?
8. Describe the ways in which African-Americans and Japanese-Americans were discriminated
against during World War II.
9. What issues were discussed at the Yalta Conference?
10. What did the U.S., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union agree about at the Potsdam
Conference?
11. Why did President Truman decide to use the atomic bomb against Japan?