Social Studies 8 Midterm Study Guide
1. What is history?
2. What is the most important and central point in all of history? Please put it on a timeline, with
the following dates: 512 BC, 798 AD, 39 BC, 52 AD.
3. What was one of the major issues over which the Civil War was fought?
4. Were the two sides able to easily and peacefully come back together following the Civil War?
5. Did Johnson want to continue Lincoln’s general policy regarding Reconstruction?
6. What was Reconstruction? Was it put into place out of a desire to heal or to hurt?
7. Why was Johnson put for impeachment? Was the vote to impeach him or not?
8. Define the “Solid South”:
9. Define the following 3 terms: Gold Standard, Bimetallism, Paper Money
10. Define Patronage:
11. How did Garfield’s presidency end?
12. How did William Jennings Bryan and William McKinley wage their presidential campaigns? Who
won?
13. What is a monopoly?
14. Why did labor unions come into being? What was the Church’s response to the rise of labor
unions?
15. What is the story of St. Joseph’s staircase?
16. Why did the Native Americans and the United States Government have a poor relationship?
17. What was important about the Black Hills to the Sioux?
18. What is a “reservation?”
19. What is the story of General Custer and Little Big Horn?
20. What is “Yellow Journalism” or the “Yellow Press”?
21. What was “Seward’s Folly”?
22. How did the US do in fighting the Spanish-American War?
23. What was the book “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclaire about corruption in the meat-packing
industry intended to do? What did it actually do?
24. During Roosevelt’s presidency, did business or government get stronger?
25. What was the Progressive Movement?
26. What is a direct primary? What was this a change from?
27. What is the 17th Amendment?
28. What is Roosevelt’s famous quote regarding his foreign policy?
29. Why was the United States so interested in Panama?
30. How did William McKinley’s presidency end?
31. Who was Roosevelt’s hand-picked successor for the presidency?
32. What was the Bull Moose Party? Why was it formed?
33. Describe the type of man Woodrow Wilson was:
34. What did Wilson create to help manage the banking and money supply issue?
35. What was Wilson’s 1916 re-election campaign slogan?
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How long did the people think World War I was going to last?
With what attitude did the people approach the First World War?
What were the two sides in the First World War?
Describe the style and speed of warfare in the First World War:
What massive battle saw 1,100,000 casualties over 7 miles in the matter of months?
What type of blockade did the British use against the Germans? What type of blockade did the
Germans use back?
What was the Lusitania and what was its fate?
What two events led the United States to enter into the War?
Who appeared in Fatima, Spain in the year 1917 to beg the people of the world to make
sacrifices and reparations in order to bring about peace?
T/F The United States was militarily prepared for its entrance into the war in 1917
On what day was the armistice ending the First World War signed?
What were the 14 Points?
Which of the following were not among the 14 Points? A) No more secret treaties B) Absolute
Freedom of the seas C) Absolute Freedom of the Skies D) Free/Impartial adjustment of
colonies
Which of the following was not a major world leader involved in setting the terms of the treaty
ending the First World War? A) Otto von Bismark B) Georges Clemenceau C) David LloydGeorge D) Woodrow Wilson
Where was the peace conference ending the First World War held?
What precursor to the United Nations did Woodrow Wilson dream up as a way of trying to
ensure peace and communication between the various countries of the world?
What principles did Wilson use when realigning the nations of Europe?
Why did Woodrow Wilson not reunite Germany and Austria?
T/F The United States joined the League of Nations
What was the attitude of Woodrow Wilson and the American press towards Pancho Villa?
Describe the way the American people were feeling at the beginning of the 1920s:
Describe America’s foreign policy approach in the 1920s:
Why were criminal gangs not shut down immediately?
What was the 18th Amendment? How did people get around it?
Describe Harding’s presidency:
What was the Teapot Dome Scandal?
Why did Hoover easily beat Al Smith in the 1924 presidential election?
Why did the Federal Reserve continue its inflationary policies in 1927 even though it knew that
the system might crash?
What was Hoover’s campaign slogan?
Describe how the Great Depression began? (Give the process which took America from rich
prosperity to total economic collapse):
What was Hoover’s response to the Great Depression? Did it work?
What was Black Tuesday?
68. What was the Dust Bowl? What caused it?
69. T/F Roosevelt waited until a few weeks later to accept his nomination as a Presidential
Candidate since it was the custom to do so
70. What was the New Deal?
71. What is a “lame duck period”?
72. What was a “bank holiday”?
73. Roosevelt: “The only thing we have to _________ is __________ itself”
74. What was a fireside chat?
75. What were the “Hundred Days”?
76. Which of the following programs provided work for jobless men ages 18-25 in reforestation,
flood control, and national park conservation? A) Civilian Corps Reforestation Act B) Federal
Emergency Relief Act C) Agricultural Adjustment Act D) Tennessee Valley Authority
77. Which of the following provided direct federal relief payments to the states for those suffering
and in need? A) Tennessee Valley Authority B) Agricultural Adjustment Act C) Glass-Steagall
Act D) Federal Emergency Relief Act
78. Which of the following encouraged deliberate waste/destruction of crops in order to try to raise
farm prices? A) Federal Emergency Relief Act B) Agricultural Adjustment Act C) National
Industrial Recovery Act D) Civilian Corps Reforestation Act
79. Which of the following created the FDIC, in which the government guaranteed that money (up
to $5000) put into the bank would be covered by the government if the bank were to crash? A)
Glass-Steagall Act B) Gold Repeal Joint Resolution C) National Industrial Recovery Act D)
Tennessee Valley Authority
80. Which of the following created the NRA, which implemented (put into action) wage, price, and
employment controls? A) National Industrial Recovery Act B) Agricultural Adjustment Act C)
Civilian Conservation Corps Reforestation Act D) Gold Repeal Joint Resolution