HACC/LD: History 107: Modern American History
Exam #1 Review Questions
Directions: 2 Short Answer responses at 20% each AND 1 Essay response at 60%.
You need to write in clear, complete, and coherent sentences. You need to use
examples/evidence and reasoning to cogently address these questions.
Short Answer Choices:
1. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, how did the government respond to the growth of powerful industries
and to complaints about business practices? Did it respond appropriately? Why or why not?
2. Who were the Progressives? What did they believe? What did they achieve? What means did they use? Why did
their movement end?
3. How did reactions to the Russian Revolution and World War I result in the restriction of some people’s civil
rights in the United States? Were these restrictions justified? Explain.
4. Were the 1920s a period of business boom or false prosperity? Explain.
5. What was the ‘clash of values’ in the 1920s? Explain 3 examples.
6. In the 1920s, how did new technology lead to social, economic, and political changes?
7. How did the roles of women change during and after WWI?
8. What was the Harlem Renaissance? Why was it important?
9. Which groups suffered the most from the Crash and the Great Depression? Why?
10. Which New Deal actions were intended to reform the U.S. economic system?
11. How did the New Deal change the role of government in the United States? Explain the impact.
12. How did the New Deal affect organized labor, minorities, and women?
13. Explain the American foreign policy position at the outbreak of World War I. How did this position change
over time? What were the three main reasons for the US’s entry into the war in 1917?
14. How did actions of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson increase both the power of the U.S. and the
power of the presidency?
15. What was Hoover’s reaction to the economic crash in 1929? How did he try to remedy the situation? How
did Roosevelt, in his first 100 days, differ in approaching the Depression? How successful were both
approaches?
16. What basic weaknesses in the economy led to the Great Depression? Explain the weaknesses/flaws.
17. Did New Deal relief, reform, and recovery legislation go too far or not far enough to solve the current
issues and prevent another depression? Why or Why not? Who opposed the New Deal? Why?
18. What were the long-term effects of the CCC, WPA, PWA and TVA?
19. How did the Supreme Court both help and hinder New Deal policies?
20. How did the Dust Bowl and Depression affect American agriculture?
21. What were the themes of WPA artists, film-makers, and writers? How did they reflect the New Deal era?
Essay Choices:
INTRO: (CONTEXT.THESIS)>BODY:(EXAMPLS. ELABORATE. EXPLAIN)>CONCLUSION
1. What factors in the US led to the shift from an agrarian to an industrial and urban society? What
were the results of this shift?
2. What effects did mass immigration, industrialization, and urbanization have on American politics,
culture, work life, and family life? Explain.
3. What were the pressures for reform that led to the Progressive movement? Who were the
Progressives? How successful were the Progressives in meeting their goals? Why did it end?
4. What were the causes of increased international involvement of the US from 1890 to 1920? What
was the impact of this intervention? In other words, what were the effects of this involvement on the
US and other people around the world?
5. What tensions developed between the people who were a part of the traditional rural culture and
those who were members of the new, urban-based society in the 1920s?
6. What were the causes of the Great Depression, and how did that event affect the American people
and their institutions at that time? What is the legacy of the Great Depression and the New Deal?