“America Claims an Empire: 1890-1920” Chapter 10 Study Guide
Extra Credit Chapter Essay: The questions which follow are the extra credit essay prompts that could be completed
during this unit of study. The essay should be typed (double-spaced), at least between two and five pages, and
submitted to your instructor no later than the day following the chapter test. You must include a bibliography page if
you use any additional information than that provided by your textbook or by your instructor. You may wish to use the
writing rubric to help you organize your essay in the correct manner. Please remember to use proper spelling, proper
mechanics, and proper organization.
1. Why did the United States largely abandon its isolationist foreign policy in the 1890s? Answers
would ideally include: background on isolationism, discussion of Manifest Destiny, commercial
expansion, Christian zeal, and the Monroe Doctrine in the late nineteenth-century.
2.
The late nineteenth-century was a watershed in American foreign policy. Why did the United States
strengthen its presence in the Americas and beyond in the 1890s? How did these actions
reinforce or revise earlier national foreign policy? In your answer, discuss how private and national
interests shaped these actions. Answers would ideally include: shift in American foreign policy,
strengthening American hegemony [domination] in the Americas, economic pressures, and missionary
zeal.
3.
Consider each of the following as a cause of war in 1898: public opinion, yellow journalism, business
interests, and strategic interests. Which do you consider the key cause of war? Why? Explain your
answer fully and provide key factual information to support your opinion.
“The First World War: 1914-1920” Chapter 11 Study Guide
Chapter Essay: The questions which follow are the essay prompts to be completed during this unit of study. You must
choose one of the following and answer it completely. The essay should be typed (double-spaced), between two and
five pages, and submitted to your instructor no later than the day following the chapter test. You must include a
bibliography page if you use any additional information than that provided by your textbook or by your instructor. You
may wish to use the writing rubric to help you organize your essay in the correct manner. Please remember to use
proper spelling, proper mechanics, and proper organization.
1. Why did the United States at first resist intervening in World War I? Why did it late retreat
from this policy and send troops? In your answer, discuss how these decisions revised, or reinforced,
earlier U.S. foreign policy. Answers would ideally include: early reasons for neutrality, causes
contributing to the retreat from neutrality, the British blockade of Germany, the attack on the
Lusitania, U.S. trade with Britain, the Zimmermann note, and British propaganda in the U.S.
2.
How did World War I change America – both its standing in the world and at home? Why is the
war important enough for the authors of your textbook to give it a full chapter? Answers would
ideally include: discussion of conformity at home, nature of the U.S. as a police power internationally,
discussion of economic changes, decrease in isolationist influences, and technological and industrial
changes.
“The Roaring Life of the 1920s: 1920-1929” Chapter 13 Study Guide
1. Why did the relationship between urban and rural America deteriorate in the 1920s? Answers
would ideally include: uneven distribution of wealth, population shift, rural America and antiimmigrant sentiment, and cultural disputes.
2.
Do you think that the “noble experiment” of prohibition did more harm than good or vice versa?
Explain your view by citing specific consequences of the prohibition amendment.
3.
How did the new freedoms of the 1920s challenge older conceptions of gender and race? Answers
would ideally include: discussion of the ethic of personal freedom, the New Woman, and the New
Negro.
“Politics of the Roaring Twenties: 1919-1929” and “The Great Depression Begins: 1929-1933” Chapter 12/14
Study Guide
1. List at lease five major economic and/or technological developments of the 1920s. Select the three
most significant ones and explain your choices.
2.
It has been observed of the politics of the 1920s that “less government in business and more business
in government” was needed. Interpret this remark. To what extent did Republican policies in the
1920s meet that “need”? Give examples.
3.
What did Herbert Hoover do to combat the Great Depression? What more do you think he
should have done? Why didn’t he? Justify one author’s description of Hoover as the “Pioneer of
the New Deal.”