Winter Break Assignment, 2016
The following assignment is aimed at responding to Period 7. You will find links on our webpage
that are helpful in completing this assignment. Each section is weighted for an exam grade and
is due upon return from the winter break.
1. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. (25%)
Following the public and political response to the publication of The Jungle, Upton
Sinclair said, “I aimed at the public’s heart, and I hit it in the stomach”. Based on
the historical events of the time period, Sinclair’s background and personal beliefs;
Why did he say this? And what do you think he meant by this statement?
Write up to one page responding to the above questions by reviewing the links
provided on our website and any other resources related to this muckrakers.
(Hint: Research his biography)
2. Hetch-Hetchy Valley: Preservationists v. Conservationists (25%)
1. Read “The Backgrounder”
2. Read and analyze the “Documents and Maps”.
3. Watch the Video HippoCampus. Org / Moments in American Hist/ Teddy
Roosevelt as a Conservationist
4. Watch the Video: “How Wolves Changed Rivers”
5. Respond to the “Questions” (Cite the documents in your response. Try to use the
contents of the video as Synthesis).
3. Spanish- American War (25%)
1. Read The American Yawp, Chapter 19: The American Empire
Optional: You may refer to Howard Zinn’s Chapter 12: The Empire and the People
2. Printout the LEQ Rubrics
3. Create an outline by writing responses, not bulleted points, for each of the LEQ
categories only, in response to the following prompt:
Some historians have argued that the Spanish-American War in 1898 marked a
turning point in U.S. Foreign Policy. (Periodization)
Support, modify, or refute this contention using specific evidence.
4. POV: Howard Zinn on Progressivism (25%)
1. Read Chapter 13 The Socialist Challenge
2. Write a page interpreting the following statement by Howard Zinn, provide
examples. (ie Panic of 1907------Taylorism blunted the rise of Socialism with new
efficient and effective ways of organizing production).
“Progressive reforms to some extent stabilized the capitalist system by repairing its
worst defects, blunt the edge of the Socialist movement, restore some measure of class
peace in a time of increasingly bitter clashes between capital and labor.”