Period 7: 1890–1945

Read the excerpt below.

"I was hired as a helper in the sheet metal department of the shipyards... We were paid the same rate as the men, which was a revelation. But we were told from the start, 'You girls are here to help win the war. When the war is over, the men will want their jobs back.' It was made clear that our presence in the shipyards was for the duration only."
— Oral history of a wartime shipyard worker, Portland, Oregon, c. 1943

Which of the following home front developments during World War II is best supported by the excerpt?

“We have of late years placed barriers in the way of the importation of foreign goods. We have at the same time insisted upon the payment of foreign debts. But we cannot expect to export our surplus products if we refuse to buy the goods of those who wish to purchase from us. By maintaining excessively high tariffs, we have disrupted the natural flow of international commerce and undermined the purchasing power of our foreign customers, leaving our agricultural and industrial producers with unsold surpluses.”
— Representative Cordell Hull, Congressional Record, 1926

Hull’s argument in the excerpt best serves as evidence for which of the following causes of the Great Depression?

Source: Louis D. Brandeis, *Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It*, 1914

"We must break the Money Trust. We must choose. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both. ... The development of our financial oligarchy has been made possible by several factors: the concentration of banks and trust companies; the control of railroads and industrial corporations by these same financial interests... The key to their power is consolidation—a consolidation that threatens the very foundations of our free institutions."

The concerns expressed in the excerpt contributed most directly to which of the following legislative developments of the Progressive Era?

Read the excerpt below from a letter written by an interned Japanese American in 1943.

"We are citizens of this country, yet we are penned in behind barbed wire. Now, the government comes to us with a questionnaire. Question 27 asks if we are willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered. Question 28 asks us to swear unqualified allegiance to the United States and forswear any allegiance to the Japanese Emperor. How can they ask us to declare loyalty when they have stripped us of our rights?"

The dilemma described in the excerpt was a direct consequence of which of the following wartime policies?

"We do not wish to have children work, yet in Pennsylvania alone there are thousands of children employed in the glass works and textile mills... while we sleep, little girls will be working all night. We register our protest against these child labor laws, which are in a state of chaotic confusion. Is it not the duty of mothers, who are the natural protectors of children, to seek the ballot in order to influence legislation to protect these youth?"
— Florence Kelley, address before the National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1905

Which of the following best explains how reformers like Kelley sought to achieve the goals described in the excerpt?

Read the passage below and answer the following question.

"If it had not been for these thing, I might have live out my life talking at street corners to scorning men. I might have die, unmarked, unknown, a failure. Now we are not a failure. This is our career and our triumph. Never in our full life could we hope to do such work for tolerance, for justice, for man's understanding of man as now we do by accident. Our words—our lives—our pains—nothing! The taking of our lives—lives of a good shoemaker and a poor fish-peddler—all! That last moment belongs to us—that agony is our triumph."
— Bartolomeo Vanzetti, statement to the court, 1927

Which of the following historical developments of the 1920s best explains the public controversy surrounding the trial and execution of the author of this statement?

"We must give this proof of our sincere friendship for the Chinese people. It is not only a matter of justice; it is a matter of vital war strategy. The enemy is constantly telling the Chinese people that the United States is a nation of white supremacists who will never treat them as equals... By repealing these laws, we will show our allies that we regard them as partners in our struggle for freedom, and we will silence the propaganda of our adversaries."

— President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Message to Congress, 1943

Which of the following wartime objectives most directly motivated the legislative change advocated by President Roosevelt in the excerpt?

Source: New York State Factory Investigating Commission, Preliminary Report, 1912

"In the first place, the danger of fire is constant and great... The workers are crowded together, the machines are placed as close to each other as possible... In many of these places, the doors open inward, and in case of panic, the doors would be blocked by the crowd of workers rushing to escape, and a catastrophe would be inevitable... We recommend that all doors in factories and mercantile establishments open outward, or be sliding doors."

Which of the following was the most direct result of the public concern and state investigations described in the excerpt?

"The general plan of campaign in the Pacific is to advance along two main lines: one through the Central Pacific via the Gilbert, Marshall, and Caroline Islands; the other through the Southwest Pacific via New Guinea to the Philippines. The execution of this strategy will involve bypassing major Japanese strongholds, isolating them from their supply lines, and establishing air and naval bases to support subsequent advances toward the Japanese homeland."
—Joint Chiefs of Staff, report on Pacific strategy, 1943

Based on the excerpt and the accompanying map, which of the following best explains the primary strategic purpose of the military campaign described?

Jane’s bobbed hair is a permanent wave. Her dress is simple, sleeveless, and short, barely covering her knees. She wears no corset, and her flesh-colored stockings are rolled down. She uses lipstick, powder, and rouge, and does so in public without the slightest embarrassment. Jane is not a bad girl; she is simply a new kind of girl. She is the direct product of a rapidly changing economic and social landscape that has given young women more financial independence and personal freedom than any generation before them. Yet to her parents and the guardians of traditional culture, Jane’s behavior represents a terrifying break from established morality, threatening the very foundations of the American family structure.

— Bruce Bliven, "Flapper Jane," *The New Republic*, 1925

Which of the following historical developments of the 1920s most directly contributed to the societal debate described in the passage?

Justice Frank Murphy, dissenting in *Korematsu v. United States*, 1944:

"This exclusion of 'all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien,' from the Pacific Coast area on a plea of military necessity in the absence of martial law ought not to be approved. It falls into the ugly abyss of racism. It orients itself with the abhorrent and despicable treatment of minority groups by the dictatorial tyrannies which this nation is now pledged to destroy. I dissent, therefore, from this legalization of racism."

The argument in the excerpt is best understood as a critique of which of the following domestic developments during World War II?

“The right of workers to organize in trade-unions and to bargain collectively through chosen representatives is recognized and affirmed. This right shall not be denied, abridged, or interfered with by the employers in any manner whatsoever. . . . Existing safeguards and regulations for the protection of the health and safety of workers shall not be relaxed.”
— National War Labor Board, Principles and Policies, 1918

Which of the following developments on the home front during World War I is best illustrated by the excerpt?

"A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike."
—President Woodrow Wilson, Fourteen Points Address, 1918

Which of the following postwar developments was a direct result of the proposal described in the excerpt?

> "We are a movement of the plain people, very weak in the high-places of the culture and intelligence of the moment, but through our upstanding, clean-minded, and loyal citizenry... we are demanding a return of power into the hands of the everyday, not highly cultured, but instinctive and unspoiled, brain of America. But the deep cause of the struggle is that the American nation, which is the heritage of pioneer, white, Protestant stock, is today threatened. The Nordic American today has been made a stranger in his own land. He is being elbowed aside, his ideals are being ridiculed, and he finds himself a second-class citizen in the land his fathers built. The real issue is whether America shall remain American in spirit, in culture, and in racial heritage."
>
> — Hiram Wesley Evans, "The Klan's Fight for Americanism," 1926

Which of the following developments in the 1910s and 1920s most directly contributed to the sentiments expressed in the excerpt?

"Reports from major industrial centers indicate that the rapid expansion of automobile production and residential construction, which served as the twin engines of prosperity throughout the decade, has begun to plateau. Inventories of unsold passenger cars are accumulating in dealers’ showrooms, and housing starts have steadily declined since their peak in the mid-1920s. This reduction in demand has already begun to ripple through the steel and manufacturing sectors, suggesting that the domestic market for these key durable goods has reached a point of saturation."

— Business analyst report, summer 1929

The developments described in the excerpt most directly reflect which of the following systemic weaknesses in the 1920s United States economy?

"We are told that this treaty has been negotiated for the purpose of preventing future wars. But is there any man who believes that the League of Nations, organized as it is, can prevent war? It is not a league of peace; it is a league of empires, designed to perpetuate the rule of the dominant powers over the subject peoples of the world... If we enter it, we agree to maintain by force of arms the status quo established by this treaty, regardless of its injustice. We tie the hands of the American people, committing them to defend British and French colonial rule in Africa and Asia."
— Senator William Borah, speech in the U.S. Senate, November 19, 1919

How did the political stance represented in the excerpt shape United States foreign policy actions during the decade following World War I?

Read the excerpt below.

"It was the motor car, which became for him a poetry of motion and a symbol of power, the badge of his social position... and the telephone, which was his constant companion... His home was a masterpiece of nationally advertised and standardized products: a standard vacuum cleaner, a standard refrigerator, and standard furniture. He was satisfied. He was established."
— Sinclair Lewis, *Babbitt*, 1922

Which of the following historical developments of the 1920s best reflects the cultural trend described in the excerpt?

"The high interest rates in New York, driven by the speculative boom, have drawn capital away from foreign investment and back into the domestic market. For several years, American credit has sustained the fragile network of international reparations and war debt payments. The sudden cessation of this capital flow to Europe threatens to destabilize foreign currencies, restrict international trade, and depress prices globally, leaving foreign nations unable to purchase American exports."
— Adapted from an economic report on the balance of international payments, 1928

Which of the following best explains how the international financial dynamics described in the excerpt contributed to the onset of the Great Depression?

"We are taking a step now that is almost certain to lead to the war... We are going into war upon the command of gold. We are going to run the risk of sacrificing millions of our lives... to enable our financiers and our railroads and our merchants to make up their losses and to make enormous profits... I feel that we are about to put the dollar sign on the American flag... We are about to do the bidding of wealth, and we are about to commit the lives of our citizens to the defense of a policy that is based upon the greed of gold."
— Senator George W. Norris, speech in the United States Senate, April 4, 1917

The arguments expressed in the excerpt most directly challenge which of the following justifications for United States entry into World War I?

"The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make."
—Woodrow Wilson, Address to Congress, April 2, 1917

Based on the excerpt, which of the following best describes President Wilson's primary justification for entering World War I?