Period 7: 1890–1945

“We are today producing more goods than ever before in our history. The lines of the unemployed have vanished, replaced by millions of citizens working in factories, shipyards, and munitions plants. The urgent task is no longer finding work for our people, but rather finding enough people to do the work that must be done.”
—Office of War Information, radio address, 1943

Which of the following historical developments is most directly reflected in the conditions described in the excerpt?

"The Crimean Conference... ought to spell the end of the system of unilateral action, the exclusive alliances, the spheres of influence, the balances of power, and all the other expedients that have been tried for centuries—and have always failed. We propose to substitute for all these, a universal organization in which all peace-loving nations will finally have a chance to join."
— President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address to Congress on the Yalta Conference, March 1, 1945

The internationalist vision described in the excerpt represented the most direct rejection of which of the following traditional United States foreign policy positions?

"Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That it shall be unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals."
— Tennessee Butler Act, 1925

The legislation excerpted above was a primary catalyst for which of the following major cultural controversies of the 1920s?

"The AAA [Agricultural Adjustment Administration] has worked a direct hardship on the negro tenant farmers and sharecroppers. When the government pays the landowner to reduce his cotton acreage, the landowner simply pockets the check and dismisses the tenants. The money that was supposed to bring relief to the farm worker has instead funded the mechanization of the plantation, leaving thousands of our people homeless and unemployed."

— John P. Davis, Joint Committee on National Recovery, testimony before the Senate, 1935

Which of the following conclusions about the New Deal is most directly supported by the excerpt?

"A major problem of the 1920s was that while industrial production rose rapidly, the purchasing power of the average worker did not increase at a corresponding rate. Profits went into the hands of a relatively small number of people, who tended to invest their money in stock market speculation or capital expansion rather than spending it on consumer goods. Consequently, the domestic market became saturated with manufactured products that consumers could no longer afford to buy."

Based on the economic trends described in the excerpt, which of the following was a primary cause of the Great Depression?

"It is of the utmost importance that we begin preparations for a direct, cross-channel assault on the German forces in Western Europe. Only by launching a major invasion from the British Isles can we effectively relieve the immense military pressure on the Soviet Union and secure a decisive victory. Any delay risks not only prolonging the war but also undermining the trust and cooperation of our Soviet allies, upon whom the successful defeat of Nazi Germany largely depends."

—General George C. Marshall, memorandum to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1942

Which of the following best explains the primary strategic challenge confronting Allied policymakers that is highlighted in the memorandum?

Source: Robert M. La Follette, *La Follette's Autobiography: A Personal Narrative of Political Experiences*, 1913

> "The political machine is a product of the system. The representative of the people was selected by the boss; the boss was selected by the railroad and corporate interest. Under this system, the citizen was practically disfranchised. To restore the citizen to his sovereignty, we must destroy the political machine. The direct primary is the first step. It places the power to select candidates directly in the hands of the voters."

The reform efforts described in the excerpt differed most significantly from Gilded Age Populist campaigns in which of the following ways?

“In all things, from first to last, without halt or change, it was a plain publicity proposition, a vast enterprise in salesmanship, the world's greatest adventure in advertising. . . . We did not call it propaganda, for that word, in German hands, had come to be associated with deceit and corruption. Our effort was educational and informative throughout, for we had such confidence in our case as to feel that no other argument was needed than the simple, straightforward presentation of the facts.”

— George Creel, Chairman of the Committee on Public Information, *How We Advertised America*, 1920

The methods and goals described in the excerpt most directly reflect which of the following domestic developments during World War I?

Source: Ida Tarbell, The History of the Standard Oil Company, 1904

"Standard Oil has systematically played with loaded dice, and it is doubtful if there has been a time since 1872 when it has run a race with a competitor on equal terms. It has obtained rebates on its own shipments, and drawbacks on the shipments of its competitors. It has systematically raided the markets of competitors, underselling them until they were forced to sell out or go bankrupt."

Which of the following Progressive Era federal policies was most directly intended to address the corporate practices described in the excerpt?

“We shall not waste lives by assault on fortified positions. We shall bypass them, leaving them to wither on the vine. We shall advance by leaps and bounds, seizing positions which can be quickly developed as airbases, from which we can cut the enemy’s communications and support our next advance.”

— General Douglas MacArthur, memorandum on Pacific strategy, 1943

The military strategy described in the excerpt was primarily utilized by the United States to achieve which of the following goals?

"The essential qualities of a true Pan Americanism must be the same as those which constitute a good neighbor, namely, mutual understanding, and, through such understanding, a sympathetic appreciation of the other’s point of view. It is only in this manner that we can hope to build up a system of which the cornerstone is an abiding peace."
— President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address to the Pan American Union, April 12, 1933

Which of the following was a primary purpose of the United States foreign policy shift described in the excerpt?

“The army and the navy are the sword and the shield which this nation must carry if she is to do her duty among the nations of the earth—if she is not to stand merely as the China of the western hemisphere, fit only to be eaten up by the more warlike peoples... If we are to be a really great people, we must strive in good faith to play a great part in the world. We cannot avoid meeting great issues.”

— Theodore Roosevelt, “The Strenuous Life” speech, 1899

Which of the following arguments best aligns with Theodore Roosevelt's perspective on United States foreign policy as expressed in the excerpt?

"The Great War has shaken us out of our ruts. It has forced us to realize that the state must have the service of all its citizens, and that women must be given the training to make their service effective. In the face of this necessity, we are beginning to see that the old division of labor between the sexes is obsolete. Women are now entering fields of work from which they were formerly excluded, not as a temporary charity, but as a permanent addition to the nation's industrial force."

— Harriot Stanton Blatch, *Mobilizing Woman-Power*, 1918

Which of the following historical developments during and immediately after World War I most directly reflects the process described in the excerpt?

"National advertising has done more than any other single force to create a national mind. It has broken down local prejudices and provincialism. The citizen in a small village in New Mexico now eats the same brand of breakfast food, wears the same brand of shirt, and uses the same brand of soap as the resident of a metropolitan penthouse in New York. We are becoming a unified people, bound together by the common possession of standardized goods."
— Speech to the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, 1926

Which of the following historical developments during the 1920s most directly contributed to the phenomenon described in the excerpt?

Source: American Anti-Imperialist League, Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League, 1899

"We hold that the policy known as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends toward militarism, an evil from which it has been our glory to be free. We regret that it has become necessary in the land of Washington and Lincoln to reaffirm that all men, of whatever race or color, are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We maintain that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. We insist that the subjugation of any people is 'criminal aggression,' representing a betrayal of the basic principles of our government."

Which of the following developments in the late nineteenth century best explains the rise of the arguments expressed in the excerpt?

During the decade since the armistice, the United States has transitioned from a debtor nation to the world’s primary creditor. American private loans have rebuilt Europe, enabling Germany to make reparations to France and Great Britain, who in turn pay their wartime debts back to the United States Treasury. However, this system hinges entirely on the continuous outflow of American capital. Should domestic opportunities, such as the roaring stock market, divert these investment funds inward, the international financial network will collapse under the weight of unpayable debts.

— Financial analyst review of international banking, 1928

Which of the following developments in the early 1930s did the financial relationship described in the excerpt contribute to most directly?

"We could not give them back to Spain—that would be cowardly and dishonorable; that we could not turn them over to France or Germany—our commercial rivals in the Orient—that would be bad business and discreditable; that we could not leave them to themselves—they were unfit for self-government—and they would soon have anarchy and misrule... there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them..."

— President William McKinley, on the annexation of the Philippines, 1899

Which of the following developments during the late nineteenth century best explains the motivations behind the policy described in the excerpt?

“Our food is a weapon of war. Every citizen must do their part. By planting victory gardens and conserving supplies, you help ensure that our troops and allies have the food they need to win.”

— United States Department of Agriculture pamphlet, 1943

Government campaigns like the one described in the excerpt were primarily designed to achieve which of the following goals?

"America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustaining in triumphant nationality..."

— Senator Warren G. Harding, speech in Boston, May 1920

Which of the following developments in United States foreign policy after World War I is best reflected in the excerpt?

"We are going into war upon the command of gold. We are going to run the risk of sacrificing millions of our lives which will be lost, billions in money which will be wasted... and all because we want to preserve the commercial right of American citizens to deliver munitions of war to belligerent nations."
— Senator George W. Norris, Speech in the Senate, April 4, 1917

Which of the following developments during the period 1914 to 1917 most directly contributed to the perspective expressed in the excerpt?