Period 7: 1890–1945

"It was my firm conviction that the American Army should be preserved as an integral whole, and that only in this way could it make its maximum contribution to the allied cause. To distribute our divisions among the French and British armies would have destroyed their national identity and morale, and would have made it impossible to build a cohesive fighting force under American command. Furthermore, an independent American army was necessary if the United States was to exert a major influence in the final peace negotiations."

—General John J. Pershing, Commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, 1918

Which of the following best explains Pershing's insistence on maintaining the American Expeditionary Forces as an independent military force rather than integrating them into Allied units?

Source: Walter Rauschenbusch, *Christianity and the Social Crisis*, 1907

"The competitive system of industry, which places the self-interest of the individual as the controlling force of economic life, is in direct conflict with the Christian law of love. ... If our communities are to become Christian, we must demand that the cooperative principle shall be introduced into our business life. The church must either condemn the present economic order and seek to change it, or tolerate it and be corrupted by it."

Which of the following developments in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries most directly contributed to the advocacy shown in the excerpt?

Source: Lincoln Steffens, *The Shame of the Cities*, 1904:

"The misgovernment of the American city is an old story... The boss is not a politician; he is a business man who has found that the best way to control the government is to buy it. He does not want office; he wants contracts, franchises, and privileges. The citizen is the boss's partner in crime... The typical American citizen is a business man... he is busy; he has no time for public duty."

Which of the following Progressive Era reforms was most directly designed to address the challenges of municipal corruption described in the excerpt?

Our nation has joined in a war to make the world safe for democracy. This is the official statement of our government. How can our nation escape the logic of this situation? . . . Is it not a fact that the Congress of the United States, which has proclaimed to the world that we are fighting for the democracy of the world, must grant democracy to its own women?

— Carrie Chapman Catt, Address to Congress, November 1917

The arguments expressed in the excerpt most directly contributed to which of the following?

"We, the undersigned, ... protest against the passage of the Hawley-Smoot tariff bill... We believe that any increase in duties would be a mistake. It would raise the cost of living... Our export trade in general would suffer. Countries cannot buy from us unless they are permitted to sell to us... A tariff wall would invite retaliatory tariffs by other nations... and would make it more difficult for foreign debtors to pay their obligations to us."

— Petition of 1,028 Economists to President Herbert Hoover, May 1930

Based on the petition, which of the following best explains how the tariff policy protested by the economists contributed to the onset and severity of the Great Depression?

Declaration by United Nations, January 1, 1942:

"The Governments signatory hereto,

Having subscribed to a common program of purposes and principles embodied in the Joint Declaration of the President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland dated August 14, 1941, known as the Atlantic Charter...

Being convinced that complete victory over their enemies is essential to defend life, liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice in their own lands as well as in other lands, and that they are now engaged in a common struggle against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world, DECLARE:

(1) Each Government pledges itself to employ its full resources, military or economic, against those members of the Tripartite Pact and its adherents with which such government is at war.

(2) Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto and not to make a separate armistice or peace with the enemies."

The cooperative agreements outlined in the declaration marked which of the following shifts in United States foreign policy?

"I’ve got a job at last... It is a great life. We work hard, but we get three square meals a day and a place to sleep. Most of my pay goes back home to help my mother and the kids."
— Letter from a Civilian Conservation Corps enrollee, 1934

Which of the following goals of the New Deal is best illustrated by the program described in the excerpt?

Source: Gifford Pinchot, *The Fight for Conservation*, 1910

"The first principle of conservation is development, the use of the natural resources now existing on this continent for the benefit of the people who live here now. There may be just as much waste in neglecting the development and use of certain natural resources as there is in their destruction... The second principle is prevention of waste... In addition to development and prevention of waste, natural resources must be developed and preserved for the benefit of the many, and not merely for the profit of a few."

Which of the following core principles of the Progressive movement is most directly reflected in the excerpt?

The following excerpt is from President Woodrow Wilson's address to Congress regarding the federal government's takeover of the nation's railroads during World War I (January 4, 1918):

'...It was necessary that the administration of the railways should be close, unified, and free from the limitations of ordinary law... Only the federal government could do this with absolute impartiality and with a single eye to the national interest.'

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

"The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote..."
— Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1913

Which of the following best explains the primary goal of the constitutional reform described in the excerpt?

"European nations can pay their obligations to the United States only in three ways: in gold, in goods and services, or by securities. The export of gold on the scale required would destroy European currencies. The export of goods is blocked by the rising tariff walls of the United States. Consequently, Europe has paid its debts largely by borrowing new capital from American investors. This circular flow of credit cannot continue indefinitely. If American investment in foreign securities declines, the international trade and debt structure will face immediate collapse."

— Adapted from an American memorandum on international economic relations, 1928

The pattern of international trade and finance described in the excerpt most directly contributed to the onset of the Great Depression by doing which of the following?

Read the excerpt below and answer the following question.

"Analysis of Middletown’s leisure time reveals that the automobile has become one of the most significant influences in changing family life... In 1890, the family spent its evenings together at home or in the neighborhood. Today, the automobile has made it possible for the family, or individual members of it, to seek recreation miles away, altering traditional patterns of socialization and religious attendance."
— Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd, *Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture*, 1929

Which of the following developments of the 1920s is most directly reflected in the social changes described in the excerpt?

Source: Florence Kelley, address to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1905.

"We do not wish to see the children of our land grow up in ignorance, under the weight of excessive labor, while the state fails to provide protection. . . . We have, in this country, two million children under the age of sixteen years who are earning their own bread. They are in the cotton mills, in the coal mines, in the sweatshops, in the glass works, and in the tenement houses of our great cities. No other nation has so large an army of child laborers, and no other nation has so little protection for its young."

Which of the following best explains a major limitation of the federal government's response to the reform efforts inspired by the conditions described in the excerpt during the Progressive Era?

“The Contracting Powers agree to limit their respective naval armament as provided in the present Treaty.... The total tonnage of capital ships to be discarded by each of the Contracting Powers shall be as specified in Chapter II...”
— Treaty Limiting Naval Armament (Five-Power Treaty), 1922

Which of the following best explains how this treaty reflected United States foreign policy goals during the 1920s?

"Our food fight is a war job in which every civilian can have a direct, active part. Every garden patch is a munitions plant, and every jar of home-canned food is a weapon. The Victory Garden is a critical part of our national offense."
— Office of Civilian Defense, *Victory Garden Leader's Handbook*, 1943

Which of the following was the primary purpose of the domestic campaign described in the excerpt?

"The weakness of our banking structure lies in the existence of thousands of small, independent banks, particularly in agricultural communities. Lacking the diversified assets of larger urban institutions, these banks are entirely dependent on local crop prices. With the persistent agricultural depression of the 1920s, these banks accumulated vast quantities of uncollectible loans. As a result, even before the stock market crash, bank failures were a chronic feature of the rural economy, undermining public confidence and preparing the way for a general panic."
—Adapted from a federal report on banking operations, 1931

Which of the following best explains how the conditions described in the passage contributed to the onset of the Great Depression?

“It was a fight for the minds of men, for the 'conquest of their conviction' ... We did not call it propaganda, for that word, in German hands, had come to be associated with deceit and corruption. Our effort was a plain publicity proposition, a vast enterprise in salesmanship, the world's greatest adventure in advertising.”
— George Creel, Chairman of the Committee on Public Information, 1920

The activities described in the excerpt most directly reflected which of the following home front goals during World War I?

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

"The nomination of all candidates by direct vote under the Australian ballot... is the only way to destroy the power of the political machine. So long as the nominating system remains in the hands of the caucus and convention, the voters will never be able to choose their own public servants. The boss will rule, and the interests will control the boss. But with a direct primary, the power is restored to the people, and the representative character of our government is reestablished."

The ideas expressed in the excerpt most directly reflect which of the following Progressive Era goals?

Declaration on Liberated Europe, Yalta Conference, February 1945:

"The establishment of order in Europe and the rebuilding of national economic life must be achieved by processes which will enable the liberated peoples to destroy the last vestiges of fascism and militarism and to create democratic institutions of their own choice. This is a principle of the Atlantic Charter—the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live—the restoration of sovereign rights and self-government to those peoples who have been forcibly deprived of them by the aggressor nations."

Which of the following best explains how the principles expressed in this excerpt differed from the postwar reality in Eastern Europe?

Herbert Hoover, *The Challenge to Liberty*, 1934:

"We are faced with a decision of whether we shall support the American system of liberty or whether we shall surrender to a system of federal regimentation. The New Deal is attempting to replace our system of individual initiative and cooperative effort with a government-planned economy that controls every detail of production and consumption. This is not reform; it is a step toward autocracy. By setting up government bureaucracies to dictate prices, wages, and output, the administration is subverting the Constitution and destroying the self-reliance that built this nation. The executive branch has assumed legislative powers, bypassing the balance of power established by our founders. If we continue on this path of unchecked federal expansion, we will permanently erode the rights of individual states and the economic freedom of every citizen."

The criticisms of the New Deal expressed in the excerpt align most closely with which of the following arguments?