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Credit Sprint's Guide to U.S. History, Period 7: Progressivism, World Wars and the Depression, 1890 to 1945

AP® weight 10–17%CLEP® Exam II

The United States became a world power, reformed industrial society, fought two world wars, lived through the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, and expanded the role of the federal government through the New Deal.

The New Deal: relief, recovery, reformReliefCCC, WPAhelp the jobless RecoveryNRA, AAArevive business ReformSEC, FDICSocial Security The three Rs of FDR's New Deal

What you need to know

  • Imperialism: the Spanish-American War (1898) brought Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. The Open Door policy, the Panama Canal, the Roosevelt Corollary and dollar diplomacy extended American power.
  • Progressives (muckrakers, settlement houses, reformers) fought corruption and wanted regulation: the Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Inspection Act and trust busting under Theodore Roosevelt. Wilson added the Federal Reserve, the FTC and the Clayton Act. Amendments 16 to 19 reflected reform (income tax, direct election of senators, Prohibition and women's suffrage).
  • World War I: neutrality gave way to war in 1917 after submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram. The government used propaganda, the draft and the Espionage Act. Wilson's Fourteen Points failed to win Senate approval of the Treaty of Versailles.
  • The 1920s brought consumer culture (cars, radio, credit), the Red Scare, immigration restriction, Prohibition, the Harlem Renaissance and clashes of tradition and modernity such as the Scopes Trial.
  • The Great Depression followed the 1929 crash, bank failures and falling demand. Hoover relied on voluntary action and limited aid. Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal offered relief, recovery and reform: the CCC, AAA, NRA, Social Security, the SEC and the Wagner Act.
  • Critics of the New Deal included Huey Long and Father Coughlin on the left and conservatives and the Supreme Court on the right. The New Deal coalition shaped the Democratic Party for decades.
  • World War II began with American isolationism (the Neutrality Acts), then Lend-Lease and Pearl Harbor (1941). The home front mobilized industry; women and African Americans found new jobs. Japanese Americans were interned. The war ended with the atomic bombings in 1945.
  • The Great Migration moved African Americans north. The NAACP, the Double V campaign and A. Philip Randolph pressed for equal treatment.

Exam traps

Watch forThe Progressives and the New Dealers are different. Progressives mainly wanted to regulate business and clean up government; the New Deal used relief and recovery programs on a larger scale.
Watch forThe Treaty of Versailles was never ratified by the U.S. Senate.
Watch forExecutive Order 9066 (Japanese American internment) is a common wartime civil-liberties question.

Key terms

  • Spanish-American War (1898): A war that gave the U.S. Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines.
  • Open Door policy: A U.S. policy of equal trading rights in China.
  • Roosevelt Corollary: A 1904 addition to the Monroe Doctrine that claimed a U.S. right to intervene in Latin America.
  • Muckrakers: Journalists who exposed corruption and social problems.
  • Progressive movement: A reform movement of 1890–1920 that wanted to fix problems caused by industrialization.
  • The Jungle: Upton Sinclair's novel about meatpacking that led to food safety laws.
  • Square Deal: Theodore Roosevelt's program of fairness for consumers, workers and business.
  • Federal Reserve Act (1913): A law that created the central banking system.
  • Sixteenth Amendment: The amendment that allowed a federal income tax.
  • Nineteenth Amendment: The 1920 amendment that gave women the right to vote.
  • Zimmermann Telegram: A German message to Mexico that helped push the U.S. into World War I.
  • Fourteen Points: Wilson's plan for peace after World War I, including a League of Nations.
  • Espionage and Sedition Acts: World War I laws that limited criticism of the war.
  • Red Scare: A fear of communism and radicals after World War I.
  • Harlem Renaissance: A 1920s flowering of Black art, music and literature.
  • Scopes Trial (1925): A trial over teaching evolution that showed the clash of tradition and modernity.

Practice questions

Five of the 56 Period 7 questions in Credit Sprint. Every choice is explained in the app.

1. Which factor most encouraged American overseas expansion in the 1890s?
  1. The belief that the frontier still offered unlimited free land
  2. A desire to return to isolation after the Civil War
  3. The search for new markets, naval power and a belief in national destiny
  4. Pressure from European powers demanding that the United States join their empires
Show answer

The search for new markets, naval power and a belief in national destiny. Business leaders sought export markets after the Panic of 1893, Alfred Mahan urged a strong navy, and many Americans saw expansion as a civilizing mission.

2. Muckrakers such as Upton Sinclair and Ida Tarbell advanced Progressive reform by
  1. defending political machines as helpful to immigrants and the poor
  2. arguing that government should stay out of the economy completely
  3. exposing corruption and unsafe practices in business and politics
  4. praising business leaders as national heroes who deserved praise
Show answer

exposing corruption and unsafe practices in business and politics. Sinclair's The Jungle shocked readers about meatpacking and helped lead to the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.

3. Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points called for
  1. self-determination, open diplomacy
  2. American isolation from European affairs
  3. harsh punishments and heavy reparations from Germany
  4. the return of all colonies to European control
Show answer

self-determination, open diplomacy. Wilson hoped to build a lasting peace after World War I, yet the Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles with the League.

4. The Teapot Dome scandal under President Harding involved
  1. bribes paid to an official in return for leases of federal oil reserves
  2. a secret alliance between Harding and Great Britain
  3. a strike by oil workers in Oklahoma and Texas
  4. a plan to take over the oil industry for the government
Show answer

bribes paid to an official in return for leases of federal oil reserves. Interior Secretary Albert Fall leased Navy oil lands to private companies, and he became the first cabinet member sent to prison for crimes committed in office.

5. Franklin Roosevelt's 1937 plan to add justices to the Supreme Court failed mainly because
  1. many Americans, including Democrats
  2. Congress passed it, but Roosevelt later vetoed his own bill
  3. Roosevelt withdrew it when the United States entered World War II
  4. the Supreme Court ruled the plan unconstitutional before the vote
Show answer

many Americans, including Democrats. Roosevelt proposed it after the Court struck down New Deal laws, but critics called it court packing and Congress would not pass it.