history
History 1302//Spring 2017//Midterm Study Guide
This exam is worth 20% of your grade. It will take place on Thursday, March 9.
If you are unable to take the test at the designated time, inform me at least one week in advance of
the exam and provide a written medical excuse or documentation of a family emergency.
Exam Preparation
• Read the Study Guide carefully. We will review for the exam on March 7, and I encourage to
come prepared. If you have any questions, please talk with me during office hours or during
the review.
• Study Groups. I encourage you to study with one or more of your classmates. Sharing lecture
and discussion notes and comparing outlines of possible essays and reviewing factual material
with others can fill gaps and lead you to think through your answers more fully.
• Exam Format. You will write one essay and four ID paragraphs.
Exam Day
• Seating. When you come to class, please wait until I open the doors. Each seat will have an
exam and blue book in front of it. You only need to bring something to write with. Once you
enter the room, quietly find a seat and begin. You will not be able to use books or notes on the
exam.
• Cheating. Cheating on any portion of the exam will result in an automatic grade of “0” for the
entire exam. I will also report the cheating to the office for Academic Honesty.
• Lateness. Students will not be allowed to enter the room ten minutes after class starts.
For the midterm, you will be accountable for the content in the following:
ALL Lectures
Give Me Liberty!, Chapters 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23
Primary Sources
VOF, The Mississippi Black Code
VOF, A Sharecropping Contract
VOF, Chief Joseph, “An Indian’s View”
VOF, Sumner on Social Darwinism
VOF, A Second Declaration of Independence
VOF, Aguinaldo on American Imperialism
VOF, Ryan, A Living Wage
VOF, Sanger on “Free Motherhood”
VOF, Catt Address to Congress
VOF, Wilson, A World Safe for Democracy
VOF, Bond, The Great Migration
VOF, Congress Debates Immigration
VOF, Letter to Secretary of Labor
VOF, Steinbeck, The Harvest Gypsies
VOF, WWII and Mexican-Americans
VOF, African Americans and the Four Freedoms
Blackboard, Japanese-American Internment
VOF, Declaration of Independence
VOF, Truman Doctrine
VOF, Joseph McCarthy on the Attack
VOF, President’s Commission on Civil Rights
In-Class Films/Primary Sources
In the White Man’s Image
March of the Bonus Army
Genora Dollinger speech
Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter
Japanese American Incarceration
Zoot Suit Riots
Duck and Cover
Hollywood Ten
John Spargo, Excerpt of Bitter Cry of Children
I encourage you to outline the top 10 or 15 concepts, people, or events in each chapter of the
book – and perhaps the 3 or 4 most important ideas from each document and each lecture.
Your in-class writings should be helpful study resources. You should NOT use outside sources
(Wikipedia, history.com, etc.) to study for the exam.
Part I: Essay (55%)
I will choose two questions from those listed below, and you will answer one of them. Your
essays should have a clear thesis, be supported by specific evidence, and be well organized.
You should draw on lectures, films, discussions, and assigned readings (Foner and primary
documents). You will be expected to answer the question using as much evidence (SPECIFIC
examples of people, events, and ideas that prove your argument) from the course as possible.
The questions will require you to bring together information from several different weeks of the
course. You should make every effort to write legibly. I will not penalize students for spelling
errors provided that I can read what you’ve written. I suggest that you write about two full
pages for your essay.
1) During the period from Reconstruction through the early 1950s, Americans’ ideas about their
government shifted significantly. How did ideas regarding the role(s) of the federal government
change during the periods we have examined (Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, the Progressive
Era, WWI, the 1920s, the Great Depression, World War II, and the early Cold War)? It might be
helpful to consider who was impacted by these shifting ideas.
Your answer must trace three periods of time and provide as many specific examples as you
can to illustrate each.
2) During the period from Reconstruction through the early 1950s, many groups of Americans
experienced a restriction of freedoms, rights, and opportunities. In what ways were the
boundaries of freedom limited by the following four categories: 1) race and/or ethnicity, 2) the
political climate of war, 3) gender, and 4) economic class?
Choose three categories and provide as many specific examples as you can to illustrate each.
3) Many of the limits on freedoms outlined in Question 2 were constantly being challenged by
a variety of organizers, activists, and reformers. How did they confront the policies and
practices of economic inequality, white supremacy, empire building and war, and gender
inequality? Essentially, I am asking how ordinary citizens fought for expanded freedoms.
Your answer must discuss three movements (not individuals) and provide as many specific
examples as you can to illustrate each.
4) The wars that we have studied so far were more than US military interventions abroad. They
were also political contexts – specific domestic environments that shaped a variety of laws,
policies, and events. We have examined the Spanish-American-Filipino War, World War I,
World War II, and the early Cold War.
Describe the impacts of on the boundaries of freedom for various Americans during each
conflict, as well as the impacts of war on residents of other nations (please note that you are
not to write about content not covered in the class).
Part II: Identify and Explain the Significance (45% – 15% each)
I will choose five terms from those listed below, and you will answer three of them. For each,
you should identify what it is (your answer should cover “the 5 W’s”: who, what, when, where,
and why) and explain the item’s significance (Why/how was this event, person, process, etc.
important to American history?). For the “when” component, you will not need to provide
exact dates, but rather a general timeframe (i.e. “early 20th century,” “Gilded Age,” etc.).
I suggest that you write a full paragraph for each ID.
1. Pillars of Jim Crow
2. Spanish-American-Filipino War
3. Carlisle School
4. Muckrakers
5. Social Darwinism
6. 1st Red Scare
7. 19th Amendment
8. Bonus Army
9. Immigration Act of 1924
10. Great Migration
11. Mexican-American Repatriation
12. Flint Sit-Down Strike
13. New Deal Programs
14. Rosie the Riveter
15. Japanese-American Incarceration
16. GI Bill
17. Truman Doctrine
18. 2nd Red Scare
Sample ID:
Muller v. Oregon. In this case, decided in the early 20th century during the Progressive Era, the
U. S. Supreme Court upheld an Oregon law limiting women’s work in certain industries to 10
hours a day. Muller was significant for a number of reasons. First, it was the first crack in the
doctrine of liberty of contract and showed that, at least with respect to women workers, states
could constitutionally pass protective labor legislation. Second, the decision provided shortterm
gains in improving the conditions of work for a portion of the female labor force, although
in the long run it institutionalized women’s subordinate place in the labor force.
