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Unit 7, Period 7 (1890 to 1945): The Emergence of Modern America

8 dot points across 8 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do you use the reasoning skill of comparison to analyze the reforms, wars, and crises of Period 7?

Topic 7.15 Comparison in Period 7: using the historical reasoning skill of comparison to analyze the developments of the emergence of modern America.
A focused answer to AP US History Topic 7.15, teaching the historical reasoning skill of comparison through Period 7: comparing Progressivism and the New Deal, the two world wars, and the 1920s and 1930s, and how to frame a comparison essay for the DBQ or LEQ.
12 min answer →

What broad forces transformed the United States into a modern, urban, world power between 1890 and 1945?

Topic 7.1 Contextualizing Period 7: the reform, economic, technological, and global forces that made the United States a modern industrial world power between 1890 and 1945.
Sets the scene for AP US History Period 7, covering Progressive reform, overseas expansion, the two world wars, the boom and bust of the 1920s and 1930s, the New Deal, and how to write contextualization for a DBQ or LEQ on the emergence of modern America.
12 min answer →

Why did the United States acquire an overseas empire around 1900, and what debate did imperialism provoke at home?

Topics 7.2 and 7.3 Imperialism and the Spanish-American War: the causes of American overseas expansion, the war of 1898, the debate over empire, and the new global role of the United States.
A focused answer to AP US History Topics 7.2 and 7.3, covering American imperialism: the economic, strategic, and ideological causes of expansion, the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the Treaty of Paris, the debate between imperialists and anti-imperialists, and the Open Door policy.
12 min answer →

How did the prosperity and new mass culture of the 1920s collide with deep cultural and political conflict?

Topics 7.7 and 7.8 The 1920s, Innovations and Cultural Conflict: the consumer and mass culture of the decade and the cultural and political controversies it provoked.
A focused answer to AP US History Topics 7.7 and 7.8, covering the 1920s: the consumer boom and mass culture of radio, film, and the automobile, the Harlem Renaissance, and the cultural conflicts over immigration, prohibition, religion, and race, from the Red Scare and the Scopes Trial to the revived Ku Klux Klan.
12 min answer →

What caused the Great Depression, and how did the New Deal transform the role of the federal government?

Topics 7.9 and 7.10 The Great Depression and the New Deal: the causes and effects of the economic collapse and the New Deal's expansion of federal power in response.
A focused answer to AP US History Topics 7.9 and 7.10, covering the Great Depression and the New Deal: the causes of the 1929 crash and the Depression, its human cost, Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs of relief, recovery, and reform, and how the New Deal permanently enlarged the federal government.
12 min answer →

What problems did the Progressives set out to solve, and how did they reshape American government and society?

Topic 7.4 The Progressives: the goals, methods, and achievements of the Progressive reform movement, including the muckrakers, the reform presidents, and the Progressive constitutional amendments.
A focused answer to AP US History Topic 7.4, covering the Progressive Era: the response to industrial and urban problems, the muckrakers, the reform presidents Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson, women's suffrage and the 19th Amendment, and the Progressive amendments that expanded the role of government.
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Why did the United States enter the First World War, and how did the war reshape the nation at home and its role in the world?

Topics 7.5 and 7.6 World War I, Military, Diplomatic, and Home Front: the reasons for United States entry, the war effort, the fight over the peace, and the war's effects on American society.
A focused answer to AP US History Topics 7.5 and 7.6, covering the First World War: the reasons for United States entry from neutrality to 1917, the home front and the curbing of civil liberties, the Great Migration, Wilson's Fourteen Points, and the Senate's rejection of the Treaty of Versailles.
12 min answer →

How did the United States move from isolationism to total war, and how did World War II transform the nation at home and in the world?

Topics 7.12 to 7.14 World War II, Mobilization, Military, and Home Front: the path from isolationism to war, total mobilization, the military effort, and the war's effects on American society.
A focused answer to AP US History Topics 7.12 to 7.14, covering World War II: the move from isolationism to war after Pearl Harbor, total economic and social mobilization, the home front including Japanese American internment and new roles for women and minorities, and the war's end and the atomic bomb.
12 min answer →