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.
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What this topic is asking
Topic 7.15 asks you to use the historical reasoning skill of comparison to analyze Period 7. The exam wants you to identify similarities and differences between the developments of the era, Progressivism and the New Deal, the two world wars, the 1920s and 1930s, and to explain the reasons behind them, turning the comparison into an argument rather than a list.
What comparison means as a reasoning skill
Comparing Progressivism and the New Deal
The richest comparison in Period 7 is between the two great reform waves. Similarities: both Progressivism and the New Deal used the federal government to regulate business, protect workers and consumers, and address the inequalities of industrial capitalism. Differences: the New Deal went much further, providing direct relief to the unemployed and a permanent safety net, above all Social Security, that Progressivism never attempted. The reason: the Great Depression was a vastly deeper crisis than the problems Progressives confronted, demanding a more drastic expansion of government. Explaining that reason is what turns the comparison into an argument.
Comparing the two world wars
Comparing the 1920s and 1930s
A third comparison contrasts the two decades. The 1920s were prosperous, consumer-driven, culturally turbulent, and isolationist, with a hands-off federal government. The 1930s were depressed and anxious but produced an activist government through the New Deal. The contrast highlights how the economic catastrophe of the Depression reversed the decade's politics, replacing laissez-faire with federal intervention, a difference of circumstance driving a difference of policy.
Worked example: framing a comparison essay
Try this
Q1. Name the reasoning skill that asks how two developments are alike and different and why. [Recall]
- Cue. Comparison, one of the three APUSH historical reasoning skills.
Q2. Explain why the New Deal expanded the federal government further than Progressivism did. [Short explanation]
- Cue. Both reform waves used government to address industrial capitalism, but the Great Depression was a far deeper crisis than the problems Progressives faced; the scale of unemployment and suffering demanded direct federal relief and a permanent safety net such as Social Security, so the New Deal went much further than Progressivism ever had.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of College Board exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AP USH (style)3 marksBriefly describe ONE similarity between Progressivism and the New Deal. Briefly explain ONE difference between them. Briefly explain ONE reason for that difference.Show worked answer →
A Short Answer Question (SAQ), 3 points, one per bullet.
A. Describe: both used the federal government to regulate business and address the problems of industrial capitalism.
B. Difference: the New Deal went much further, providing direct relief and a permanent social safety net through programs such as Social Security, which Progressivism never attempted.
C. Reason: the Great Depression was a far deeper crisis than the problems Progressives faced, demanding a more drastic expansion of government.
Markers want a real similarity, a genuine difference, and a sound reason for it.
AP USH (style)6 marksCompare the responses of the federal government to economic and social problems in the Progressive Era and the New Deal.Show worked answer →
A Long Essay Question (LEQ), scored on the 6-point rubric, framed by comparison.
Thesis (1): "Progressivism and the New Deal both expanded federal power to address industrial capitalism, but the New Deal went much further toward direct relief and a welfare state because it confronted a far deeper crisis."
Contextualization (1): the long arc from Gilded Age inequality through the Depression.
Evidence (2): Progressive regulation and amendments; New Deal relief, recovery, and reform.
Analysis (2): explain HOW the two reform waves were alike and different, then add complexity by weighing what the New Deal still left undone.
Related dot points
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Sources & how we know this
- AP United States History Course and Exam Description — College Board (2020)