2/29 Homework

Write an outline for an essay that would answer the question, "Does Teddy Roosevelt belong on Mount Rushmore?" In your answer be sure to address both domestic and foreign policy. Your answer should an outline of an essay and may be in "bulleted" form. It should start with a thesis that addresses both domestic and foreign policy. You must present specific evidence to support your evidence. Since this was not posted until after school on Tuseday, it is not due until Thursday. The reading(664-677) is still due by Wednesday.

2/28 Homework

2/28; The Muckrakers and the Beginnings of Progressivism; Read pages 656-664. 

1.      In the views of the progressives, what was wrong with American society, and what did they propose to fix it? 

2. Were their views revolutionary?

3. Progressivism is generally viewed by most historians as a positive movement in American politics.  Were their any negative sides to progressivism?

Know the significance of the following:

Muckrakers; McClure’s; Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives; Lincoln Steffens, Shame of the Cities; Ida Tarbell; Upton Sinclair, The Jungle; Triangle Waistshirt Factory fire; Social Gospel; Jane Adams; Hull House; Eugene V. Debs; Socialist Party; Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W. or “wobblies); commission plan; city manager; initiative; referendum; recall; direct primary; Robert LaFollette; Margaret Sanger; 16th Amendment; 17th Amendment; 18th Amendment; Theodore Roosevelt; Square Deal; Northern Securities Act; Hepburn Act; Meat Inspection Act; Pure Food and Drug Act; New Nationalism; Bull Moose Party; Conservation; John Muir; Gifford Pinchot; Forest Reserve Act; William Howard Taft; Ballinger-Pinchot incident; Payne-Aldrich Tarif; Mann-Elkins Act; Woodrow Wilson; New Freedom; Louis Brandeis; Underwood-Simmons Tariff; Federal Reserve Act; Federal Trade Commission; Clayton Antitrust Act; Workman’s Compensation

Extra Credit Opportunities

Your February Break may give you the opportunity to get away from the rush of daily homework assignments and do something away from your textbook that you’ll enjoy and will help give you a deeper understanding of the period we are currently studying.  Do one of the following and write a 2-page reflection on the movie/book/visit and what insight it gives you into America at the turn of the century. The project is worth ten points if done well (i.e. an 85 on a test would turn into a 95 if the project is done thoroughly and with some intelligent thought).

Watch Episodes 3 "Sunshine and Shadow" and 4 "The Power and the People" of the PBS docmentary film New York, by Ric Burns.  This will fill in many of the blanks that we did not cover in our discussions about urbanization in new York City from 1865-1918.  You can find these on netflix, etc. as well as youtube.  This is the series that I have often posted on our class blog.


Watch the movie Matewan which is an excellent film about a community of coal miners who struggle to organize a union against a brutal and abusive mining company. It gives a good insight into the challenges for workers and unions at the turn of the century.  You shoudl be able to find this on both netflix and youtube.

Read the book The Alienist. It’s long, but it’s a great murder mystery that takes place in New York City in the 1880s. The novel is a real page-turner and it exposes the seedy side of New York City better than any history book I’ve read. Everyone who reads it loves it.

Visit the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side. Visits to the museum have to be arranged in advance as the visit is a guided tour of an authentically recreated tenement. The tour is led by actors who actually play the role of the people who lived in the tenement 100 years ago and tell you their story of life on the Lower East Side at the turn of the century.

Due date is March 23.

Wednesday 3rd Period Assignment

Simply pair up with a classmate to do a peer review of each other's papers. Read the essay and make comments based on the following questions:

1. Is there a clear thesis? Does the thesis answer the specific question asked? Is it too simple, or does it make an interesting, well defined argument? Does the writer develop/explain the thesis in the first paragraph.

2. Does each topic sentence refer to and advance the thesis?

3. Is each topic sentence explained and proven with specific historical evidence throughout the paragraph?

4. Does the writer use at least half of the documents? Does the author refer to each document by name? Does each document actually support the argument in that paragraph?

Empire and Expansion Assignments

Tuesday: Stirrings of Imperialism: Read 626-630
1. Why did the United States begin to expand overseas?
2. Was this a change from earlier American foreign policy?
3. How and why did the United States acquire Hawaii? Why did Cleveland oppose the annexation?

Tuesday: War With Spain: Read 630-636
1. What effect did the Platt Amendment have on Cuba and its relationship to the United States?
2. Why did the United States declare war on Spain? Was it for selfish or selfless reasons?
3. Why did we invade the Philippines?
4. Why did the United States hold onto the Philippines? Was this the right thing to do?
5. Did the United States become an imperialist power as a result of the Spanish-American War?

Wednesday: The Republic as Empire: Read 636-647
1. What were the results of the Philippine War for the Philippines and America?
2. Explain the arguments of the Anti-Imperialist League.
3. What was the Open Door in China? Why did the United States call for it? Was it successful?

Thursday: The Big Stick: USA and Latin America, 1901-1917: Read 647-653 & 675-676 & 685-688
1. Explain the Roosevelt Corollary? How did it relate to the Monroe Doctrine? Was it good for the United States? Was it good for Latin America?
2. How did the United States gain the Panama Canal? Was this just? Why was it so important to the United States?
3. How was Dollar Diplomacy different from Roosevelt’s policies? How was it the same?
4. How was Wilson’s policy towards Latin America different? How was it the same?
5. What was the overall affect of these three presidents’ policies towards Latin America? Does it have any affect on today? Were these policies wise? Were they moral?


Know the significance of the following: The Influence of Sea Power upon History by Alfred Thayer Mahan; Frederck Jackson Turner and his “Frontier Thesis”; Samoa; Hawaii; Queen Liliuokalani; Spanish-American War; William McKinley; William Randolph Hearst; yellow journalism; U.S.S. Maine ; Teller Amendment; Admiral Dewey; Battle of San Juan Hill; Platt Amendment; Philippines; Anti-Imperialist League; Theodore Roosevelt; Open Door; John Hay; Panama Canal; Roosevelt Corollary; Gunboat Diplomacy; “Speak Softly, but Carry a Big Stick”; “Great White Fleet”; William Howard Taft; Dollar Diplomacy; Woodrow Wilson; Pancho Villa

Reconstruction DBQ Preparatory Assignment

Download the document 1996ReconstructionDBQ.pdf (you can find it in the Study Guides and Resources link to the right if clicking on the link didn't work).  Print out the document and bring it to Monday's class.  Before you come to class read through and annotate each document.  In your annotations note three things:

1. Who is the author and why that may be important to the document (consider the author's knowledge and bias)?
2. What does the document actually say?
3. Does this document offer opinion or facts or both?
4. How might you use this document to support one aspect of your argument?  Note that some documents won't fit your argument and you should not use them.

In class I will return your reconstruction papers and give you time to look at them and my feedback.  Then I'll give your tables time to discuss the documents and how you might use them in your individual papers.

Politics in The Gilded Age

Wednesday, 2/8: Race, Ethnicity and the Bloody Shirt in Urban and National Politics: Read 502-514
1. What was machine politics? Why did it develop and why was it politically successful? Was it a successful response to the challenges of governing a city?
2. How did blacks fare politically in the 1880s and 1890s?
3. How was the Civil War used by politicians throughout this period?

Thursday, 2/9: National Politics in the Gilded Age: Read 515-629.
1. Why did the authors choose this title for this chapter? Is it appropriate? Why?
2. What was different about politics during the Gilded Age?
3. What were the political strengths, strategies, and platforms of each party?
4. Who were the populists? To whom did they appeal? What was their platform? Why did they fail to win a presidential election?
6. Explain the conflict over monetization of silver and gold.
7. What is your personal opinion of politics and political leaders in the Gilded Age?

Know the significance of the following: Grantism; Schuyler Colfax; Credit Mobilier; Liberal Republicans; Horace Greeley; Panic of 1873; Rutherford B. Hayes; Election of 1876; “the bloody shirt”; Grand Army of the Republic; Sherman Silver Purchase Act, 1890; Stalwarts; Roscoe Conkling; James A Garfield; Half-Breeds; James G. Blaine; Pendleton Civil Service Act, 1883; Chester A. Arthur; Grover Cleveland; Benjamin Harrison;  im Crow Laws; lynchings; Plessy v Feguson(1896); Civil Rights Cases, 1883; Depression of 1893; Coxey’s Army ; Greenback-Labor Party; Populists; James Weaver; William McKinley; William Jennings Bryan; Cross of Gold Speech


Friday, 2/10; Test on Chapters 22-26 - Reconstruction, the West, Insutrialization, Urbanization & the Politics of the Gilded Age.