History 479

Devine

MIDTERM STUDY QUESTIONS

The midterm will consist of SEVEN short essay questions and ONE long essay question. I will give you 10 short essay questions, you will answer seven. I will give you three long essay questions, you will answer one. You should allot about 8 minutes to answer each short essay question and about 25 minutes to answer the long essay question.

1. Why was James J. Hill’s Great Northern Railroad successful during the late nineteenth century when other railroads failed?
2. What unintended consequences resulted when the federal government subsidized the building of railroads?
3. According to William Cronon, how did the arrival of the railroad change people’s conceptions of time and space? How did railroads change the way people interacted with the environment (geography, weather, etc.)?
4. How did railroads encourage the development of western natural resources such as cattle, coal, and timber?
5. What is the “managerial revolution”? (Summers, 83) How did railroads help produce it?
6. How did the rise of big business affect the relationship: 1) between ownership and control and 2) between employees and employer?
7. What were the distinctive characteristics or features of “big businesses”? How did “big businesses” differ from those not considered “big”?
8. What is vertical integration? What is “integrating forward”? What is integrating “backward”? Why would a company do each of these things? Why did many vertically integrated businesses succeed?
9. What is horizontal integration? How did falling prices and economies of scale spur horizontal integration?
10. Why did some horizontal combinations succeed while others failed? For example, why did the steel and oil trusts succeed while the salt trust failed?
11. How did the corporate civilization spur consumerism?
12. How did John D. Rockefeller come to dominate the oil industry? Which of Rockefeller’s qualities seem to have been most significant in contributing to his success?
13. What were the central tenets of Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth”?
14. In what ways did J.P. Morgan differ from Carnegie and Rockefeller?
15. What was the doctrine of Social Darwinism? Why were many of the cultural attitudes and prejudices associated with Social Darwinism attractive to different groups of Americans? (Summers, “Opportunity?”)
16. Why did the “progress” associated with the industrial era mean even more impediments to advancement for African Americans?
17. Why did taking into account conditions and environment (and humans’ ability to change these factors) undermine the Social Darwinist doctrine of “survival of the fittest”?
18. How did Henry George’s single tax on land propose to break up or limit large concentrations of wealth?
19. Why did Henry Carnegie believe that concentrations of wealth in certain individuals’ hands have benefited society?
20. According to Atkinson, “The Capitalist Finds a Champion,” what services do the capitalists (railroad owners, etc.) perform for the average person? Why can’t the average person perform these services for him or herself?
21. In what sense in the concentration of wealth a “trade-off”? By accepting great concentrations of wealth, what does the average person get in return? (Sumner reading)
22. Why did Samuel Gompers believe that labor unions were essential?
23. Both the AFL and the Knights of Labor were dedicated to improving the lives of workers. How did their strategies for doing so differ?
24. Why were unions limited in their ability to exact concessions from large employers?
25. Why did farmers in upcountry Georgia decide to grow more cotton after the Civil War? What role did the new industrial economy play in influencing their decision? (Hahn reading)
26. How did the newly freed slaves bring about a major reorganization in the system of agricultural production in the South after the Civil War?
27. According to John Turner, why was a farmer who lived in an isolated area and did not have many social contacts more likely to vote for the Populist party?
28. According to Anne Mayhew, what is the difference between farmers who produce for the market and commercial farmers?
29. If, as Mayhew shows, farmers were not necessarily worse off economically during the late nineteenth century, why were they so upset?
30. The Populists were concerned with democracy, public power, and easy credit. What specific policies did they advocate to produce more democracy, enhance pubic power, and improve the situation of debtors in need of credit?
31. If more currency is in circulation, do prices go up or down? Why? If you are in debt, do you want there to be more currency in circulation or less? Why?
32. Why was the issue of “free silver” so important to Americans during the 1890s?
33. Who (or what groups) would be likely to support a high tariff? Why? Who (or what groups) would be likely to support a low tariff? Why?
34. What distinguished an “anticorporate” position from a “procorporate” position? Did being “procorporate” imply that you wanted big business to be more powerful than government? What were the goals of the “anticorporate” faction?
35. Why did concern about corporate power lead to support for women’s suffrage and attempts to increase direct democracy such as the referendum, initiative, and recall?
36. How did Wilson, LaFollette, and Brandeis differ from Roosevelt in their view of corporations?
37. How were concerns about concentrations of wealth and concerns about the health of American democracy related?
38. How did Theodore Roosevelt think the government should deal with large corporations? How about Wilson? Taft?
39. What did Taft think of Roosevelt’s attitude toward the courts? What aspect of Roosevelt’s reform program for the courts did Taft oppose? Why did he oppose it?
40. What role did Bernard Baruch play in mobilizing the nation for war after 1917? Why was he an effective leader?
41. How did Baruch improve the mobilization process? What was the situation before he took over the War Industries Board? How did things change once he took over?
42. How does Murray Rothbard define “War Collectivism”? What does this term mean? How did “War Collectivism” differ from the more free market-oriented capitalism of the late nineteenth century?
43. How did war collectivism bring harmony among all interests (business owners, labor, and government)? How was this “harmony” achieved? How did the War Industries Board insure that its directives were followed?
44. What were the tradeoffs of War Collectivism during World War I? What good was achieved? What were the accompanying costs?
45. What role did the leaders of industry play in the War Industries Board? What were the pros and cons of having these men in such positions of power?
46. Why did the top executives in many companies support close cooperation with the government? Why did they accept government regulation of production and fixing of prices? In short, what was in it for them?
47. Why did liberal intellectuals support War Collectivism? What did they see as the alternatives and why did they reject these alternatives?
48. According to international bankers like Thomas Lamont, why would U.S. cancellation of European debts after World War I and a reduction of the U.S. tariff have benefited American businesses and workers? Why was it politically impossible to have such policies enacted?
49. After the war, why did European nations need American dollars? In what ways did Americans help to get these dollars into European hands? In what ways did United States make it difficult for Europeans to get these dollars?
50. During the 1920s, the U.S. was the leading importer and consumer of raw materials. The European powers often controlled the sources of these raw materials. How did they use this leverage to exact concessions from the U.S.? What concessions did they want? Why was the whole international economic system of the 1920s dependent on the outflow of long-term loans from the United States? How were German reparations, French war debt, and American loans all related? Why was this an unstable system?
51. During the 1920s, how did the United States use its economic power throughout the world and what was the impact? What influence did the U.S. government have on the uses and impact of American economic power during this period?