History 371

Devine

Spring 2014

Midterm Review Questions

 

The questions that will appear on the midterm will be drawn verbatim from the questions below. If you are able to answer these questions thoroughly, you will be well-prepared for the midterm. It should be clear which questions are short answer questions and which are long answer questions. 

 

In Part one of the midterm, there will 10 short essay questions taken from the list below; you will answer SEVEN of them. In Part two, there will be three long essay questions taken from the list below; you will answer ONE of them.

 

PLEASE BRING AN UNMARKED GREEN BOOK TO CLASS.

 

  1. Why were southern plantation owners in particularly bad financial shape after the Civil War?
  2. Why did the assassination of Lincoln make it less likely that reconstruction would be easy on the South?
  3. Why were the changes the Radical Republicans proposed for the South so radical? Why were most Americans reluctant to support the Radical Republicans’ plans for the South?
  4. Why did Radicals decide to impeach Andrew Johnson? Why was it probably for the best that they failed?
  5. Why did James J. Hill’s Great Northern Railroad succeed during the late nineteenth century when other railroads failed?
  6. What unintended consequences resulted when the federal government subsidized the building of railroads?
  7. According to William Cronon, how did the arrival of the railroad alter people’s conceptions of time and space? How did railroads change the way people interacted with the environment (geography, weather, etc.)?
  8. How did the coming of the railroad enable farmers to take advantage of “economies of scale” and “economies of scope”?
  9. How did the development of a national railroad system spur economic development throughout the United States during the late nineteenth century?
  10. According to Glen Porter’s article, why, despite some uneasiness, were most Americans willing to accept the new industrial economy? What changes for the good did it bring to their lives?
  11. What is the difference between “vertical integration” and “horizontal integration”?
  12. What is a tariff?  Who stood to benefit from a high tariff? Who benefited from a low tariff?
  13. Explain how the “4 C’s” – competition, cooperation, combination, and centralization – resulted in the development of large corporations during the late 19th century. How did one “C” lead logically to the next “C”?
  14. How did the introduction of “limited liability” make it easier for aspiring entrepreneurs to raise investment money to create new businesses during the late nineteenth century?
  15. How did the arrival of Big Business and the shift from a producer to a consumer culture affect workers’ jobs and workers’ identities?   
  16. Why does Jay Mandle (Not Slave, Not Free) believe that implementing a policy of land redistribution (taking land from the planters and giving it to the freedman) would have produced a significantly different economic reality in the South after the Civil War?  Despite the Radical Republicans’ desire to “punish” the southern planters, why was such a policy never implemented?
  17. How did southern plantation agriculture differ from the family farm system of the North?  Why did northern family farmers actively embrace new labor-saving technologies while southern planters largely ignored them?
  18. Why did the plantation system keep African Americans poor AND keep the entire South economically backward?
  19. How did the structure of the plantation economy in the South reinforce southern racism and encourage a culture of paternalism to continue?
  20. Why was it hard for blacks to escape plantation labor?  Why didn’t they find work elsewhere doing other things?
  21. Why was it hard for African Americans to start their own businesses (or to sustain them if they did start them)?
  22. Blacks who worked on southern plantations after 1865 were no longer slaves, but why does Mandle argue that they were not “free” laborers either?
  23.  Identify three specific instances in Pudd’nhead Wilson where Mark Twain suggests that upbringing (and not “blood”) determines one’s character and behavior.
  24. How does Mark Twain critique southern society indirectly in Pudd’nhead Wilson? Why could one argue that this indirect criticism ends up being more powerful than direct criticism?
  25. How does Pudd’nhead Wilson’s “half a dog” joke point out that white supremacy and segregation have corrupted southern society?
  26. Pudd’nhead Wilson ends with “Tom” being sold down the river. Does Twain intend this to be a “happy ending” in which justice has been served and “order” has been restored? If not, why not?
  27. Why might one argue that in the novel Pudd’nhead Wilson, David Wilson himself is a tragic figure?
  28. How does Twain use the duel between Judge Driscoll and Luigi – a scene narrated through Roxy’s point of view – to make fun of the “southern code of honor”?
  29. How does James Turner explain why some Texas farmers became Populists while others did not?  What specific evidence does he introduce to make his case?
  30. Provide a sketch of the typical Texas Populist. Why did the circumstances and context of his daily make the Populism an attractive movement to him?
  31. Why did so many farmers end up deep in debt during the late 19th century? Once they were in debt, why was it so hard to get out?
  32. During the late 19th century, why would someone in debt welcome inflation (i.e. higher prices) and oppose a currency backed only by gold?
  33. For farmers, what were the arguments for and against starting a third political party (Populists)? What were the arguments for and against trying to gain influence in one of the two major political parties (Republicans and Democrats)?
  34. Identify two major reasons why many Americans in the 1890s came to believe that the U.S. should pursue a more expansionist foreign policy and explain the reasoning behind their views.
  35. Why did so many Americans sympathize with the Cuba Libre! movement? How did the nature of Spanish colonial rule fuel these sympathies?
  36. How did many Americans, including Theodore Roosevelt, use fears about declining masculinity to pressure President McKinley to declare war on Spain?
  37. What factors pushed President McKinley into declaring war on Spain in 1898?
  38. Why did big business’s opposition to the Spanish-American war actually build support for the pro-war side?
  39. Why did the Philippine insurrection convince many Americans that pursuing an overseas empire was not such a good idea after all?
  40. In looking at the “Four D’s” – duty, destiny, defense, and dollars – explain how each of the four terms sheds light on the motivations for US foreign policy at the turn of the twentieth century.
  41. According to David Nasaw, why is the phrase “poverty in the midst of plenty” a good description of the American city of 1900?
  42. According to David Nasaw, how did girls’ experiences in the early 20th century city differ from boys’? Why was this the case?
  43. Unlike the child laborers of an earlier generation, why did the children of the city actually enjoy their jobs?
  44. Why was having money important for the children of the city?
  45. Why did the “child savers” fail to make much progress in “reforming” the behavior and habits of the street children?
  46. What role did children play in the urban economy at the turn of the twentieth century? How did city children’s role in the economy shape their world view as kids and then, later, as adults?
  47. How was the Progressive reform movement of the 1910s both a “response to industrialization” and a “search for order”?
  48. In what ways did Social Darwinists and Progressives differ when it came to addressing the problem of urban poverty?
  49. Why do some observers say Progressives’ approach to solving social problems was grounded in “innovative nostalgia”?
  50. In looking at how Progressives set out to solve social problems, how do we know they were both “interventionists” and “optimists”?