Source: AP US History Study Guide, Arizona State University
Tags: Progressive Era, muckrakers, women suffrage, imperialism, Spanish-American War, World War I, Harlem Renaissance, Great Depression, New Deal, World War II, 1898-1945
Difficulty: Intermediate-Advanced | Prerequisites: Period 6 Study Notes
Period 7 covers nearly fifty years of dramatic change: the Progressive effort to fix the Gilded Age, American imperialism, two world wars, the 1920s cultural upheaval, the Great Depression, and the New Deal. The exam tests whether you can connect domestic reform to foreign policy and explain how the role of the federal government expanded through each crisis.
Between 1898 and 1945, the United States became a global power, experimented with domestic reform (Progressivism, the New Deal), weathered economic collapse (the Great Depression), and fought two world wars. The federal government's role in American life expanded enormously, from trust-busting and food safety regulation to Social Security and wartime economic management. Each crisis, whether depression or war, pushed the government to do more, and each expansion was contested.
Muckrakers
Investigative journalists who exposed corruption, corporate abuses and social ills. Ida Tarbell targeted Standard Oil; Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906) exposed meatpacking conditions, leading to the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act.
19th Amendment (1920)
Granted women the right to vote, after decades of activism through the NAWSA and Alice Paul's National Woman's Party.
NAACP
Founded in 1909 by W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Jane Addams and others to fight racial discrimination through the courts. Its first major victory was convincing the Supreme Court to strike down the grandfather clause.
Booker T. Washington vs W.E.B. Du Bois
Washington advocated economic self-improvement, vocational education and temporary acceptance of segregation (the "Atlanta Compromise"). Du Bois rejected accommodation, demanding liberal arts education, voting rights and full citizenship immediately.
Spanish-American War (1898)
The US intervened in Cuba's war for independence from Spain. Victory gave the US control of the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam, making it an imperial power. Yellow journalism helped build public support.
Roosevelt Corollary
Theodore Roosevelt's addition to the Monroe Doctrine, asserting the US right to intervene in Latin American and Caribbean nations displaying "chronic wrongdoing."
Open Door Policy
Secretary of State John Hay's assertion that the US had the right to equal trade access in China.
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (1911)
A factory fire that killed 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women. Locked exit doors and inadequate fire escapes were to blame. It inspired workplace safety legislation and labour reform.
Espionage Act (1917) / Sedition Act (1918)
Wartime laws that criminalised anti-war speech and activities. Used to prosecute socialists, pacifists and labour organisers, including Eugene Debs.
Fourteen Points
Wilson's principles for lasting peace: freedom of the seas, open diplomacy, self-determination for colonial subjects, reduced military spending, and the creation of the League of Nations. The Senate rejected US membership in the League.
Great Migration
Beginning during WWI, over 400,000 African Americans left the South for northern cities seeking industrial jobs and escape from Jim Crow. Another 800,000 followed in the 1920s.
Harlem Renaissance
A flowering of African American arts, literature and music in Harlem during the 1920s. Key figures: Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Marcus Garvey. Jazz and blues became part of mainstream American culture.
Immigration Act of 1924 (National Origins Act)
Established quotas limiting immigration from southern and eastern Europe (2% of 1890 population). Continued the ban on Asian immigration. Did not restrict immigration from the Western Hemisphere.
Great Depression
The severe economic downturn beginning with the stock market crash of 1929. Unemployment peaked at 25%; banks failed; farms foreclosed. Hoover's voluntarist approach failed to halt the decline.
New Deal
FDR's response to the Great Depression, representing a dramatic expansion of the federal government's role. Programmes included the CCC (conservation jobs), WPA (public works), AAA (farm subsidies), Social Security, and the Wagner Act (labour rights).
Social Security Act (1935)
Provided retirement payments at age 65, disability benefits and unemployment insurance. Excluded farm, domestic and laundry workers (disproportionately Black). It revolutionised the relationship between the federal government and American workers.
Wagner Act / National Labor Relations Act (1935)
Protected workers' rights to organise unions without employer interference. Created the National Labor Relations Board.
Japanese American Internment
Executive Order 9066 (1942) authorised the forced relocation of roughly 120,000 Japanese Americans, mostly from the West Coast, to internment camps. They lost homes, businesses and property.
Manhattan Project
The secret programme to develop the atomic bomb, directed by J. Robert Oppenheimer. The US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945), killing over 180,000 civilians.
Muckrakers built public support for reform by exposing corporate corruption and social ills
Hull House (Jane Addams) pioneered the settlement house movement
Muller v. Oregon (1908) upheld workplace protections for women based on maternal function
Women's suffrage: mainstream suffragists argued women's votes would extend domestic virtue into public life; Alice Paul's National Woman's Party pushed for an Equal Rights Amendment
Booker T. Washington vs W.E.B. Du Bois: accommodation vs confrontation on racial equality
Ida B. Wells documented lynching and argued it was a tool of racial control, not justice
Theodore Roosevelt's Square Deal: trust-busting, consumer protection, conservation
Wilson's New Freedom: anti-trust, tariff reduction, banking reform (Federal Reserve)
The conservation movement (John Muir, Sierra Club) clashed with commercial development (Hetch Hetchy dam)
Motivations: economic (new markets), racial (white Protestant superiority), strategic (naval bases), gendered ("crisis of masculinity")
Hawaii annexed after American planters overthrew Queen Liliuokalani
The Spanish-American War (1898) made the US an imperial power (Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam)
The Philippine War (1899-1902) killed an estimated 200,000 Filipinos; the Anti-Imperialist League opposed annexation
Roosevelt Corollary, Open Door Policy, Dollar Diplomacy extended US influence globally
US entered in 1917 due to economic ties with the Allies, unrestricted German submarine warfare, and the Zimmermann Telegram
Government agencies managed the war economy: War Industries Board, Food Administration, Railroad Administration
The Committee on Public Information produced propaganda; the Espionage and Sedition Acts criminalised dissent
German Americans faced discrimination and suspicion
Wilson's Fourteen Points sought lasting peace through self-determination and the League of Nations; the Senate rejected US membership
The Red Scare (1919-1920) targeted suspected radicals and immigrants
The influenza pandemic (1918-1920) killed 675,000 Americans and 50 million worldwide
The Great Migration brought over 400,000 Black southerners north
Republican administrations cut taxes on the wealthy, weakened regulatory agencies, and supported big business
The automobile transformed daily life, drove related industries, and reshaped dating, leisure and suburban growth
The "flapper" / "new woman" defied traditional morality; the Harlem Renaissance celebrated Black cultural expression
Marcus Garvey promoted Black nationalism and a "back to Africa" movement through the UNIA
The Scopes Trial (1925) tested evolution vs religious fundamentalism
The Sacco and Vanzetti case reflected nativist hostility toward immigrants and radicals
The Immigration Act of 1924 restricted immigration from southern and eastern Europe
The KKK revived, targeting Catholics, Jews, immigrants and anyone violating "traditional values"
Causes: stock market speculation, agricultural overproduction, weak banking regulation, wealth inequality
Hoover's response: voluntarism, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, the Hawley-Smoot Tariff (which worsened the crisis)
Hoovervilles, the Dust Bowl, and mass unemployment defined the era
African Americans were "last hired, first fired"; Mexican Americans faced mass deportation (repatriation)
FDR's New Deal: Emergency Banking Act, Glass-Steagall Act, CCC, WPA, AAA, Social Security, Wagner Act
The Indian Reorganization Act (1934) reversed the Dawes Act but failed to account for tribal diversity
Critics from the right saw the New Deal as socialism; critics from the left wanted more radical wealth redistribution
The CIO organised workers across racial and gender lines; the Flint sit-down strike (1937) won union recognition from GM
Neutrality Acts (1935-1937) reflected isolationist sentiment; the America First Committee opposed intervention
Pearl Harbour (December 7, 1941) brought the US into the war
Women entered the workforce in record numbers ("Rosie the Riveter") and served in the military
African Americans fought a "Double V" campaign: victory over fascism abroad and racism at home
The Bracero Program brought Mexican workers to fill wartime labour shortages; the Zoot Suit Riots (1943) reflected anti-Mexican hostility
Navajo code talkers provided unbreakable military communications
Japanese American internment (Executive Order 9066) relocated 120,000 people to camps
The Yalta Conference (1945) divided postwar Europe into spheres of influence
The Manhattan Project produced the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The Progressive Era was not uniformly progressive. Many reformers held racist views, supported eugenics, and excluded African Americans and immigrants from their vision of reform.
The New Deal did not end the Great Depression. It provided relief and reform but the economy did not fully recover until WWII mobilisation. Some New Deal programmes (the AAA, Social Security) explicitly excluded the most vulnerable workers.
Japanese American internment was not driven by evidence of disloyalty. It was driven by racial prejudice and wartime panic. No Japanese American was ever convicted of espionage.
The expansion of federal power is the through-line of Period 7. Track it from Progressive regulation through wartime mobilisation to the New Deal.
Compare the three wartime home fronts (WWI, WWII) and their effects on civil liberties, women, and racial minorities.
Washington vs Du Bois is a classic comparison. Know each position and connect it to later civil rights strategies.
The New Deal's limitations (racial exclusions, gendered assumptions, constitutional challenges) are tested as often as its achievements.
Fill in the blank: Upton Sinclair's __________ exposed conditions in the meatpacking industry and led to food safety legislation. (The Jungle)
True or False: The United States joined the League of Nations after World War I. (False. The Senate rejected membership.)
Fill in the blank: The __________ Act of 1924 restricted immigration from southern and eastern Europe using national-origin quotas. (Immigration / National Origins)
True or False: The Social Security Act covered all American workers. (False. It excluded farm, domestic and laundry workers.)
Fill in the blank: Executive Order __________ authorised the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. (9066)
Q: How did the role of the federal government change from the Gilded Age through the New Deal?
A: During the Gilded Age, the federal government generally followed laissez-faire principles and sided with business against labour. The Progressive Era introduced regulation (antitrust, food safety, conservation) and expanded democratic participation (direct election of senators, women's suffrage). The New Deal dramatically expanded the government's role further: providing jobs (CCC, WPA), regulating banking (Glass-Steagall), guaranteeing labour rights (Wagner Act), and creating a social safety net (Social Security). Each crisis (inequality, war, depression) pushed the government to take on responsibilities it had previously left to the private sector.
Q: Compare the experiences of African Americans during WWI and WWII.
A: During WWI, the Great Migration brought over 400,000 Black southerners north for industrial jobs, but they faced discrimination in housing and employment; racial violence erupted in the Red Summer of 1919. During WWII, African Americans fought a "Double V" campaign for victory over fascism abroad and racism at home. Over 200,000 served in the military (in segregated units), and the NAACP continued legal challenges to discrimination. In both wars, wartime labour needs opened economic opportunities, but returning veterans faced continued racial hostility.
Progressive reforms anticipate the Great Society programmes of the 1960s (Period 8). The WWI-era Espionage and Sedition Acts connect to Cold War-era McCarthyism (Period 8). The New Deal's labour protections and social safety net remain the foundation of modern American domestic policy. Japanese American internment connects to post-9/11 debates about civil liberties and national security (Period 9).
Progressive Era, muckrakers, Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair, Hull House, Jane Addams, women suffrage, 19th Amendment, NAACP, Booker T Washington, WEB Du Bois, Ida B Wells, Spanish-American War, Philippines, Roosevelt Corollary, Open Door Policy, Triangle Shirtwaist fire, Espionage Act, Sedition Act, Fourteen Points, League of Nations, Red Scare, Great Migration, Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes, Marcus Garvey, flapper, Scopes Trial, Immigration Act 1924, KKK, Great Depression, Hoover, Dust Bowl, New Deal, FDR, CCC, WPA, Social Security, Wagner Act, Pearl Harbor, Rosie the Riveter, Double V, Japanese internment, Manhattan Project, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, APUSH Period 7, 1898-1945