Essay Questions for 6-Weeks Test

MCCKC History 121 Essay Questions for the 6-weeks Test Due date: Thursday, February 12, 2009

Directions: You must write a response to the first two questions below, from Foner’s book in chapters 15 and 16. Choose two questions from those listed below – one question from chapter 17, one question from chapter 18. INCLUDE a copy of the questions with each of your answers (copy/paste into your paper). Please be sure to use 12-point Times New Roman type, double-spaced.

Chapter 15 – Reconstruction (You must write a response to this question.) 1. Fully discuss the failures of Reconstruction.  Who was to blame?  Be sure to include the failure of land redistribution, the redeemers, and the Ku Klux Klan.  Look at the northern public and Congress, particularly at the comment President Grant made in 1875 to the governor of Mississippi that the public was “too tired” to care about the South’s problems anymore. How can a nation commit to emancipation and radical Reconstruction, only to become “tired” less than a decade later?

Chapter 16: America’s Gilded Age, 1870-1890 (You must write a response to this question.) 2. As more and more economic inequality became apparent, the belief that freedom and equality were intricately linked seemed outdated. The task of social science was to devise a way to make men who were free, or equal in liberty, accept that there are inequalities in the distribution of wealth associated with industrialization. Explain the various ways reformers and social scientists devised to accomplish this task. Be sure your answer includes specific reformers and social scientists, the methods they used, and their successes and failures.

Chapter 17: Freedom’s Boundaries, at Home and Abroad, 1890–1900 (Choose one of these two questions.) Chronicle the process that developed in the South of chipping away the freedoms granted to blacks during Reconstruction.  Give careful consideration to how the Civil War was remembered by white America contributed to denials of freedoms to African-Americans.  By 1900, what was the condition of African-Americans in the South? List the ways in which they responded to those conditions.

Analyze the consequences of American rule in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines.  Did the citizens prosper? Enjoy freedom? Accept American rule?  Comment on the consequences for the United States in regard to the statement made by Eric Foner in the text, “Thus, two principles central to American freedom since the War of Independence—no taxation without representation and government based on the consent of the governed—were abandoned when it came to the nation’s new possessions.” Chapter 18: The Progressive Era, 1900–1916

(Choose one of these two questions.) Compare the presidencies of Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson by doing the following things:  List the things that made each of them Progressive presidents.  Identify and describe what you believe to be the most important pieces of legislation passed during each administration; explain why these laws and programs are so significant.  Indicate what each president did to expand the meaning of freedom for Americans.

Write an essay on the changing roles of women in first decades of the twentieth century, including the following:  List the groups that supported and worked for women’s rights during this period  Explain how each group defined freedom  Describe how each group advocated for their freedom.  Explain how successful each group was during this period of time, using examples to prove your point.