US History Course
Website | Monica Rankin’s Homepage
HIST
1302, Sec. 005
Lecture
Questions
Spring
2015
Lecture
1:
Civil
War and Reconstruction
What problems faced the American nation
immediately following the Civil War? How
did those problems contribute to attitudes toward Reconstruction? What impact did Reconstruction have on the
South? What brought an end to the
Reconstruction era?
Lecture
2:
Westward
Expansion
What motivated the U.S. government to promote
western expansion in the late 19th century? What motivated individuals to move west? What problems and solutions arose with
Manifest Destiny? How and why did the
frontier close?
Lecture
3:
Industrial
Expansion
What factors contributed to rapid
industrialization in the United States in the last decades of the 19th
century? What impact did
industrialization have on the country?
Specifically, what changes did it bring about in the social structure
and how did society explain those changes?
Lecture
4:
Urban
Expansion
What factors led to the growth of urban areas
in the late 19th century?
What consequences did urban expansion have? What propelled activists to initiate urban
reform efforts and how successful were those efforts?
Lecture
5:
Indian
Policy
Lecture
6:
We’re
Off to See the Wizard (In the Gilded Age)
Why was the late 19th century
referred to as the “Gilded Age?” What
characteristics of a façade can you identify from that period? How is The Wonderful Wizard of Oz a
parable for this period? What evidence
is there that the United States was on the verge of a major social change by
the end of the 19th century?
Lecture
7:
Imperial
Expansion
What brought about a change in American
attitudes toward foreign policy in the 1890s?
How did foreign policy fit into the context of other issues in
post-Civil War society? How were new
interests in imperial expansion manifested?
What was the main impact of the Spanish-American War?
Lecture
8:
Progressive
Era
What led to the emergence of the Progressive
Movement in the early decades of the 20th century? How did this movement mark a departure from
19th century society? How did
Americans react to Progressives? How did
they react to the “New York Catalyst?”
Lecture
9:
Progressive
Reform
What effect did Progressive Reformers have on
society? How did reforms make government
more accountable? How did they require a
more active government? How do
progressive reforms reflect both a liberal social agenda and a more
conservative moral platform?
Lecture
10:
Progressive
Era Diplomacy
How did foreign policies under Roosevelt,
Taft, and Wilson reflect new attitudes toward foreign affairs? How did they reflect they progressive reform
movement occurring simultaneously in the United States? What impact might US foreign policy in the
Progressive Era have on US actions in WWI?
Lecture
11:
World
War I
How and why did the United States initially
try to avoid becoming involved in WWI?
What prompted the US declaration of war?
What impact did the war have on the homefront? How does WWI serve as a culmination of
changes during the Progressive Era?
Lecture
12:
The
Roaring ‘20s
Why is the decade of the 1920s defined as an
era of transition from tradition to modernity?
How is it an era of contradictions?
What propelled new changes in the 1920s and how did society react?
Lecture
13:
The
United States in the Great Depression
What caused the Depression of the 1930s? How did the outcome of WWI have an effect
decades later? Why was the impact of the
Depression so devastating and why did no one seem capable of fixing the
nation’s problems?
Lecture
14:
Roosevelt’s
New Deal
How did FDR bring new hope to the
country? How did his policies begin an era
of recovery? What was the most important
legacy of the Depression and the New Deal?
Lecture
15:
World
War II
How and why did the United States initially
try to remain neutral in WWII? What
eventually pushed the United States into war?
How did mobilization for war become a fulfillment of Roosevelt’s New
Deal policies?
Lecture
16:
The
United States Homefront
How did Americans react to the state of
national emergency in World War II? How
did the home front reaction contribute to the war effort? What impact did the war have on the home
front? What are some of the most
significant changes American society experienced at that time?
Lecture
17:
The
United States and the Cold War
How did U.S.-Soviet relations in the final
years of WWII contribute to conflict in the post-war? How did immediate post-war concerns of the
United States contribute to the emergence of the Cold War? Why did the “Red Scare” evolve even though
the U.S. appeared to be winning the Cold War by 1949?
Lecture
18:
The
Rise of Suburbia
How did the early 1950s represent a period of
rest and prosperity for the United States?
How did post-war domestic policies help to promote that sense of
prosperity? How did tensions surrounding
foreign affairs begin to subside?
Lecture
19:
Space
and Race in the Post-War
Why did many Americans begin to sense
problems with American prosperity in the late 1950s? How did the Cold War become incorporated into
seemingly domestic issues? How did the solutions
for transportation problems become a model for other national dilemmas?
Lecture
20:
New
Hope and Great Society
How did the Democrats recover political
influence in the 1960s? How did foreign
events contribute to a sense of domestic crisis? How did JFK’s response to domestic crises
differ from Johnson’s? Why are the
legacies of these two presidents ironic?
Lecture
21:
The
War in Vietnam
What were US motives in the Vietnam conflict
and how did the conflict evolve into a full-scale war? Why was it so difficult for American leaders to
pull US troops out of Vietnam? How did
domestic issues intersect with war politics?
How and why did Americans become disillusioned with the Vietnam War?
Lecture
22:
The
Nixonian Paradox
How did domestic issues intersect with war
politics during Johnson’s and Nixon’s administrations? How did Nixon intend to end the Vietnam War
and why did the war continue for four more years after his election? How did Nixon’s Détente policies eventually
succeed in ending hostilities? How did the Watergate scandal come to dominate
Richard Nixon’s legacy? To what extent
was the scandal connected to Nixon’s policies in Vietnam? How did Nixon’s presidency contribute to a
growing crisis of self-confidence in the 1970s?
Lecture
23:
That
‘70s Show
How did the United States begin to suffer a
crisis of self-confidence in the 1970s?
To what extent were US leaders to blame, and to what extent were they
unfortunate victims of circumstance? How
did the political and social climate of the 1970s lead to changing political
trends in the 1980s?
Lecture
24:
USA
Today
How did Reagan shift American foreign
policy? How did the Cold War finally
end? What has been the importance of
technology since the 1980s? How did Cold
War policies and globalization combine to produce a “terrorist culture?”