Cambridge International Examinations – Syllabus - Paper 5 - The History of the USA, c.1840-1968

This paper focuses on key developments that transformed the USA from an isolated agrarian society to the world’s leading superpower in terms of economic strength, military power, political and diplomatic influence, and cultural and social impact on other nations and peoples.

Source-Based Study: The Road to Secession and Civil War, 1846-61

This topic focuses on the reasons for the breakdown of consensus as to the nature of the American Union between the end of the Mexican War and the outbreak of Civil War in April 1861. Candidates must study the protracted arguments as to whether slavery should be allowed to expand into the new territories acquired by the USA, and understand why this was such an intractable problem. They need to be familiar with the unsuccessful attempts to find a stable basis for compromise, the shifting political alignments of the period, and the debate on whether states were entitled to secede from the United States. Particular attention should be paid to the evolving views of the leading political figures of the period, such as Cobb, Calhoun, Douglas, Seward and Lincoln, the key crises of 1848-50 and 1860-1, and differing historiographical interpretations of the sectional conflict.

1. ‘There was never any real prospect that the 1850 Compromise would satisfactorily resolve the sectional tensions which arose out of the Mexican War.’ Use Sources A-E to show how far the evidence supports this statement.

2. ‘There was never any real prospect that the 1850 Compromise would satisfactorily resolve the sectional tensions which arose out of the Mexican War.’ Using Sources A–E, discuss how far the evidence supports this statement.

3. ‘The slavery issue undoubtedly caused the American Civil War.’ Use sources A-E to show how far the evidence confirms this statement.

4. ‘When Douglas put forward the principle of popular sovereignty he made a disastrous error.’ Using Sources A-E discuss how far the evidence supports this assertion.

5. ‘Douglas’s arguments were more practical and realistic than those of Lincoln’. Using Sources A-E, discuss how far the evidence supports this assertion

6. ‘The Dred Scott decision made little practical difference to sectional divisions over the slavery issue.’ Using Sources A – E, discuss how far the evidence supports this assertion.

7. ‘Republicans did not oppose slavery, they simply opposed its extension.’ Using Sources A–E, discuss how far the evidence supports this assertion.

8. ‘The 1860 Party Platforms proved that no further compromises between North and South would be possible.’ Using Sources A–D discuss how far the evidence supports this assertion.

9. ‘By 1861 attitudes towards the Union differed so strongly as to make compromise, in practice, impossible.’ Use Sources A-E to show how far the evidence supports this view.

10. ‘The sectional conflict which led to the Civil War was about the clash of competing economic interests and not the rights and wrongs of slavery.’ Using Sources A – E, discuss how far the evidence supports this explanation of the causes of the Civil War.

11. ‘It was the complete breakdown in trust between North and South that made compromise impossible.’ Using Sources A – E, discuss how far the evidence supports this assertion.

12. ‘The secession crisis of 1860–1 only led to civil war because of President Buchanan’s weakness and indecision.’ Using Sources A-E, discuss how far the evidence supports this assertion

13. ‘The South seceded reluctantly.’ Using Sources A–E, discuss how far the evidence supports this Assertion

14. ‘Lincoln was the only President capable of dealing with the basic issues underlying the sectional conflict in the United States.’ Using Sources A–E, discuss how far the evidence supports this assertion.

15. ‘Lincoln was an opponent of slavery.’ Using Sources A-E, discuss how far the evidence supports this assertion.

Essay Topics

Seven essay questions will be set, one on each of the themes

I Westward Expansion and the Taming of the West, c.1840-96 The doctrine of ‘Manifest Destiny’. The annexation of Texas, the Mexican War and its consequences. Mormons and Utah. The Oregon Question. The Railroads and their significance. The displacement of Native American nations. The Gold Rush of 1849 and Californian statehood. The 1850 compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska question. The myth of the Wild West. Cattlemen and farmers, the mining boom, the destruction of the Plains Indians. Closing of the frontier and Turner’s Frontier Thesis.

1. How do you account for the huge territorial expansion of the United States in the 1840s?

2. Explain how and why the belief in America’s ‘Manifest Destiny’ proved so strong in the 1840s.

3. How influential a factor was the doctrine of Manifest Destiny in the huge territorial expansion of the United States in the 1840s?

4. Explain how and why the belief in America’s Manifest Destiny proved so strong in the 1840s and 1850s.

5. Assess the consequences of the Mexican War for the United States.

6. Assess the consequences of the Mexican War for the United States.

7. Evaluate the impact of the ‘Gold Rush’ of 1849 on America’s westward expansion.

8. Why was it that the 1850 Compromise had started to unravel by 1856?

9. ‘Mexico will poison us.’ How accurate was this prediction of the effects of the Mexican War on the United States?

10. How far were the displacement of the Native American nations and the destruction of their way of life in the period 1840 to 1896 the consequence of deliberate government policy?

11. How far did the USA benefit economically from westward expansion after 1865?

12. Assess the main factors involved in taming the ‘Wild West’ between 1865 and 1896.

13. How valid is the assertion that improved transportation was the basic reason for America’s dramatic westward expansion during the period 1840-96?

14. How significant in the period to 1890 were the social and economic consequences of the westward expansion of the United States?

15. How valid was [Jackson] Turner’s frontier thesis on the connection between the conquest of the frontier and the democratic national character of America?

II Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-77

(a) The Civil War: strengths and weaknesses of the Union and the Confederacy. Lincoln and Davis as war leaders. Border states’ key decisions. Different strategies of the armies, key campaigns and battles. European attitudes and diplomatic initiatives. The Emancipation Proclamation and its effects. Weaknesses of the Confederate political system. Wartime politics in the union: civil liberties, the 1864 election. Grant and Lee as generals. Why did the South lose?

(b) Reconstruction: legacies of the war: devastated South and booming North. Lincoln’s programme for rebels. Johnson’s Reconstruction programme, Congressional opposition. Radical Congressional Reconstruction, impeachment of Johnson. Effects of Reconstruction on freedmen, and on the White South. Grant’s administrations, changing emphasis. Erosion of black rights, reinstatement of white supremacy. Compromise of 1877 and the end of Reconstruction. How far did Reconstruction advance the position of the former slaves?

1. ‘The victory of the Union in the Civil War was inevitable.’ How far do you agree with this view?

2. Evaluate the factors that secured the victory of the Union in the Civil War.

3. How close did the Confederacy come to ‘winning’ the Civil War?

4. Why did the South lose the Civil War?

5. Compare Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as war leaders.

6. Compare Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as war leaders.

7. Examine the view that Lincoln’s contribution to the Union victory in the Civil War has been greatly exaggerated.

8. ‘I claim not to have controlled events but confess plainly that events have controlled me.’ (Abraham Lincoln, speech in 1864). Do you agree with Lincoln’s assessment of his Presidency?

9. How true is the claim that Gettysburg was the turning point in the Civil War?

10. Why were the gains made by the Freedmen during Reconstruction both superficial and short-lived?

11. To what extent did the former slaves benefit from Reconstruction policies between 1865 and 1877?

12. Assess the respective strengths and weaknesses of Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction policies.

13. ‘Johnson’s real offence was his constant determination to thwart the will of Congress as expressed in the Reconstruction Acts.’ How far does this explain his opponents’ efforts to remove him from office?

14. How was it that the original high ideals of post-war Reconstruction ended with the 1877 Compromise?

15. ‘He was completely unfitted for the office of President.’ To what extent is this a fair judgment on Grant during his two Presidential terms?

III The Impact of Economic Expansion, 1865-1917

Reasons for the expansion of US industry and commerce after the Civil War. Effects of mass immigration. Effects of technical innovations. The impact of railroad expansion. Steel, oil and finance. Trusts and monopolies, attempts at regulation. Cult of the business ethic. Agrarian revolt and populism, the rise of trade unions and increasing industrial conflict. Ford and the production line revolution. The Progressive Era and its impact on business.

1. Explain why trade unionism made only limited progress in the United States from 1865 to 1914.

2. Assess the impact of organized labor on American politics and society from 1865 to 1914.

3. Why was it so difficult for governments to regulate big business effectively in the period 1865 to 1890?

4. Was the trend towards monopoly in the American economy beneficial or harmful in the period to 1914?

5. How serious were the problems caused by the vast expansion of US industry and commerce in the period 1865-1901?

6. Evaluate the effectiveness of Progressivism on the United States politically, socially and economically from 1901 to 1916.

7. ‘Progressivism was simply a set of superficial reforms which evaded rather than addressed the ills of American society.’ How far is this judgment valid?

8. How far is it justified to speak of an agrarian revolt among American farmers in the period 1865-96?

9. How far is it justified to speak of an ‘agrarian revolt’ among American farmers in the period 1867–1896?

10. Account for the rise and fall of the People’s Party (Populists).

11. How successful were attempts to deal with the problems of farmers in the late nineteenth century?

12. Assess the impact of immigration on American social and economic life from 1865 to 1914.

13. Assess the impact of immigration on American social and economic life in the period from 1865 to the First World War.

14. Assess the role of technical innovation in the rapidly expanding US economy from 1865 to 1914.

15. Explain why the United States became the world’s leading industrial nation in the period 1865-1900.

IV Civil Rights, 1895-1968

The position of African-Americans in 1900, the contrasting strategies of Booker T Washington and W E B du Bois, the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP). World War I and black Americans. Revival of the Ku Klux Klan and lynching in the 1920s. The persistence of denial of civil rights in the South and discrimination in the North. The New Deal and civil rights. World War II and black Americans. End of racial discrimination in schools, the Brown case and the Supreme Court. The rise to prominence of Martin Luther King through the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the tactic of non-violent protest against segregation. Militant approach of other groups: Malcolm X and the Black Muslims, Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver and the Black Panthers. The Civil Rights Act (1964) and the 24^th Amendment. Assassinations of King and Malcolm X. The 1967 riots and Johnson’s civil rights policies. The civil rights of Native Americans. Assessment of the extent of gains made in civil rights by the end of the 1960s.

1. How was it possible, in spite of constitutional protection, for the Southern States to deny basic civil rights to African-Americans from 1895 to 1964?

2. How different were the philosophies and policies of Booker T. Washington and W. E. du Bois on how best to attain full emancipation for Afro-Americans?

3. Account for the dramatic rise and fall of the revived Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.

4. Assess the effectiveness of the different tactics used by the various branches of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

5. Explain the principal factors which secured successes for the Civil Rights Movement between 1950 and 1968.

6. Analyze the factors which led to the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

7. Assess the effectiveness of the different tactics used by the various wings of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

8. Analyse the principal factors which secured major successes for the Civil Rights movement between 1945 and 1968.

9. Why were the civil rights of Native Americans largely overlooked for most of the period 18951968?

10. Evaluate the leadership role of Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

11. Compare Martin Luther King and Malcolm X as leaders of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

12. ‘Although highly skilled in self-promotion and networking with politicians and the media, Martin Luther King’s [sic] role in obtaining civil rights for African-Americans has been overstated.’ Discuss this view.

13. Examine the contention that President Lyndon Johnson did far more in practice than Martin Luther King for the civil rights of African-Americans.

14. Examine the changing role of African-Americans in the nation’s economic, social, and political life from 1900 to 1968.

15. Why, in the great battles over Civil Rights in the 1960s, was the plight of the Native American Indians largely ignored?

V Boom and Bust, 1920-1941

Post-war reaction against internationalism and progressivism, the election of Harding and the cult of ‘normalcy’. Prohibition and its consequences. Corruption scandals. The Coolidge presidency and the business boom. American society in the ‘Jazz Age’. The origins of depression, the Wall Street crash, Hoover’s failed policies, FDR and the First New Deal, the second phase of the New Deal. American society in the depression. Opposition to the New Deal, the Supreme Court. The New Deal - an evaluation.

1. How far were the 1920s in the United States a period of prosperity and optimism?

2. Which were the more typical of 1920s America: Prohibition and intolerance or the Jazz Age and increasing social freedom?

3. ‘The revolt of rural and small town Americans against the cities’. Discuss this assessment of the 1920s.

4. How accurate is it to describe the 1920s as a decade of conformity, intolerance and conservatism?

5. Account for the Republican ascendancy in the 1920s.

6. ‘The business of America is business’; ‘The ideal of America is idealism.’ How far do these sayings of Calvin Coolidge reflect the policies of his Presidency, 1923-9?

7. Evaluate the factors that caused the Great Depression in the United States.

8. Why did the Wall Street Crash occur in 1929?

9. How different were the policies adopted by Hoover and Roosevelt to deal with the Great Depression?

10. Why was opposition to the New Deal so fierce?

11. ‘Shapeless and chaotic, with no clear philosophy.’ How valid is this critique of the New Deal, 1933-1940?

12. Consider the view that the New Deal was more significant politically than economically.

13. ‘Flexibility was both his strength and his weakness.’ How valid is this assessment of F. D. Roosevelt as President?

14. Why did some groups benefit more from the New Deal than others?

15. Evaluate the impact of the Depression on American society, 1929-1939.

VI The USA’s Rise as a World Power, 1890-1945

The rise of American imperialism and its causes, war with Spain and its consequences, Far Eastern policy and the acquisition of the Panama Canal. Roosevelt’s policies in the Western hemisphere. The policy of neutrality and the First World War, the failed peace efforts of Wilson, reasons for entry of the USA into the war. The contribution of the USA to victory. Wilson’s role in peacemaking, rejection of the Versailles settlement by the Senate. Return to partial isolationism. War debts and reparations. The Washington Conference and the Kellogg Pact. FDR’s ‘Good Neighbour’ policy and policy in the Far East. New Deal diplomacy. US neutrality in World War II, Lend-Lease. Pearl Harbor, war with Germany and Japan. The US contribution to the war effort. Conferences at Yalta and Potsdam. The San Francisco Conference, founding of the United Nations. Assessment of the position of the USA in the world by 1945.

1. Discuss the view that the Spanish-American War marked the emergence of the United States as a world power.

2. ‘Gradually and rather reluctantly, the United States became an imperial power and a military presence on a global scale.’ Is this a fair assessment of American foreign policy, 1890-1919?

3. ‘To walk softly but carry a big stick.’ To what extent is this an accurate portrayal of Theodore oosevelt’s conduct of foreign affairs, 1901-1909?

4. Why, in spite of President Wilson’s policy of neutrality, did America enter World War I in 1917?

5. Why, in spite of its stated policy of neutrality, did America enter World War I in 1917?

6. To what extent was isolationism the key doctrine of US foreign policy from 1921 to 1941?

7. How successful in foreign affairs was President Wilson?

8. Why is it that both Congress and the American people rejected the Versailles peace settlement negotiated by President Wilson?

9. Assess relations between the United States and Europe from 1919 to 1941.

10. To what extent did the foreign policy of the United States from 1921 to 1941 follow consistent principles?

11. To what extent were Roosevelt’s policies towards the ‘aggressor states’ between 1933 and 1941 weak and ineffective?

12. To what extent was American foreign policy ‘isolationist’ between 1920 and 1941?

13. Analyze the reasons why the United States was unable to sustain its policy of neutrality in World War II.

14. ‘President Roosevelt’s war policies from 1940 to 1945 were a mixture of the ruthless pursuit of US national interests and high-minded idealism.’ To what extent is this a fair judgment?

15. ‘Though always expressed in terms of high moral principles, US foreign policy from 1913 to 1945 was in fact driven by the relentless pursuit of US national interests.’ How accurate is this comment?

VII Social Developments, 1945-68

The effects of the war. Population growth, changes in demographic structure and mobility. The decay of the cities and the urban crisis. The social consequences of technological change and economic growth. The role of religion. Expansion of higher education, student radicalism. Revolution in lifestyles in the 1960s: changes in the workplace, the roles of women, families. Developments in mass culture: film, literature, the TV age, the growing influence of the mass media.

1. Examine the consequences of the great expansion of higher education in the United States from 1945 to 1968.

2. ‘In the 1950s and 1960s religion permeated every aspect of American life but how far there was a genuine religious revival remains uncertain.’ Assess the accuracy of this contention.

3. ‘The apparent religious revival after 1945 was superficial and served mainly to justify the American way of life.’ Evaluate this contention.

4. How far is it true to say that there was an ‘urban crisis’ in America by 1968?

5. Examine the influence of the mass media on American society from 1952 to 1968.

6. Examine the influence of the mass media on American society from 1952 to 1968.

7. Assess the impact of television on American society and politics from 1950 to 1968.

8. Evaluate the impact of the mass media on America’s political and social life from 1945 to 1968.

9. How true was it that the quality of life for Americans improved dramatically from 1945 to 1968?

10. How true is it that the quality of life for most Americans rose dramatically between 1945 and 1961?

11. How far was increasing national prosperity from 1945 to 1968 shared by all Americans?

12. Assess the consequences from 1945 to 1968 of the great expansion of higher education in the United States.

13. Analyze the reasons for the dramatic change in social attitudes and lifestyles that occurred in America in the 1960s.

14. How much did US society change between 1945 and 1968?

15. Analyze the reasons for the changing roles and status of women in American society from 1945 to 1968.