Reprint: 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. The themes are:

Source-based study: The Road to Secession and Civil War, 1846–61

This topic focuses on the reasons for the breakdown of consensus regarding 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. They also need

to look at 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

• differing historiographical interpretations of the sectional conflict.

Theme 1: 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

• The 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.

Theme 2: Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–77

The Civil War: strengths and weaknesses of the Union and the Confederacy

• Lincoln and Davis as war leaders

• The 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?

Reconstruction: legacies of the war; devastated South and booming North

• Lincoln’s program for rebels

• Johnson’s Reconstruction program, 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?

Theme 3: 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.

Theme 4: 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

• The 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 24th 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.

Theme 5: Boom and Bust, 1920–41

• 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.

Theme 6: 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.

Theme 7: 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.

Reprint: Previous Examination Questions

Source-based study/Question #1: The Road to Secession and Civil War, 1846–61

a. ‘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. [2002 June]

b. ‘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. [2006 Nov]

c. ‘The slavery issue undoubtedly caused the American Civil War.’ Use sources A-E to show how far the evidence confirms this statement. [2002 Nov]

d. ‘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. [2003 June]

e. ‘Douglas’s arguments were more practical and realistic than those of Lincoln’. Using Sources A-E, discuss how far the evidence supports this assertion. [2005 Nov]

f. ‘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. [2004 June]

g. ‘Republicans did not oppose slavery, they simply opposed its extension.’ Using Sources A–E, discuss how far the evidence supports this assertion. [2005 June]

h. ‘John Brown was not an heroic martyr but an irresponsible criminal.’ Using Sources A–E, discuss how far the evidence supports this assertion. [2009 Nov]

i. ‘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. [2007 Nov]

j. ‘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. [2001]

a. ‘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. [2004 Nov]

b. ‘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. [2005 June]

c. ‘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 [2003 Nov]

d. ‘The South seceded reluctantly.’ Using Sources A–E, discuss how far the evidence supports this Assertion, [2007 June]

e. ‘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. [2008 June]

f. ‘Lincoln was an opponent of slavery.’ Using Sources A-E, discuss how far the evidence supports this assertion. [2009 June]

g. ‘Lincoln’s election meant that armed conflict between North and South became avoidable.’ Using Sources A-E, discuss how far the evidence supports this assertion. [2010 June]

h. ‘The Dred Scott decision demonstrated the Supreme Court’s inability to deal with sectional issues in a satisfactory manner.’ Using Sources A–E, discuss how far the evidence supports this assertion. [2008 Nov]

Theme 1/Question #2: Westward Expansion and the Taming of the West, c. 1840–96

a. How do you account for the huge territorial expansion of the United States in the 1840s? [2001]

b. What caused America’s rapid territorial expansion in the 1840s? [2010 June]

c. Why was it that the 1850 Compromise had started to unravel by 1856? [2004 Nov]

d. Why did the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) produce such a storm of political controversy? [2008 Nov]

e. Explain how and why the belief in America’s Manifest Destiny proved so strong in the 1840s and 1850s. [2002 June]

f. Explain how and why the belief in America’s ‘Manifest Destiny’ proved so strong in the 1840s [2006 Nov]

g. Explain how and why, and with what consequences, the belief in America’s Manifest Destiny proved so strong in the 1840s and 1850s. [2010 June]

h. How influential a factor was the doctrine of Manifest Destiny in the huge territorial expansion of the United States in the 1840s? [2003 June]

i. Assess the consequences of the Mexican War for the United States. [2004 June]

j. Assess the consequences of the Mexican War for the United States. [2009 June]

k. ‘Mexico will poison us.’ How accurate was this prediction of the effects of the Mexican War on the United States? [2005 June]

l. Evaluate the impact of the ‘Gold Rush’ of 1849 on America’s westward expansion. [2008 June]

m. Assess the main factors involved in taming the ‘Wild West’ between 1865 and 1896. [2002 Nov]

n. How significant in the period to 1890 were the social and economic consequences of the westward expansion of the United States? [2003 June]

o. How far did the USA benefit economically from westward expansion after 1865? [2007 June]

p. How valid is the assertion that improved transportation was the basic reason for America’s dramatic westward expansion during the period 1840-96? [2006 June]

q. 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? [2005 Nov]

r. How valid was [Jackson] Turner’s frontier thesis on the connection between the conquest of the frontier and the democratic national character of America? [2007 Nov]

Theme 2/Question #3: Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–77

a. Evaluate the factors that secured the victory of the Union in the Civil War. [2003 June]

b. ‘The victory of the Union in the Civil War was inevitable.’ How far do you agree with this view? [2004 Nov]

c. How close did the Confederacy come to ‘winning’ the Civil War? [2008 June]

d. Why did the South lose the Civil War? [2007 June]

e. Compare Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as war leaders. [2001]

f. Compare Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as war leaders. [2004 June]

g. ‘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? [2005 June]

h. ‘I claim not to have controlled events but confess plainly that events have controlled me.’ Do you agree with Lincoln’s assessment of his Presidency? [2010 June]

i. Examine the view that Lincoln’s contribution to the Union victory in the Civil War has been greatly exaggerated. [2009 June]

j. How true is the claim that Gettysburg was the turning point in the Civil War? [2005 Nov]

k. Why were the gains made by the Freedmen during Reconstruction both superficial and short-lived? [2006 June]

l. To what extent did the former slaves benefit from Reconstruction policies between 1865 and 1877? [2002 June]

m. Assess the respective strengths and weaknesses of Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction policies. [2003 June]

n. ‘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? [2006 Nov]

o. To what extent was Reconstruction a failure? [2009 Nov]

p. How was it that the original high ideals of post-war Reconstruction ended with the 1877 Compromise? [2007 Nov]

q. ‘He was completely unfitted for the office of President.’ To what extent is this a fair judgment on Grant during his two Presidential terms? [2002 Nov]

r. ‘He was hopelessly unfitted for the office of President.’ To what extent is this a fair judgment of Grant’s two Presidential terms (1869–1877)? [2008 Nov]

Theme 3/Question #4: The Impact of Economic Expansion, 1865–1917

a. Explain why trade unionism made only limited progress in the United States from 1865 to 1914. [2001]

b. Why did organized labour have so little impact on American society from 1865 to 1917? [2009 Nov]

c. Assess the impact of organized labor on American politics and society from 1865 to 1914. [2005 Nov]

d. Was the trend towards monopoly in the American economy beneficial or harmful in the period to 1914? [2004 June]

e. Why was it so difficult for governments to regulate big business effectively in the period 1865 to 1890? [2003 June]

f. Why did it prove so difficult for both Federal and State governments to regulate big business effectively in the period 1865–1913? [2008 Nov]

g. How serious were the problems caused by the vast expansion of US industry and commerce in the period 1865-1901? [2006 June]

h. Evaluate the effectiveness of Progressivism on the United States politically, socially and economically from 1901 to 1916. [2004 Nov]

i. ‘Progressivism was simply a set of superficial reforms which evaded rather than addressed the ills of American society.’ How far is this judgment valid? [2008 June]

j. How far is it justified to speak of an agrarian revolt among American farmers in the period 1865-96? [2002 June]

k. How far is it justified to speak of an ‘agrarian revolt’ among American farmers in the period 1867–1896? [2006 Nov]

l. Account for the rise and fall of the People’s Party (Populists). [2009 June]

m. How successful were attempts to deal with the problems of farmers in the late nineteenth century? [2003 June]

n. Assess the impact of immigration on American social and economic life in the period from 1865 to the First World War. [2002 Nov]

o. Assess the impact of immigration on American social and economic life from 1865 to 1914. [2007 June]

p. Assess the role of technical innovation in the rapidly expanding US economy from 1865 to 1914. [2007 Nov]

q. Assess the part played by technical in inventions and innovations in the development of the US economy during the period 1865-1914. [2010 June]

r. Explain why the United States became the world’s leading industrial nation in the period 1865-1900. [2005 June]

Theme 4/Question #5: Civil Rights, 1895–1968

a. 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? [2005 June]

b. 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? [2004 June]

c. Account for the dramatic rise and fall of the revived Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. [2004 Nov]

d. Explain the principal factors which secured successes for the Civil Rights Movement between 1950 and 1968. [2003 June]

e. Assess the effectiveness of the different tactics used by the various branches of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. [2001]

f. Assess the effectiveness of the different tactics used by the various wings of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. [2005 Nov]

g. Analyze the factors which led to the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. [2003 Nov]

h. Analyze the principal factors which secured major successes for the Civil Rights movement between 1945 and 1968. [2008 June]

i. Evaluate the leadership role of Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. [2002 Nov]

j. Compare Martin Luther King and Malcolm X as leaders of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. [2006 Nov]

k. ‘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. [2009 June]

l. Examine the contention that President Lyndon Johnson did far more in practice than Martin Luther King for the civil rights of African-Americans. [2007 Nov]

m. Examine the changing role of African-Americans in the nation’s economic, social, and political life from 1900 to 1968. [2007 June]

n. Consider the view that the dramatic legal gains for African-Americans from 1945 to 1968 did little in practice to improve their social and economic position. [2008 Nov]

o. Why, in the great battles over Civil Rights in the 1960s, was the plight of the Native American Indians largely ignored? [2002 June]

p. Why were the civil rights of Native Americans largely overlooked for most of the period 18951968? [2006 June]

q. Examine the reasons for the civil rights of Native Americans being largely overlooked for most of the period 1895–1968. [2009 Nov]

r. Why was so little progress made in securing the civil rights of Native Americans in period 1890-1968? [2010 June]

Theme 5/Question #6: Boom and Bust, 1920–41

a. How far were the 1920s in the United States a period of prosperity and optimism? [2002 Nov]

b. Which were the more typical of 1920s America: Prohibition and intolerance or the Jazz Age and increasing social freedom? [2008 June]

c. ‘The revolt of rural and small town Americans against the cities’. Discuss this assessment of the 1920s. [2003 June]

d. How accurate is it to describe the 1920s as a decade of conformity, intolerance and conservatism? [2007 Nov]

e. Account for the Republican ascendancy in the 1920s. [2004 June]

f. ‘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? [2006 June]

g. ‘The wasted years.’ How fair is this judgment on the three Republican Presidents in the period 1921-33? [2010 June]

h. Evaluate the factors that caused the Great Depression in the United States. [2002 June]

i. Why did the Wall Street Crash occur in 1929? [2003 June]

j. How different were the policies adopted by Hoover and Roosevelt to deal with the Great Depression? [2005 June]

k. ‘Shapeless and chaotic, with no clear philosophy.’ How valid is this critique of the New Deal, 1933-1940? [2005 Nov]

l. Consider the view that the New Deal was more significant politically than economically. [2007 June]

m. How far did Roosevelt’s second term of office demonstrate that critics of the New Deal had been right all along? [2008 Nov]

n. Why was opposition to the New Deal so fierce? [2004 Nov]

o. ‘Flexibility was both his strength and his weakness.’ How valid is this assessment of F. D. Roosevelt as President? [2009 June]

p. Why did some groups benefit more from the New Deal than others? [2001]

q. Which groups benefited most from the New Deal and which the least [2009 Nov]

r. Evaluate the impact of the Depression on American society, 1929-1939. [2006 Nov]

Theme 6/Question #7: The USA’s Rise as a World Power, 1890–1945

a. Discuss the view that the Spanish-American War marked the emergence of the United States as a world power. [2001]

b. Discuss the view that the Spanish-American War marked the emergence of the United States as a world power. [2009 Nov]

c. ‘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? [2005 June]

d. ‘To walk softly but carry a big stick.’ To what extent is this an accurate portrayal of Theodore Roosevelt’s conduct of foreign affairs, 1901-1909? [2006 June]

e. Why, in spite of its stated policy of neutrality, did America enter World War I in 1917? [2002 June]

f. Why, in spite of President Wilson’s policy of neutrality, did America enter World War I in 1917? [2006 Nov]

g. How successful in foreign affairs was President Wilson? [2005 Nov]

h. Why is it that both Congress and the American people rejected the Versailles peace settlement negotiated by President Wilson? [2009 June]

i. Assess relations between the United States and Europe from 1919 to 1941. [2003 June]

j. To what extent did the foreign policy of the United States from 1921 to 1941 follow consistent principles? [2004 June]

k. To what extent did the foreign policy of the United States from 1921 to 1940 follow consistent principles? [2010 June]

l. To what extent were Roosevelt’s policies towards the ‘aggressor states’ between 1933 and 1941 weak and ineffective? [2004 Nov]

m. To what extent was American foreign policy ‘isolationist’ between 1920 and 1941? [2007 June]

n. To what extent was isolationism the key doctrine of US foreign policy from 1921 to 1941? [2003 June]

o. To what extent was isolationism the key doctrine of US foreign policy, 1919–1941? [2008 Nov]

p. Analyze the reasons why the United States was unable to sustain its policy of neutrality in World War II. [2002 Nov]

q. ‘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? [2007 Nov]

r. ‘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? [2008 June]

Theme 7/Question #8: Social Developments, 1945–68

a. ‘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. [2002 Nov]

b. ‘The apparent religious revival after 1945 was superficial and served mainly to justify the American way of life.’ Evaluate this contention. [2006 June]

c. Examine the influence of the mass media on American society from 1952 to 1968. [2001]

d. Examine the influence of the mass media on American society from 1952 to 1968. [2004 June]

e. Evaluate the impact of the mass media on America’s political and social life from 1945 to 1968. [2007 June]

f. Assess the impact of television on American society and politics from 1950 to 1968. [2008 June]

g. How true is it that the quality of life for most Americans rose dramatically between 1945 and 1961? [2003 June]

h. How true was it that the quality of life for Americans improved dramatically from 1945 to 1968? [2009 June]

i. How far was increasing national prosperity from 1945 to 1968 shared by all Americans? [2005 June]

j. Examine the consequences of the great expansion of higher education in the United States from 1945 to 1968. [2002 June]

k. Assess the consequences from 1945 to 1968 of the great expansion of higher education in the United States. [2006 Nov]

l. Analyze the reasons for the dramatic change in social attitudes and lifestyles that occurred in America in the 1960s. [2003 June]

m. Analyze the reasons for the dramatic change in social attitudes and lifestyles that occurred in America in the 1960s. [2009 Nov]

n. How far is it true to say that there was an ‘urban crisis’ in America by 1968? [2004 Nov]

o. Account for the profound changes in the composition and location of the US population in the period from 1945 to 1968. [2010 June]

p. How much did US society change between 1945 and 1968? [2007 Nov]

q. Analyze the reasons for the changing roles and status of women in American society from 1945 to 1968. [2005 Nov]

r. How far did the role of women in US society change from 1945 to 1968? [2008 Nov]