Comprehensive Study Guide: US History DBQ Practice and Cold War Era Notes

AP United States History: DBQ Rubric and Argumentation Procedures

• Contextualization ($1$ point): Requires a description of the broader historical context relevant to the specific prompt. It involves situating the argument within the larger historical trends or events of the time.

• Thesis Statement ($1$ point): Must provide a historically defensible thesis or claim that establishes a clear line of reasoning. This should serve as the roadmap for the entire essay.

• Evidence and Paragraph Structure ($3$ points total):   - Use separate paragraphs to develop $2$-$3$ distinct arguments.   - The "T.E.A." Method: For each paragraph, establish the Topic Sentence, provide Evidence, and offer Analysis.   - Document Description: Accurately explain the key point of at least $3$ out of $7$ documents in relation to an argument. Simple quoting or summarization is insufficient. Parenthetical citations (e.g., Doc. $1$) must be used.   - Document Support: Use at least $4$ of the $7$ documents as evidence to support an argument. Successfully supporting $4$ documents automatically earns the description point for the first $3$.   - Outside Evidence: Incorporate at least one additional piece of specific historical evidence beyond what is found in the documents. This evidence cannot be the same as that used in the contextualization paragraph.

• Historical Reasoning (HIPP) ($1$ point): For at least $3$ documents, explain how or why the document’s Historical situation, Intended audience, Point of view (POV), or Purpose is relevant to the argument. You must explain one aspect of HIPP for each of the three documents.

• Complexity ($1$ point): Demonstrate a complex understanding of the historical development through sophisticated argumentation, such as explaining multiple perspectives, or qualifying/modifying an argument with effective evidence.

• Timing Recommendation: Total time allocated is $60$ minutes. It is suggested to spend the first $15$ minutes on document analysis (using the HAPPY formula) and the remaining $45$ minutes on writing.

Document Analysis Framework (HAPPY/Heimler Method)

• Historical Background: Identify the larger historical events, trends, or circumstances occurring when the document was created.

• Audience: Determine who the document was written or created for.

• Purpose: Define the author’s objective (e.g., to persuade, inform, criticize, or justify).

• POV (Point of View): Analyze the author’s background, position, or beliefs and how they shape the content.

• Y (Why is it significant?): Explain how the document helps prove an argument or support a historical claim related to the prompt.

Economic Instability in the United States ($1919$-$1933$)

• Document $1$: The Mellon Tax Plan ($1924$): A letter from a New Jersey Republican to Hamilton Kean (Republican National Committee). It critiques the tax plan promoted by Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon and President Calvin Coolidge. The author claims it benefited only $330,000$ wealthy taxpayers while displeasing $13,000,000$ members of the working class. It argues the plan was a bid for support from Big Business and predicted voters would remember this in the November election.

• Document $2$: Calvin Coolidge Address ($1924$): Coolidge expresses sympathy for Europe’s post-war difficulties. He advocates for the "American plan" (Dawes Plan), which involved private loans from U.S. citizens to Germany to stabilize Europe. Coolidge argued that stabilizing Europe would improve domestic economic conditions and fulfill a moral duty to help war-stricken nations.

• Document $3$: Installment Buying ($1926$): The Labor Bureau, Inc. reports on the dangers of consumer credit. It cites a case study of a Texas mechanic earning $6$ a day who contracted monthly payments for a second-hand car, furniture, a piano, and other luxuries that exceeded his total wages. The report warns that installment buying cuts into the business of essential industries like textiles (Pacific Mills) and shoes (Endicott Johnson Corporation) and predicts an "ugly day of reckoning."

• Document $4$: Agricultural Economic Data ($1919$-$1930$):   - $1919$: Wheat Price: $2.16$/bushel; Net Farm Income: $9,587$ million; Total Farm Debt: $74.4\%$ of income.   - $1921$: Wheat Price: $1.03$/bushel; Net Farm Income: $3,935$ million; Total Farm Debt: $259.7\%$ of income.   - $1929$: Wheat Price: $1.04$/bushel; Net Farm Income: $6,274$ million; Total Farm Debt: $155.4\%$ of income.   - $1030$: Wheat Price: $0.67$/bushel; Net Farm Income: $4,528$ million; Total Farm Debt: $212.6\%$ of income.

• Document $5$: W. E. B. Du Bois, "The Shape of Fear" ($1926$): Du Bois argues that post-war prosperity is built on "gambling" and speculation rather than honest productive industry. He notes that while the country is rich, men fear being unable to earn a living, leading to mobs. He emphasizes the coexistence of "Prosperity and Depression."

• Document $6$: Stock Market Optimism ($10.13.1929$): Dr. Charles Amos Dice (Professor at Ohio State University) predicts that stock prices will stay high for years. He argues that old "yardsticks" like the idea that "what goes up must come down" are obsolete. He highlights the rise of the "small investor" encouraged by banks and installment payments.

• Document $7$: Social Impact Illustration ($1930$): A Life magazine illustration depicting a child saying, "Mama, it’s so nice to have Daddy home all the time now," subtly referencing the high unemployment rates of the early Great Depression.

The Cold War and International Relations ($1945$-$1960$)

• The Marshall Plan: Designed to provide financial support to democratic nations in Western Europe to restore market economies and counteract Soviet influence.

• The Second Red Scare: Characterized by heightened fear of communist subversion within the United States, leading to political hysteria.

• Sir Winston Churchill’s "Iron Curtain" Speech ($1946$): Delivered in Fulton, Missouri. Churchill states that an "iron curtain" has descended from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic. He describes Central and Eastern European capitals (Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, Sofia) as falling under Soviet control. He warns that communist parties are seeking totalitarian control despite their small numbers.

• Eisenhower on Fear ($1954$): President Dwight Eisenhower noted the world was suffering from "multiplicity of fears," including fear of the Kremlin, fear of "unwise investigators" at home trying to combat subversion, and fear of depression or job loss. He warned that these fears lead to "hysterical reactions."

• The Military-Industrial Complex ($1961$): In his farewell address, Eisenhower warned against the "acquisition of unwarranted influence" by the conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry. He noted that the U.S. was spending more on military security than the net income of all U.S. corporations combined.

• President John F. Kennedy’s Foreign Policy Argument ($1960$): Kennedy campaigned on the "missile gap," arguing the Soviet Union had surpassed the U.S. in missile development since $1953$ while the U.S. cut funds. He advocated for "crash programs" for the Polaris submarine and Minuteman missile. He also criticized the delay in sending an ambassador to Guinea, which allowed the Soviets to gain influence.

• National Defense Education Act ($1958$): Eisenhower recommended emergency federal action in education, specifically science and technology, to maintain U.S. leadership and national security against the Soviet threat.

Post-War Domestic Developments ($1940$-$1970$)

• Economic Growth and Suburbia: Economic prosperity led to the rise of mass-produced suburban housing (e.g., Levittowns) and the culture of the "Organization Man."

• The GI Bill of Rights ($1944$): Provided servicemen/women tuition assistance up to $500$ per school year, monthly living allowances, and federally guaranteed loans for homes, farms, and businesses ($50\%$ guarantee).

• The "Baby Boom": A period of increased birth rates following WWII, which drove demand for housing and consumer goods.

• Conformity and "The Organization Man" ($1956$): William H. Whyte describes a new middle class that has "taken the vows of organization life," prioritizing cooperation with large institutions over individual creativity. He captures the sense of life on a "treadmill" or "rat race" in suburbia.

• The Interstate Highway Act ($1956$): Public Law $627$ created a $40,000$-mile network of highways to connect $209$ of $237$ cities with populations over $50,000$. It was intended for both civilian traffic and national defense transport.

• Restrictive Covenants: Document $2$ ($1947$) shows a property deed in Seattle explicitly banning anyone of "Asiatic, Negro, Hawaiian, or Malay race" from occupying the property, except as domestic servants. This illustrates the systemic segregation inherent in early suburban growth.

• Domesticity and Technology ($1949$): McCall’s magazine highlights how new appliances like washing machines and televisions facilitated social lives in the suburbs for women like Helen Eckhoff, emphasizing "careful planning" and "good housekeeping."

Civil Rights and Modern Liberalism

• Great Society vs. New Deal: Both expanded the federal government's role in the economy and social welfare. However, the Great Society (LBJ) included a specific focus on civil rights and ending racial discrimination (e.g., Civil Rights Act of $1964$, Voting Rights Act of $1965$).

• Immigration Act of $1965$: Abolished earlier quota systems based on national origins, reflecting a broader movement toward equality.

• Kerner Commission Report ($1968$): Concluded that the U.S. was "moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal." It blamed "white racism" for urban disorders and highlighted frustrations over pervasive discrimination and the "white exodus" to the suburbs.

• Hernandez v. Texas ($1954$): A Supreme Court case ruling that the systematic exclusion of persons of Mexican descent from juries violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment ($14 ext{th}$ Amendment).

The Vietnam War and its Tensions ($1964$-$1975$)

• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution ($1964$): Authorized the President as Commander in Chief to take "all necessary measures" to repel armed attacks against U.S. forces and prevent further aggression in Southeast Asia.

• Anti-War Sentiments and Music: Country Joe and the Fish’s "I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag" ($1965$) satirized the war as a profit-making venture for Wall Street ("war au-go-go") and a death trap for young men.

• Disparities in the Draft: James Fallows ($1969$) observed that while Harvard students (like himself) found ways to get deferments (failing color-blindness tests, etc.), working-class boys from Chelsea were drafted in high numbers, described as "cattle off to slaughter."

• Critical Perspectives:   - Martin Luther King Jr. ($1967$): Argued the war devastated the poor and sent black men to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia that they did not have in southwest Georgia or East Harlem.   - Robert F. Kennedy ($1968$): Claimed the mission was misconceived and military might could not resolve a conflict that depended on the will of the South Vietnamese people, comparing it to "sending a lion to halt an epidemic of jungle rot."   - Richard Nixon ($1969$): Appealed to the "great silent majority" to support the war effort and avoid national humiliation.   - George McGovern ($1972$): Proposed cutting military waste and rejecting the "domino" myth, characterizing the war as a "monstrous national blunder."

• War Powers Act ($1973$): Required the President to consult with Congress and limited the use of U.S. Armed Forces to $60$ days unless Congress declares war or grants an extension. This was a direct response to the expansion of executive power during the Vietnam War.

Cultural and Social Movements ($1940$-$1975$)

• The Women’s Rights Movement:   - Economic Exploitation: Betty Friedan ($1952$) pointed out that while industry glorified women in ads, corporations (GE, Westinghouse) paid them less than the least skilled men. Factory women earned $1,285$ less annually than men in $1950$.   - The "Caste System" in Activism: Casey Hayden and Mary King ($1965$) described a sexual caste system within peace and civil rights movements that relegated women to secretarial work and excluded them from leadership.   - Radical Feminism: The "No More Miss America!" protest ($1968$) targeted the pageant for oppressing women and included the "Freedom Trash Can" for items like bras and girdles.   - Chicana Consciousness: Mirta Vidal ($1971$) described the "triple oppression" of Chicanas: racism, class exploitation, and sexism (machismo) within the Chicano liberation movement.   - Title IX ($1972$): Prohibited discrimination based on sex in any education program receiving federal financial assistance.

• Environmentalism: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring raised awareness. William Ruckelshaus (EPA, $1971$) emphasized that the National Environmental Policy Act required federal agencies to assess environmental impacts, moving the country from "awareness to action."

• Conservative Backlash: K. Ross Toole ($1970$) expressed frustration with "hippies, Yippies, and militants," arguing that his generation (which survived the Depression and WWII) had created the most affluent country on earth and that firm authority was needed to keep the younger generation "in its place."

• Watergate Scandal: Led to a significant decline in public trust in the effectiveness of the U.S. government and the executive branch.