U.S. History Semester 2 Final Exam Study Guide

Final Exam Specifics

  • Part: Essay/Authentic Assessment
  • Date: May 19-21 (determined by teacher)
  • Points: 30
  • Part: Objective Assessment
  • Dates: May 22 (Per 7), May 23 (Per 1/2), May 27 (Per 3/4), May 28 (Per 5/6)
  • Points: 120
  • Total Points: 150

World War II

  • Battles, Events, Terms, and Content:
    • Operation Torch
    • Operation Overlord
    • Battle of Britain
    • Battle of the Bulge
    • Pearl Harbor
    • Battle of Midway
    • Battle of the Coral Sea
    • Battle of Iwo Jima
    • Women in the military (Rosie the Riveter)
    • Allied invasion of Germany
    • Tuskegee Airmen
    • Manhattan Project
    • Navajo Code-talkers
    • Truman's decision to drop the bomb
    • Hiroshima and Nagasaki
    • Executive Order 9066
    • Island Hopping

Cold War

  • Conflicts: U.S. vs. U.S.S.R.
    • Red Scare
    • House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
    • Berlin Airlift
    • Korean War combatants
    • Joseph McCarthy / McCarthyism
    • Containment
    • Arms Race
    • 38th parallel
    • Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
    • Marshall Plan
    • Mutually Assured Destruction
    • Bay of Pigs
    • Fallout Shelters
    • Domino Theory
    • Space Race
    • Cuban Missile Crisis
    • Truman Doctrine
    • Sputnik
    • Eisenhower Doctrine
    • Berlin Wall
    • National Highway Act

Civil Rights Movement

  • Civil Rights Leaders:
    • Thurgood Marshall
    • Jackie Robinson
    • Rosa Parks
    • Emmett Till
    • Martin Luther King, Jr.
    • James Meredith
    • Medger Evers
    • Stokely Carmichael
    • Malcolm X
  • Protests:
    • Little Rock Nine
    • Greensboro Sit-ins
    • Boycotts
    • Freedom Rides
    • March on Washington
    • Freedom Summer
  • Legislation:
    • Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
    • Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
    • 24th Amendment
    • Civil Rights Act of 1964
    • Voting Rights Act 1965
    • Affirmative Action programs
  • Fuel of Civil Rights:
    • Letter from Birmingham Jail
    • Black Power

1950s & 1960s

1950s

  • Suburbanization
  • Beatniks / Beat Generation
  • Rock N Roll

1960s

  • The Great Society
  • Counterculture
  • Woodstock

Vietnam War Era

People

  • Ho Chi Minh
  • Ngo Dinh Diem
  • Robert McNamara
  • William Westmoreland
  • Henry Kissinger

Policies

  • Tonkin Gulf Resolution
  • War Powers Act (1973)

War

  • Main goal in Vietnam
  • Ho Chi Minh Trail
  • Operation Rolling Thunder
  • Pentagon Papers
  • Napalm
  • Tet offensive
  • My Lai Massacre

Domestic

  • Burning draft cards
  • Johnson’s withdrawal from 1968 election
  • 1968 Democratic National Convention
  • 26th amendment

Watergate and the 1970s

People

  • Richard Nixon
  • Woodward & Bernstein
  • Gerald Ford
  • Jimmy Carter

Events

  • Watergate scandal
  • Three Mile Island
  • Camp David Accords (1978)
  • Iran Hostage Crisis

Terms and Content

  • SALT I and SALT II
  • National Organization for Women (NOW)
  • Roe v. Wade (1973)
  • Conservative Resurgence

The 21st Century

People

  • George W. Bush
  • Osama Bin Laden
  • Barack Obama
  • Donald Trump
  • Joseph Biden

Terms and Content

  • Taliban
  • Al Qaeda
  • Dept. of Homeland Security

Events

  • September 11, 2001 (9/11)
  • War in Afghanistan
  • Financial Crisis of 2008/2009
  • Election of Obama
  • Death of Bin Laden
  • Dobbs v Jackson’s Women’s Health Org. (2022)
  • COVID-19 Pandemic
  • Assault on Capitol (Jan. 6, 2021)
  • Social media
  • USA PATRIOT Act
  • Affordable Care Act

People - Events - Terms and Content

People

  • Ronald Reagan
  • Sandra Day O’Conner
  • George H. W. Bush
  • Clarence Thomas
  • Bill Clinton

Events

  • Iran-Contra Scandal
  • End of Cold War
  • Persian Gulf War
  • Clinton impeachment/scandal
  • 2000 Election / Bush v Gore (2000)

Terms and Content

  • Federal spending priorities
  • “Evil Empire” speech
  • Liberal v Conservative viewpoints
  • Brady Bill
  • Operation Desert Storm
  • Family Medical Leave Act
  • “Tear Down This Wall” Speech

Essay / Authentic Assessment

  • Write about three different events from three different decades.
  • Canvas will provide 4 decades at random; you will need to write about one event from three different decades.