APUSH Exam Review Notes

Gilded Age

  • Roughly from the end of the US Civil War through the late 1800s.
  • Contextualization: Industrialization, urbanization, corrupt politics, immigration.

Industrialization

  • Debate: Were industrialists "captains of industry" or "robber barons?"

Progressive Era

  • Response to problems caused by the Gilded Age: industrialization, urbanization, and corrupt politics.
  • Calls for reforms at local, state, and national levels.
  • Types of Reforms:
    • Social
    • Economic
    • Political

Political Reforms Examples

  • Direct election of senators (17th Amendment).
    • Change: Senators used to be selected by state politicians.
    • Goal: Increase power of voters.
  • Progressives aimed to take power from political machines and give it to the people.

Common Beliefs of Progressives

  • The power of government can be used to fix problems.
  • Change from pre-Progressive Era when the role of government was smaller.

Economic Reforms Examples

  • National level: Teddy Roosevelt as a "trust buster" using the Sherman Antitrust Act.
    • Change: The Act had been used against labor unions, now used against monopolies.

Social Issues During Progressive Era

  • Federal government didn't focus on solving social problems as much. Social problems became a focus later during the Great Society era.

End of Progressive Era

  • World War I.

1920s

  • Theme: Economic growth, similar to the Gilded Age, the 1950s, and the 1980s.
  • Republican presidents.
  • Economic growth masking economic problems such as trade issues.
  • The US raised tariffs to protect its industries, which hurt world and US economy.

The Great Depression

  • Hoover's response: rugged individualism, reliance on charity, local and state governments should help.
  • If the federal government acts, it should support businesses (businesses create jobs).
  • Hoover Dam as an example of Hoover's approach.

The New Deal (Franklin D. Roosevelt)

  • A new way of government: the government will provide jobs if industry doesn't.
  • Focus:
    • Relief: Help people immediately.
    • Recovery: Get businesses going again.
    • Reform: Prevent another depression.

Comparison of New Deal to Progressive Era and Great Society

  • New Deal compared to the Progressive Era and the Great Society.
  • Similarity: Direct government involvement.
  • Difference: The New Deal focused more on economic problems, while the Great Society focused on social change like racial equality and ending poverty.
  • Great Society initiatives: Civil Rights Act, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Conservative Backlash

  • Late 1960s: Backlash against the civil rights movement and the Great Society.
  • Argument: Government shouldn't be that involved.
  • Leads to Nixon's election and the Reagan era.

1950s

  • Theme: Economic growth and conformity.
  • Counter-arguments: Beatniks, rock and roll, and the growing civil rights movement.

Civil Rights Movement

  • Challenge to conformity.
  • Strategies: Nonviolent resistance, boycotts, protests, and marches.

Later Movements

  • Americans with disabilities and LGBTQ+ rights movements.

Exam Strategy

  • Multiple choice is 40% of the grade, the essays are 60%.

Content Focus

  • Exam covers from 1776 to 1980.
  • Unit 1 is a small part of the grade (5%).
  • Focus on timelines related to colonial America and the American Revolution.
  • Early Republic: Debates over the Constitution, Articles of Confederation.
  • War of 1812 has not been tested much.
  • Know presidents in order.

Foreign Policy

  • Political, economic, and social effects of foreign policy.
  • Focus on names of policies.
  • FDR was the 32nd president.

Historical Eras

  • Gilded Age
  • Progressive Era
  • 1920s
  • Great Depression
  • New Deal
  • 1950s
  • Great Society