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Wyatt's Notes — Qualifications

Period 7 (1890-Present)

The Progressive Era (1890-1920)

Origins of Progressivism

Progressivism was a reform movement that sought to address the social, political, and economic problems caused by industrialisation, urbanisation, and corruption. Progressives believed that government should take an active role in regulating business, protecting workers, and promoting social justice.

Key Progressive Reforms

  • Muckrakers: Journalists who exposed corruption and social problems — Ida Tarbell (History of Standard Oil), Upton Sinclair (The Jungle, led to the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act, 1906), Lincoln Steffens (The Shame of the Cities), Jacob Riis (How the Other Half Lives)
  • Political reforms: Initiative, referendum, recall, direct election of senators (17th Amendment, 1913), primary elections, commission and city manager forms of government
  • Trust-busting: Theodore Roosevelt’s “Square Deal”; Northern Securities Company case (1902); Elkins Act (1903) and Hepburn Act (1906) strengthened railroad regulation; William Howard Taft brought more antitrust suits than Roosevelt
  • Conservation: Roosevelt established national parks, forests, and monuments; Newlands Reclamation Act (1902) funded irrigation projects
  • Women’s suffrage: National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA); 19th Amendment ratified 1920, granting women the right to vote. Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party used more militant tactics.
  • Child labour: Keating-Owen Act (1916) restricted child labour but was ruled unconstitutional; state-level reforms
  • Prohibition: 18th Amendment (1919) banned the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages

Progressive Presidents

  • Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909): “Square Deal” domestic policy; trust-busting; conservation; Panama Canal construction; Roosevelt Corollary (1904) asserted US right to intervene in Latin America; mediated the Russo-Japanese War (Nobel Peace Prize, 1906)
  • William Howard Taft (1909-1913): More antitrust suits than Roosevelt; supported Dollar Diplomacy; Payne-Aldrich Tariff angered progressives; Ballinger-Pinchot controversy; Roosevelt challenged Taft for the 1912 nomination, leading to the Bull Moose (Progressive) Party
  • Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921): “New Freedom” domestic program; created the Federal Reserve System (1913); Clayton Antitrust Act (1914); Federal Trade Commission (1914)

World War I (1914-1918)

American Entry

  • Initially neutral; Wilson’s 1916 campaign slogan: “He kept us out of war”
  • Unrestricted submarine warfare (Germany resumed in 1917)
  • Zimmermann Telegram (1917): German proposal for a Mexican-German alliance against the US
  • Sinking of the Lusitania (1915, 128 Americans killed) built anti-German sentiment
  • US declared war in April 1917: “The world must be made safe for democracy”

The Home Front

  • Selective Service Act (1917): Drafted approximately 2.8 million men
  • War Industries Board coordinated industrial production (Bernard Baruch)
  • Committee on Public Information (George Creel) promoted war through propaganda
  • Espionage Act (1917) and Sedition Act (1918) restricted anti-war speech and dissent
  • Great Migration: Approximately 6 million African Americans moved from the rural South to northern and midwestern cities (1916-1970) for industrial jobs and to escape racial violence
  • Women entered the workforce in large numbers

Wilson’s Fourteen Points and the Treaty of Versailles

  • Wilson’s Fourteen Points (January 1918) outlined a plan for lasting peace: open diplomacy, freedom of the seas, reduction of armaments, self-determination, and a League of Nations
  • Treaty of Versailles (1919): Established the League of Nations but imposed harsh terms on Germany (war guilt clause, reparations, territorial losses)
  • The US Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles and never joined the League of Nations (opposition from irreconcilables and reservationists, led by Henry Cabot Lodge)

The 1920s

Economic and Social Changes

  • Mass production (Henry Ford, assembly line, Model T, 1908), consumer culture, and advertising
  • Stock market speculation and buying on margin
  • Radio, film, and jazz became central to popular culture
  • The “New Woman”: Flappers, greater independence, changing social norms
  • Prohibition and the rise of organised crime (Al Capone)
  • The Scopes Trial (1925): Pitted modernism (evolution) against fundamentalism
  • Immigration restriction: Emergency Quota Act (1921) and National Origins Act (1924) sharply limited immigration, especially from Southern and Eastern Europe; established a quota system based on 1890 census data

Cultural Conflicts

  • Urban vs rural values
  • Modernism vs traditionalism
  • Nativism and the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan (targeted not only African Americans but also Catholics, Jews, and immigrants)
  • Red Scare (1919-1920): Fear of communist revolution; Palmer Raids arrested suspected radicals; Sacco and Vanzetti case (1921-1927) exemplified nativist fears and anti-immigrant bias

The Great Depression and New Deal (1929-1939)

Causes of the Great Depression

  • Stock market crash (October 1929)
  • Overproduction and underconsumption
  • Bank failures (thousands of banks closed)
  • Unequal distribution of wealth
  • Farming crisis (Dust Bowl)
  • Reduced international trade (Hawley-Smoot Tariff, 1930)

Herbert Hoover’s Response

  • Believed in voluntary cooperation and limited government intervention
  • Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932) provided loans to banks and businesses
  • Bonus Army (1932): WWI veterans marched on Washington demanding early payment of bonuses; Hoover ordered the army to clear the encampment

Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal

First New Deal (1933-1935):

  • Bank Holiday and Emergency Banking Act (1933): Closed all banks and allowed only sound ones to reopen; restored public confidence
  • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): Employed young men in conservation projects
  • Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA): Paid farmers to reduce production to raise prices
  • National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA): Established codes for fair competition; declared unconstitutional in Schechter v. US (1935)
  • Public Works Administration (PWA) and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA): Large-scale public works projects
  • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC): Insured bank deposits

Second New Deal (1935-1938):

  • Social Security Act (1935): Provided pensions for the elderly, unemployment insurance, and aid to dependent children
  • Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act, 1935): Guaranteed workers the right to organise and bargain collectively; created the National Labor Relations Board
  • Works Progress Administration (WPA): Employed millions in public works, arts, and education
  • Wealth Tax Act (1935): Increased taxes on the wealthy

Criticism of the New Deal:

  • Conservatives argued it expanded government power too much and was socialist
  • Liberals argued it did not go far enough (Huey Long’s “Share Our Wealth” program, Francis Townsend’s old-age pensions)
  • Did not fully resolve the Depression; full economic recovery came with WWII mobilisation

World War II (1939-1945)

From Neutrality to War

  • Neutrality Acts (1935-1938): Prohibited arms sales and loans to belligerents
  • Lend-Lease Act (1941): Allowed the US to provide war materials to Britain and other Allies
  • Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941): Japan attacked the US naval base in Hawaii; US declared war the next day

The Home Front

  • War Production Board coordinated industrial output; unemployment dropped to near zero
  • Women in the workforce: “Rosie the Riveter” symbolised women’s contribution; 6 million women entered the labour force
  • Japanese American internment: Executive Order 9066 (1942) forced approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps; Korematsu v. US (1944) upheld the order (later repudiated)
  • Double V Campaign: African Americans fought for victory abroad against fascism and victory at home against racism

Major Military Events

  • D-Day (June 6, 1944): Allied invasion of Normandy, France
  • Battle of Midway (June 1942): Turning point in the Pacific
  • Island-hopping campaign toward Japan
  • Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945); Japan surrendered on August 14

The Cold War (1945-1991)

Origins

  • Ideological conflict between the US (capitalism, democracy) and the Soviet Union (communism, authoritarianism)
  • Mutual distrust, competing spheres of influence, and nuclear weapons
  • Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech (1946)

Key Events

  • Truman Doctrine (1947): US commitment to contain communism; aid to Greece and Turkey
  • Marshall Plan (1948): $13 billion in economic aid to Western Europe to rebuild and prevent communist influence
  • Berlin Airlift (1948-1949): US and Britain flew supplies into West Berlin after the Soviets blockaded the city
  • NATO (1949): North Atlantic Treaty Organisation — collective security alliance
  • Korean War (1950-1953): Communist North Korea invaded South Korea; UN forces (led by the US) intervened; ended in a stalemate at the 38th parallel
  • McCarthyism (1950s): Senator Joseph McCarthy accused numerous government officials of being communists; conducted hearings that ruined careers without evidence; eventually censured by the Senate
  • Space Race: Sputnik (1957); NASA created (1958); Apollo 11 moon landing (1969)
  • Cuban Missile Crisis (1962): The closest the world came to nuclear war; Soviet missiles in Cuba were removed in exchange for US promises not to invade Cuba and removal of US missiles from Turkey
  • Vietnam War (1955-1975): US involvement escalated under Kennedy and Johnson; massive anti-war protests; Tet Offensive (1968) undermined public support; Paris Peace Accords (1973); South Vietnam fell to communism in 1975
  • Detente: Period of eased tensions in the 1970s under Nixon and Kissinger; SALT I (1972), Nixon’s visit to China (1972)
  • Reagan and the end of the Cold War: Reagan increased defence spending and confronted the “evil empire”; Gorbachev’s reforms (glasnost, perestroika) weakened the Soviet Union; Berlin Wall fell (1989); Soviet Union dissolved (1991)

The Civil Rights Movement (1950s-1960s)

  • Brown v. Board of Education (1954): Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896); declared “separate but equal” unconstitutional; led to school desegregation efforts (Little Rock Nine, 1957)
  • Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956): Sparked by Rosa Parks’s arrest; Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as a leader
  • Sit-ins, Freedom Rides, and marches: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); Freedom Summer (1964); March on Washington (1963, “I Have a Dream” speech)
  • Civil Rights Act (1964): Outlawed discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin in employment and public accommodations
  • Voting Rights Act (1965): Outlawed literacy tests and poll taxes; federal oversight of voter registration
  • Black Power Movement: Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, and Stokely Carmichael advocated for self-defence, self-determination, and cultural pride

Modern America (1970s-Present)

  • Watergate scandal (1972-1974): Nixon resigned; demonstrated the strength of constitutional checks and increased public cynicism
  • Reagan Revolution (1980s): Tax cuts, deregulation, conservative social policies, increased defence spending
  • End of the Cold War and new challenges: Globalisation, terrorism (September 11, 2001), wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Great Recession (2008)
  • Social changes: Women’s movement (Roe v. Wade, 1973; Equal Rights Amendment failed), environmental movement (EPA, 1970), LGBTQ+ rights movement

Key Terms

Progressive Era, Muckrakers, Square Deal, Fourteen Points, League of Nations, Great Migration, Harlem Renaissance, Great Depression, New Deal, Social Security Act, Pearl Harbor, Manhattan Project, Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, NATO, McCarthyism, Brown v. Board, Civil Rights Act, Vietnam War, Watergate, Reagan Revolution, September 11

Exam Tips

  • Analyse the Progressive Era as a response to the problems of the Gilded Age
  • Connect the Great Depression to the expansion of federal power under the New Deal
  • Explain the causes and consequences of the Cold War
  • Trace the development of the civil rights movement from legal challenges to mass protest
  • Connect events across periods using the thematic framework