In AP® US History, period 7 spans from 1898 to 1945 CE. The following guide will be updated periodically with hyperlinks to excellent resources. As you are reviewing for this era, focus on the key concepts and use the essential questions to guide you.
👉 Check the Fiveable calendar for this week's APUSH live stream!
PERIOD 7 DATES TO KNOW
🎥Live Stream Replay - Period 7 Review
STUDY TIP: You will never be asked specifically to identify a date. However, knowing the order of events will help immensely with cause and effect. For this reason, we have identified the most important dates to know.
1898 - Annexation of Hawaii
1898 - Spanish American War
1903 - Wright Brothers
1917 - US enters WWI
1920 - Women’s Suffrage
1920s - Red Scare
1920s - Prohibition
1929 - Stock Market Crash
1932 - Bonus Army
1935 - Social Security Act
1939 - WWII starts in Europe
1941 - Attack on Pearl Harbor
1944 - D-Day
1945 - Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima
PERIOD 7 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
STUDY TIP: Use the following essential questions to guide your review of this entire unit. Keep in mind, these are not meant to be practice essay questions. Each question was written to help you summarize the key concept.
- What were the goals and achievements of the Progressive Era?
- How did the growth of mass culture affect US society?
- In what ways did the global conflicts of the early 20th century affect the United States?
🧭 Study Guide: Contextualization to Period Seven
Past Essay Questions from Period 7
STUDY TIP: Content from the this era has appeared on the essays twenty times since 2000. Take a look at these questions before you review the key concepts & vocabulary below to get a sense of how you will be assessed. Then, come back to these later and practice writing as many as you can!
The APUSH exam was significantly revised in 2015, so any questions from before then are not representative of the current exam format. You can still use prior questions to practice, however DBQs will have more than 7 documents, the LEQ prompts are worded differently, and the rubrics are completely different. Use questions from 2002-2014 with caution. Essays from 1973-1999 available here.*
2018 - SAQ 2: Progressive Era
2017 - SAQ 2: Effect of WWII on society
2017 - LEQ 3: 19th amendment
2016 - LEQ 3: WWI and US foreign policy
2015 - SAQ 2: Environmental policies
2014 - DBQ: US Foreign policy 1918-1953
2012 - LEQ 3: Cultural conflicts of the 1920s
2011 - LEQ 4: Opposition to Immigration
2011 - LEQ 5: African American leadership
2010 - LEQ 4: Progressive women
2009 - LEQ 5: WWII at home
2008 - LEQ 5: Shift of political parties
2007 - LEQ 4: Teddy Roosevelt
2006 - LEQ 4: Progressive reforms
2004 - LEQ 4: Progressive reforms vs. New Deal
2003 - DBQ: New Deal effectiveness
2003 - LEQ 5: United States society
2002 - LEQ 4: Foreign policy after WWI & WWII
2001 - LEQ 5: Rise of Nativism
2000 - LEQ 4: Objectives of WWI
PERIOD 7 KEY CONCEPTS - COURSE OUTLINE
The following outline was adapted from the AP® United States History Course Description as published by College Board in 2019 found here. This outline reflects the most recent revisions to the course.*
🎥Live Stream Replay - Progressive Amendments
🎥Live Stream Replay - The Great Depression & the New Deal
- The US continued to transition from rural to urban economies led by large corporations.1. New technology increased production of consumer goods.1. Most Americans lived in cities by 1920, which had more opportunities.1. The Great Depression forced calls for more financial regulation.
- Progressive activists called for reforms to combat political corruption and instability.1. ☮️ Study Guide: Progressivism1. Journalists investigated inequality and injustice (muckrakers).1. Activists fought for federal legislation to expand rights (prohibition, suffrage).1. Environmentalists sought to protect natural resources.1. Progressive activists disagreed on racial justice and immigration restrictions.
- Legislation was enacted in the 1930s to recover and reform the economy while providing relief for mass unemployment and financial crises. 1. Roosevelt enacted New Deal policies in an attempt to end the Great Depression.1. Progressive activists pushed FDR to do more while conservatives pushed for less.1. The New Deal did not end the Great Depression, but it left a legacy of reforms and align many groups with the Democratic Party.
7.2. Growth of Mass Culture
🎥Live Stream Replay - Black Leaders Under Jim Crow
🎥Live Stream Replay - The Roaring 20s
⚡️Study Guide - Innovations of the 1920s
- Popular culture influenced and connected more people.1. New mass media (radio, cinema) spread national culture and connected regions.1. Migrations sparked new forms of art and literature1. Fear of communism during World War I led to restrictions on speech. 1. 🔴 Study Guide: Cultural and Political Controversy1. Controversies over gender, science, religion, race, and immigration.
- Migration patterns were influenced by global conflict.1. After WWI, immigration quotas were passed that favored white migrants.1. Americans migrated to cities for economic opportunities during war.1. Black men and women migrated north and west to escape violence in the south.1. Migration to the US from Mexico increased.
7.3. Global Conflicts
🎥Live Stream Replay - World War I
🎥Live Stream Replay - World War II
- The US participated in imperialism ventures around the world, which sparked debates.1. The argument for imperialism cited opportunities, racist ideologies, and competition.1. The argument against imperialism cited self-determination and isolationism. 1. Study Guide: Imperilaism Debates1. Victory in the Spanish-American war gave the US lands in the Caribbean and Pacific. 1. 🔥 Study Guide: The Spanish American War
- World War I intensified debates about the role of the US in the world.1. The US eventually joined WWI, reversing neutrality policy. 1. 💣Study Guide: Buildup to War and the AEF 1. 🏭Study Guide: War on the Home Front1. US forces in WWI tipped the balance in the favor of the Allies.1. Neither the Treaty of Versailles or the League of Nations were ratified by the senate.1. After WWI, the US pursued foreign policy using investment, treaties, and intervention.1. During the 1930s, most Americans opposed actions against Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan, until after the attack on Pearl Harbor pulled the US into WWII. 1. 🙅 Study Guide: Interwar Foreign Policy
- WWII transformed American society and resulted in the US as a global superpower.1. Americans saw the war as defending freedom.1. Wartime mobilization helped end the Great Depression. 1. 🎖️ Study Guide: Mobilization1. Women and minorities had more opportunities for mobility and work during the war.1. The Allies won WWII because of technology, cooperation, and military strategy. 1. 🔫 Study Guide: Military Action in WWII1. With Asia and Europe ravaged from the war, the US emerged as the most powerful.
LIST OF CONCEPTS & VOCABULARY FROM PERIOD 7
STUDY TIP: These are the concepts and vocabulary from period 7 that most commonly appear on the exam. Create a quizlet deck to make sure you are familiar with these terms!
Deep breath. This one of the most vocab heavy units.
- 16th Amendment
- 17th Amendment
- 18th Amendment
- 19th Amendment
- 20th Amendment
- 21st Amendment
- Albert Einstein
- American plan
- annexation
- Anti-imperialist League
- Appeasement
- assembly line
- Atlantic Charter
- Australian ballot
- Big-Stick Policy
- Birth of a Nation
- Black Tuesday
- Bolshevik Revolution
- Bonus Army
- Central Powers
- Charles Lindbergh
- Civilian Conservation Corps
- Clayton Antitrust Act
- code talkers
- Committee on Public Information
- consumer culture
- Court-packing plan
- Dawes Plan
- direct primary
- dollar diplomacy
- Double V
- Dust Bowl
- Eleanor Roosevelt
- Espionage Act
- Executive Order 9066
- fascism
- Father Charles Coughlin
- Florence Kelley
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Gentlemen's Agreement
- Good Neighbor Policy
- Great Migration
- Harlem Renaissance
- Harry Truman
- Hawley-Smoot Tariff
- Henry Cabot Lodge
- Henry Ford
- Hoovervilles
- Huey P. Long
- Hundred Days
- Immigration Quotas 1921 & 1924
- imperialism
- initiative
- isolationism
- Jacob Riis
- jingoism
- Kellogg-Briand Pact
- Keynesian economics
- Korematsu v. US
- Langston Hughes
- League of Nations
- Lend-Lease Act
- Lost Generation
- Manhattan Project
- Marcus Garvey
- Meat Inspection Act
- muckrakers
- Muller v. Oregon
- NAACP
- Neutrality Act
- New Deal
- Open Door Policy
- overproduction
- pan-Africanism
- Panama Canal
- Pearl Harbor
- pragmatism
- progressivism
- Pure Food & Drug Act
- Quarantine speech
- Red Scare
- referendum
- reparations
- Roosevelt Corollary
- Rosie the Riveter
- rough riders
- Sacco & Vanzetti
- Schenck v. United States
- scientific management
- Scopes Trial
- self-determination
- Sigmund Freud
- social gospel
- socialism
- Social Security Act
- Spanish-American War
- Square Deal
- Teapot Dome Scandal
- Tennessee Valley Authority
- Treaty of Versailles
- U-boats
- Upton Sinclair
- Volstead Act
- Wagner Act
- War Production Board
- War Refugee Board
- Wilson's 14 Points
- Women's Christian Temperance Union
- xenophobia
- yellow journalism
- Zimmerman note