What you'll learn
Period 7 (1890–1945) is the largest tested period (~10–17%): the US becomes an industrial and world power through reform, depression, and two world wars.
Imperialism
- Spanish-American War (1898) → the US gains overseas territory (Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam); debates over empire.
Progressive Era
- Reformers tackled industrialization's ills: trust-busting, food/drug safety, labor laws, women's suffrage (19th Amendment, 1920).
- Muckrakers exposed corruption; federal regulation expanded.
WWI (1917–18)
- US entry after unrestricted submarine warfare + the Zimmermann Telegram.
- Wilson's Fourteen Points; the Senate rejected the League of Nations (return to isolationism).
The 1920s
- Consumer boom, mass culture, the Harlem Renaissance — alongside nativism, Prohibition, and the Red Scare.
Great Depression & New Deal
- The 1929 crash → mass unemployment. FDR's New Deal (relief, recovery, reform) expanded the federal government's economic role (Social Security, FDIC, labor rights).
WWII (1941–45)
- Pearl Harbor (1941) ended isolationism. The war transformed the economy and society (women and minorities in the workforce), led to Japanese-American internment, and ended with the atomic bombs.
Key themes (for DBQ/LEQ)
- The growth of federal power (Progressivism → New Deal).
- Shifts between isolationism and international engagement.
- Change for women and minorities; tensions between reform and reaction.
Exam tips
- Trace continuity/change in the federal government's economic role across the period.
- Use specific programs/laws as evidence.
Common mistakes
- Treating the New Deal as ending the Depression (WWII mobilization did).
- Overlooking the period's contradictions (prosperity + inequality, reform + repression).