AP US History Unit 7 Essentials: Key Terms & Big Ideas

Big Idea 1

Progressivism was a response to the excesses of industrialization

The Progressive Era produced landmark reforms — food safety laws, antitrust enforcement, workers' compensation, women's suffrage, and direct democracy. But Progressivism had limits: it was largely a movement of white middle-class reformers that often ignored or actively harmed Black Americans.

Progressivism Reform Limitations

Big Idea 2

WWI transformed America's role in the world — and its politics at home

WWI pulled the US into global affairs permanently, despite Wilson's idealism and the Senate's rejection of the League. At home, wartime mobilization expanded federal power, suppressed dissent (Espionage Act), and accelerated the Great Migration.

WWI Foreign Policy Home Front

Big Idea 3

The New Deal transformed the relationship between Americans and their government

FDR's New Deal established the principle that the federal government is responsible for Americans' economic security. Social Security, bank regulation, and federal work programs changed expectations of government forever — creating what historians call the "liberal consensus" that lasted until the 1970s.

New Deal Federal Power Legacy

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Imperialism

U.S. policy (late 1800s/early 1900s) of acquiring overseas territories — Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Philippines, Guam, Cuba — driven by markets, Social Darwinism, and naval power.

Imperialism

Spanish-American War

1898 war triggered by the USS Maine explosion and yellow journalism; U.S. victory gave it Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and effective control of Cuba.

Imperialism

Open Door Policy

Secretary Hay's 1899–1900 policy demanding equal trading rights for all nations in China; preserved U.S. economic access while opposing formal colonization.

Imperialism

Progressivism

Early-1900s reform movement attacking the abuses of industrial capitalism, political corruption, and social inequities; demanded government action.

Progressive Era

Muckrakers

Investigative journalists who exposed corruption — Ida Tarbell (Standard Oil), Upton Sinclair (The Jungle), Jacob Riis (How the Other Half Lives).

Progressive Era

Theodore Roosevelt

26th president (1901–09); progressive Republican who busted trusts, regulated business, and supported conservation; promised a 'Square Deal' for all.

Progressive Era

16th Amendment

1913 amendment authorizing the federal income tax; Progressive achievement that enabled the modern federal government's funding.

Progressive Era

17th Amendment

1913 amendment establishing direct popular election of U.S. senators (previously chosen by state legislatures); a key Progressive democracy reform.

Progressive Era

18th Amendment

1919 amendment banning the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcohol; enforced by the Volstead Act; repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933.

Progressive Era

19th Amendment

1920 amendment granting women the right to vote — capstone of the long suffrage movement led by Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Alice Paul.

Progressive Era

Zimmermann Telegram

1917 secret German proposal to Mexico for an anti-U.S. alliance; intercepted by Britain and revealed to the U.S., pushing America into WWI.

World War I

Fourteen Points

Wilson's 1918 plan for postwar peace; called for open diplomacy, self-determination, and a League of Nations; largely rejected at Versailles.

World War I

Treaty of Versailles

1919 treaty ending WWI; punished Germany harshly and created the League of Nations; Senate rejected it, so U.S. never joined the League.

World War I

Red Scare

1919–20 fear of communist revolution after the Russian Revolution; A. Mitchell Palmer's raids arrested thousands of suspected radicals and deported many immigrants.

World War I

Harlem Renaissance

1920s flowering of African American art, literature, and music in Harlem; Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong defined a new Black cultural identity.

1920s

Prohibition

1920–33 ban on alcohol manufacture and sale; produced bootlegging, speakeasies, and organized crime; repealed by 21st Amendment.

1920s

Scopes Trial

1925 Tennessee prosecution of teacher John Scopes for teaching evolution; Darrow vs. Bryan; symbolized the clash between modern science and traditional religion.

1920s

National Origins Act (1924)

Immigration law setting strict quotas favoring Northern Europeans; drastically restricted Southern and Eastern Europeans and banned most Asians.

1920s

Stock Market Crash (1929)

October 1929 collapse of the stock market that began the Great Depression; revealed structural weaknesses in the economy and triggered global crisis.

Great Depression

Dust Bowl

Severe 1930s drought and soil erosion on the Great Plains; destroyed farms; forced 'Okies' to migrate to California; captured in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

Great Depression

New Deal

FDR's 1933+ program responding to the Great Depression; the '3 R's' — Relief, Recovery, Reform — massively expanded federal government.

New Deal

Social Security Act (1935)

New Deal law creating federal old-age pensions and unemployment insurance; the most permanent New Deal reform and foundation of the welfare state.

New Deal

Wagner Act (1935)

New Deal law guaranteeing workers' right to organize unions and bargain collectively; created the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

New Deal

Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941 Japanese surprise attack on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii; killed ~2,400 Americans and brought the U.S. into WWII.

World War II

Japanese American Internment

FDR's 1942 Executive Order 9066 forced ~120,000 Japanese Americans (most citizens) into camps; upheld by Korematsu v. U.S. (1944); later condemned as a civil rights violation.

World War II