This study guide provides students with 50 concepts and terms to review for the 2nd semester U.S. History final exam. The guide lists key ideas and events from chapters 14-25 of the textbook, including the Great Depression, New Deal, WWII, Cold War, Civil Rights Movement, and Nixon presidency. Students are instructed to use their textbook, class notes, and previous study guides. They will be asked to write a 1.5 page essay answering one of two prompts about historical events impacting democracy or tracing domestic policy changes.

1. Name: 2nd Semester Final Study Guide, U.S. History
Materials:
• The Americans Text: Chapters 14 - Chapter 25, selected sections
• All classroom notes and discussions
• All previous study guides will serve you well!!
Ideas and Concepts
1. What were some of the warning signs of the Great Depression?
2. What are the four main causes of the Great Depression?
3. Describe the impact of the great depression on: workers, farmers, and banks.
4. Describe President Hoover’s response to the Great Depression. Was this a surprising role for
government to take? Why or why not?
5. Identify what the Dust Bowl was. How did farmers respond?
6. Identify Roosevelt’s key accomplishments in his first 100 days in office.
7. Name and describe key “Alphabet Soup” new deal agencies.
8. Describe how closing the banks help with the Great Depression.
9. Identify the purpose of the Social Security System.
10. Describe what became known as the court packing scheme.
11. Explain what caused the recession of 1937.
12. Explain how Americans tried to cope with the Great Depression.
13. Identify the lasting impact the New Deal still has today.
14. Explain why America remained neutral in the early part of WWII. (Include Neutrality Acts, Stimson
Doctrine, Cash and Carry)
15. Describe the significance and reasons for FDR running for a third term of office in 1940.
16. Describe how American’s isolationism softened. Include the Lend Lease Act and the Atlantic Charter.)
17. Know the date Pearl Harbor was attacked.
18. Know the definition and date of D-day, V-E Day, and V-J Day.
19. Discuss the diversity present in the U.S. armed forces (442 Regiment, Navajo code talkers, Tuskegee
Airmen)
20. Why did America first launch its attack against the Axis powers in Africa and Italy?
21. Describe the U.S. strategy of Island Hopping.
22. Discuss the war effort at home, including bonds, rationing, victory gardens and total war.
23. Discuss the role of women in the war effort and the significance of Rosie the Riveter.
24. Discuss the issue of Japanese internment and the role of Japanese Americans during WWII.
(Korematsu v. United States)
25. Define the term Cold War.
26. Explain the differing goals of the United States and the Soviet Union that led to the Cold War.
27. Explain how the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences set the stage for the Cold War.
28. Describe Containment.
29. Explain what the Truman Doctrine was. What did it say?
30. Describe the Marshall Plan. What did it accomplish?
31. Identify NATO, its philosophy and the Warsaw Pact.
32. Describe the events and occurrences surrounding the Berlin Airlift
33. Describe the issues surrounding the Korean War. What brought about the conflict? Why did the
Chinese enter the war? How did the war lead to MacArthur’s firing? How did the war end?
34. Describe the ways communism was investigated in America. Include McCarthyism and the HUAC.
35. Describe the events and significance of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
36. After the French left Vietnam, describe the turn of events that led to the formation of the Vietcong and
the opposition to Ngo Dinh Diem.
37. Describe the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the events that led up to it.
38. Describe the American strategy and tactics used in Vietnam.
39. Describe the opposition movement that developed during the Vietnam War.
40. Identify the Tet Offensive. How did it change American opinion on the war?

2. 41. Describe the steps Nixon and Kissinger took to bring an end to the Vietnam War while still continuing
to attack North Vietnam. Include Vietnamization, “peace with honor,” the invasion of Cambodia and
the Pentagon Papers.
42. Identify the who, what, when, where, and outcome of the following Civil Right events: Truman’s
desegregation of the military in 1948, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Brown. V. Board, Little Rock Central
High School’s desegregation (Little Rock Nine), Sit-ins, Freedom Rides, March on Washington,
Freedom Summer, Regents of the University of CA v. Bakke
43. Identify and describe the following Civil Rights organizations. Include their key leaders: SCLC,
SNCC, CORE, Black Panthers
44. Identify the importance and contribution of these Civil Rights leaders: Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm
X, Thrugood Marshall
45. Compare and contrast work of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
46. Describe and identify the key components of the following laws: Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting
Rights Act of 1965, Civil Rights Acts of 1968
47. Identify and describe the struggles, key leaders, key organizations, and accomplishments of Latino
Americans struggle for Civil Rights.
48. Describe the difference between de facto and de jure segregation.
49. Identify and describe the struggles, key leaders, key organizations, and accomplishments of the
women’s rights movement.
50. What were the key foreign policy accomplishments of the Nixon Administration?
51. Describe the key events and impact of the Watergate scandal.
52. Describe the economic issues faced by Ford and Carter and their attempts to address them.
53. Describe and explain Regan’s domestic policy, focusing on his economic policy.
Terms- define and know the context of these terms in our study
th
38 parallel Gerald Ford national debt
affirmative action Great Society NATO
Battan Death March Henry Kissinger New Deal
Bay of Pigs Ho Chi Minh Trail New Frontier
Berlin Airlift ICBM oil embargo
Berlin Wall Iran-contra Affair OPEC
Camp David Accords Iran Hostage Crisis Peace Corps
Conservatism iron curtain Pentagon Papers
détente Jimmy Carter Reganomics
domino theory JFK Roe v. Wade
Douglas MacArthur Kent State Massacre SALT I
Dow Jones Industrial LBJ Sandra Day O’Connor
Average Lee Harvey Oswald satellite nations
Dwight D. Eisenhower Lend-Lease Act stagflation
ERA Manhattan Project Tienemen Square
FDR My Lai massacre War Powers Act
feminism NAACP Warren Commission
Essay: You will be asked to pick one of the questions below and answer it in an essay NO SHORTER
THAN A PAGE AND A HALF/ OR SIX PARAGRAPHS. As an aid you may have an index card no bigger
than 3X5, with one line of writing per line. You may only use one side of the card (the lined side). The
card is your ticket to answer the essay. NO card=no credit on the essay.
1. Pick four historical events we have studied throughout the year and explain how they increased or
hindered democracy in America. Give details of what happened for each event you choose and link it
to America’s growth as a nation.
2. Trace the changing domestic policy of the Kennedy through Regan administrations. What policies did
they enact? What problems were they trying to solve? Were they successful?