Read the notes, then try the practice. It adapts as you go.When you're ready.
Session Length
~18 min
Adaptive Checks
16 questions
Transfer Probes
8
Explore the transformative era from 1890 to 1945, covering American imperialism, Progressive Era reforms, World War I, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II.
This topic aligns with AP US History Period 7 and examines how the United States became a global power while grappling with economic upheaval, social reform movements, and two world wars.
One step at a time.
The expansion of U.S. political, economic, and military influence beyond the continental borders beginning in the 1890s, driven by economic interests, strategic concerns, and beliefs in racial and cultural superiority.
Example: The Spanish-American War (1898) resulted in the U.S. acquiring the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico, transforming the nation into a colonial power with overseas territories.
A broad reform movement from roughly 1900 to 1920 that sought to address the social, political, and economic problems created by industrialization and urbanization through government action, investigative journalism, and grassroots organizing.
Example: Muckraking journalists like Upton Sinclair exposed unsafe conditions in the meatpacking industry, leading to the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906.
President Franklin Roosevelt's series of federal programs, public works projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted between 1933 and 1939 in response to the Great Depression, fundamentally expanding the role of the federal government in American economic life.
Example: The Social Security Act (1935) created a federal safety net for the elderly, unemployed, and disabled that remains a cornerstone of American social policy.
A conflict in which nations mobilize all available resources -- military, industrial, and civilian -- for the war effort, blurring the line between combatants and non-combatants.
Example: During World War II, the U.S. government rationed consumer goods, converted automobile factories to produce tanks and aircraft, and employed millions of women in defense industries.
President Woodrow Wilson's 1918 plan for a post-World War I peace settlement, emphasizing self-determination, free trade, open diplomacy, and the creation of a League of Nations to prevent future wars.
Example: Although Wilson championed the League of Nations at Versailles, the U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles, and the United States never joined the League.
FDR's controversial 1937 proposal to add up to six additional justices to the Supreme Court after the Court struck down several New Deal programs, widely criticized as an attempt to undermine judicial independence.
Example: Although the plan failed in Congress, the Court began upholding New Deal legislation shortly afterward in what historians call the 'switch in time that saved nine.'
The forced relocation and incarceration of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans -- two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens -- into detention camps during World War II under Executive Order 9066, justified by unfounded claims of espionage and sabotage.
Example: The Supreme Court upheld internment in Korematsu v. United States (1944), a decision widely regarded as one of the Court's worst rulings and formally repudiated in 2018.
A cultural, artistic, and intellectual movement centered in Harlem, New York, during the 1920s and 1930s, in which African American writers, musicians, and artists produced works that celebrated Black identity and challenged racial stereotypes.
Example: Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Duke Ellington created works that shaped American literature, anthropology, and music while asserting the dignity and creativity of African American culture.
Choose a different way to engage with this topic — no grading, just richer thinking.
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See how the key ideas connect. Nodes color in as you practice.
Walk through a solved problem step-by-step. Try predicting each step before revealing it.
This is guided practice, not just a quiz. Hints and pacing adjust in real time.
Small steps add up.
What you get while practicing:
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