Review APUSH Period 7 (1890–1945): American imperialism, the Progressive Era, World War I, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II.
What to Know for Period 7
- Key terms and vocabulary for this period
- Major events and turning points
- Historical themes and connections
- Common DBQ and LEQ topics from this period
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Inside This Unit: The Full Breakdown
The Progressive Era, World War I, the 1920s, the Great Depression, and World War II — Period 7 covers an extraordinary arc from domestic reform through two global wars and the worst economic crisis in American history.
Why it matters
Period 7 carries the heaviest exam weight (10-17%) alongside Periods 5, 6, and 8. AP questions frequently connect Progressive reform to New Deal policy, or World War I isolationism to World War II intervention.
Key concepts
- Progressive reformers used government power to address industrialization's problems: trust-busting, food and drug regulation, conservation, labor protections, and democratic reforms.
- U.S. imperialism expanded American influence into the Caribbean and Pacific, justified by economic interests, strategic concerns, and racial ideology.
- The Great Depression exposed the limits of laissez-faire capitalism. The New Deal expanded federal responsibility for economic welfare and built a Democratic coalition that lasted decades.
- World War II ended the Depression, transformed the role of women and minorities in the workforce, and established the United States as a global superpower.
Progressivism and Empire
Progressive reformers believed government could — and should — fix social problems. Muckrakers like Ida Tarbell and Upton Sinclair exposed corporate abuses. Settlement houses like Hull House served immigrant communities. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt ("trust-busting"), Taft, and Wilson each advanced reform agendas. The 16th Amendment enabled income taxes; the 17th allowed direct election of senators; the 18th prohibited alcohol; the 19th granted women's suffrage. Abroad, the Spanish-American War (1898) made the U.S. a colonial power, acquiring Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Roosevelt's "Big Stick" diplomacy and the Panama Canal extended American influence.
World War I and the 1920s
The U.S. entered World War I in 1917, tipping the balance toward Allied victory. The war expanded federal power (War Industries Board, Espionage and Sedition Acts) and accelerated social changes — the Great Migration brought Black Southerners north, and women's war contributions strengthened the suffrage movement. Wilson's Fourteen Points envisioned a new world order, but the Senate rejected the League of Nations, and the U.S. retreated into isolationism. The 1920s saw consumer culture explode: automobiles, radios, movies, jazz. The Harlem Renaissance celebrated Black art and identity. But tensions simmered — Prohibition, nativism (immigration restrictions, KKK revival), and the fundamentalist-modernist divide revealed a nation in cultural conflict.
Depression and War
The stock market crash of 1929 triggered the Great Depression — banks failed, unemployment reached 25%, and the Dust Bowl devastated agriculture. President Hoover's limited response gave way to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal: the "alphabet agencies" (CCC, WPA, TVA, SSA) provided relief, recovery, and reform. The New Deal didn't end the Depression — World War II did — but it permanently expanded federal responsibility for economic welfare and built a coalition (workers, immigrants, urban voters, African Americans, white Southerners) that dominated politics for decades. The war mobilized the entire economy, opened factory jobs to women and minorities ("Rosie the Riveter"), and ended with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
AP exam tip
Period 7 DBQs often ask about the ROLE OF GOVERNMENT. Track how federal power expanded: Progressive regulation → wartime authority → New Deal programs → wartime mobilization. Show the pattern, not just individual events.
Connections to other units
- Period 6: Progressive reform was a direct response to Gilded Age problems.
- Period 8: New Deal liberalism set the stage for Great Society programs and Cold War government expansion.
- Period 9: Conservative reaction to New Deal and Great Society liberalism drove the Reagan revolution.
