Sources for America’s History: Printed Page 546

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

  1. Question

    Compare Beveridge’s assumptions about race with the anthropological ideas about race articulated by Franz Boas (Document P6-4). How do you imagine Boas would have responded to Beveridge’s argument that Anglo-Saxons had a special role to play in world affairs?

  2. Question

    To what extent did President Wilson’s rhetoric about national self-determination reflect the policies of the United States during the period from 1890 to 1918? To what extent did the United States’s interactions with Hawaii and the Philippines expose gaps between rhetoric and reality?

  3. Question

    What evidence of Social Darwinist ideas can you identify in the arguments used by those advocating for a more expansive U.S. role in world affairs? Compare the evidence in this chapter with William Graham Sumner’s use of Social Darwinism (Document P6-1).

  4. Question

    What lessons about civil liberties during wartime do you think Americans learned in this period? How relevant are those concerns today?

  5. Question

    The period from 1890 to 1918 saw the United States assume a more aggressive role in world affairs. To what extent were these years an exception? What were the most significant factors shaping America’s interaction with the rest of the world?