AP U.S. History / Period 7: 1890–1945
Lesson
Reform at home, power abroad
Progressives regulated industry while the United States became a world power.
Learning goals
- Explain Progressive reform as a response to industrial problems.
- Connect overseas expansion to debates about American identity.
Explanation
Progressive reformers used journalism, expertise, and new laws to attack monopoly, unsafe food, political machines, and some forms of inequality. They expanded the idea that government should police industrial society. They did not agree on race, immigration, or how far regulation should go.
The same decades saw overseas war, annexation, and a larger navy. Supporters called it responsibility and markets; critics called it empire that contradicted republican ideals. World War I then pulled the United States into European alliance politics and produced a crackdown on dissent at home. Period 7 begins with the question of how powerful the national state should be.
Key terms
- Progressivism. A cluster of early-twentieth-century efforts to use government, expertise, and publicity to regulate industrial society.
- imperialism. Extending political or economic control beyond a nation's borders, including overseas territories.
Common mistakes
- Treating Progressives as uniformly left or uniformly democratic.
- Studying world power as if it had no connection to domestic reform arguments.
Practice
Original Marlow Works items. Check the answer explanation after you try.
Evaluate the extent to which industrialization transformed urban life and labor in the United States from 1890 to 1920. In a short essay, present a thesis, use at least two specific pieces of evidence, and acknowledge one continuity.
Original Marlow Works item — not a College Board question.
Take your time—this is practice, not a test.
Answer explanation
What problem were Progressives trying to solve?
Answer. Industrial society had created concentrated corporate power, urban hazards, and political corruption that older local government could not handle.
Reform is a response to Period 6 problems, not a sudden burst of kindness.
Related resources
External links with reuse status. Marlow Works is independent and does not copy restricted exam or textbook material.
Official / link only
AP U.S. History course page
Official nine-period framework, skills, and exam updates.
College Board · All rights reserved · accessed 2026-10-01
Open sourceCC BY — attribution required
U.S. History (Open Textbook Library)
Open U.S. history textbook for chronology and institutions background.
Open Textbook Library listing · CC BY · accessed 2026-10-01
Open source