Then choose ONE essay question and write a 3 to 5-page response.  Use as many of the prompts inside the essay question that help you formulate your response.  You do NOT need to answer every single sub-question; just use these questions as a guide to writing something interesting and meaningful.  Please type and double-space this midterm (the terms/names responses and the essay response).  You dont need to restate my essay question in your response.

1).  Please explain why the United States went to war with Spain in 1898. What did U.S. foreign policy elites want?  How does the annexation of Hawaii fit into U.S. goals?  What events abetted the war fever?  What was the role of the press in selling the war to the public?  What was the debate between the imperialists and the anti-imperialists?  What happened in the Philippines?  Why did the United States Congress and Administration want this war so badly?  Could the war have been avoided?  Why or why not?  What did U.S. foreign policy elites want?  What was the public told?  How do they differ?  Describe the underlying reasons for the Philippine-American War?  Why did this war happen?   

2).  In the first two decades of the 20th Century, who were the Progressives and what did they accomplish?  What economic interests were they struggling against?  How does the movement for the right to vote for women and feminist activism generally illustrate the struggles of this period?  What were the most significant problems facing American society that required some kind of response from the local, state, and federal governments?  What role did investigative journalists play in this era?  How did the Progressives make the U.S. a more democratic society?  What does the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in NYC and the Ludlow Massacre in Colorado tell us about how workers were treated in this era?  Try to give some examples of the political, economic, and social reforms the Progressive movement advocated.  Why were some of the commonsense solutions to social problems so difficult to implement?  Explain.