2014 AP UNITED STATES HISTORY FREE - RESPONSE QUESTIONS

UNITED STATES HISTORY SECTION II Part A Reading period 15 minutes Suggested writing time 45 minutes Percent of Section II score 45
Directions: The following question requires you to construct a coherent essay that integrates your interpretation of Documents A-G and your knowledge of the period referred to in the question. High scores will be earned only by essays that both cite key pieces of evidence from the documents and draw on outside knowledge of the period.

1. To what extent did WWII impact the lives of Americans at home? Use the documents and your knowledge of the period to construct your response.

Document A Source: Newark NJ Public Library, Buying Victory Garden seeds in New Jersey, c.1943

Document B Source: Roy Hooper, America Remembers the Home Front (Ray Hartman) Everybody was campaigning to sell war bonds. We were using our allowances and paper drives. Wed go door-to-door and ask people to contribute dimes and quarters and fill up a book of stamps and buy the bonds. The goal of the school was to raise $80,000 to purchase a P-38 fighter plane. [A]fter probably eight or nine months of work, we were successful Alphonsus was the name of our school, but they named the plane The Spirit of Saint Als. We went to some Douglas Aircraft Company when they painted the name on the plane. I was thrilled, being the chairman of the student drive. I did the ribbon cutting There were pictures taken with a couple of air force men who were pilots dressed in their uniforms, so it was a thrill.

Document C Source: Wilma Briggs, A Farm Girl Plays Professional Baseball I think our whole country changed after the war when all the "Rosie the Riveters" continued to rivet when the war was over. The family unit started to disintegrate right after the war when Rosie kept riveting. The kids know their baby-sitter better than they know their parents. They know their teacher better than they know their parents. Everybody seems to be going in a different direction. And I really think that all happened because Rosie was needed to rivet during the war, but when the war was over, she didn't stop. Document D Source: Office for Emergency Management, War Production Board

Document E Source: Roy Hooper, America Remembers the Home Front (Dorothy Currier) I went in the civil defense... and very shortly was a zone warden. You had to spend hours on the telephone trying to sell civil defense. Why do I have to walk up and down the streets and be a post warden? people would say. Whats the point of all thisnobodys ever going to attack us here. It was an awful selling job I chose a man for an assistant, and I was the only woman zone warden.... [W]ith practice drills and night blackouts, people became a little more aware that the country was getting prepared for war. We made curtains for the windows that we put up for the night blackouts. Food stamps were also a big problem, because we were just a family of two, and there was no way you could stretch it. No matter how many were in your family, you were given so many food stamps for a week or a month. I had a small backyard garden, and I canned every vegetable we ate for the entire winter. I had a big stock, and then came along the rationing, and you were to declare every single edible you had in the house, and that had to be deducted from your food stamps.

Document F Source: Dr. Seuss, PM Newspaper, April 1942

Document G Source: The Ministry of Homeland Security, The Enemy Has Spies Everywhere propaganda

AP UNITED STATES HISTORY 2014 SCORING GUIDELINES

Question 1 Document-Based Question (continued)
Potential Outside Information 1. 2. Hollywood film industry Clothes rationing

3. V Home 4. Cancelling of the Indianapolis 500 5. Banning of automobile racing and sightseeing driving 6. Bond rallies 7. Gas masks 8. Ten Percent Club 9. Sound trucks 10. Bracero Program 11. Block captain 12. Knitting sweaters and socks for soldiers 13. Civil Air Patrol 14. Coast Guard Auxiliary 15. Red Cross 16. United Service Organizations 17. Neighborhood scrap drives 18. Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) 19. Land Girls 20. Dads Army

AP UNITED STATES HISTORY 2014 SCORING GUIDELINES

Question 1 Document-Based Question (continued)

To what extent did WWII impact the lives of Americans at home? Use the documents and your knowledge of the period to construct your response. Document A Document Information Women are lined up in front of a stand. The banner on the stand says Victory Gardens. Two women behind the stand are selling seeds to the women in the front.

Document Inferences The role of women in the public workforce was growing. People were eager to start their own Victory Gardens and help the army.

Document B Document Information Says everyone was campaigning to sell war bonds. Says the goal of the school was to raise 80,000 to purchase a P-38 fighter plane. Says they were successful.

Document Inferences Teenagers on the home front were very nationalistic during this time period. The youth played a crucial role in the home front war effort to raise money for the army.

Document C Document Information Women kept riveting even after the war was over. The family unit started to disintegrate. Briggs thinks that America changed as a whole after the war.

Document Inferences After the war, children were not able to spend much time with their parents, because both the mother and the father acted as breadwinners. Many families' finances could not afford their desired lifestyle, so both parents worked.

Document D Document Information There is a frantic-looking man sitting at the cockpit of an airplane. Underneath the man, there is a slogan Build em right! Keep em firing! There are two planes flying next to the slogan.

Document Inferences

The man is a pilot in the U.S. Air Force, and he is frantic because something is wrong with the plane. The War Production Board is telling Americans to do their best at war-production jobs.

Document E Document Information Practice drills and night blackouts took place. Civil defense was an awful selling job. Every single edible that a family had was deducted from their food stamps.

Document Inferences The role of women expanded from housework to being leaders in the public. Food stamps made it difficult for the home front to feed themselves, but Victory Gardens kept them fed, until the rationing required Americans to share that portion as well.

Document F Document Information There are Dr. Seuss characters driving a car down the road. There are signs that say, The gas you burn up in your car in one whole year would only take a light tank 653 miles! The cartoon on the bottom depicts a soldier who says, So save it, pal! My trips are more important.

Document Inferences The U.S. government wanted citizens on the home front to use less gas. The military put their priorities way on top of the home front.

Document G Document Information A hand extending from a sleeve in stripes and a star covers a mans mouth. There is a slogan that says, Quiet! Know Your Place Shut Your Face! The man is dressed nicely and it looks like he is choking.

Document Inferences The sleeve represents the U.S. government and the man represents an American citizen. The government was afraid that top-secret information would reach the ears of the enemy.

AP UNITED STATES HISTORY SAMPLE DBQ

After the Japanese attack on the American naval fleet at Pearl Harbor, the United States was thrust into World War II. Food, gas and clothing were rationed, and communities conducted scrap metal drives. To help build the armaments necessary to win the war, women found employment outside of home. Teenagers played an important role in raising money for the army as well. The everyday lives of Americans on the home front were dramatically altered during and after World War II.

Before the war, the Great Depression set in because of the crash of the stock market. Because families across America lost all their money, men alone could not pull through this huge economic crisis alone. As a result, women made huge contributions in the household, like buying day-old bread. However, World War II took womens social status to a new extreme. Massachusetts resident Dorothy Currier went into civil defense and shortly became a zone warden. She chose a man for an assistant, and was the only woman zone warden (Doc E). Not only were women making huge contributions in the public workforce, they were leaders; in Curriers case, leading the opposite sex. Many young women also enlisted in the army, such as the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), and some were nurses in the Red Cross. Essentially, World War II ended the era of women in the household. From the outset of the war, it was clear that enormous quantities of airplanes, tanks, warships, rifles and other armaments would be essential to beating Americas aggressors. U.S. workers played a vital role in the production of such war -related materials. Citizens living on the home front began securing jobs as welders, electricians and riveters in defense plants, strictly restricted to making weapons for the U.S. army. The War Production board encouraged workers to do their best at war-production jobs (Doc D). World War II fixed the Great Depression because people were getting hired and receiving a paycheck. When the automobile was invented, Americans were ecstatic. They could travel wherever they wanted to at their own leisure. However, World War II changed that. Because U.S. Army tanks needed gasoline, the U.S. government told the citizens to reduce their gas usage (Doc F). Furthermore, the government banned automobile racing and sightseeing driving. Americans could not use their cars to have fun any longer. A car racing event, the Indianapolis 500 was also cancelled for the duration of the war. After the war, the American family changed dramatically. The mother who was in charge of the household went out to work, along with the father. Children were taken care of by babysitters and did not get much quality time to spend with their parents. Before the war, the mother took care of the children and the household, but after the war, women remained in the workforce (Doc C). World War II vastly changed the lives of Americans on the home front, never to be changed again.