The United States and Overseas Territories

You are a Hawaiian living on Maui, one of the Hawaiian Islands, in 1890. Your parents work in a sugar mill owned by American planters. Although the mill supplies jobs, you don’t trust the sugar planters. They have already made your king sign a treaty that gives them a lot of power in the islands. You are afraid they will take over the government.
What would you do if planters took over your islands?

The Progressive Presidents

It is 1912 and you’re voting in your first presidential election. This election is unusual—there are three major candidates. One is the popular former president Theodore Roosevelt, who is running as a third-party candidate. He thinks the Republican candidate will not make enough progressive reforms. But the Democratic candidate is a progressive reformer too.

How will you decide which candidate to support?

The Rights of Women and Minorities

You are a member of the graduating class of 1912 from an excellent women’s college. You have always been interested in science, especially biology. You would like to be a doctor, but you know that medical schools accept very few women. One career path for you is to go into social work. Yet that’s not what you really want to do.

How would you want to use your education?

Reforming the Workplace

You have been working in a hat factory since 1900, when you were eight years old. Now you are experienced enough to run one of the sewing machines. You don’t earn as much as older workers, but your family needs every penny you bring home. Still, the long hours make you very tired. One day you hear that people are trying to stop children from doing factory work. They think that children should be at school or playing.

Would you be for or against this social reform? Why?

The Gilded Age and the Progressive Movement

You live in a big-city neighborhood in the 1890's. You and your brother are both looking for jobs. You know that the man down the street is the “ward boss.” He can always get city jobs for his friends and neighbors. But in return you’ll have to promise to vote the way he tells you to in the upcoming election.

Would you ask the ward boss for a job? Why or why not?