7.15 Comparison in Period 7

Comparison asks you to describe and explain similarities and differences between two developments, groups, regions or eras. Full credit goes to answers that explain why the similarity or difference exists, not just state it.

A simple pattern: 'Both X and Y… because… However, X… while Y…, because…'

Pick categories before you write, such as goals, methods, supporters and results. Comparing category by category keeps your answer organized and makes it easy for a reader to see both sides.

Similarity: both rejected laissez-faire and used government to protect people from the power of big business. Difference: the New Deal accepted direct federal responsibility for people's economic security, like pensions and unemployment insurance, which Progressives mostly did not.

• Similar: both began with declared U.S. neutrality, both saw economic ties pull the U.S. toward Britain, and both ended in war after attacks on Americans by an enemy power.
• Different trigger: in 1917 the U.S. entered after unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram; in 1941 a direct attack on Pearl Harbor ended debate overnight.
• Different preparation: in the 1930s Congress passed Neutrality Acts specifically to avoid repeating 1914–1917, then loosened them; FDR used Lend-Lease to aid Britain before entering the war.
• Different aftermath: the U.S. rejected the League in 1919–1920 but led the creation of the UN in 1945.

• Home fronts: both wars expanded federal economic controls and drew Black migrants north. The WWI government jailed speech critics under the Sedition Act; WWII's most serious civil liberties violation was Japanese American incarceration.
• The 1920s and 1950s: both had booms in consumer goods and mass culture and fears of radicals (the First and Second Red Scares).
• Imperialism and the Good Neighbor Policy: from frequent intervention in Latin America (1898–1920s) to a pledge of nonintervention (1933).