Study Questions: Howard Zinn's "Empire & The People"

Question 1

1. How does this chapter influence your understanding of Theodore Roosevelt as both a leader and a man?

Answer 1

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Question 2

2. What is the open-door-policy that Howard Zinn claims “became the dominant theme of American foreign policy in the twentieth century” (People’s History, p. 301) ?

Answer 2

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Question 3

3. Why do you think that United States historians “have generally ignored the role of the Cuban rebels in the war” (People’s History, p. 309)? Why do you think there is little mention in traditional textbooks about the resistance of the Filipinos to the American occupation of the Philippines?

Answer 3

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Question 4

4. What was the Teller Amendment, and why was the United States able to circumvent its provisions after the war was over? Why do you think the Cubans eventually capitulated by agreeing to the Platt Amendment?

Answer 4

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Question 5

5. Scholars have written many books and articles about the racism that propelled the United States into war with Cuba and the Philippines, and kept both peoples under the colonial yoke of the United States years after their “liberation.” Using evidence from the readings, defend or refute the assertion of racism.

Answer 5

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