CLEP History of the United States II study guide
CLEP History of the United States II · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
CLEP History of the United States II is a credit-by-examination test administered through the College Board's College Level Examination Program. It covers American history from the end of the Civil War to the present and is built for students who have already learned the material - through a survey course, independent reading, or steady self-study - and want to earn college credit rather than repeat it. The CLEP History of the United States II study guide has 5 sections and about 1,566 words.
01Political Institutions, Behavior, and Public Policy
The exam expects you to move confidently between the Constitution, federalism, the branches, parties, elections, and policy. Know the amendment map: 13th (slavery abolished), 14th (citizenship, due process, equal protection), 15th (voting regardless of race), 16th (income tax), 17th (direct election of senators), 18th/21st (Prohibition and repeal), 19th (women's suffrage), 24th (poll tax banned in federal elections), and 26th (vote at 18).
330 words, about 2 min02Social Developments
The social domain traces how Americans moved, organized, and demanded rights. Distinguish the "old" immigration of northern and western Europe before the 1880s from the "new" immigration from southern and eastern Europe and Asia between the 1880s and 1920s, which fueled nativism, the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), and the quota system of 1921–1924.
322 words, about 2 min03Economic Developments
Organize economic history around transformation and response. Post-Civil War industrialization rested on railroads, steel, oil, and finance, with vertical integration (controlling supply chains) and horizontal consolidation (mergers into trusts).
309 words, about 2 min04Cultural and Intellectual Developments
The cultural domain asks you to connect ideas to movements and to the people who carried them. Know transcendentalism (Emerson, Thoreau), which stressed intuition and nature against materialism; Social Darwinism, which misapplied evolutionary competition to society and welfare policy; and the Gospel of Wealth (Carnegie), which justified philanthropy as a duty of the rich.
295 words, about 1 min05Diplomacy and International Relations
The diplomacy domain rewards a clear sequence. Early guidance included Washington's Farewell Address (avoid entangling alliances) and the Monroe Doctrine (1823), warning Europe against new colonization in the Americas.
310 words, about 2 min