Final

Question 1

What happened to Black soldiers who were involved with French women during WWI?

Answer 1

Many Black soldiers in stevedore units (ship loading and unloading facilities) at base ports had married French women. The military gave them the unenviable choice of being discharged in France to stay with their wives or returning home by themselves. This surprised the soldiers since they had been taught that the war was fought for the brotherhood of mankind. Some of the men remained in France, but most returned to the United States.

Question 2

What was the name of the Black infantry which won the French medal for bravery (include the name of the medal)?

Answer 2

The 369th Infantry Regiment won the Croix de Guerre for bravery at the Meuse-Argonne.

Question 3

What was the Committee on Public Information (CPI)?

Answer 3

Created in 1917 by President Wilson and headed by progressive journalist George Creel, this organization rallied support for American involvement in WWI through art, advertising, and film. Creel worked out a system of voluntary censorship with the press and distributed colorful posters and pamphlets. The CPI’s Division of Industrial Relations rallied labor to help the war effort.

Question 4

Did President Wilson disagree with the vigilantism (repression) sparked by super-patriotism?

Answer 4

What three Acts did he support and how did they work?—Rather than curbing the vigilantism (repression), Wilson encouraged it. At his request, Congress passed the Espionage Act of 1917, which imposed sentences of up to twenty years in prison for persons found guilty of aiding the enemy, obstructing recruitment of soldiers, or encouraging disloyalty. It allowed the postmaster general to remove from the mails materials that incited treason or insurrection. The Trading-with-the-Enemy Act of 1917 authorized the government to censor the foreign language press. In 1918, Congress passed the Sedition Act, imposing harsh penalties on anyone using “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the government, flag, or armed forces uniforms.

Question 5

Who is Eugene V. Debs? Why was he put in prison? Did he run for political office while imprisoned and if so, what position? Did his party survive the war?

Answer 5

President Wilson’s postmaster general banned from the mails more than a dozen socialist publications, including the Appeal to Reason, which went to more than half a million people weekly. In 1918, Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist party leader, delivered a speech denouncing capitalism and the war. He was convicted for violation of the Espionage Act and spent the war in a penitentiary in Atlanta. Nominated as the Socialist party candidate in the presidential election of 1920, Debs—prisoner 9653—won nearly a million votes, but the Socialist movement never fully recovered from the repression of the war.

Question 6

Know the function of the following: War Industries Board, Food Administration, Fuel Administration, and the Railroad Administration.—

Answer 6

One of the most powerful of the new agencies, the WIB oversaw the production of all American factories. The WIB determined priorities, allocated raw materials, and fixed prices. It told manufacturers what they could and could not make. Herbert Hoover headed the Food Administration and convinced people to save food by observing “meatless” and “wheat-less” days. He fixed prices to boost production, bought and distributed wheat, and encouraged people to plant “victory gardens” behind homes. churches, and schools. The Fuel Administration introduced daylight saving time, rationed coal and oil, and imposed gasless days when motorists could not drive. The Railroad Administration dictated rail traffic over nearly 400,000 miles of track—standardizing rates, limiting passenger travel, and speeding arms shipments.

Question 7

Who was the head of the War Labor Board? What were the goals of the agency?

Answer 7

In May 1918, President Wilson named Felix Frankfurter to head the War Labor Board (WLB). The agency standardized wages and hours, and at Wilson’s direction, it protected the right of labor to organize and bargain collectively. Although it did not forbid strikes, it used various tactics to discourage them. The WLB also ordered that women be paid equal wages for equal work in war industries.

Question 8

Know the cities Blacks migrated to from the Old South. What were the jobs held by Black men and women?—

Answer 8

Between 1916 and 1918, more than 450,000 African Americans left the Old South for the booming industrial cities of St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. Most of the newcomers were young, unmarried, and skilled or semiskilled. The men found jobs in factories, railroad yards, steel mills, packinghouses, and coal mines; Black women worked in textile factories, department stores, and restaurants.

Question 9

Know the names of the new and reconstituted nations following WWI.

Answer 9

The new and reconstituted nations are: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Yugoslavia, Lithuania, and Czechoslovakia.

Question 10

What were the goals of President Wilson’s Fourteen Points? Was it successful?

Answer 10

In January 1918, President Wilson presented these terms for a far-reaching, nonpunitive settlement of world War I. He called, among other things, for removal of barriers to trade, open peace accords, reduction of armaments, and the establishment of a League of Nations. While generous and optimistic, the Points did not satisfy wartime hunger for revenge, and thus were largely rejected by European nations.

Question 11

Know the four countries and their leaders that made up the Big Four:

Answer 11

a. France—Premier Georges Clemenceau
b. Italy—Prime Minister Orlando Vittorio
c. Great Britain—Prime Minister David Lloyd George
d. United States—President Woodrow Wilson

Question 12

How was organized labor changed in the 1920s?

Answer 12

Organized labor proved unable to advance the interests of workers in the 1920s. Conservative leadership in the American Federation of Labor (AFL) neglected the task of organizing the vast number of unskilled laborers in the mass production industries. Aggressive management weakened the appeal of unions by portraying them as radical organizations after a series of strikes in 1919. Many businesses used injunctions and “yellow-dog contracts”—which forbade employees to join unions—to establish open shops and deny workers the benefits of collective bargaining. Other employers wooed their workers away from unions, using techniques of welfare capitalism—spending money to improve plant conditions and winning employee loyalty with pensions, paid vacations, and company cafeterias.

Question 13

Know the signs that there was trouble coming for the economy of the 1920s

Answer 13

The economic trends of the 1920s had both positive and negative implications for the future. On the one hand, there was the solid growth of new consumer-based industries. But at the same time, there were ominous signs of danger. The unequal distribution of wealth, the growth of consumer debt, the saturation of the market for cars and appliances, and the rampant speculation all contributed to economic instability. The boom of the 1920s would end in a great crash; yet the achievements of the decade would survive even that dire experience to shape the future of American life

Question 14

14. Know the causes that led to the Great Depression.—

Answer 14

Many people believed the Crash was a necessary correction that would not change American life very much. The market crash would not have led to the Great Depression had there not been fundamental flaws in the economy of the 1920s. Farmers, textile workers, and miners were already in a virtual depression. Wages of works lagged far behind profits. Tax policies favoring the rich had increased the uneven distribution of income. Much of the added income of the wealthy went to luxurious living and speculation. Remarkable gains in productivity led to a need for increasing consumption, but demand was leveling off, and businesses refused to give workers wage increases that might have created new consumers for their products. Spending on durable goods like houses and automobiles, began a precipitous decline. Automobile sales seemed to reach their “saturation” point. By August of 1929, automobile factories began laying off thousands of workers. One culprit was installment buying. Millions of American families were deeply in debt for the first time in American history.

Question 15

How did feminism change in the 1920s?

Answer 15

Know the examples of the change in the behavior/appearance of young women in the 1920s.—Growing assertiveness had a profound impact on feminism in the 1920s. Instead of crusading for social progress, young women concentrated on individual self-expression by rebelling against Victorian restraints. Cutting their hair short, raising their skirts above the knee, and binding their breasts, “flappers” set out to compete on equal terms with men on the golf course and in the speakeasy (illegal drinking places during Prohibition). The flappers assaulted the traditional double standard in sex, demanding that equality with men should include sexual fulfillment before and during marriage. New and more liberal laws led to a sharp rise in the divorce rate; by 1928, there were 166 divorces for every 100 marriages, compared to only 81 in 1900.

Question 16

16. How did the family change in the 1920s?

Answer 16

—The family became smaller as easier access to effective birth control methods enabled couples to limit the number of their offspring. More and more married women took jobs outside the home, bringing in an income and gaining a measure of independence (although their rate of pay was always lower than that for men). Young people, who had once joined the labor force when they entered their teens, now discovered adolescence as a stage of life. A high school education was no longer uncommon, and college attendance increased. Prolonged adolescence led to new strains on the family in the form of youthful revolt. Freed of the traditional burden of earning a living at an early age, youths in the 1920s went on a great spree (heavy drinking casual sexual encounters, and a constant search for excitement).

Question 17

Know the founder and leader of the “modern Klan.” Where did the Klan place the blame for America’s problems? How did they respond to this threat? (hint: Blacks, women, and aliens)

Answer 17

Thanksgiving night in 1915, on Stone Mountain in Georgia, Colonel William J. Simmons and thirty-four followers founded the modern Klan. The Klan of the 1920s, unlike the night riders of the post-Civil War era, was not just anti-Black; the threat to American culture, as Klansmen perceived it, came from aliens—Italians and Russians, Jews and Catholics. The Klansmen struck back by coming together and enforcing their own values. They punished Blacks who did not know their place, women who practiced the new morality, and aliens who refused to conform. Beating, flogging, burning with acid—even murder—was condoned

Question 18

Know the circumstances that led to the decline of the Klan.

Answer 18

The Klan fell even more quickly than it rose. Its more violent activities—which included kidnapping, lynching, setting fire to synagogues and Catholic churches and in one case, murdering a priest—began to offend the nation’s conscience. Misuse of funds and sexual scandals among Klan leaders, notably in Indiana, repelled many of the rank and file. Effective counterattacks by traditional politicians ousted the KKK from control in Texas and Oklahoma. Membership declined shortly after 1925. By the end of the decade, the Klan had virtually disappeared, but the spirit lived on as testimony to the recurring demons of nativism and hatred that have periodically throughout the American experience.

Question 19

What is the Teapot Dome Scandal? Who was the president at that time?

Answer 19

—A 1924 scandal in which Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall was convicted of accepting bribes in exchange for leasing government-owned oil lands in Wyoming (Teapot Dome) and California (Elks Hill) to private oil businessmen. This took place during President Warren G. Harding’s administration

Question 20

Know the difference in the political views of Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover

Answer 20

Warren G. Harding was a “good” man, but a “bad” president. Conventional in outlook, Harding was a genial man who lacked the capacity to govern and who, as president, broadly delegated power.—Calvin Coolidge believed his duty as president was to preside benignly, not govern the nation. According to one observer, “Calvin Coolidge aspired to become the least President the country ever had; he achieved his desire.” Herbert Hoover was the ablest GOP (Grand Old Party) leader of the 1920s. Hoover did not view business and government as antagonists. Instead, he saw them as partners, working together to achieve efficiency and affluence for all Americans.

Question 21

Know the three demagogues who challenged FDR and their proposals.

Answer 21

.—As the focus of the New Deal shifted from relief and recovery to reform, challengers rose up to FDR to voice economic discontent. The first of these and the most threatening to the FDR administration was Louisiana Senator, Huey P. Long. Long named his program the “Share Our Wealth” plan by which the government would tax the wealthiest men and women in the nation 100% and distribute the surpluses to the rest of the population. Father Charles Coughlin, the “radio priest”, proposed a series of monetary reforms including monetary inflation and the nationalization of the banking system. Dr. Francis Townsend claimed that the way to end the depression was to give every citizen over the age of 60 $200 a month, provided they retired (thus freeing jobs or younger, unemployed Americans) and spent the money in full (which would pump much needed funds into the economy). This idea’s popularity helped build support for the Social Security system that Congress approved in 1935.

Question 22

2. How did the Pueblo Relief Act, Johnson-O’Malley Act, the Indian Reorganization Act, and John Collier help Native Americans?

Answer 22

The Pueblo Relief Act compensated the Pueblo Indians of Colorado for land taken from them in the 1920s. The 1934 Johnson-O’Malley Act gave federal money to states to provide for Indian health care, welfare, and education. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 ended the assimilation policy of previous administrations and recognized that Native Americans tribes possessed the right of self-determination and self-government, as well as the right to control their own cultural and economic well-being. John Collier employed more Native Americans in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, supported educational programs on the reservations, and encouraged the tribes to produce native handiwork such as blankets and jewelry

Question 23

Why did FDR want to “pack” the Supreme Court?

Answer 23

FDR’s reason for packing the Supreme Court was that the current judges were too old and feeble to handle the large volume of cases coming before them. But simply put, for FDR to further the advance of the welfare state, he had to find a way of “removing” the last obstacle to that end. The Court shot down pervious New Deal legislation as reflecting an improper delegation of power to the executive branch. To accomplish his goals, he proposed the idea of adding more justices to the bench (liberal justices) to prevent the Court from blocking his powers he felt he had under the “necessary and proper” clause of the Constitution. Much to FDR’s amazement, few Americans bought his “plan.” It was perceived by many to be a high-handed attempt to concentrate even greater power in the executive branch

Question 24

What was the Nazi plan for “final solution?” How was it practiced? What was FDR’s answer to saving the Jews?

Answer 24

Despite having knowledge about the “death camps”, did the Allies intervene in their destruction?—The Nazi plan of “final solution” was an attempt to exterminate all of Europe’s Jews ,as well as, Gypsies, homosexuals, and other “inferior” peoples. Extermination centers were constructed to kill people in gas chambers and burn their remains in ovens. The Nazi’s murdered six million Jews (including 1.5 million children) and five million other people. FDR and his advisors decided that the best way to save the Jews was to win the war as rapidly as possible. Although the U.S. had aerial photos of Auschwitz and other death camps by 1944, the Allies refused to bomb either the rail lines to the camps or the gas chambers to interrupt the murders.

Question 25

Why did the Japanese military pick an air raid on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii as a successful plan? Were all of the ships returned to battle after the attack?

Answer 25

Know the names of the ships that did not return to duty. Was the Japanese plan successful?—Military experts had expected the Japanese to attack British and Dutch possessions in Southeast Asia and were debating how to respond. Instead, the Japanese gambled that a surprise air raid on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii would destroy the American Pacific fleet. That move would enable Japan to solidify their Asian conquests by neutralizing the United States. FDR was trying to avoid a war in Asia that would have likely led to a war on two fronts. He clearly believed that the Germans were the greater danger. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. As it turned out, the great Japanese “success” at Pearl Harbor turned out to be a strategic and tactical disaster. The navy repaired and returned to service all of the supposedly “sunk” battleships, except the Arizona and the Oklahoma. An unprovoked attack only united the American people behind the war effort. Thus, the Japanese surprise attack destroyed its basic strategy of neutralizing the U.S. and, ultimately guaranteed Japan’s defeat.

Question 26

With the war ended in Europe, how would it end with Japan?

Answer 26

On July 26, 1945, the Japanese government received a vague ultimatum threatening “inevitable and complete destruction” , using the “full application of our military power” if Japan did not surrender unconditionally. Tokyo ignored the Allied leaders, perhaps unaware of its true meaning. On August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber called the Enola Gay dropped an 8900-pound uranium bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima. The Japanese did not send any messages to the Allies acknowledging the catastrophe. The Soviet Union entered the war against Japan two days later, defeating Japanese forces in Manchuria. On August 9, 1945, a more powerful plutonium bomb called “Fat Man” was dropped from another B-29, the Bock’s Car on Nagasaki.

Question 27

How did revisionist historians describe the end of WWII? (hint: Soviet Union and revenge)

Answer 27

Scholars assert Truman had more in mind than defeating Japan when he decided to use the atomic bomb. Citing Air Force and Naval Officers who claimed Japan could be defeated by a blockade or by conventional air attacks, History Revisionists suggest the real reason for dropping the bomb was to impress the Soviet Union with the fact the United States had exclusive possession of the ultimate weapon. The available evidence indicates that while Truman and his associates were aware of the possible effect on the Soviet Union, their primary motive was to end WWII as quickly and effortlessly as possible. The saving of American lives, along with a desire for revenge for Pearl Harbor, were uppermost in the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet in using the atomic bomb to defeat Japan, the U.S. virtually guaranteed a postwar arms race with the Soviet Union.

Question 28

What was the Watergate Scandal?

Answer 28

A break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate complex in Washington was carried out under the direction of White House employees. Disclosure of the White House involvement in the break-in and subsequent cover-up forced President Richard Nixon to resign to avoid impeachment. He was later pardoned by President Gerald Ford.

Question 29

How was Ronald Reagan able to defeat Jimmy Carter for the presidency in 1980?

Answer 29

In 1980, Jimmy Carter, who had used the Watergate trauma to win the presidency, found himself in serious trouble. Inflation, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the continuing hostage crisis in Iran underlined the administration’s helplessness. Ronald Reagan and his running mate, George H.W. Bush, hammered away at the state of the economy and the world. Reagan scored heavily among traditionally blue-collar groups by blaming Carter for inflation, which robbed workers of any gains in real wages. Reagan also accused Carter of allowing the Soviets to outstrip the U.S. militarily and promised a massive buildup of American forces if he was elected. Carter’s position was further hurt by the independent candidacy of liberal Republican John Anderson of Illinois, who appealed to voters disenchanted with Carter but not ready to embrace Reagan.

Question 30

Why didn’t President George H.W. Bush pursue the removal of Saddam Hussein from power during Operation Desert Storm?

Answer 30

President Bush, acting on the advice of General Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, halted the advance after liberating Kuwait and agreed to an armistice (truce) with Iraq. Critics claimed that with just a few more days of fighting, perhaps even a few hours, American forces could have encircled the Republican Guard and ended Saddam’s regime. Bush, fearful of disrupting the allied coalition and having American troops mired down in a guerilla war, stopped when he had achieved his announced goal of liberating Kuwait. Moreover, he hoped that Saddam would help balance the threat of Iran in the volatile Persian Gulf region. During the next twelve years (1991-2003), many Americans would conclude that if Bush had completed the ouster of Saddam in 1991, he would have spared the United States and the world a great deal of trouble.

Question 31

Why did President Gerald Ford appoint George H.W. Bush as head of the CIA?

Answer 31

What
did Ford and Congress add to the CIA reform plans? In late 1975, President Ford ap- pointed George H. W. Bush as the agency’s new director and gave him the authority
both to reform the CIA and to strengthen its role in shaping national security policy.
Most notably, Ford issued an executive order outlawing assassination as an instrument
of American foreign policy. To prevent future abuses, Congress created permanent
House and Senate intelligence committees to exercise general oversight for covert CIA
operations.

Question 32

Was President Jimmy Carter successful as President in the aftermath of the
Watergate scandal? Ford’s lackluster record and the legacy of Watergate made the
Democratic nomination for president a prize worth fighting for in 1976. James Earl
Carter, former governor of Georgia, became the front-runner. He ran as an outsider,
portraying himself as a Southerner who had no experience in Washington and one who
could give the nation fresh and untainted leadership. In 1980, Jimmy Carter, who used
the Watergate trauma to win the presidency found himself politically troubled by
inflation, a recession, unemployment approaching 8% by July 1980, as well as the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan and the hostage takeover of the American Embassy in Iran.
Republican nominee Ronald Reagan blamed Carter for inflation and accused Carter of
allowing the Soviets to outstrip the United States militarily. He promised a massive
buildup of American forces if he was elected. Reagan defeated Carter in the Election of
1980.

Question 33

1980.
33. What was President Ronald Reagan’s plan to repair the economy ravaged by
inflation during the Carter administration? Reagan embraced the concept of supply-
side economics as the solution for the nation’s economic problems. Supply-side
economists believed that the private sector, if encouraged by tax cuts, would shift its
resources from tax shelters to productive investment, leading to an economic boom that
would provide enough new income to offset the lost revenue

Question 34

34. What is PATCO and how did Reagan resolve their strike? The Professional Air
    Traffic Controllers’ Organization was one of the few unions to support Reagan in the
    1980 campaign. When PATCO went on strike in August 1981, Reagan fired the striking
    air traffic controllers and refused to rehire them when the strike collapsed. The strike
    was the result of stalled contract negotiations between PATCO and the Federal Aviation
    Administration (FAA). The controllers wanted a reduced workweek of four days and
    thirty-two hours in response to widespread controller fatigue.

Question 35

5. While continuing Reagan’s theme of “limiting federal interference in the everyday
   lives of American citizens”, where did George H. W. Bush make an exception? The one
   exception was the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), passed by Congress in
   1991, which prohibited discrimination against the disabled in hiring, transportation,
   and public accommodations. Beginning in 1992, the ADA called for all public buildings,
   restaurants, and stores to be made accessible to those with physical handicaps and
   required that businesses with twenty-five or more workers hire new employees without
   regard to disability.

Question 36

What is NAFTA and what did President William Jefferson Clinton see as its
economic benefit? What did critics see as its flaw? In 1993, Congress approved of the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA, initiated and nearly
completed by Bush (George H. W. Bush), was a free-trade plan that united the United States, Mexico, and Canada into a common market without tariff barriers. Clinton
endorsed the treaty as a way of securing American prosperity and spreading American
values. Critics complained that free trade would cost American workers their jobs as
American companies moved production overseas.

Question 37

37. What was President George W. Bush’s U.S. foreign policy response to the
    September 11 attacks? In September 2002, the Bush administration released a fully
    developed statement of its new world policy, “National Security Strategy (NSS) of
    the United States.” The goal of American policy, Bush’s NSS declared, was to “extend the
    peace by encouraging free and open societies on every continent.” There were two main
    components to the new strategy, which critics quickly called unilateralism. The first was
    to accept fully the role nation had been playing since the end of the Cold War: global
    policeman. The U.S. would not shrink from defending freedom anywhere in the world—
    with allies if possible, by itself, if necessary. In the role of world cop, Bush and his
    advisers asserted the right to the preventive use of force. Although promising to seek the
    support of the international community before using force, the NSS stated, “we will not
    hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self-defense.” The Bush
    administration accepted its new role as final arbiter (judge, umpire, referee) of all
    international disputes

Question 38

What was the strategic reason U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona (Republican)
selected former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin as his running mate against Democratic
nominee Senator Barack Obama? In 2008, Senator Barack Obama (Illinois) faced
Senator John McCain in the general election. At age 72, McCain was the oldest man to
ever run for president. He chose former governor Sarah Palin of Alaska in a plan to
attract Democratic women disappointed at their party’s rejection of Senator Hillary
Clinton (New York) for the Democratic Party nomination.

Answer 38

39. How did the vision of the President Barack Obama administration contrast the
    George W. Bush administration? President Obama promised a foreign policy based on
    diplomacy rather than unilateral force, pledged to protect the environment, spoke of the
    need to combat income inequality and the lack of access to health care, and blamed a
    culture of “greed and irresponsibility” for helping to bring on the economic crisis. He
    promised to renew respect for the Constitution. Unlike Bush, Obama said little about
    freedom in his speech, other than to note that the country could enjoy liberty and
    security at the same time rather than having to choose between them. Instead of
    freedom, Obama spoke of community and responsibility and putting the common good
    before individual self-interest.

Question 39

40. What did historians see as the reason for the Election of 2016 victory of
    businessman Donald Trump over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton? Trump’s
    victory was part of a global voter revolt against a political establishment many people
    blamed for job losses, stagnant wages, and large-scale immigration, all elements of
    globalization.