Final

Question 1

Which factor aroused Soviet suspicions of the Western Allies during World War II?

Answer 1

d. The Western Allies’ long delay in opening a second front in Western Europe

Question 2

Which of the following describes President Truman’s decision to deploy 1.8 million troops in the Korean War without a formal declaration of war from Congress?

Answer 2

a. Truman’s action violated the spirit if not the letter of the Constitution.

Question 3

Which of the following describes Truman’s authorization for General MacArthur to lead his troops across the thirty-eighth parallel in Korea?

Answer 3

b. It was the only time during the Cold War that the United States tried to roll back communism by force.

Question 4

What was one consequence of the Korean War?

Answer 4

c. A massive increase in U.S. defense spending

Question 5

What allowed the United States to emerge from World War II as the most powerful nation in the world?

Answer 5

c. It had both a monopoly on atomic weapons and expanded production capacity.

Question 6

European nations used most of the U.S. funds provided by the Marshall Plan of 1948 to

Answer 6

b. buy American products.

Question 7

In the post–World War II era, the term third world was used to refer to Latin America and

Answer 7

d. countries that had won their independence from war-weakened imperial powers.

Question 8

According to President Truman, what was the government’s role in the postwar economy?

Answer 8

c. The government should continue to regulate the economy while it adjusted to peacetime production.

Question 9

Which of the following was among the factors responsible for the post–World War II economic boom in the United States?

Answer 9

a. War-torn countries’ spending on American products

Question 10

How did President Truman’s efforts to advance the cause of blacks’ civil rights compare with those of previous presidents?

Answer 10

b. They were bold and forward-looking.

Question 11

During the anti-Communist scare of the late 1940s and early 1950s,

Answer 11

b. federal employees were investigated for Communist subversion.

Question 12

What triggered U.S. military action in Korea in 1950?

Answer 12

a. The invasion of South Korea by troops from Communist North Korea

Question 13

What characterized the period Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover described as a New Era in 1920?

Answer 13

b. A freewheeling economy

Question 14

How did the Hoover administration respond to the World War I veterans who asked for the immediate payment of their pension or bonus?

Answer 14

It ordered the U.S. army to forcibly evict them from their camp on the edge of Washington, D.C.

Question 15

By the early 1930s, unemployed workers were responding to the Great Depression by

Answer 15

c. becoming increasingly outraged and turning toward militant forms of protest.

Question 16

How did the Great Depression affect the American family in the 1930s?

Answer 16

c. It created resentment among men, who lost their jobs more often than women did.

Question 17

In its effort to create prosperity at home, the Harding administration supported

Answer 17

a. high tariffs to protect American businesses.

Question 18

What did the presidential election of 1924, in which Calvin Coolidge defeated John W. Davis and Robert La Follette, reveal about American voters?

Answer 18

a. Their lack of support for labor unions, the regulation of business, and the protection of civil liberties

Question 19

What factor diluted the influence of women in politics in the 1920s?

Answer 19

a. A lack of unity around the issues

Question 20

The image of the new woman in American society in the 1920s

Answer 20

c. was felt by all women, even those who believed in traditional gender roles.

Question 21

How did rural Americans perceive cities during the 1920s?

Answer 21

b. As the sources of vice, religious threats, and other assaults on traditional values

Question 22

What was the purpose of the immigration laws of the 1920s, including the Johnson-Reed Act?

Answer 22

b. To place strict limits on immigration

Question 23

Which of the following characterized the U.S. economy when Hoover moved into the White House in 1929?

Answer 23

a. There was a huge disparity in wealth between rich and poor.

Question 24

What was the fundamental cause of the Great Depression in the United States?

Answer 24

b. Problems in the American and international economies

Question 25

How did the American progressive movement begin and evolve?

Answer 25

It began at the grassroots level and percolated up to the national level of government. Correct.

Question 26

During his first term as president, Woodrow Wilson refused to support child labor laws, woman suffrage, and labor’s demand for an end to injunctions because he

Answer 26

opposed affording special privileges to any group.

Question 27

What did Eugene V. Debs advocate as an alternative to the progressive programs of the Republicans and Democrats?

Answer 27

That men and women liberate themselves from the barbarism of private ownership and wage slavery

Question 28

What was the fundamental difference between the philosophies of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois during the progressive period?

Answer 28

Washington focused on education and economic progress, while Du Bois emphasized civil rights and black leadership.

Question 29

What did the social gospel movement of the late nineteenth century advocate?

Answer 29

t called for the reform of both individuals and society.

Question 30

The 1909 strike at New York City’s Triangle Shirtwaist Company demonstrated that

Answer 30

women workers could create solidarity across social and ethnic lines.

Question 31

What idea formed the core of reform Darwinist theory in progressive-era America?

Answer 31

The state should play a more active role in solving social problems.

Question 32

What assumption lay at the foundation of the American progressive agenda in the early twentieth century?

Answer 32

Experts have the skills and knowledge to use scientific methods to improve society.

Question 33

According to Theodore Roosevelt, the absolutely vital question facing the nation when he became president in 1901 was whether

Answer 33

the government had the power to control the trusts.

Question 34

Taken together, what did President Roosevelt’s actions in the anthracite coal strike of 1902 and the dissolution of Northern Securities in 1904 demonstrate about the U.S. government?

Answer 34

Roosevelt’s administration would act independently of big business.

Question 35

The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

Answer 35

set up the United States as the police power in the Western Hemisphere.

Question 36

Which of the following statements describes Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom?

Answer 36

It incorporated his belief in limited government, states’ rights, and open markets.

Question 37

What motivated the rebellion of Mexican farmers led by Pancho Villa in 1916–17?

Answer 37

The rebels believed that the new American-backed government had betrayed the revolution’s promise to help the common people.

Question 38

Why did the United States fail to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and join the League of Nations?

Answer 38

President Wilson would not compromise on the terms of the treaty.

Question 39

What was the outcome of the return to free enterprise in the United States after World War I?

Answer 39

A rise in unemployment and new conflicts between business and labor

Question 40

When Warren G. Harding declared a need for “normalcy” in America, he called for which of the following?

Answer 40

A regular steady order of things, without excess

Question 41

What triggered the outbreak of World War I in 1914?

Answer 41

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by a Bosnian Serb terrorist

Question 42

According to President Wilson, American neutrality entailed

Answer 42

free trade with all nations at war and a guarantee of safety on the open seas.

Question 43

Which statement describes African Americans’ participation in the war?

Answer 43

They accounted for 370,000 out of 1 million American soldiers.

Question 44

Woodrow Wilson selected General John Pershing to command the American Expeditionary Force in Europe because

Answer 44

Pershing was known for the kind of level-headed efficiency many progressives believed was needed in modern warfare.

Question 45

To ensure the loyalty of an immigrant nation to the cause of war, President Wilson

Answer 45

launched a government-sponsored propaganda campaign to foster patriotism among ethnic groups.

Question 46

What reform or reforms did the National War Labor Policies Board enact successfully during World War I?

Answer 46

The eight-hour workday, a living minimum wage, and collective bargaining rights in some industries

Question 47

The war provided a huge boost for the temperance movement and led to what outcome by late 1917?

Answer 47

Congressional passage of the Eighteenth Amendment

Question 48

What did the Allies hope to gain in negotiating the 1919 peace treaty in Paris?

Answer 48

Disarmament and punishment for Germany

Question 49

In order to win the presidential election in 1932, Roosevelt had to

Answer 49

unite the warring factions of the Democratic party.

Question 50

What occurrence proved that opposition to the New Deal had increased by the end of 1938?

Answer 50

Republicans made gains in Congress.

Question 51

Which of the following describes the overall impact of the New Deal?

Answer 51

It prevented the United States from turning toward authoritarian solutions to the nation’s economic crisis.

Question 52

By 1936, how did many American radicals—including Communists and socialists—respond to the New Deal?

Answer 52

They had begun to support the New Deal’s relief programs and its encouragement of labor unions.

Question 53

What made the election of 1932 particularly historic?

Answer 53

Roosevelt won 57 percent of the popular vote, and Democrats swept both houses of Congress

Question 54

What was the unifying basis of the New Deal coalition?

Answer 54

Members expressed faith that government would change things for the better.

Question 55

What belief lay at the foundation of Roosevelt’s New Deal?

Answer 55

Capitalism held the solution to the nation’s economic crisis.

Question 56

The New Deal made significant improvements in the quality of life in rural America by

Answer 56

providing electricity to rural communities through the Rural Electrification Administration.

Question 57

Why didn’t southern tenant farmers benefit from the programs developed by the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the Commodity Credit Corporation, and the Farm Credit Act?

Answer 57

The programs benefitted large farmers rather than tenant farmers who rented land

Question 58

On what grounds did Upton Sinclair challenge Roosevelt and the New Deal?

Answer 58

He believed that the New Deal was the handmaiden of business elites.

Question 59

In 1935, when President Roosevelt had the congressional majorities to support him, he began to

Answer 59

enact major new social welfare programs.

Question 60

Why did Roosevelt fail to push for more ambitious reforms for black Americans?

Answer 60

He could not afford to lose the support of southern Democrats for his New Deal agenda.

Question 61

A reluctant isolationist, President Roosevelt believed during the 1930s that

Answer 61

free trade was necessary for America's domestic prosperity.

Question 62

Why did the United States fail to act on reports of Hitler’s genocidal atrocities?

Answer 62

The American public and its officials believed the reports were exaggerated.

Question 63

In February 1945, the Big Three met at Yalta to discuss

Answer 63

postwar self-determination for the people of Eastern Europe.

Question 64

The United States dropped a second atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki only three days after the attack on Hiroshima

Answer 64

because the first bomb did not lead to a Japanese surrender to the United States.

Question 65

What was the objective of the Neutrality Act of 1937?

Answer 65

To prevent increasing American involvement in European affairs

Question 66

What was the purpose of the Lend-Lease Act of 1941?

Answer 66

b. To make arms, munitions, and other supplies available to Britain

Question 67

How did President Roosevelt justify the proposed Lend-Lease Act in January 1941?

Answer 67

c. He cited the need to defend democracy and human rights around the world.

Question 68

Which of the following statements describes the relationship between American ethnic minorities and the armed forces during World War II?

Answer 68

c. They fought in large numbers in the armed forces despite discriminatory treatment.

Question 69

How did American labor unions respond to the production demands of World War II?

Answer 69

d. They granted the government’s request that they pledge not to strike.

Question 70

The Battle of Midway signaled to the American military that

Answer 70

d. Japanese domination of the Pacific was weakening.

Question 71

At their meeting in Casablanca in January 1943, Allied leaders Roosevelt and Churchill

Answer 71

c. announced that they would accept nothing less than the unconditional surrender of Germany and Italy.

Question 72

Why did Roosevelt choose Senator Harry S. Truman as his running mate for the election of 1944?

Answer 72

b. Roosevelt believed that many Americans had soured on liberal reform.

Question 73

Which of the following describes President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “middle way” politics in the early 1950s?

Answer 73

a. His domestic agenda and leadership style were guided by moderation.

Question 74

The work of 1950s authors Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac was known for

Answer 74

b. rejecting almost every aspect of the mainstream culture.

Question 75

The Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) overturned which of the following precedents?

Answer 75

c. Separate but equal established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Question 76

The Montgomery bus boycott of 1955–56 persisted until

Answer 76

c. the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Alabama’s state and local laws requiring segregation on buses.

Question 77

What was the Eisenhower administration’s approach to social welfare programs?

Answer 77

c. It allowed the welfare state to grow and the federal government to take on new projects.

Question 78

President Eisenhower viewed communism in Vietnam as

Answer 78

c. a force that had to be stopped before it spread to Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

Question 79

What was the purpose of the Eisenhower Doctrine?

Answer 79

a. To aid any Middle Eastern nation requesting assistance against armed aggression from any country controlled by international communism

Question 80

What was the military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned Americans about before he left office?

Answer 80

c. An association between the military and defense contractors to spend more money on increasingly powerful weapons systems

Question 81

What impact did technological advances have on American industry in the 1950s?

Answer 81

c. They chipped away at the number of jobs in heavy industry.

Question 82

In most cities during the 1950s, the black population

Answer 82

b. doubled as African Americans sought economic opportunities.

Question 83

Which of the following describes higher education in the United States between 1940 and 1960?

Answer 83

a. It became increasingly available to veterans, the middle class, and African Americans.

Question 84

How did rock and roll challenge American social and cultural norms in the 1950s?

Answer 84

b. It was sexually suggestive.