Notes on Late Twentieth Century American History and Culture

Question 1

once again, America intervenes on a large scale in global affairs, first through economic aid to the allied powers battling _______

Answer 1

European fascism

Question 2

after Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, direct military action against ______, ______ and ______, in alliance with ______, ______, and _______

Answer 2

Germany, Italy and Japan, Britain, France, and USSR

Question 3

economic growth field by war production finally gets America out of the _______

Answer 3

Great Depression

Question 4

the rationalized destruction of _______ Jews in the _______ and the unimaginable power of the atomic weapons that end the _____ war will cast a long shadow over the postwar consciousness

Answer 4

6 million, Holocaust, Asian

Question 5

_____ magazine publisher _______ declares this “_________”

Answer 5

Time, Henry Luce, the America century

Question 6

US soon finds itself involved in a “______” which will be fought out in both the countries of Europe (____, ______, ______) and in the decolonizing territories of the so-called Third World (_____, _____, _____)

Answer 6

Cold War, Germany, Greece, Yugoslavia, Korea, Cuba, Vietnam

Question 7

upshot is a permanent _______ economy

Answer 7

military

Question 8

domestic repression of Communists, former communists and other left wing types: ________

Answer 8

McCarthyism

Question 9

many American intellectuals will be especially sensitive to the specter of the atomic bomb and the contradictions of American ______

Answer 9

imperialism

Question 10

First, in the imperial adventuring of American foreign policy; in the ______ intervenes of __________ or the debacle of _______, widely acknowledged as the first war America had ever lost.

Answer 10

“cowboy”, Cuba’s Bay of Pigs, Vietnam

Question 11

Second in the self-consciously titled _______ of the American ______ program, a key component of America’s rivalry with the ______

Answer 11

“New Frontier”, Space, Soviet Union

Question 12

postmodern works tend to feature an even greater skepticism toward mainstream ________ and ______ systems of belief

Answer 12

religious, political

Question 13

a very ______ approach to the making of art, which often includes self-reflexive moments

Answer 13

self-concious

Question 14

simultaneous fascination with, and repulsion toward, popular or mass _________ (eg. television)

Answer 14

cultural forms

Question 15

emphasis on _____, ________, _______ and ______

Answer 15

complexity, ambiguity, undecidability, irony

Question 16

a self-conscious ________ that mixes and juxtaposes elements of high and low culture, or parodic ally confronts the present with the past (____________)

Answer 16

eclecticism, “learning from Las Vegas”

Question 17

_______ remains the cultural capital of America, and ________ becomes institutionalized as the official high culture of the elite.

Answer 17

New York, modernism

Question 18

_______ and the __________ become dominant paradigm in modern painting

Answer 18

Picasso, Abstract Expressionists

Question 19

the highly intellectualized, allusive free verse poetry of ________ becomes the favored model for postwar American poetry

Answer 19

T. S. Elliott

Question 20

Key challenge to this modernist hegemony is the loose moment centered first in _______ and later ________ known as Beat (_______, _______, _______)

Answer 20

New York, San Francisco, Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg

Question 21

movement in many ways harks back to the tenets of American Romanticism inits pursuit of _______, ________, and a rejection of American ______

Answer 21

cosmic consciousness, radical individualism, materialism

Question 22

Beats are interested in ______, _______ and _______ as means of transcendence

Answer 22

Eastern religion, drugs, non-monogamous sexuality

Question 23

The ________ Economy that has been developing in America since the late nineteenth century continues to grow during this period.

Answer 23

consumer

Question 24

Unionized _______ workers join the middle class.

Answer 24

blue-collar

Question 25

Postwar sees a flurry of spending on new homes (located in the ______ of cities rather than their inner core), cars and appliances (including _______ which becomes ubiquitous cultural influence).

Answer 25

suburbs, television

Question 26

_______ reforms seek to bring stability to American economy and provide a _______ for Americans against financial ruin.

Answer 26

New Deal, “safety net”

Question 27

Major turning point comes with the _________ crisis of the _____

Answer 27

world energy, 1970s

Question 28

This economic crisis will prove one key factor in the rise to power of _________ elected president in _____ who will challenge the _____ consensus in the name of economic deregulation and a return to ______ practices.

Answer 28

Ronald Reagan, 1980, New Deal, laissez faire

Question 29

______ has driven American manufacturing jobs and the high wages they offered overseas

Answer 29

Globalization

Question 30

____ power has been gutted

Answer 30

Union

Question 31

American economic welfare depends increasingly on the fortunes of ___________ and other huge financial institutions. Gap between _____ and ______ widens

Answer 31

deregulated banks, rich, poor

Question 32

Continuing revolution in communications–_____ enable the rapid transmission of images and information around the world

Answer 32

satellites

Question 33

development of _______ and ______ technology fuels the evolution of computers

Answer 33

semi-conductor, microchip

Question 34

by the end of the century, we are looking at technological developments that have revolutionized the practices of authorship (from ______ to _______, letter to email) and ultimately challenged the very idea of the _____ itself as a physical object

Answer 34

typewriter, word processor, book

Question 35

______ riot: ______ uprising in which the patrons of a gay bar in New York City fight back against police harassment marks the beginning of the ______ movement

Answer 35

Stonewall, 1969, Gay Rights

Question 36

all these trends will have profound cultural and literary consequences, as women and American minorities explore and construct their identities through ______

Answer 36

literature

Question 37

immigration act of _______ again enables large stream of immigrants to enter America

Answer 37

1965

Question 38

the difference this time is that large numbers of third world residents, especially from ____, will be admitted on the basis of the desirability of their ______

Answer 38

Asia, professions

Question 39

Crucial series of _____, ______ and _____ oriented liberation movements

Answer 39

Racial, Ethnic, Gender

Question 40

beginning in the mid-1950s the ______ movement will overturn the legally sanctioned system of ______ (racial separation) in America

Answer 40

Civil Rights, apartheid

Question 41

movement will progress from demands for basic civil rights to economic and cultural considerations (differing approaches of ________ and _______)

Answer 41

Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X

Question 42

this movement will in turn inspire a number of ethnic identity movements that gain momentum in the late 1960s (______, ______, _______) that will challenge the ideology of the ______

Answer 42

Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, melting pot

Question 43

______ feminism revolutionizes gender relations

Answer 43

second wave

Question 44

______: _______ published _________, identifying the stultified dissatisfaction of well-educated “happily married” American women as ________

Answer 44

1963, Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, “problem with no name”

Question 45

Friedan will argue that American women are ______, _______, ________ and _____ and need to find meaningful employment outside the home in order to find fulfillment

Answer 45

bored, morbidly introspective, over-tranquilized, psychoanalyzed

Question 46

This generation will demand equal treatment in employment and education, and call for a fundamental rethinking of gender roles in matters of _____, ______ and ______

Answer 46

sexuality, childcare, housework