Section 2 Study Packet

Question 1

How did President Woodrow Wilson react to the outbreak of war in Europe?

Answer 1

He called on Americans to stay neutral in thought as well as in deed.

Question 2

Why did Germany’s transatlantic purchases dwindle to almost nothing between 1914 and 1916?

Answer 2

The British blockade was effective.

Question 3

During World War I, the nation’s foremost African American intellectual W. E. B. Du Bois

Answer 3

expressed hope that the war overseas would improve race relations at home.

Question 4

The Woman’s Land Army was

Answer 4

a group that mobilized young American women for farm work.

Question 5

President Woodrow Wilson’s call for self-determination and readjustment of colonial arrangements challenged

Answer 5

Europe’s empires.

Question 6

At Versailles, President Wilson proposed that the League of Nations should

Answer 6

serve as a diplomatic forum to prevent future wars.

Question 7

How did President Wilson try to convince the Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles?

Answer 7

He did a cross-country speaking tour to bolster popular support for Senate approval.

Question 8

Why did Eugene Debs criticize the draft?

Answer 8

It killed workers and enriched capitalists.

Question 9

Which was the first national election in which women participated?

Answer 9

1920

Question 10

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in the spring of 1918

Answer 10

pulled Russia out of the war and freed German troops for the Western front.

Question 11

Why were the Allies interested in the national independence of Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania?

Answer 11

These nations served as anticommunist buffers against communist Russia.

Question 12

What was the role of airplanes in World War I?

Answer 12

conducting reconnaissance

Question 13

Which of the following best describes the position of the United States regarding World War I from August 1914 to spring 1917?

Answer 13

The U.S. maneuvered to stay out of the war while benefiting from it.

Question 14

What was the central message the Committee on Public Information was supposed to convey about World War I?

Answer 14

The war was a democratic crusade.

Question 15

How did General Pershing respond to French officers presenting African American soldiers with medals?

Answer 15

He chastised the French for “spoiling the Negroes.”

Question 16

Why did traditionally minded critics disapprove of open access to radio airwaves?

Answer 16

They worried that open access might foster immorality.

Question 17

Why did African Americans continue their massive migration from the southern countryside into northern cities during the 1920s?

Answer 17

They needed to escape the horrific conditions of Jim Crow.

Question 18

What was special about the 1927 film The Jazz Singer?

Answer 18

It came with sound and included extended dialogue.

Question 19

Which of the following best signified the flapper of the 1920s?

Answer 19

smoking a cigarette

Question 20

Why did the state of Tennessee indict high school teacher John Scopes in 1925?

Answer 20

He had taught the theory of evolution.

Question 21

What made it possible for American companies to issue shares that had no underlying value?

Answer 21

There was minimal government regulation of the securities market.

Question 22

What triggered the riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in May of 1921?

Answer 22

A black teenager was accused of assaulting a white woman.

Question 23

During the 1920s, Protestant denominations split into two groups, often called “modernists,” and

Answer 23

“fundamentalists.”

Question 24

The Ku Klux Klan of the reconstruction era resurfaced in the 1920s with a message that was decidedly

Answer 24

anti-immigrant.

Question 25

After hitting 60 home runs during the Yankees dominant 1927 season, who earned the nickname “Sultan of Swat?”

Answer 25

Babe Ruth

Question 26

Which of the following did the fundamentalists of the 1920s condemn in particular?

Answer 26

Hollywood

Question 27

In the 1920s the New York neighborhood of Harlem became a hotbed of which new political movement?

Answer 27

Pan-Africanism

Question 28

Which of the following was most important in increasing American levels of consumption during the 1920s?

Answer 28

consumer credit

Question 29

How did critics respond to the success of college football?

Answer 29

They feared that it would distract from the academic mission of higher education.

Question 30

Which technological advance significantly broadened the appeal of jazz both nationally and internationally?

Answer 30

the phonograph

Question 31

Which of the following statements best describes the New Dealers that surrounded President Roosevelt after his inauguration?

Answer 31

While they generally believed in the need to mitigate the excesses of the industrial order, they often disagreed on the details of policy.

Question 32

On whom did Louisiana Democratic Senator Huey Long blame the Great Depression?

Answer 32

the rich

Question 33

How did business owners respond to the proposed Social Security Act in 1935?

Answer 33

They denounced any government involvement in worker-employee relations.

Question 34

Which of the following best characterizes First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt?

Answer 34

She transformed the role of First Lady from hostess to social crusader.

Question 35

Which of the following best describes political trends on the fringes in the United States in the 1930s?

Answer 35

Several small fascist movements developed, but none gained national traction.

Question 36

How did the Securities Act of 1933 tame the wild speculation that had taken place on Wall Street?

Answer 36

It required stock-issuing companies to provide accurate information.

Question 37

What did the Public Works Administration spend its money on?

Answer 37

Large public works projects like dams and highways.

Question 38

What was the goal of Dr. Frances Townsend?

Answer 38

a nationwide, old age pension plan

Question 39

Why did the Social Security Act not include a modest national health insurance plan?

Answer 39

The American Medical Association complained loudly about “socialized medicine.”

Question 40

Which region in the nation received more federal development funds per resident than any other region of the country during the 1930s?

Answer 40

the West

Question 41

What ultimately restored economic growth after the recession of 1938?

Answer 41

A $5 billion spending program and military orders from Great Britain.

Question 42

Why did President Franklin D. Roosevelt not push the issue of civil rights during the New Deal?

Answer 42

He considered it more important to maintain good political relations with southern Democrats.

Question 43

The Glass-Steagall Banking Act

Answer 43

separated risky investment banking from ordinary banking.

Question 44

Which of the following descriptions best characterizes the Tennessee Valley Authority?

Answer 44

A vast experiment in regional planning.

Question 45

Why did opera singer Marian Anderson perform an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939?

Answer 45

The Daughters of the American Revolution had refused to allow the black opera singer to perform at a concert hall.

Question 46

How did most Germans feel about the Treaty of Versailles?

Answer 46

They felt resentment over the harsh terms of peace.

Question 47

What message did the Neutrality Acts send the world?

Answer 47

The reassured fascist leaders that the United States was unlikely to intervene.

Question 48

What sustained the English during the Battle of Britain in 1940?

Answer 48

A secret technological breakthrough in decoding and radar.

Question 49

How did the United States respond to the Japanese seizure of most of French Indochina in July 1941?

Answer 49

It halted petroleum sales on which the Japanese navy depended.

Question 50

What was the Japanese strategy for the battle at Midway Island?

Answer 50

They planned to destroy the Pacific Fleet when it approached Midway.

Question 51

Which of the following assured Adolf Hitler's doom more than any other single factor?

Answer 51

the Red Army

Question 52

Under what conditions did the U.S. Congress permit arms sales to Britain and France in November 1939?

Answer 52

They had to pay cash and transport weapons on their own ships.

Question 53

How did World War II affect American big business?

Answer 53

Between 1940 and 1945 the profits of the nation's large corporations doubled.

Question 54

How did American women serve in the armed forces during World War II?

Answer 54

They were Air Force service pilots.

Question 55

Why did social tensions flare in cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago during World War II?

Answer 55

The number of new black, white, and Latino residents rose dramatically.

Question 56

The “Second Bill of Rights” that President Franklin D. Roosevelt called for in his state of the union speech in January 1944 is best characterized as

Answer 56

concerned with social and economic security.

Question 57

How did the Navajo Indians assist U.S. forces during World War II?

Answer 57

Through their language, they provided troops in the battlefield with a secure code language.

Question 58

Which of the following best assesses the significance of the Doolittle raid?

Answer 58

It provoked the Japanese into a disastrous retaliatory strike.

Question 59

What triggered the Harlem riot in 1943?

Answer 59

The shooting of the black soldier by a white policeman.

Question 60

On what grounds did the U.S. Supreme Court uphold the policy of Japanese-American internment in the case of Fred Korematsu in 1944?

Answer 60

military necessity