Teaser Quiz

1.

Of the original 13 colonies, which of these had an established church?

Rhode Island
New Jersey
Maryland
Delaware
Pennsylvania

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2.

American World War II propaganda depicted the soldiers of what Axis power as primitive, savage and animalistic?

Soldiers from all Axis countries were depicted as equally primitive and animalistic
Germany
Japan
Italy
American propaganda did not depict soldiers from any Axis country as primitive and animalistic

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3.

The New Deal’s mixed record on race was primarily the result of:

Franklin Roosevelt's personal prejudice against blacks
Eleanor Roosevelt's lack of personal conviction about matters of racism
The fervent racism of the Democrats' northern union-member support base
Franklin Roosevelt's efforts to politically accommodate white southerners within his political coalition
The New Deal did not have a mixed record on race; its programs adopted a consistent stance on issues of racial equality

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4.

Not counting the Bible, what was the bestselling book in nineteenth-century America?

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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5.

By the end of the 1950s, televisions were present in approximately what percentage of American homes?

25%
50%
75%
90%
99%

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6.

The concept of an “errand into the wilderness” characterized the ideology of what group of early American settlers?

Spanish explorers
Dutch farmers
Virginia planters
Quakers
Puritans

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7.

In an 1837 speech, Senator John C. Calhoun used the phrase “the most solid and durable foundation on which to rear free and stable political institutions” to describe what?

Open immigration
Black slavery
Equal rights
Progressive taxation
Free universal elementary education

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8.

Sex scandals roiled the administrations of all of these presidents EXCEPT:

Andrew Jackson
Grover Cleveland
Warren G. Harding
Calvin Coolidge
Bill Clinton

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9.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 accomplished which of the following reforms?

i. It banned segregation in public places
ii. It required employers to provide equal opportunities for blacks
iii. It forbade state changes to voting procedures without explicit federal approval

i only
i and ii
ii and iii
all of the above
none of the above

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10.

American opponents of the Mexican-American war invoked all of the following as reasons to oppose the war EXCEPT:

President Polk’s unbridled expansionist zeal
The federal government’s previous efforts to purchase California and the Southwest prior to declaring war over the territory
The dubious diplomatic pretext for war
The constitutional principle that only the government’s legislative branch, not the executive, could declare war
The belief that America should strive to embody the Puritan ideal of “a city upon a hill”

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11.

What American presidential candidate successfully campaigned for a second term on the slogan “he kept us out of war,” only to commit the United States to join that war shortly after his reelection?

James Polk
Theodore Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Lyndon Johnson

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12.

The 1783 Treaty of Paris resulted in all of the following EXCEPT:

Florida was returned to Spain
England recognized the United States as a free and independent country
Both England and the United States were allowed access to the Mississippi River
Britain recognized the Ohio River as the western boundary of the United States
The United States agreed to prevent further confiscation of English property

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13.

The advent of the “self-made man” as a cultural ideal of American manhood corresponded with what other major transformation in American history?

The market revolution of the early nineteenth century
The Southern cotton boom
The culmination of the women’s suffrage movement.
The implementation of immigration restrictions in the early twentieth century
The abolition of slavery

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14.

Jacob Riis’s muckraking book <i>How the Other Half Lives</i> focused on exposing the hardships of what aspect of life among America’s urban poor?

The unsafe working conditions in factories in which working class Americans were employed
The heavy reliance of American industry on child labor
The reliance of some impoverished women upon prostitution to support their families
The filthy and overcrowded tenement housing in which the poor lived
The influence of stereotypes about the poor on the psychological well being of impoverished children

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15.

Which of the following were features of the American economy in the 1920s?

i. The share of national wealth controlled by the wealthiest Americans increased
ii. A major advertising industry emerged in America for the first time
iii. Farmers and others whose livelihood depended primarily on agriculture prospered

i only
i and ii
ii and iii
all of the above
none of the above

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16.

How many major waves of immigration to the United States took place in the nineteenth century?

There was no major wave of immigration to the US in the nineteenth century: major waves of immigration to the US took place only prior to the Revolution and in the twentieth century.
One: the Irish potato famine precipitated widespread immigration to the US in the middle of the century.
Two: after a wave of immigration in the 1840s and 50s, there was a second influx of “New Immigrants” in the last two decades of the nineteenth century.
Three: In addition to two waves of immigration from Europe, the late nineteenth century saw the beginning of large-scale immigration from Latin America.
All four major waves of immigration to the United States took place in the nineteenth century.

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17.

Which of the following best characterizes the state of American labor unions in the late nineteenth century?

Labor unions expanded despite increasing violent conflict with employers
Labor unions shrank due to increasing violent conflict with employers
The size and influence of labor unions in the late nineteenth century was comparable to their status in the early nineteenth century
The government tended to side with unions and strikers against major corporations
Labor unions sought to form working-class political parties in the European model

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18.

Among the following twentieth-century American presidents, which had the lowest public-approval ratings at the time he left office?

Harry S. Truman
Dwight Eisenhower
Lyndon B. Johnson
Jimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan

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19.

Which of the following was an unintended consequence of the terroristic activities of the early Ku Klux Klan in the 1870s?

It encouraged many white southerners to publically defend blacks against the KKK’s activities
It sparked a major wave of African American migration to the west coast of the United States
It galvanized Congress to aid Reconstruction governments in the South
It intimidated African Americans throughout the US
It earned the support of many recent Catholic immigrants to the North

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20.

Leading American suffragist Alice Paul was heavily influenced by the strategies of women’s rights activists in what other country?

Ireland
England
France
Germany
Japan

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