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66. What was the focus of the 1936 election?
a. whether Herbert Hoover should be reelected despite the Great Depression
b. the impending war and the aggression of Nazi Germany
c. the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in China
d. Franklin Roosevelt’s disability from polio
e. whether or not “liberty” implied economic deregulation or equitable distribution of wealth among citizens
67. Why did FDR try to change the balance of power on the Supreme Court?
a. He feared the Supreme Court might invalidate the Wagner and Social Security Acts.
b. He was worried about being able to run for a third term as president.
c. He needed the Court’s support for upcoming war measures against Germany.
d. He feared that the Supreme Court might invalidate the National Recovery Act or the Agricultural Adjustment Act.
e. He feared that the Supreme Court might deem sit-down strikes unconstitutional.
68. After the Court-packing attempt, how did the change in the jurisprudence of the U.S. Supreme Court affect American life?
a. Changing sentiments in the U.S. Supreme Court led to the erosion of the Wagner Act.
b. The newfound resolve of the U.S. Supreme Court meant a restoration of the National Recovery Act.
c. The new lineup in the U.S. Supreme Court meant that Roosevelt had to abandon plans for universal health care.
d. The new political climate in the U.S. Supreme Court meant that a federal child labor ban could stand constitutional muster.
e. A chastised Supreme Court began to focus on securing constitutional protections for a burgeoning civil rights movement.
69. The Fair Labor Standards Act instituted which of the following changes?
a. deregulated goods produced by child labor from interstate commerce
b. established the fifty-hour workweek
c. abolished the minimum wage
d. required overtime pay
e. deregulated working conditions
70. Which of the following had been a traditional belief prior to the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes?
a. Balanced budgets were sacred.
b. A bimetallic standard was superior to the gold standard.
c. Depressions typically emerged from a consumer’s crisis of confidence.
d. A national economy always benefited from a trade surplus.
e. Deficits are not a problem, as long as they do not enlarge national debt.
71. Which phrase best describes Eleanor Roosevelt’s tenure as First Lady?
a. She was very traditional.
b. She had modest goals.
c. She only championed the cause of children’s health care.
d. She worked hard for her husband but did not take up any causes of her own.
e. She redefined the role of First Lady.
72. Which of the following statements best assesses the fate of feminism during the New Deal?
a. Eleanor Roosevelt’s leadership helped bring about a revival of organized feminism.
b. Since women in domestic service were less often fired than blue-collar male workers, feminists earned much public
sympathy.
c. Given the broad consensus that the job claims of male providers superseded women’s, organized feminism essentially
disappeared.
d. The sense of failure men experienced in the workplace prompted many of them to turn to women and feminists for leadership.
e. The women-friendly policies of the WPA, CCC, and CWA gave women’s claim for equal pay a boost.
73. How did the government try to prevent the rise of women in the workforce during the Depression?
a. State and local governments prohibited the hiring of women whose husbands did not earn a “living wage.”
b. New Deal programs such as Social Security established quotas for the distribution of benefits to working women.
c. Legislation banned both members of a married couple from holding federal jobs.
d. Employers needed to obtain permits to hire women.
e. Women were publicly shamed and spat at for working for wages.
74. Which of the following does NOT accurately describe a result of “the southern veto”?
a. Southern states had an enormous impact on national policy during the Depression.
b. New Deal programs largely benefited whites at the expense of blacks.
c. Blacks lost the right to vote across the South.
d. To maintain support in Congress, Roosevelt pursued legislation acceptable to southern Democrats.
e. Southerners held key leadership positions in Congress.
75. Why did a stigma emerge around public assistance during the New Deal years?
a. Only a very few Americans actually needed government assistance during the Great Depression.
b. Black workers were relegated to the least generous assistance programs, with discriminatory eligibility standards administered
by states.
c. New Deal work programs helped restore economic prosperity relatively quickly, leaving only the least qualified long-term
unemployed behind.
d. By the middle of the 1930s, more and more Americans came to associate New Deal assistance programs with similar
government help offered in Nazi Germany.
e. Despite his successes, Roosevelt remained deeply unpopular with Americans, who hated themselves for depending on his
programs.
76. Which of the following statements is true of the Indian New Deal?
a. It ended the policy of forced assimilation.
b. It reinforced federal authority over Indian affairs.
c. It continued the policy of the Dawes Act.
d. It replaced schools on reservations with boarding schools.
e. It allowed reservations access to irrigated water from the Grand Coulee Dam.
77. What prompted as many as 200,000 American citizens to leave the country during the Great Depression?
a. They sought exile in the Soviet Union, where they hoped economic planning would bring about prosperity more quickly.
b. They returned to their home countries in Europe, frustrated with the lack of economic opportunity in the United States.
c. Some children had little choice, as they went with their Mexican-born parents to Mexico.
d. These Americans often traveled to Latin America, trying to promote the policies of the New Deal.
e. They deeply resented the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
78. When Mary McLeod Bethune remarked that the New Deal offered African-Americans a new day, she
a. was referring to the successful passage of a federal anti-lynching law.
b. expressed the hope for change despite discrimination in federal housing and employment.
c. was referring to the growing support for black rights in the South.
d. expressed her approval of New Deal policies regarding blacks.
e. was referring to expanded coverage for blacks under Social Security.
79. How did the federal government institutionalize racism during the New Deal?
a. The Wagner Act excluded African-Americans.
b. The Federal Housing Administration refused to ensure mortgages in integrated neighborhoods.
c. The abolition of the gold standard penalized more traditional family savings in bullion.
d. The Security and Exchange Commission was staffed entirely by Anglo-Americans.
e. Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced segregation to Washington, D.C., and eliminated blacks from all positions of responsibility in
the federal government.
80. What best describes New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s relationship with Franklin Roosevelt?
a. Hostile; Roosevelt held back funding for New York.
b. Tense; La Guardia was critical of Roosevelt’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.
c. Mistrustful; La Guardia was a Republican.
d. Pragmatic; they worked closely together on New Deal spending.
e. Hopeful; both men were from New York.
81. In the mid-1930s, what did the umbrella term “the left” describe?
a. Nazis, Marxists, and Republicans
b. socialists, communists, labor radicals, and New Deal liberals
c. immigrants, farmers, and factory workers
d. those “left” (west) of the Mississippi River
e. anarchists, intellectuals, and artists
82. The Popular Front
a. was the Democratic Party’s campaign slogan in the 1930s.
b. was a conservative challenge to New Deal liberalism.
c. was a political and cultural movement associated with the Communist Party.
d. was created when the Communist Party was absorbed by the Democrats.
e. arose in response to the rise of fascism in America.
83. How did the government under the New Deal approach the precarious and poor conditions in which migrant laborers lived?
a. It provided immigrants with Social Security benefits.
b. It helped them move into good homes.
c. It handed them food stamps.
d. It did not do much about them.
e. It subsidized some of their spending.
84. How did the Popular Front influence American society?
a. It made the Republican Party more progressive.
b. It reinforced segregation.
c. It reinforced anti-immigrant feelings.
d. It promoted a government that did not regulate.
e. It challenged the status quo in society.
85. Mexican-Americans were urged by local authorities to leave the country. What other groups of immigrants were also encouraged
to leave the U.S.?
a. Filipino
b. Italians
c. Spaniard
d. Puerto Ricans
e. Cubans
86. What did the Filipino Repatriation Act offer Filipinos?
a. a monthly payment to those willing to work for the government
b. citizenship
c. free housing
d. agricultural jobs
e. free transportation to those who wanted to get back to the Philippines
87. What was the focus of Hollywood films such as Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington?
a. an antihero who dropped out of society
b. ghosts that haunted cities
c. the fight against communism
d. a hero that defeated corruption
e. exposing Nazism
88. What was Martha Graham’s 1938 modern dance masterpiece called?
a. The Gettysburg Address
b. Voices of Freedom
c. The Declaration of Independence
d. The Liberty Bell
e. American Document
89. The Scottsboro case
a. reflected the racism that was prevalent in the South during the 1930s.
b. was refused a hearing by the Supreme Court.
c. was publicized by the Industrial Workers of the World.
d. established legal principles that greatly restricted the definition of civil liberties.
e. represented progress in the cause of civil rights for African-Americans.
90. The 1930s witnessed
a. the inclusion of nonwhites in American politics.
b. the revival of feminism.
c. the demise of the Communist Party.
d. the cultural inclusion of white ethnic groups.
e. the violent exclusion of “the other.”
91. During the 1930s, what was one way Franklin Roosevelt’s administration approached civil liberties?
a. The Department of Justice added a Civil Liberties Unit.
b. Through HUAC, the administration cracked down on the Communist Party.
c. The president exposed communists in Hollywood.
d. The administration encouraged businesses not to hire Japanese immigrants.
e. Civil lawsuits were encouraged to protect civil liberties.
92. In 1938, Congress established the House Un-American Activities Committee, which
a. was part of the expanded notion of civil liberties under the New Deal.
b. included liberals and unionists in its definition of “un-American.”
c. focused on fascism and ultranationalists.
d. focused on racism and white supremacy in the South.
e. focused only on communists.
93. Why did southern Democrats start to pull support from the New Deal in the late 1930s?
a. The South’s economy was the most robust in the United States.
b. These leaders feared union membership would increase in the South.
c. They thought Franklin Roosevelt was too friendly toward Nazi Germany.
d. Southern leaders hoped to terminate segregation on its own terms.
e. Most rural southern homes had gained electricity.
94. Following the 1938 elections, a new coalition came to control Congress. It consisted of what groups?
a. rural western and southern politicians
b. immigrants from western and eastern Europe
c. southern Republicans and southern Democrats
d. southern Democrats and northern Republicans
e. wealthy Catholic and Protestant politicians from New England
95. What type of image grew in popularity among painters and writers during the 1930s?
a. the lives of ordinary people leading their ordinary lives
b. the richness of the country
c. poverty
d. modernization
e. the industrial vanguard the United States represented
96. The New Deal will be remembered in American history
a. as a set of public policy initiatives that forever changed American prosperity.
b. as more powerful in scope than future European welfare states.
c. for recasting the idea of freedom to include a public guarantee of economic security.
d. as the key factor in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s deep unpopularity with the majority of the American people by 1940.
e. as a bold and largely unsuccessful experiment in state-sponsored socialism.
97. What ended the Great Depression?
a. New Deal programs
b. the rebound of the stock market
c. World War II spending
d. laissez-faire government
e. a bailout by J. P. Morgan
98. How did labor militancy change the ways in which civil liberties were conceived?
a. The idea of labor rights became a reality that needed to be translated into laws.
b. The federal government became the protector of freedom of expression as private groups intended to infringe those rights.
c. Militancy became compulsory for all employees.
d. Employers started to give more benefits to employees, including paid vacations.
e. The federal government decided to let labor relations be negotiated between individuals and private businesses alone.
99. Which of the following underlying problems did the New Deal fail to address?
a. poverty
b. unemployment
c. racial inequality
d. lack of political participation
e. the unregulated stock market
Matching
TEST 1
___ 1. Frances Perkins
___ 2. Harold Ickes
___ 3. John Lewis
___ 4. Upton Sinclair
___ 5. Huey Long
___ 6. Franklin Roosevelt
___ 7. Mary McLeod Bethune
___ 8. Eleanor Roosevelt
___ 9. John Collier
___ 10. Alfred Landon
___ 11. Martha Graham
___ 12. John Steinbeck
a. end poverty in California
b. black educator
c. Secretary of the Interior
d. CIO
e. Commissioner of Indian Affairs
f. Secretary of Labor
g. Popular Front dancer
h. Republican presidential candidate
i. court-packing plan
j. wrote about migrant workers
k. “Share Our Wealth” movement
l. organized a Marian Anderson concert
TEST 2
___ 1. Emergency Banking Act
___ 2. National Industrial Recovery Act
___ 3. Federal Housing Administration
___ 4. Social Security
___ 5. House Un-American Activities Committee
___ 6. Scottsboro case
___ 7. Popular Front
___ 8. Civilian Conservation Corps
___ 9. Tennessee Valley Authority
___ 10. Dust Bowl
___ 11. Fireside Chat
___ 12. liberalism
a. investigated disloyalty
b. hydroelectric project
c. International Labor Defense
d. radio address
e. large and active government
f. drought-stricken area around Oklahoma and Texas
g. provided funds to support threatened institutions
h. facilitated housing conditions
i. communists
j. minimum retirement program
k. cornerstone for Roosevelt’s plan to combat Depression
l. relief for young men
TEST 3
___ 1. Hundred Days
___ 2. Civilian Conservation Corps
___ 3. Public Works Administration
___ 4. Agricultural Adjustment Act
___ 5. Works Progress Administration
___ 6. Indian New Deal
___ 7. Scottsboro boys
a. contributed to the betterment of American wildlife
b. group of nine teenagers
c. the first three months of Roosevelt’s administration
d. cosponsored the building of roads, schools, and other public facilities
e. allowed Indians cultural autonomy
f. authorized the federal government to regulate agricultural production
g. constructed public buildings and bridges
True/False
1. Since Franklin Roosevelt came from a humble background, the public came to easily identify him as a symbol for the ordinary
man.
2. Despite the efforts of the bank holiday, by 1936 banks were still failing in America.
3. The administrators that Roosevelt chose for his cabinet reflected his move away from the policies of Coolidge and Hoover.
4. In the past, depressions had hurt the labor movement; however, labor made great strides during the New Deal.
5. John Lewis, head of the United Mine Workers, led a walkout that resulted in the creation of a new labor organization that sought
industrial freedom for American workers.
6. The tactic used by the United Auto Workers in its attempt to gain bargaining rights with General Motors was the sit-down strike.
7. The Supreme Court ruled that the Agricultural Adjustment Act was constitutional.
8. Roosevelt launched the Second New Deal because of the success of his initial policies to pull the country out of the Depression
and because of the rising conservative opposition against him.
9. The Rural Electrification Administration proved to be one of the New Deal’s most successful programs, wiring 90 percent of the
nation’s farms by 1950.
10. Roosevelt proclaimed, “men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness.”
11. Roosevelt’s reelection in 1936 came as no surprise, because the entire business community and most of the national newspapers
supported the Democrats.
12. Social Security excluded, at first, unmarried women and nonwhites.
13. The Wagner Act banned goods produced by child labor from interstate commerce, set forty cents as the minimum hourly wage,
and required overtime pay for hours of work exceeding forty per week.
14. The power of the Solid South helped to mold the New Deal welfare state into an entitlement for white Americans.
15. The Indians who lost land from the flooding of the Grand Coulee Dam were adequately compensated by the federal government as part
of the New Deal for Indians.
16. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt changed the role of the First Lady and openly disagreed with her husband.
17. During the Depression, W. E. B. Du Bois reaffirmed his call for African-Americans to seek integration in American society as a
way to guarantee economic security.
18. The one place it seemed where blacks were not discriminated against was within federal employment practices.
19. The Communist Party’s commitment to socialism resonated with a widespread belief that the Depression had demonstrated the
bankruptcy of capitalism.
20. A large majority of Filipinos accepted to go back to their country under the Filipino Repatriation Act.
21. Mexican-Americans claimed to be white Americans to obtain greater rights than African-Americans.
22. The Popular Front fought against diversity as a way to seize the moment for the Communist Party of America.
23. The CIO welcomed black members and advocated the passage of anti-lynching laws and the return of voting rights to southern
blacks.
24. The right of labor to unionize was one of the central concerns of the Popular Front.
25. The Smith Act made it a federal crime to teach, advocate, or encourage the overthrow of the government.
26. At the end of the 1930s, the New Deal lost support among southern Democrats who feared continuing federal intervention might
upset race relations in the South.
27. Civil liberties replaced liberty of contract as the judicial foundation of freedom during the First New Deal.
Short Answer
1. Identify and give the historical significance of each of the following terms, events, and people in a paragraph or two.
1. Public Works Administration
2. Tennessee Valley Authority
3. Dust Bowl
4. Congress of Industrial Organizations
5. First Hundred Days
6. civil liberties
7. Eleanor Roosevelt
8. Mary McLeod Bethune
9. UAW sit-down strikes
10. court-packing
11. Indian New Deal
12. migrant workers
13. southern veto
2. Briefly describe the Filipino Repatriation Act. Make sure to address its purpose and consequences.
Essay
1. Describe how the Columbia River project reflected broader changes in American life and thought during the New Deal of the
1930s.
2. Analyze how FDR oversaw the transformation of the Democratic Party into a coalition of farmers, industrial workers, the reform-
minded urban middle class, liberal intellectuals, northern African-Americans, and the white supremacist South.
3. How did the New Deal alter the role of the national government? In your answer, discuss specific New Deal reforms.
4. Choose a character in history (for example, a woman, businessperson, African-American, socialist, large farmer, tenant farmer,
city dweller, union worker, and so on). Describe your scenario for the period between 1933 and 1938. Is your character a support-
er of FDR and the New Deal? What suggestions might your character offer for ending the Depression?
5. How did the definition of freedom change over the course of the New Deal? Explain and analyze how Roosevelt believed that
economic security was a political condition of personal freedom.
6. Discuss the various New Deal experiences of American women during the Great Depression. How did their experiences differ
across the full spectrum of American society?
7. Compare the New Deal reforms with those of the Progressive era. How did the New Deal reflect the reform traditions of the Pro-
gressive era? Be sure to include in your answer a discussion about Roosevelt’s key administrators.
8. Thinking back to other labor struggles in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as the Homestead Strike, Haymarket
Affair, 1902 Coal Strike, and Ludlow Massacre, how do the Memorial Day Massacre and the UAW sit-down strikes compare?
Had organized labor become any more sophisticated over the years in its tactics? Had business or government become any more
sympathetic?
9. Even though there were no significant gains made in civil rights during the 1930s, there seemed to be an optimistic view among
the black community. African-Americans were able to find help in the 1930s through the hope they viewed in the Roosevelt ad-
ministration, their inclusion within the Congress of Industrial Organizations, and the Popular Front. Write an essay that elaborates
on these three pillars, and discuss what each offered to the African-American community.
10. Discuss the various ways in which the Popular Front influenced American culture during the 1930s.
11. What was the experience of immigrant groups during the New Deal?
