TEST BANK
Learning Objectives
1. Explain the steps that led to American participation in World War II.
2. Examine the ways the United States mobilized economic resources and promoted popular support for the war effort.
3. Discuss the visions of America’s postwar role that began to emerge during the war.
4. Analyze the ways in which American minorities faced threats to their freedoms at home and abroad.
5. Explain how the end of the war began to shape the postwar world.
1. Who painted the Four Freedoms paintings that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post?
a. Norman Rockwell
b. Frida Kahlo
c. Eleanor Roosevelt
d. Dorothea Lange
e. Isaac Soyer
2. The Four Freedoms traveling exhibition resulted in what?
a. more rights for black Americans
b. a declaration of war on Germany
c. a refuge for Holocaust survivors
d. the purchase of millions of dollars of war bonds
e. a fund-raising campaign for wounded veterans
3. What was one result of the Good Neighbor Policy?
a. The United States supported dictators in Latin America.
b. Nazi Germany took control of parts of South America.
c. Franklin Roosevelt had to send American troops to Cuba.
d. The United States had to reissue the Platt Amendment.
e. Herbert Hoover urged Roosevelt to send troops to the Dominican Republic.
4. Fascism
a. was a political movement similar to socialism.
b. became the political system in Spain by the late 1930s.
c. attracted widespread popularity in Sweden and Switzerland as an alternative to Nazism.
d. was initially embraced by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who viewed it more favorably than capitalism.
e. had its origins in traditional German anti-Semitism.
5. Before World War II started, how could Franklin Roosevelt’s actions toward Germany best be described?
a. belligerent and warlike
b. timid and then belligerent
c. concerned but cautious
d. oblivious and carefree
e. confused and scared
6. What was the goal of the policy of appeasement?
a. to give Hitler territory
b. to ensure a democratic Spain
c. to punish Germany
d. to avoid another conflict like World War I
e. to recognize Benito Mussolini as the leader of Italy
7. Who held hearings in the Senate regarding how the United States became involved in World War I?
a. George Norris
b. Gerald P. Nye
c. Robert Wagner
d. Robert Taft
e. Herbert Hoover
8. Which of the following explains one of the reasons why Americans hoped to avoid involvement in the war in Europe?
a. Many regretted their nation’s late entry into the First World War.
b. Hitler had admirers in the United States.
c. Anticommunists thought Soviet expansion could check German aggression.
d. Businessmen such as Henry Ford wanted to maintain profitable French markets.
e. It was clear to most people that there was little possibility of an Allied victory.
9. The Four Freedoms
a. were considered by President Roosevelt as “essential human freedoms.”
b. represented all that was wrong with the world.
c. defended American neutrality during World War II.
d. included freedom of contract.
e. referred to World War I events.
10. Growth in the South and West during World War II was sparked by
a. the technology industry.
b. tranquility.
c. agricultural expansion.
d. road construction.
e. military industrial growth.
11. In 1940, the “cash and carry” plan
a. allowed Great Britain to purchase U.S. arms on a restricted basis.
b. allowed Germany to purchase U.S. arms on a restricted basis.
c. allowed Japan to purchase U.S. arms on a restricted basis.
d. allowed all belligerents to purchase U.S. arms on a restricted basis.
e. was voted down by Congress.
12. What led England and France to declare war on Germany, marking the start of World War II?
a. Hitler rounded up European Jews and put them in camps.
b. Germany invaded the Soviet Union.
c. After gaining the Sudetenland through an agreement, Germany then took the rest of Czechoslovakia.
d. Germany invaded Poland, a country Britain and France had promised to protect.
e. Germany invaded Austria, the place of Hitler’s birth.
13. Men like Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and Father Coughlin were members of the
a. America Now! committee, an interventionist group.
b. Anti-Semitism Society, a group that blamed Jews for the war.
c. America First committee, an isolationist group.
d. Lend-Lease League, a group that supported technology for the war.
e. Free Paris Society, a group that advocated the liberation of Paris.
14. Why did Franklin D. Roosevelt announce his candidacy for a third term in 1940?
a. He feared that the Republican incumbent, Wendell Willkie, lacked the experience to govern the nation.
b. He argued that the nation should not switch its executive leadership in the middle of war.
c. He argued that the recovery was too fragile and the international situation too dangerous for him to leave his post.
d. He argued that the United States could only defeat the dictators of Italy, Germany, and Japan if it follows a leader with similar
authority and power.
e. He did so reluctantly after recognizing that his eight years of leadership had failed to produce a viable successor in the
Democratic Party.
15. In what aspect of American foreign policy did Franklin D. Roosevelt break from Herbert Hoover’s precedent?
a. He exchanged ambassadors with the Soviet Union.
b. He negated the right to intervene in the local affairs of Latin American countries.
c. He refused to recognize the existence of the Soviet Union.
d. He militarily intervened in Cuba.
e. He urged European nations to abandon colonial claims in the Western Hemisphere.
16. The Good Neighbor Policy
a. considered Mexico an essential ally to America.
b. departed from Herbert Hoover’s policies.
c. showed Roosevelt’s intention to not interfere in Latin America.
d. demonstrated that Roosevelt would intervene militarily in any Latin American country when needed.
e. consolidated a military alliance with Canada.
17. The Pearl Harbor bombing was the first attack on U.S. territory by a foreign power since which conflict?
a. World War I
b. Spanish-American War
c. War of 1812
d. U.S. Civil War
e. American Revolution
18. Which statement about the Pearl Harbor attack is true?
a. Franklin Roosevelt knew the details of the Pearl Harbor attack well in advance of its occurrence.
b. It was a surprise attack by the Japanese.
c. It was launched after an agreement was struck between the Japanese and Germans.
d. The United States did everything in its power to try to prevent this attack.
e. Japanese-Americans set off explosives on U.S. naval vessels.
19. President Roosevelt approached foreign relations with Latin America differently from previous administrations. In which way
was his approach different?
a. He preferred to establish cultural relations.
b. He formed puppet governments in all Central and South American countries.
c. He intended to conquer the region.
d. He cut all ties with the region.
e. He sent undercover agents to spy on Latin American leaders.
20. Which of the following statements best describes Japan’s overseas actions in the 1930s?
a. Japan led the League of Nations.
b. Japan failed in its attempt to invade China in 1931.
c. Before World War II, Japan had no intention to expand.
d. Japan proved to be a key player in the Spanish Civil War.
e. Japan invaded China hoping to expand militarily and economically.
21. Responding to Japan and Germany’s aggression and expansionist hopes, the federal government
a. stopped doing business with both countries.
b. did not interfere with enterprises that were doing business with them.
c. broke off diplomatic relations.
d. offered its services as mediator with other countries.
e. prohibited U.S. businesses to commercialize with them.
22. What turned the tide of the Pacific naval war in favor of the Allies?
a. the bombing of Pearl Harbor
b. the Soviet Union’s declaration of war on Japan
c. the destruction of Japanese aircraft carriers at Midway Island
d. Hitler’s retreat from the Pacific
e. the invasion of the Philippines
23. Which former enemy of Hitler signed a nonaggression pact with Germany?
a. Great Britain
b. Soviet Union
c. Japan
d. Spain
e. United States
24. The Lend-Lease Act
a. urged Germany to sign a treaty of nonaggression with Great Britain and the Soviet Union.
b. authorized the U.S. government to send troops to the war front.
c. authorized military aid as long as countries promised to return it after the war.
d. banned all sort of commercial activities with Japan and Germany.
e. declared war against Japan.
25. Freedom House was an organization that
a. tried to end the war through peaceful means.
b. aided Jews that wanted to escape Europe.
c. wanted to avoid U.S. involvement in the war at all cost.
d. described the war as an ideological struggle.
e. promoted civil rights among blacks.
26. How did the Allied campaign in Italy lay the groundwork for the invasion of France on D-Day?
a. The defeat of Mussolini’s regime forced Hitler to redirect valuable German troops to occupy Italy.
b. American soldiers had the opportunity to hone their fighting skills in the much more forgiving Mediterranean theater of war.
c. Allied forces had to secure the Mediterranean for unperturbed access to Middle Eastern oil, a necessary resource for the
invasion.
d. By occupying Italy, Allied forces were able to channel supplies through Switzerland and France to the westward-marching
invaders from Normandy.
e. The defeat of Italy made it possible to recruit desperately needed Italian ground troops for an invasion in France.
27. Where did the turning point of World War II in Europe occur?
a. Warsaw
b. Paris
c. Berlin
d. Moscow
e. Stalingrad
28. What was the “final solution”?
a. The Allied operation for D-Day.
b. Adolf Hitler’s plan to mass–exterminate “undesirable” peoples.
c. The United States’ plan for the atomic bombs to be dropped on Japan.
d. Japan’s plan to attack Pearl Harbor.
e. Joseph Stalin’s plan to spread communism throughout the world.
29. As soon as the United States entered World War II,
a. local conflicts disappeared.
b. American troops won all battles.
c. the Axis powers started to retreat.
d. the Allies started to win the war.
e. its troops lost important battles.
30. In the United States during World War II,
a. unemployment declined and income taxes increased.
b. the economy grew only slightly.
c. income taxes increased only for the wealthy.
d. little was done to regulate the economy.
e. the actual size of the federal government shrank as the New Deal ended.
31. The “Grand Alliance” joined together
a. the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union.
b. Great Britain, France, and China.
c. Great Britain, the United States, and Spain.
d. Germany, Italy, and Japan.
e. France, the Netherlands, and Norway.
32. How did World War II change the role of corporations in American life?
a. U.S. corporations became friendly and close collaborators with the federal government.
b. With the loss of their overseas affiliates in Asia and Europe, U.S. corporations once again became predominantly American.
c. Technological innovation and high productivity in the war effort restored the reputations of corporations from their
Depression lows.
d. The heavy reliance of the Roosevelt administration on corporate leaders for its wartime agencies left U.S. corporations with
the stain of government bureaucracy.
e. Thin profits during the war years forced U.S. corporations to dramatically innovate for increased efficiency.
33. “D–Day” refers to
a. the last battle of the eastern front.
b. the day the United States decided to take part in the war.
c. the largest sea-land military operation in history.
d. the day Germany surrendered.
e. the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
34. How did World War II affect the West Coast of the United States?
a. The populations of both San Francisco and Los Angeles declined as the prospect of a Japanese invasion led many people to
migrate inland.
b. The West Coast cities of Portland and Seattle received a relatively small amount of federal money for their shipyards.
c. Unlike other regions profiting from military-industrial production, growth rates in the West remained essentially flat.
d. Millions of Americans moved to California for jobs and military service.
e. The military temporarily relocated its headquarters to Portland to plan for a Japanese invasion.
35. Why did so many American workers walk out of their jobs between 1943 and 1944?
a. They were protesting equal pay for women and men, blacks and whites.
b. They were protesting discriminatory hiring practices of FEPC.
c. They charged their employers with the unseemly expansion of corporate profits.
d. They sought to express moral objections to the mass manufacturing of guns and ordnance.
e. They were protesting the fact that the United States failed to make the destruction of German death camps a priority in its war
effort.
36. How did the role of the national government change during the war?
a. It shrank in size and stopped getting involved in the daily lives of businesses and citizens.
b. It allowed the national market economy to run free, both locally and internationally.
c. It financed manufacturing companies to diversify production.
d. It grew and created several federal agencies to regulate the war effort.
e. It dedicated all of its efforts to promoting racial equality at home.
37. Organized labor assisted in the war effort by
a. not going on strikes.
b. working extra hours with no pay.
c. incentivizing workers to join the army.
d. paying monthly fees to support the war.
e. working from home.
38. During the war, Americans
a. experienced the rationing of scarce consumer goods such as gasoline.
b. found fewer consumer goods available by 1944.
c. still suffered from high unemployment.
d. were told that the end of war might bring a return of the Great Depression.
e. experienced extreme deprivation.
39. Which of the following is true regarding women in the workforce during World War II?
a. The overwhelming majority of working women were employed in industrial professions.
b. The government believed that by employing women, they were expanding women’s freedom.
c. Women were encouraged to keep their jobs even after the war had ended.
d. Women in 1944 made up more than one-third of the civilian labor force.
e. Single women made up the majority of working women.
40. What did Roosevelt mean by the phrase “Freedom from Want”?
a. the importance of moving away from consumerism into a more spiritual society
b. freedom to consume
c. that the idea of freedom of contract would be reestablished
d. the continuation of the Great Depression after the war
e. That, once the war finished, he would continue to protect the standard of living of the common man.
41. The Office of War Information
a. formed part of the New Deal.
b. was created after the Second World War.
c. used all its resources to show the American people the war was ideological.
d. specialized in updating the U.S. government with news from the European front.
e. used radio, film, and press to show the importance of responding to Japan with violence.
42. What did Henry Luce and Henry Wallace have in common?
a. They both believed that the United States should assume an isolationist policy—leading by example, not by action.
b. They were both liberals in their political beliefs and strongly supported the New Deal, which they believed should be spread
to the rest of the world.
c. They both put forth a new conception of America’s role in the world based in part on internationalism and on the idea that the
American experience should serve as a model for all other nations.
d. They both believed that the best course of action for the United States after the war was fiscal conservative policies, including
high tariffs and domestic taxes.
e. They were both working for the Office of War Information in promoting, through books, the positions held by the group
America First.
43. Who did publisher Henry Luce credit with the provision of “the abundant life” in his blueprint for postwar prosperity, The
American Century?
a. the Department of Defense
b. returning veterans
c. free enterprise
d. the New Deal state
e. labor unions
44. What influenced the ideas in the reports of the National Resources Planning Board from 1942 to 1943?
a. laissez-faire economics
b. socialism
c. Progressivism
d. Wilsonian moralism
e. Keynesian economics
45. Why did the Office of War Information come under criticism?
a. It reached very few people.
b. It had been infiltrated by communists.
c. It spent too much time criticizing Roosevelt.
d. It was costly to maintain and did not generate much results.
e. It devoted too much time to promoting Roosevelt’s New Deal.
46. FDR’s “Economic Bill of Rights”
a. included some provisions for veteran support, but did not have the funding to become law.
b. would have enabled the government to provide education, housing, and medical care.
c. was modified to gain the support of progressives and pushed through Congress by Harry Truman.
d. was a copy of Nazi Germany’s welfare laws under Adolf Hitler before the war.
e. was a large part of FDR’s 1944 presidential campaign.
47. “Rosie the Riveter” was
a. a female industrial worker on a propaganda poster.
b. a movie star.
c. a feminist leader.
d. the first black woman to hold office.
e. a famous military woman.
48. Women working in defense industries during the war
a. were viewed as permanent workers after the war, so long as they did a good job.
b. made up one-third of the West Coast workers in aircraft manufacturing and shipbuilding.
c. had little impact on the war effort.
d. were small in number, as most women took clerical work or joined the military service as nurses.
e. were all young, single women who left their jobs once they got married.
49. For most women workers, World War II
a. had little impact.
b. permanently changed the way employers viewed them.
c. allowed them to make temporary gains.
d. permanently changed the way unions viewed them.
e. did not increase employment rates, especially for married women.
50. What happened to most female war workers after the war?
a. Most of them received promotions and leadership positions.
b. They were offered higher salaries.
c. They lost their jobs, especially those in better-paying ones.
d. They managed to retain their jobs.
e. They willingly and humbly returned to fulfill their role as mothers and wives.
51. The Road to Serfdom
a. advocated for laissez-faire economics.
b. offered an intellectual basis for an active government.
c. was written by an Austrian-born economist who embraced the label of “conservative” all his life.
d. offered the first history of the rise of Nazi Germany.
e. offered an in-depth look at the Soviet Union and its gulags.
52. On what grounds did the Austrian-born economist Friedrich A. Hayek reject the New Deal state?
a. In all its details, he thought it indistinguishable from National Socialism.
b. The American consumer economy, he thought, lacked the complexity that required economic planning.
c. He argued that even well-intended government plans threatened individual liberties.
d. He reasoned that economic planning during the war had almost cost the United States its victory.
e. He worried that the New Deal would eventually assist African-Americans in achieving equality.
53. What taste of freedom did women enjoy in World War II?
a. sexual liberation
b. the possibility of doing men’s jobs and receiving men’s wages
c. new labor benefits, such as paid vacations
d. the possibility to join the army and hold leadership positions
e. to work fewer hours than men and receive higher wages
54. How did the Office of War Information (OWI) react to the issue of race?
a. It ignored any issues of racism during World War II.
b. This government agency only focused on the racism of Nazi Germany.
c. This group celebrated the diversity in America.
d. The OWI wanted to restore the mistrust of German-Americans that had existed during World War I.
e. OWI officials asked for segregation to be strengthened in Washington, D.C.
55. How did “Patriotic Assimilation” differ from “Americanization”?
a. Patriotic assimilation advocated the forced integration of racial and ethnic groups into American society, whereas
Americanization promoted tolerance.
b. Patriotic assimilation described the American way of life, where people of different backgrounds could live together in
freedom and unite as a people.
c. Both terms essentially described the same wartime cultural practice, but referred to different periods of American history:
World War I and World War II.
d. Patriotic assimilation was in reference to ethnic minorities who served in the military and experienced integration and greater
equality while fighting overseas.
e. Americanization described plurality with a rigid hierarchy.
56. In his book The American Century, Luce argues that
a. Americans should embrace European hegemony.
b. Americans should stop thinking of themselves as better than the rest.
c. Americans should return to isolationism.
d. Americans should prepare to be the world leaders.
e. Americans should stop intervening in international conflicts.
57. The National Resources Planning Board’s slogan was
a. stop Social Security benefits.
b. economic security and full employment.
c. less government spending.
d. the survival of the fittest.
e. get rid of the welfare state.
58. Anti-Semitism in the United States during World War II resulted in
a. Jews being banned from the U.S. Army
b. Jews being sent to U.S. internment camps
c. Jewish children being fully segregated in New York schools
d. Jews being encouraged to leave for Mexico.
e. only 21,000 Jewish refugees being allowed in the United States.
59. How did wartime experiences change Mexican-American life in California?
a. Tremendous wage increases prompted young Mexican workers to spend carelessly on frivolous outfits.
b. Employment opportunities in the defense sector attracted Mexican farmworkers to the cities, where they built exclusive
barrio neighborhoods.
c. Service in segregated army units motivated Mexican-American activists to join ranks with African-American civil rights
groups.
d. Employment opportunities in the defense sector prompted Mexican-Americans to find work outside of their neighborhoods.
e. The war increased the need for farmworkers, prompting Mexican-Americans to leave urban neighborhoods for rural regions.
60. Under the bracero program
a. Mexican immigrants were denied entry to the United States.
b. Mexican immigrants were eligible for citizenship.
c. Mexicans immigrated without the right of citizenship.
d. Indians were encouraged to leave their reservations.
e. marriages between Mexicans and Americans were banned.
61. The GI Bill of Rights
a. provided additional benefits to those who had helped with the draft.
b. only benefitted those who had joined the armed forces for longer than two years.
c. failed to assist veterans wanting to buy homes.
d. was limited in scope.
e. rewarded all war veterans.
62. How did the League of United Latin American Citizens regard Mexican-Americans?
a. All Mexican-Americans were immigrants who did not deserve full rights.
b. Mexican-Americans should be categorized as a separate race.
c. Mexican-Americans had the right to be naturalized, but Mexicans should no longer be allowed entry into the United States.
d. Mexican-Americans were white and deserved the same rights that other whites had.
e. Mexican-Americans were black but should not face segregation.
63. After the war, and especially after winning the struggle against Nazi Germany and their ideals of a superior race, Americans
a. continued to distrust immigrant groups.
b. reinforced immigration quotas.
c. officially promoted a pluralist vision of American society.
d. formed a wide variety of social groups to promote the rights of social minorities.
e. continued to welcome Jews, but not Latinos.
64. Eric Foner argues that, during World War II, “Officials rewrote history to establish”
a. the nation’s worldwide military and economic supremacy.
b. that racial and ethnic tolerance had always been the American way.
c. that previous U.S. intolerance toward immigrants was justified.
d. that blacks and whites were treated equally in front of the law.
e. that the military industry is a highly profitable business.
65. The “zoot suit” riots of 1943
a. were a series of fashion shows in Hollywood.
b. involved Mexican immigrants fighting with blacks in Los Angeles.
c. involved autoworkers in Detroit.
d. highlighted the limits of racial tolerance during World War II.
e. highlighted the growing acceptance of Mexicans in Southern California.
66. The 1943 Texas Caucasian Race–Equal Privileges resolution
a. specified that Japanese-Americans interned in that state were not allowed to use the same public accommodations as whites.
b. allowed Mexicans equal treatment in public accommodations, while still segregating blacks.
c. stated that German POWs being held in the state could be allowed to enjoy the same public accommodations as whites.
d. segregated blacks and Mexicans from all public accommodations.
e. granted equal privileges to all Texans, regardless of race.
67. During World War II, Native Americans
a. served in the military and worked in war production.
b. prospered, especially those on reservations.
c. were eligible for GI Bill benefits only if living on reservations.
d. became more isolated within American society.
e. collaborated with the Japanese.
68. Which of the following statements is NOT true of the Asian-American experience during World War II?
a. Complete prohibition of Chinese immigration to the United States ended.
b. A view of the Chinese emerged as gallant fighters against the aggressive Japanese.
c. Executive Order 9066 fully integrated Asian-Americans into U.S. Army units serving overseas.
d. Chinese-Americans worked alongside whites in jobs on the home front.
e. Japanese-Americans were viewed with suspicion as potential spies.
69. Why did Executive Order 9066 not apply to persons of Japanese descent living in Hawaii?
a. In the wake of the U.S. Navy’s defeat at Pearl Harbor, it was the Japanese that governed Hawaii.
b. The number of Japanese-Americans in Hawaii was so insignificant that the order seemed irrelevant.