What was the key felony, revealed by the Watergate tapes, committed by Richard
Nixon?
A) planning the Watergate burglar.
B) obstructing justice
C) violating the constitution
D) witness tampering
What happened after the German sinking of a French channel steamer in March 1916?
A) The United States declared war on Germany.
B) The Americans protested, and the Germans pledged to stop attacks on merchant
ships without warning.
C) The Americans protested and the Germans responded by sinking the Lusitania.
D) Wilson came to believe the United States should enter the war but was convinced by
Theodore Roosevelt to remain neutral.
Which general commanded the American Expeditionary Force?
A) John J. Pershing
B) Arthur MacArthur
C) Newton D. Baker
D) George C. Marshall
As compared to millennials, boomers are more likely to __________.
A) see immigrants as a burden
B) endorse healthcare for immigrants
C) be engaged in private concerns rather than grand social schemes
D) be worried about finding suitable employment
The economic problems causing the Great Depression came to a head mainly because
of which of the following?
A) anti-business attitudes in Congress
B) overconsumption of consumer goods
C) easy-credit policies of the Federal Reserve Board
D) production shortages in basic consumer goods
After winning the vote, most women in the 1920s did which of the following?
A) made major social and economic gains
B) eliminated the double standard
C) lost interest in agitating for change
D) became actively involved in electoral politics
What was a major implication of the Dred Scott decision?
A) Slavery was a nationwide institution, excluded only where states specifically
abolished it.
B) Only a territorial legislature could follow the principle of popular sovereignty.
C) Only Congress could exclude slavery from a territory.
D) Slavery was a state institution, legal only where states specifically adopted it.
In the new state governments created during the Revolution, power was concentrated in
the __________.
A) governors
B) courts
C) executive councils
D) legislatures
Around the same time McKinley was sending a war message to Congress, __________.
A) the Spanish ordered troops to sink the Maine, and the Cubans begged the Spanish
and the Americans to end hostilities
B) the Cubans called for a ceasefire and sent a message to Congress in hopes of
adverting an all-out war
C) Cuban nationalists were negotiating a surrender
D) Cubans began insisting on complete independence even as the Spanish agreed to end
the fight
Which of the following statements about society in the late 1800s is true?
A) The gap between rich and poor was growing.
B) The rich were growing richer and the underprivileged class shrank to lowest levels
ever witnessed.
C) Recession caused the upper class to shrink significantly.
D) The balance between the rich and the poor was about even in an increasingly
egalitarian society.
American statesmen who pursued a foreign policy of imperialism without colonies
__________.
A) were essentially greedy, thinking only of increasing profits by overseas expansion
without any regard for the consequences of the people being exploited
B) refused to accept their proper role in world affairs as a major power
C) genuinely, but incorrectly, believed that they were exporting democracy along with
capitalism and industrialization
D) were totally undirected and unfocused with virtually no goals
Which of the following is true about Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis?
A) He spoke out publicly against American involvement in World War I.
B) His German origins made him so unpopular that he had to withdraw from the court.
C) He was an advanced progressive and the first Jewish justice in American history.
D) As Wilson’s secretary of state he had protested Wilson’s stand against Germany,
which led to his forced resignation and appointment to the court.
In Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Thorstein Veblen __________.
A) praised the middle class for their contributions to economic growth of the United
States
B) stated that consumption was a noble way to escape the vagrancy of urban life
C) theorized that middle-class consumption was done mainly for superficial purposes
D) believed that the material culture was solid in its foundation
In the 1970s, most immigrants were from which areas?
A) Europe and the Middle East
B) Asia and Latin America
C) Canada and Mexico
D) Latin America and Europe
Roughing It (1872) by Mark Twain provides us with our most famous pictures of the
__________.
A) last Plains Indian wars
B) open-range cattle industry
C) farmers’ last frontier
D) mining frontier
What prompted Roger Williams to leave Salem in the fall of 1635?
A) Due to economic pressure by the General Court, his congregation turned against
him.
B) The king ordered Williams to leave the colony.
C) He got an invitation from the governor of the colony of Virginia to build a
congregation there.
D) The Puritan rulers of Massachusetts threatened him with a trial for witchcraft.
Which statement about the Homestead Act of 1862 is true?
A) It promised white settlers 40 acres and a mule.
B) It provided railroad companies with generous land grants.
C) It gave southern blacks the opportunity to become landowners.
D) It offered Western settlers 160 acres if they turned the land into a farm.
William Jennings Bryan discarded tradition in 1896 by doing which of the following?
A) conducting a “front porch” campaign for visiting delegations
B) traveling throughout the country giving hundreds of speeches
C) spending millions of dollars on advertising
D) selecting a third-party candidate as his running mate
After the Union was defeated at Bull Run, Lincoln chose __________ to command the
Union forces.
A) Winfield Scott
B) Ulysses S. Grant
C) George B. McClellan
D) Winfield Scott Hancock
Under Jay’s Treaty, __________ agreed to abandon its military posts in the American
Northwest.
A) France
B) Holland
C) Spain
D) Great Britain
What was the most significant aspect of the Coercive Acts?
A) They indicated Great Britain’s desire to decrease its control of the colonies.
B) They had little impact on the colonies.
C) They indicated a change in British policy, from persuasion to punishment.
D) They did the greatest economic harm to those who could least afford it.
Which of the following made the missionaries’ job of turning California Indians into
Spaniards particularly difficult?
A) California was dryer than any other province in New Spain.
B) California’s dense population of French fur trappers interrupted the mission project.
C) The powerful tribe of the Apache had created a formidable united Indian empire in
California.
D) With 300 tribes and nearly a hundred different languages, missionaries faced huge
cultural obstacles.
Which statement describes the presidents during the last quarter of the nineteenth
century?
A) They were weak leaders.
B) They took strong stands on the issues.
C) They were elected by landslides.
D) They dominated both houses of Congress.
How did Christopher Columbus shape the American West?
A) The first explorers of the trans-Mississippi West came from his crew.
B) He named most of the territory west of the Mississippi.
C) He brought cattle to the Americas, which later spread wild across the Western
prairie.
D) The gold he brought back to Spain had originated in California, which began a
centuries-long quest for the Pacific Coast.
Why were many in the middle class attracted to progressive reforms?
A) They sought to join conservative business forces in their triumph over working-class
socialism.
B) They feared that their sense of personal importance and ambitions were undermined
by aggressive labor unions.
C) They could make a pragmatic alliance with the “new” urban immigrants who were
the backbone of new militant labor unions.
D) They approved of the intellectual currents behind progressivism.
Why was there a shortage of hard money in the colonies?
A) American smugglers too often traded with French merchants in exchange for bills of
exchange.
B) The Bank of England maintained a deflationary interest rate that prompted
Englishmen to hoard money.
C) The value of the consumer goods Americans bought from England exceeded that of
their exported goods and services.
D) The Navigation Acts prohibited the exchange of hard currency in Atlantic
commerce.
America’s most famous Enlightenment figure, inventor of the lightening rod and
bifocals, organizer of a hospital and a circulating library, was __________.
A) Thomas Jefferson
B) David Rittenhouse
C) Cotton Mather
D) Benjamin Franklin
As president, George Washington __________.
A) aggressively led the Federalist party in election campaigns
B) used his “State of the Union” addresses to advocate legislation
C) was careful not to exceed the powers given him by the Constitution
D) was not concerned about establishing precedents
The problem of impressment was compounded by which of the following?
A) British captains insisting on thorough and lengthy investigations into which sailors
were actually British citizens
B) America’s loose immigration laws
C) Jefferson’s refusal to allow the British to impress sailors on American ships who
were British citizens
D) the fact that American trade in war materials made shipping vulnerable to British
searches
Under the terms of the Half-Way Covenant, __________.
A) unbaptized church members could receive communion but could not present their
own children for baptism
B) only those who could give evidence of God’s grace could become even halfway
members of the church
C) halfway members of the church and their children could be baptized, but could not
receive communion
D) churches and merchants agreed to meet each other halfway in their dispute over
excess profit.
What is the life span of the average American born in the year 2000?
A) 85
B) 77
C) 67
D) 50
In April 1961, the CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba __________.
A) led to direct involvement of American troops in Cuba
B) was unable to land because of bad weather
C) failed because the Cuban people did not aid the invaders
D) ousted Castro’s government for a short time