What was the significance of Thomas Edison’s laboratory at Menlo Park?
A) It was where Edison first invented the telegraph.
B) It was the first modern research laboratory.
C) It was where the telephone was finally perfected.
D) It was the site of the first power station in New York.
E) It was where Edison first sent a message over telephone wires.
Why did farmers during the Great Depression resort to such extreme measures as
dumping fresh milk into the streets?
A) Like many other Americans during the Great Depression, dairy farmers fell victim to
despair and lost their hope in the future.
B) The shipping industry had been so devastated by the Great Depression that farmers
had no way to get their produce to market.
C) Farmers hoped to increase demand and drive up prices for their products by
decreasing the available supply.
D) Due to widespread poverty among the American population, hardly anyone could
afford to buy milk.
E) The government had instituted milk rationing which resulted in the overproduction
of milk by dairy farmers.
Colonial legislators saw their primary function as ________.
A) improving the lives of their constituents
B) preventing encroachments on the people’s rights
C) implementing the governor’s policies
D) mediating between the royal governor and the people
E) supporting the governor to attain patronage appointments
During World War II, the closest ally of the United States was _______.
A) the Soviet Union
B) Canada
C) France
D) Great Britain
E) China
Why were most southern states unconcerned about Jackson’s fight with South Carolina?
A) They knew him to be in sympathy with the abolitionists.
B) They knew him to be truly an advocate of extreme state sovereignty.
C) He was a Southerner and a slaveholder.
D) They knew he was unable to prevent Congress from overriding his decisions.
E) He was a master politician with the ability to turn enemies into allies.
Who was the first great practitioner of evangelical Calvinism?
A) Samuel John Mills
B) Lyman Beecher
C) Nathaniel Taylor
D) Horace Mann
E) Charles G. Finney
What was the main reason most people moved west between 1870 and 1900?
A) to seek freedom from religious persecution
B) to escape the drab routine of factory life
C) to escape the diseased conditions of crowded eastern cities
D) to improve their economic situation
E) to escape from invading Native American groups
What is one reason why Congress passed the Ethnic Heritage Studies Act of 1972?
A) to promote the idea of diversity as a positive force
B) to give employers the opportunity to learn about workers from different ethnic
groups
C) to provide for the inclusion of different ethnic groups as mascots for team sports
D) to educate people in the agricultural industry about the plight of farm workers
E) to add questions about ethnic heritage and history to voter literacy tests
Young men were hired to clear land, plant trees, and build bridges and fish ponds by the
_______.
A) Tennessee Valley Authority
B) National Recovery Administration
C) Public Works Administration
D) Works Progress Administration
E) Civilian Conservation Corps
Why did FDR attempt to “pack” the Supreme Court?
A) He knew opposing the Supreme Court would unite his disparate Democratic Party.
B) He knew opposing the Supreme Court would win him bipartisan support.
C) He saw the Supreme Court’s interference with the New Deal as unconstitutional.
D) He wanted to remove the final and most powerful threat to his New Deal programs.
E) He wanted to create a Democratic Supreme Court to ensure his legacy.
African-American soldiers did all of the following during the Civil War EXCEPT
________.
A) serve in segregated units under white officers
B) make a vital contribution to the North’s victory
C) serve in integrated units under black officers
D) participate disproportionately in heavy labor behind the lines
E) accept lower pay initially than their white counterparts
In the 1930s, support for pacifism was particularly strong among _______.
A) college students
B) high-ranking businessmen
C) labor unions
D) the elderly
E) the lower classes
An immediate problem for rapidly growing suburban communities was providing
adequate _______.
A) water supplies
B) schools
C) waste disposal
D) law enforcement
E) mass transit
Why were many women part of the settlement house reform movement?
A) They believed that poverty was the worst problem in the society and must be
prevented.
B) Men were not interested in urban poverty, and women were the only ones left to
tackle the problem.
C) The women who helped start settlement houses could bring their children there,
which made it easier for them.
D) It was one of the few places in the American society in which they could use their
talents.
E) Women believed that education was the only way to eradicate poverty in the United
States.
William Henry Harrison’s nickname “Tippecanoe” refers to his ________.
A) support for the emancipation of African-American slaves in the South
B) birthplace
C) experience as a legislative logroller
D) military experience
E) prediction of the nullification crisis
How was the War of 1812 both a success and a failure for Americans?
A) The U.S. won all the battles but lost the war in that the Treaty of Ghent gave them
only maritime rights and did not discuss impressments.
B) The U.S. felt confirmed as a strong nation, yet it did not receive maritime rights or
guarantees that Britain would end impressment.
C) The U.S. lost all major battles, wasting lives and resources, but it gained maritime
rights and an end to impressment in the Treaty of Ghent.
D) The U.S. lost valuable land in the West, but gained all of its stated goals.
E) The U.S. gained land in the West, all of the stated war aims in the peace treaty, but
lost many lives and resources in the war.
How did the increase in British imports to the colonies in the 1700s affect American
culture?
A) The colonists produced fewer of their own homespun goods, which made them less
reliant on old traditions.
B) The colonists no longer relied on imports from other countries and became less
connected to French and Spanish cultures.
C) The same British goods were sold throughout the colonies, which gave colonists a
collective background and brought them into greater contact with each other.
D) The colonists of different colonies developed interests in different British imports,
which led to greater isolation and greater identification with their own region.
E) The colonists were introduced to new British traditions through the imports they
bought, and lost much of their original American culture.
A major source of information for the colonists was ________.
A) newspapers
B) books
C) church meetings
D) the marketplace
E) the town crier
Between 1898 and 1903, the American economy saw ________.
A) an decrease in the number of new, small businesses
B) greater competition in all industries
C) a wave of mergers and consolidations
D) the outlawing of trusts
E) meager business growth overall
What did radical revivalist Charles G. Finney do that was considered a violation of
tradition?
A) He allowed women to join his church.
B) He allowed women to pray aloud in church.
C) He relied on rational, scientific arguments to win converts.
D) His sermons were lengthy, sometimes lasting two hours.
E) He did not believe in a mysterious, all-powerful God.
Which of the following tribes were not Plains Indians?
A) the Hopi
B) the Cheyenne
C) the Sioux
D) the Comanche
E) the Arapaho
Which of these was the elder statesmen that was one of the men who negotiated a peace
with Britain following the Revolutionary War?
A) James Otis
B) Samuel Adams
C) Benjamin Franklin
D) Thomas Jefferson
E) James Madison
For Americans in the 1780s, they had formed a real republic by eliminating ________.
A) conflict
B) the monarchy and aristocracy
C) a hereditary legislature
D) a strong national government
E) sectionalism
What was the first crisis of the post-Cold War era?
A) the United States invaded Iraq
B) al Qaeda attacked New York City
C) Iraq invaded Kuwait
D) the East German government collapsed
E) Russia invaded Afghanistan
What was the most significant consequence of the Seven Years’ War?
A) its virtual destruction of American Indians
B) Britain’s staggering war debt
C) the remaining French toehold in Quebec
D) the assassination of George II
E) a distaste for further fighting by the colonists
The greatest economic challenge faced by the Nixon administration involved ________.
A) the reduction of government spending
B) a dramatic increase in international oil prices
C) the bankruptcy of the Federal Reserve System
D) the crisis in American farming
E) rampant unemployment
What was one result of yellow journalism stories about Cuba in the 1890s?
A) Americans believed Cubans were conspiring to control the Caribbean and were,
therefore, reluctant to go to war to help them gain independence.
B) Americans believed that Spain had a right to imperialist holdings in Cuba but that
they should treat their colonies better.
C) Americans became enraged about Spain’s treatment of Cubans and the sinking of the
Maine.
D) Cowardly journalists did not report Cuban atrocities for fear that the Spanish
government would retaliate, hence the term “yellow journalism.”
E) Powerful Asian governments saw Cuba as the first step in a series of imperialist
moves, so they sent journalists to the U.S. to spread rumors against intervention.
The Social Darwinists ________.
A) believed the laws of nature applied to society
B) were active reformers in the late nineteenth century
C) had an overwhelming influence on American society
D) raised important questions about the ill effects of business trusts
E) stressed society’s responsibility to aid the poor.
The population of the thirteen British colonies grew to about __________ in 1770.
A) 2000
B) 20,000
C) 200,000
D) 2 million
E) 20 million
Which of the following men were true political and philosophical allies in the 1820s?
A) John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay
B) Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson
C) Andrew Jackson and John Marshall
D) Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun
E) Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams
How was the role of the United States in foreign affairs changing in the years
immediately before the outbreak of World War I?
A) The United States continued to grow as an international power.
B) The United States had become the most powerful country in the world.
C) The United States was no longer an imperialist power.
D) The United States was no longer a colonial power.
E) The United States first entered global affairs.
Why did A. Philip Randolph threaten a massive march on Washington in 1941?
A) to end racial discrimination in the defense industry
B) to bring the United States into World War II
C) to support U.S. neutrality
D) to end discrimination in federal aid programs
E) to allow women to work in wartime industries
Lyndon Johnson’s political downfall resulted primarily from ________.
A) his Latin American policy
B) his handling of the Vietnam War
C) the failure of his Great Society
D) his refusal to be a cold warrior
E) his advocacy of welfare programs
By late 1897, Spain was ________.
A) unwilling to meet any American demands
B) backing off from its harsh policy in Cuba
C) directing the polices of General Weyler
D) determined to maintain control at all costs
E) willing to free Cuba rather than go to war
Andrew Jackson killed the national bank ________.
A) by withdrawing federal deposits from it
B) through further legislation
C) through the actions of the Supreme Court
D) by letting its charter expire in 1836
E) by accusing Nicholas Biddle of treasonous acts