CHAPTER 20
From Business Culture to Great Depression: The Twenties, 1920–1932
TEST BANK
Learning Objectives
1. Identify who benefited and who suffered in the new consumer society of the 1920s.
2. Summarize the ways in which the government promoted business interests in the 1920s.
3. Explain why the protection of civil liberties gained importance in the 1920s.
4. Analyze the major flash points between fundamentalism and pluralism at this time.
5. List the causes of the Great Depression and discuss the effectiveness of the government’s responses by 1932.
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following best describes America in the 1920s?
a. Class divisions were more visible in the United States than they were in Europe.
b. Radical politics dominated mainstream American thought.
c. Radio and movies reflected the uniformity of American society.
d. Very few factory jobs were created.
e. China manufactured a greater volume of goods than the United States did.
2. During the 1920s, American multinational corporations
a. resisted new ventures abroad in the aftermath of World War I.
b. demonstrated limited interest in controlling raw materials in other countries.
c. produced few automobiles for international markets.
d. extended their reach throughout the world.
e. reduced investments overseas.
3. Which of the following statements accurately describes the state of consumer goods in the 1920s?
a. Home products, such as vacuum cleaners, increased the demand for domestic labor.
b. Advertising created a desire among buyers to purchase new goods.
c. Americans increasingly spent money on food staples rather than entertainment.
d. Coca-Cola quickly declined in popularity after consumers learned how much sugar it contained.
e. Many purchases were bought with cash because credit was not popular.
4. How was American life different in the 1920s than in the years prior?
a. In this new era of consumerism, Americans drank more heavily.
b. Women’s suffrage led to a new wave of political activism among both women and men.
c. The strict standards of morality imposed by the fundamentalist revival meant that Americans had less sex.
d. Although Americans worked hard in an industrial world, they also enjoyed more vacations.
e. Interracial marriages became far more common in this more urban and modern society.
5. Politically, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
a. dreamed of a society with no government, no church, and no private property.
b. believed in democracy.
c. supported the Democrats.
d. tried to join the Socialist Party.
e. supported the Anti-Communist League.
6. The Sacco-Vanzetti case
a. placed the welcoming of Italian immigrants at the center of the debate.
b. revealed local governments could influence judicial decisions.
c. symbolized that the anti-immigrant sentiment had died.
d. showed how the Red Scare undermined basic American freedoms.
e. demonstrated how thorough the judicial system was.
7. Assess the state of individual American financial savings by the end of the 1920s.
a. Rising wages had allowed Americans to build significant savings accounts in the 1920s.
b. While the rich spent most of their earnings lavishly, poor and middle-class Americans saved
conscientiously.
c. Savings rates among the middle class were as high as 40 percent, causing significant challenges for the
mass consumer economy.
d. By the end of the 1920s, the majority of American families had no savings whatsoever.
e. Americans had largely turned their backs on stocks and turned to the far safer bond market instead.
8. The 1920s political scene was dominated by
a. liberals.
b. socialists
c. the labor movement.
d. feminist groups.
e. conservatism.
9. What region does the textbook identify as having experienced chronic unemployment due to
deindustrialization in the 1920s?
a. Midwest
b. New England
c. Southeast
d. Southwest
e. West Coast
10. Which statement about farms in the 1920s is accurate?
a. Farmers were not productive in arid areas.
b. Organic farming started for the first time, and this trend steadily increased throughout the decade.
c. For the first time in U.S. history, the number of farmers declined.
d. Sharecropping was invented and dominated in the Northeast.
e. Asian immigrants comprised the biggest group of farm laborers by the end of the decade.
11. During the 1920s, the U.S. economy
a. stagnated.
b. fluctuated constantly.
c. enjoyed prosperity.
d. saw some regions enjoy prosperity while others suffered deeply.
e. internationalize.
12. The automobile
a. was not as popular as expected when it first came out.
b. prevented the growth of other industries.
c. was the second most important American industry after the textile industry.
d. experienced stagnation in its production during the 1920s.
e. was the backbone of economic growth.
13. Why did General Motors (GM) surpass Ford in sales of automobiles in the 1920s?
a. because GM focused on producing only one cheap car model
b. because GM designed and produced several models with stylish designs
c. because GM cars were produced in Mexico
d. because GM cars were specifically designed to satisfy the needs of the rural areas
e. because the mechanics were far better
14. Why did Los Angeles’s population increase significantly during the 1920s?
a. Many East Asians emigrated to the United States, and most arrived in Los Angeles first.
b. Many misplaced Midwest farmers came looking for jobs.
c. Numerous people from the Pacific Northwest moved to Southern California.
d. As thousands of factories closed in the Northeast, most of their workers migrated west.
e. The Hollywood film industry became the biggest private employer in the United States.
15. American farmers in the 1920s
a. managed to remain in business due to time-saving mechanization.
b. understood that prices for produce would remain high despite the end of World War I.
c. decreased their output of crops due to declining demand on the American and overseas markets.
d. increasingly migrated out of rural areas.
e. did not take advantage of new technological innovations.
16. Which of the following statements about farm mechanization is correct?
a. It discouraged the use of migrant labor on factory farms.
b. It transformed the scale of agricultural production, which ended the practice of irrigation in the West.
c. It delayed the onset of the “Dust Bowl” on the Great Plains thanks to the new steam tractor.
d. It included innovations such as the disk plow, which made planting easier.
e. Farm output decreased in previous fertile areas.
17. How did World War I’s Committee on Public Information (CPI) inspire business in the 1920s?
a. The wartime experience proved that the best way to prevent excessive speculation in the stock market was
to inform the public of its dangers.
b. Business leaders hired private data collectors to measure the effects of propaganda on consumers.
c. The CPI’s success suggested government intervention could have a positive impact on business growth.
d. Public relations departments were established in many firms to counteract bad publicity.
e. The CPI discouraged consumers from buying commodities on credit.
18. What did the congressional hearings led by Arsène Pujo between 1912 and 1914 bring to light?
a. State senators were being bribed by large businesses.
b. The federal government had been taxing citizens at higher rates than was legal.
c. A Wall Street money trust was manipulating stock prices.
d. Foreign dictators were spying on Americans who had emigrated from their countries.
e. Employers were requiring employees to work fifteen-hour days.
19. Henry Ford’s “Fordlandia”
a. was considered a success.
b. was a town created by Henry Ford in Mexico.
c. was respectful of locals’ customs and habits.
d. was created to secure a supply of rubber for tires.
e. was created to sell cars in Brazil.
20. During the 1920s
a. poverty was cut in half.
b. consumer goods multiplied.
c. automobile production declined.
d. values of frugality flourished among Americans.
e. there was a massive migration from urban to rural areas.
21. In the 1920s, movies, radios, and phonographs
a. helped create a “new society” willing to maintain a standard of living at any price.
b. were only accessible in public spaces.
c. ridiculed celebrity culture.
d. appealed only to the lower classes.
e. were consumed by teenagers and young adults.
22. During the 1920s, what happened to union membership?
a. It remained the same from the beginning of the decade to the end.
b. Membership increased by 20 percent.
c. It declined slightly.
d. Membership declined by more than 2 million members.
e. Immigrants refused to join unions.
23. For the feminist woman in the 1920s, freedom meant
a. voting.
b. owning her own property.
c. the ERA.
d. the right to choose her lifestyle.
e. becoming a wife and mother.
24. The flapper
a. epitomized the change in sexual behavior.
b. represented a new political movement.
c. represented a new economic radicalism.
d. disapproved of smoking.
e. demanded a return to earlier standards of behavior.
25. How did Bruce Barton’s book The Man Nobody Knows depict Jesus Christ?
a. as a he-man of business
b. as a religious man
c. as the savior
d. as a ghost
e. as a unionist
26. Why did cigarettes become known as “torches of freedom” during the 1920s?
a. Women began to smoke cigarettes as an expression of personal freedom.
b. Soldiers returning from the war identified the modest comfort of a cigarette with American freedom.
c. For African-Americans in northern cities, cigarette smoking was an expression of a new and freer urban
lifestyle.
d. By smoking American-brand cigarettes, immigrants could embrace American culture and leave behind the
stigma of their ethnicities.
e. The prohibition on tobacco in many states made smoking an open act of rebellion.
27. In the 1920s, what did employers tout as the cornerstone of prosperity?
a. a socialist model where employees controlled the means of production
b. complete vertical integration
c. unions
d. employee satisfaction
e. complete freedom of action for businesses
28. In the 1920s, employers embraced the American Plan because
a. it promoted the creation of a workplace free of government and union regulations.
b. all employees were unionized.
c. it supported government regulations.
d. it took the “human factor” into consideration.
e. it provided employees with private pensions.
29. What did Walter Lippmann conclude about democracy during the 1920s?
a. American voters were not well informed on issues.
b. Democracy was stronger than ever in the United States.
c. America was shifting away from democracy toward socialism.
d. There was too much focus on being a consumer.
e. The government did not try to influence public opinion.
30. In their 1929 study Middletown, Robert and Helen Lynd
a. found that Americans were increasingly involved in local politics.
b. argued that leisure and consumption had replaced political involvement.
c. based their findings on a study of Los Angeles and New York City.
d. based their findings on a study of Chicago.
e. noted the increase in voter participation with the enfranchisement of women.
31. Which statement about politics in the 1920s is correct?
a. Voter turnout had increased dramatically since the turn of the century.
b. Women took an active role in national politics, mostly with the Republican Party.
c. Republicans controlled the White House and supported pro-labor policies.
d. The South was dominated by the Democratic Party.
e. Congress continued restrictive immigration policies.
32. During the 1920s
a. the Federal Trade Commission aggressively regulated business.
b. government policies reflected the pro-business ethos of the decade.
c. Nebraska senator George W. Norris represented big business.
d. the Harding administration distanced itself from the business community.
e. the courts became increasingly pro-labor.
33. Which of the following groups demanded the Fifteenth Amendment be enforced in the South?
a. white plantation owners
b. black feminists
c. leaders of international corporations
d. anarchists
e. the urban middle class
34. The Equal Rights Amendment
a. intended to eliminate legal distinctions made on the basis of sex.
b. intended to eliminate the wage gap between blacks and whites.
c. was only supported by the League of Women Voters.
d. was supported by every major female organization.
e. was approved by Congress in 1929.
35. What did Alice Paul propose regarding women’s rights?
a. That women should be primarily dedicated to raising and educating their children.
b. That all gender-based legal distinctions should be eliminated.
c. That all new legislation should favor women to atone for past discrimination.
d. That women associations should focus on enforcing the Fifteenth Amendment in the South.
e. That women needed special protection.
36. To what nineteenth-century decision did Florence Kelley compare the 1923 Adkins v. Children’s Hospital
decision?
a. Dred Scott v. Sandford
b. Marbury v. Madison
c. Gibbons v. Ogden
d. Plessy v. Ferguson
e. McCulloch v. Maryland
37. The prevailing jurisprudence of the United States Supreme Court in the 1920s can best be described as
a. laissez-faire.
b. progressive.
c. paternalistic.
d. authoritarian.
e. deferential.
38. President Harding’s call for a “return to normalcy” meant
a. bringing back the Progressive spirit of reform.
b. demobilizing from World War I.
c. getting women back into the home from their wartime jobs.
d. a call for the regular order of things, without Progressive reform.
e. an end to the radicalism of the Red Scare.
39. Warren G. Harding
a. appointed a cabinet composed solely of government experts not connected to him personally.
b. spearheaded a movement for political reform at the federal level.
c. oversaw a presidential administration plagued by scandal.
d. was reelected to a second term on the Republican ticket.
e. was a strong supporter of Prohibition.
40. The Teapot Dome scandal involved
a. President Harding’s illicit affair with a young woman.
b. the Veterans’ Bureau, which took bribes from the sale of government supplies.
c. the attorney general, who took bribes not to prosecute accused criminals.
d. bribes for the secretary of the interior in exchange for leases of government oil reserves.
e. Herbert Hoover, who received money in exchange for granting favored trading status to Great Britain.
41. Why did Calvin Coolidge veto the McNary-Haugen bill?
a. It did not provide enough support for farmers.
b. Coolidge was against free markets.
c. America did not need overseas products.
d. Coolidge was a Progressive politician.
e. Coolidge favored laissez-faire economics.
42. Assess the state of the Democratic Party in 1924.
a. Under a young and energetic leadership, the party was ready to capitalize on Warren G. Harding’s low
approval ratings.
b. Rejecting its southern base and embracing northern immigrants and African-Americans, the party was poised
for victory under a new “big tent.”
c. Although popular for its deep progressive tradition, the Democratic Party alienated voters with its overtly
rigid hierarchical organization.
d. Although the incumbent Republican president Calvin Coolidge was an uninspiring choice, the hopeless
divisions within the Democratic Party caused its bitter defeat in 1924.
e. Controlled by powerful labor unions, the Democratic Party failed to appeal to the middle class and southern
whites.
43. During the 1924 presidential election, which Progressive politician received one-sixth of the electorate’s votes?
a. John Dewey
b. John Davis
c. Robert La Follette
d. Will Rogers
e. Herbert Hoover
44. American foreign policy during the 1920s
a. reflected the close ties between government and business.
b. expanded on Woodrow Wilson’s goal of internationalism.
c. included the lowering of tariffs.
d. discouraged American business investment abroad.
e. included a complete retreat from military intervention.
45. In his 1921 “Speech in Congress on Immigration,” why did Lucian W. Parrish believe the United States should
have stopped immigration entirely?
a. He argued that immigrants have always disobeyed American ideals.
b. He believed that oppression was an insufficient reason for immigrating to the United States.
c. He thought that immigrants weakened job opportunities for native citizens.
d. He viewed new immigrants as unsympathetic to the Constitution.
e. He said that immigrants brought violence to the United States.
46. What was, according to Walter Lippmann, the “manufacture of consent”?
a. the working consent given by industrial union workers
b. the art of creating and manipulating public opinion
c. the name of the newspaper he created
d. the society of mass consumption
e. the possibility of educating citizens through public politics
47. In the Meyer v. Nebraska case, the Supreme Court cited a violation of what amendment?
a. Fourteenth
b. Fifteenth
c. Sixteenth
d. Seventeenth
e. Eighteenth
48. What dictator gained power due to help from the U.S. Marines in the 1920s and 1930s?
a. Hitler in Germany
b. Castro in Cuba
c. Stalin in Russia
d. Somoza in Nicaragua
e. Mussolini in Italy
49. What is the name sometimes given to the 1920s U.S. foreign policy?
a. isolationism
b. interventionism
c. Americanism
d. corporativism
e. gradualism
50. During the 1920s most acts of foreign policy were conducted
a. though an international relations committee.
b. through intermediary countries.
c. through governmental action.
d. by diplomatic emissaries.
e. through private economic relations.
51. The Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922
a. raised tariffs on agricultural goods.
b. promoted free trade.
c. raised tariffs on all imported goods.
d. was created to lure Europeans to commercialize in the United States.
e. was supported by American diplomats.
52. “Banned in Boston” referred to
a. a book ban that was an object of ridicule among writers and artists.
b. Prohibition coming to the city and the elimination of all liquor.
c. the crackdown on prostitution and gambling, both perceived to be run by the Irish.
d. the condemnation of Americanization programs, meaning diversity was celebrated in the city.
e. Calvin Coolidge’s tenure as governor when he banned all strikes of public service employees.
53. Still active today in pushing for individual rights, the American Civil Liberties Union started during what
conflict?
a. World War II
b. World War I
c. Spanish-American War
d. U.S. Civil War
e. Korean War
54. In Schenck v. United States, the Supreme Court
a. overturned the lower court conviction of a socialist.
b. ruled that bans on dangerous speech were constitutional.
c. expanded the protection of free speech.
d. found certain fire-safety regulations unconstitutional.
e. overturned the conviction of Eugene V. Debs for an anti-war speech.
55. Assess the record of the U.S. Supreme Court on civil liberties during World War I.
a. The Court’s failed efforts at restoring constitutional protections for free speech during the war propelled
Americans into activism during the 1920s.
b. A majority of the justices agreed that the Espionage Act under the Wilson administration constituted a
“clear and present danger” to American freedom.
c. The Supreme Court had largely upheld government restrictions on First Amendment rights during the war.
d. The majority of Supreme Court justices were ready to strike down federal infringements on free speech, but the
slow appeals process prevented that opportunity.
e. The Court made a strong push for civil liberties, but with the explicit intent to exclude African–Americans.
56. Which of the following legal bans no longer passed constitutional scrutiny by the end of the 1920s?
a. prohibiting movies from depicting nudity
b. barring scripts that portrayed clergymen in a negative light
c. prohibiting wealthy African-Americans in all-white public facilities
d. criminalizing the advocacy of unlawful acts for the sake of political change
e. prohibiting marriages between whites and Asian immigrants or African-Americans
57. Anita Whitney, a California socialist, was involved in two cases before the Supreme Court involving the
Fourteenth Amendment and what other amendment?
a. the First Amendment, which guarantees the freedom of speech
b. the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to bear arms
c. the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unwarranted searches and seizures
d. the Sixth Amendment, which guarantees the rights of criminal defendants
e. the Fifteenth Amendment, which guarantees a citizen’s right to vote, regardless of race or previous
conditions of servitude
58. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
a. generally voted with Oliver Wendell Holmes to further limit free speech.
b. was a conservative force during the 1920s.
c. voted in favor of the Hays Code.
d. crafted an intellectual defense of civil liberties during the 1920s.
e. voted in support of Anita Whitney’s attempt to overturn her conviction.
59. Which of the statements about Prohibition during the 1920s is true?
a. Prohibition increased American consumption of alcohol.
b. Prohibition rules and regulations were rarely violated.
c. Prohibition led to widespread corruption among law officials.
d. Prohibition cut into the profits reaped by the owners of speakeasies.
e. Religious fundamentalists opposed Prohibition on the grounds that it violated individual freedom.
60. Regarding religion, what tactic did Billy Sunday use to influence America?
a. He attacked Prohibition because it affected the Catholic mass.
b. He attended small religious services in people’s homes.
c. He defended science by using the Bible.
d. He employed a theatrical style.
e. He held short church services before movies in theaters.
61. Which of the following trends of the 1920s did fundamentalists support?
a. the easing of restrictions on immigration
b. the prohibition of liquor sales
c. military interventionism
d. socialism
e. increased income taxes on the wealthy
62. The Hays Code
a. prohibited exhibitions of nudity in public venues.
b. prohibited movies from depicting criminals sympathetically.
c. prohibited public discussions on sexual behavior.
d. banned scripts where businessmen were portrayed in a negative light.
e. banned certain works of literature.
63. The American Civil Liberties Union helped to reshape the meaning of traditional civil liberties and invented
new ones. Which of the following was considered a “new” civil liberty in the 1920s?
a. freedom of speech
b. voting rights
c. right to privacy
d. freedom of movement
e. right to divorce
64. Both Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald
a. wrote about similar issues.
b. traveled throughout Latin American searching for inspiration.
c. emigrated to Europe.
d. believed America was becoming the global center of arts and culture.
e. were involved in local politics.
65. How did fundamentalist Christians define freedom in the 1920s?
a. as the freedom of religion
b. as the freedom of speech
c. as the freedom of congregation
d. as voluntary adherence to moral liberty
e. as the fundamental right to self-expression
66. By the 1930s, a few Supreme Court decisions showed that, in terms of civil liberties
a. the federal government was getting involved in judicial decisions.
b. the debate continued to center on issues of racial discrimination.
c. the Court did not demonstrate consistency, but instead ruled case by case.
d. the judicial foundation for civil liberties was slowly being laid.
e. the judiciary would continue ruling against freedom of speech.
67. Regarding public education, in 1922, Oregon became the first state to
a. require students to be instructed only in English.
b. ban private schools.
c. formally segregate its schools.
d. allow women to earn postgraduate degrees.
e. allow students to attend private schools instead.