CHAPTER 21 The New Deal, 1932–1940
TEST BANK
Learning Objectives
1. Explain the major policy initiatives of the New Deal in the Hundred Days.
2. Identify the main proponents of economic justice in the 1930s and explain the measures they advocated.
3. Examine the major initiatives of the Second New Deal and analyze the ways they differed from the First New
Deal.
4. Assess the ways in which the New Deal recast the meaning of American freedom.
5. Analyze how the New Deal benefits applied to women and minorities.
6. Explain how the Popular Front influenced American culture in the 1930s.
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following describes the New Deal most accurately?
a. It was a political program in which the government granted fewer rights to consumers.
b. It was a political program that led the Democratic Party platform to change only slightly.
c. It was a political program that decreased southern segregation significantly.
d. It was a political program that integrated the notion of economic security into the definition of American
freedom.
e. It was a political program that greatly helped African-Americans secure employment.
2. What was the result of the 1932 elections?
a. The Republicans maintained control of the House and Senate.
b. The Republicans only won the White House.
c. The Democrats gained control of the presidency and Congress.
d. The third-party Progressives won 20 percent of the seats in the House.
e. The Democrats won the presidency for the fourth straight election.
3. Which of the following best describes the significance of the Columbia River project?
a. It typified New Deal public-works programs designed to keep natural resources in public rather than private
control.
b. Its result, the Grand Coulee Dam, produced the most expensive electricity in the nation.
c. Its complete failure reflected the overall lack of public support for building projects.
d. Its consideration of environmental impact (such as accommodation for fish) became a model for future dam
projects on western rivers.
e. It proved that corporations could be massively successful if left to their own devices.
4. What political group most influenced FDR’s New Deal?
a. communists
b. socialists
c. Greenbackers
d. Progressives
e. Populists
5. In which way was “liberalism” redefined by the New Deal?
a. as liberty of movement
b. as the right to pursue happiness
c. as having faith in reason
d. as limited government and free-market economics
e. as an effort by the government to protect and deliver for the people
6. Liberalism during the New Deal
a. uplifted the free market.
b. benefited African-Americans and immigrant minorities.
c. believed in limited government intervention.
d. encouraged individual autonomy, limited government, and unregulated capitalism.
e. took its modern meaning.
7. Franklin D. Roosevelt
a. promised the government would not interfere with businesses.
b. won elections by a close margin.
c. was born into poverty.
d. lost the use of his legs after he became president.
e. was from the upper class.
8. Why was the Glass-Steagall Act a key piece of legislation?
a. It took on the debt of commercial banks to ensure their solvency and financial health.
b. It established a gold standard to shore up the strength of the American dollar.
c. It banned commercial banks from involvement in buying and selling stocks, and set up the FDIC.
d. It proved to be a temporary financial measure that did not survive beyond the Great Depression.
e. It decreased the government’s power over the financial system.
9. What was one result of the National Recovery Administration’s actions?
a. The Great Depression ended.
b. Differences between workers and management were resolved.
c. Most automakers went bankrupt.
d. Unions were strengthened.
e. Larger companies were able to dominate the code-writing process at the expense of smaller ones.
10. During the electoral campaign of 1932, which was the divisive issue between Republicans and Democrats?
a. economic policies
b. involvement of the federal government in the everyday lives of citizens
c. racial equality
d. continuation of Prohibition
e. workers’ rights
11. During the 1932 election, FDR
a. promised a “new deal.”
b. provided great detail of the plan he would put into practice.
c. praised Hoover on his spending policy.
d. explained why he would continue with Prohibition.
e. was the candidate of the Republican Party.
12. When he entered office, Roosevelt
a. had a detailed plan of what he intended to do.
b. relied on the advice of a group of intellectuals and social workers.
c. promised to increase government spending.
d. planned to favor business owners.
e. promoted the full integration of immigrants to America.
13. Which of the following is the most accurate characterization of FDR’s New Deal philosophy?
a. FDR was not concerned that direct relief payments to the jobless would undermine self-reliance.
b. FDR preferred to create jobs that improved the nation’s infrastructure.
c. FDR was at odds with most of his cabinet and the majority of Congress over the Economy Act.
d. FDR opposed the CCC, fearing its goals of unemployment relief and environmental enhancement were too
ambitious for his first 100 days in office.
e. FDR preferred to create permanent jobs instead of temporary ones.
14. According to Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, how could corporations have prevented the Great
Depression?
a. by prohibiting unions
b. by investing locally
c. by exporting more goods overseas
d. by giving workers more purchasing power
e. by promoting artificial pricing
15. Harold Ickes directed which of the following?
a. Tennessee Valley Authority
b. National Recovery Administration
c. Public Works Administration
d. Civilian Conservation Corps
e. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
16. Which of the following statements best describes Roosevelt’s group of advisers known as the “Brains Trust”?
a. The “brains trust” saw small corporations as an inevitable part of the modern economy.
b. The “brains trust” believed that large corporations needed to be directed by the government.
c. The “brains trust” included professional athletes.
d. The “brains trust” was strictly opposed to the First New Deal.
e. The “brains trust” believed that large corporations needed to be dismantled.
17. The first thing that Roosevelt attended to as president was the ________ crisis.
a. banking
b. migration
c. civil liberties
d. political
e. corruption
18. Why did President Franklin D. Roosevelt dissolve the Civil Works Administration?
a. Its head, Harold Ickes, had become embroiled in a corruption scandal.
b. The CWA had worked so efficiently that it ran out of projects by the end of 1935.
c. Regular Americans were complaining that they failed to see the benefits of this works program.
d. Some complained this was going to create a permanent class of government dependents.
e. It had been established by his predecessor, Herbert Hoover.
19. The National Industrial Recovery Act
a. established business codes for several industries.
b. confirmed a free-market policy.
c. promoted free business practices.
d. provided incentives for the creation of new industries.
e. accepted “unfair” competition between companies.
20. What caused the Dust Bowl?
a. soil erosion
b. a crop fungus
c. oil drilling
d. coal mining
e. road building
21. The Resettlement Administration
a. oversaw the eviction of sharecroppers and tenant farmers from unsuitable farmland.
b. established temporary relief camps for displaced migrant workers.
c. was widely considered the First New Deal’s most successful initiative.
d. limited its scope to setting up permanent housing communities such as Greenbelt.
e. was expanded to the West after its success in the South.
22. The Civilian Conservation Corps
a. was created to patrol national borders.
b. helped senior citizens find suitable jobs.
c. provided free education to young women.
d. gave work to unemployed young men in jobs having to do with the environment.
e. gave work to unemployed young men in jobs in small factories.
23. Which of the following offers the best description of the First New Deal?
a. It reduced the nation’s unemployment rate by 80 percent.
b. It saw more failure than success, in terms of job creation and infrastructure improvement.
c. It faced very little challenge from critics across a broad spectrum of American society.
d. It was essentially a set of policy experiments that had mixed results.
e. It had little effect on the role of the government.
24. What statement is true of the Federal Housing Administration?
a. The FHA gave loans directly to home buyers.
b. The FHA issued short-term money for renters.
c. Under FHA guidance, expensive homes were built.
d. The FHA insured long-term mortgages issued by private banks.
e. The FHA focused on renting apartments rather than home purchases.
25. The Tennessee Valley Authority
a. created national parks that promoted outdoor activities.
b. competed with private companies in the business of selling electricity.
c. was created and administrated by the federal government.
d. did not compete with private companies.
e. lasted three months.
26. Which two New Deal programs did the Supreme Court rule unconstitutional?
a. Securities and Exchange Commission and Public Works Administration
b. National Recovery Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps
c. Glass-Steagall Act and Agricultural Adjustment Act
d. Fair Labor Standards Act and National Recovery Administration
e. Agricultural Adjustment Act and National Recovery Administration
27. By 1935, the New Deal
a. had ended the Depression.
b. had the full support of the Supreme Court.
c. was validated in the United States v. Butler decision.
d. faced mounting pressures and criticism.
e. was declared unconstitutional.
28. What factor contributed to the growth of union membership in the 1930s?
a. workers’ militancy and the tactical skills of a new generation of leaders
b. the government’s unsympathetic view of workers’ rights
c. the minimal amount of labor unrest during the 1930s
d. the American Federation of Labor’s willingness to organize unions of industrial workers
e. the United Auto Workers’ opposition to sit-down strikes
29. Why did workers during the 1930s make demands that went beyond better wages?
a. They wanted to participate in management decisions.
b. They were hoping that the economic crisis could be the beginning of a socialist revolution.
c. They generally preferred government employment over jobs with private businesses.
d. They were hoping to establish a set of basic civil liberties for workers.
e. Their wages were already so high that they had to find a new agenda for which to fight.
30. The Agricultural Adjustment Act
a. was administered locally.
b. attempted to lower farm prices.
c. was intended to raise farm prices.
d. formed part of the Second New Deal.
e. banned production quotas.
31. What did the election of Roosevelt mean to many American industrial workers?
a. a federal government more sympathetic to the plight of small businesses
b. fear that Roosevelt would advocate for welfare capitalism rather than collective bargaining
c. hope for an end to the miniature dictatorships of factory managers and owners
d. less support for industrial strikes that might cripple America’s economic recovery
e. a new era of full employment and job security for all Americans
32. The Dust Bowl carried dust as far away as what city?
a. Washington, D.C.
b. Los Angeles
c. Pittsburgh
d. Chicago
e. Charlotte
33. Which statement is true about the UAW sit-down strikes in Flint, Michigan?
a. The Democratic governor used force against the workers.
b. The workers were disunited.
c. The workers failed to get General Motors to negotiate.
d. The workers stayed inside the plants and kept the machines in working order.
e. The UAW were the first to use sit-down tactics.
34. Fearing a sit-down strike in 1937, how did U.S. Steel react?
a. The company hired private detectives to infiltrate the Steel Workers Organizing Committee.
b. The company hired a private police force to prevent a sit-down.
c. The company offered a slight raise, but refused to recognize the Steel Workers Organizing Committee.
d. The company agreed to recognize the Steel Workers Organizing Committee.
e. The company asked several states to send a militia.
35. New Deal housing policy
a. was created to protect current homeowners and provide incentives for new homeowners.
b. deepened previous government practices.
c. helped very few Americans get new homes.
d. was created to protect loaning banks and landlords.
e. failed to address the needs of families wanting to buy homes.
36. What did the Twenty-first Amendment do?
a. ended literacy requirements for voting
b. ended Prohibition
c. allowed women to vote
d. gave workers the right to form unions
e. allowed men and women to carry guns for self-defense.
37. Which of the following statements best describes the CIO’s philosophy about the role of government in
relation to labor?
a. Unions could work in cooperation with employers to raise wages and create consumer demand.
b. Government could shield Americans from economic insecurity through health care and housing.
c. Government could not be trusted, as was made clear in 1934 when elected officials across America called on
local police to break up strikes and arrest labor leaders.
d. Government agencies could be entrusted with negotiating labor contracts on behalf of union members.
e. It continued the AFL’s tradition of organizing workers by craft to carry out multiple dialogues with the
government.
38. Which of the following statements is correct?
a. Huey Long and Upton Sinclair generated movements of popular protest that helped spark the First New
Deal.
b. The popular followings of Upton Sinclair, Huey Long, and Dr. Francis Townsend reflected the unhappiness
of many Americans over regulation of banks and businesses.
c. Dr. Francis Townsend’s idea to have the elderly receive monthly government payments was uniformly
rejected and died very quickly.
d. Upton Sinclair met his death in 1935 from an assassin’s bullet.
e. Upton Sinclair won the Democratic nomination for governor in 1934.
39. How did the Supreme Court judges react to New Deal laws?
a. They invalidated key initiatives, as conservative judges continued to understand freedom as liberty of
contract.
b. They sided with Roosevelt and ruled in favor of new legislation.
c. They decided based on the case and did not rule consistently.
d. Some supported the New Deal’s policies and some did not.
e. They tended to support economic changes, but not social ones.
40. How was the era of the mid-1930s, a period characterized by unprecedented labor militancy, referred to by its
contemporaries?
a. “return to laissez–faire economics”
b. “era of entrepreneurial development”
c. “women to the front”
d. “time of anarchy”
e. “labor’s great upheaval”
41. Who was Charles E. Coughlin?
a. He was a “radio priest” who criticized Wall Street bankers.
b. He was the chaplain to Congress.
c. He was a preacher who held revivals on the radio.
d. He was a priest who became an adviser to FDR.
e. He was a rabbi who warned Americans about Hitler.
42. Religion on the radio in the 1930s
a. had little influence on American public views about politics.
b. paved the way for broadcast media to disseminate religious messages.
c. was characterized by Father Charles E. Coughlin, whose show criticizing government economic
intervention amounted to a “holy crusade” in support of big business and Wall Street bankers.
d. replaced traveling evangelist preachers.
e. was briefly popular before dying out prior to the start of World War II.
43. What was ironic about the actions of some fundamentalist preachers?
a. Some embraced communism, which criticized organized religion.
b. Some preachers advocated going to the movies on Sundays instead of church.
c. They gave sermons that portrayed Jesus as a corporate leader.
d. They contradicted their anti-modernist message by using radio broadcasting.
e. Some mistakenly defended evolution.
44. Which of the following statements explains why the phrase “labor’s great upheaval” accurately describes some
of the events of 1934?
a. Small-scale craft workers participated in strikes on an unprecedented level.
b. The violent textile strike on the East Coast was overwhelmingly successful.
c. Five thousand auto workers in Toledo, Kansas, battled the police and the National Guard.
d. There were at least 2,000 strikes that year, many producing violent confrontations with police.
e. Peaceful protests successfully changed nearly all standing labor laws.
45. By 1935, Huey Long and Francis Townsend had made which of the following approaches to economic
recovery less politically attractive for New Dealers?
a. agricultural reform
b. Social Security reform
c. the regulation of the stock market
d. efforts at general business recovery
e. pushing for the unionization of the nation’s labor force
46. Assess the results of the Rural Electrification Agency.
a. Farms did not only gain electricity, but also radios, refrigerators, and mechanical equipment to milk cows.
b. More farms had electricity, but virtually no appliances or equipment that used electricity.
c. Money was never disbursed to create electricity distribution.
d. Most of the power created went to large metropolitan areas first, leaving little electricity for use in rural
areas.
e. By 1950, about half the homes in rural America had electricity.
47. Which of the following best describes the Works Progress Administration?
a. It refused employment to professionals such as dentists.
b. It put 3 million Americans to work every year until 1943.
c. Its construction projects included mansions, private restaurants, and banks.
d. It employed people to write novels, screenplays, and satirical skits.
e. It aimed to end public art.
48. In contrast to the American Federation of Labor, the Congress of Industrial Organizations fought for
a. the organization of workers by craft.
b. freedom of speech.
c. industrial democracy.
d. paid vacations.
e. educating industrial workers.
49. Which of the following Second New Deal measures came closest to meeting the demands of the Congress of
Industrial Organizations for workplace democracy?
a. Social Security
b. Federal Housing Administration
c. the Wagner Act
d. the Works Progress Administration
e. the Security and Exchange Commission
50. Upton Sinclair
a. represented factory owners in California.
b. manipulated information to win elections.
c. circulated false information about his opponent.
d. won elections in 1934.
e. wanted to provide jobs for the unemployed.
51. Which statement about the Social Security Act is correct?
a. It excluded aid to families with dependent children.
b. It was original in its concept and design.
c. Congress forced the provision for national health insurance into the original bill.
d. It created a system of unemployment insurance.
e. Its coverage excluded most poor whites from the program.
52. Which statement about the New Deal is true?
a. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) helped small tenant farmers like those living in the Dust Bowl.
b. The first New Deal dealt mostly with economic security.
c. The New Deal championed civil rights and actively worked at ending Jim Crow.
d. The Second New Deal dealt mostly with economic recovery.
e. Social Security was a Second New Deal program.
53. The Share Our Wealth movement
a. wanted to confiscate the wealth of the richest Americans.
b. was led by Franklin Roosevelt’s brother.
c. never intended to become a national political party.
d. was part of the First New Deal.
e. pushed the country’s large corporations to invest in Latin American countries.
54. In fireside chats and public addresses, President Roosevelt connected freedom with
a. economic security.
b. cuts in government spending.
c. Keynesian economic theory.
d. economic inequality.
e. laissez-faire economics.
55. How did Roosevelt’s opponents characterize liberty?
a. Liberty meant the economic security of having a job that paid for food, clothing, and shelter.
b. The federal government needed to freely spend money to create jobs.
c. Liberty meant freedom from powerful government.
d. Free speech needed to be protected in the workplace.
e. Unions needed to be officially recognized in order to protect workers’ rights.
56. The Second New Deal focused on
a. economic recovery.
b. economic security.
c. political rights.
d. equality.
e. shrinking the size of the federal government.
57. What was the focus of the Second New Deal?
a. business recovery
b. sustaining mass purchasing power among the population
c. promoting employment in private businesses
d. aiding agricultural workers
e. maintaining economic inequality
58. In Roosevelt’s 1934 fireside chat, what did he fear wasting?
a. plastics
b. workers
c. money
d. animals
e. energy
59. The Wagner Act
a. promoted associations among business owners.
b. created a state-sponsored union for all factory employees.
c. suspended labor unions.
d. was considered the “Labor’s Magna Carta” because it brought democracy into the American workplace.
e. was passed to promote full employment by lowering wages.
60. According to John Steinbeck’s “Harvest Gypsies,” how were the migrant farm workers of the Great Depression
different from those in earlier time periods?
a. Earlier migrants were paid more money.
b. Many of the migrants of the Great Depression had owned land.
c. The migrant workers of the Great Depression had never had homes.
d. The Great Depression migrants were treated with much more respect.
e. The migrant workers of earlier time periods were rarely immigrants.
61. The Social Security Act of 1935
a. was first envisioned by President Hoover.
b. was financed by general government revenues.
c. provided pensions to the aged and unemployment benefits.
d. applied to agricultural workers.
e. was fully controlled by the federal government.
62. The original Social Security bill envisioned which of the following benefits that was dropped in Congress?
a. a national system of health insurance
b. business-recovery measures
c. anti-competition laws
d. compulsory education
e. a plan for government spending to modernize the state
63. How did President Franklin D. Roosevelt describe the notion of a “liberty of contract”?
a. He described it as the “foundation of social justice.”
b. He rejected it as a violation of his own socialist principles.
c. He dismissed it as an un–American idea “from the welfare states of Europe.”
d. He denounced it as a service to the interest of “the privileged few.”
e. He compared it to the civil right to marry whom you love.
64. In the presidential election of 1936
a. Roosevelt chose not to run again.
b. business leaders supported the Democratic Party.
c. the so-called New Deal Coalition reelected FDR in a landslide.
d. the Republican candidate Alfred Landon promised to expand Social Security.
e. the Republican candidate Alfred Landon almost won.
65. Why did Roosevelt’s Republican challenger, Alfred Landon, fail in his bid for the presidency in 1936?
a. His traditional urban Catholic constituency considered him too radical.
b. The Republican establishment thought him too much like Roosevelt for their taste.
c. He had made the mistake of relying on the organizational skills of the conservative AFL.
d. He faced a powerful new political coalition that would deliver Republicans plenty of defeats for the next
few decades.
e. As a Kansas native, he could not win the coastal population centers.
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.