d. higher education
e. social sciences
50. Prior to the twentieth century, what was humanity’s primary economic activity?
a. developing medical solutions
b. acquiring food, clothing, and shelter
c. printing books
d. inventing time-saving technologies
e. investing in stocks
51. By the early twenty-first century, what was the status of union membership in the private sector?
a. Union membership steadily increased from 1900 to 2000.
b. Military troops were used to prevent unions from meeting.
c. Less than 10 percent of workers in the private sector belonged to unions.
d. These private-sector unions were more powerful than ever.
e. Unions had been completely banned.
52. Which of the following statements describes the Black Lives Matter movement?
a. It focused on narrow platform policy rather than a broad claim to black humanity.
b. Members demanded that police practices be changed and officers using excessive force be held accountable.
c. Everybody sided with the movement.
d. It emerged in response to the deaths of armed black men at the hands of police and other authorities.
e. It failed to make use of current technology and social media to organize.
53. Which of these developed nations placed the most emphasis on religion?
a. Italy
b. Great Britain
c. Germany
d. France
e. United States
54. In 2012, how many people in the United States were murdered with guns?
a. about 100
b. about 1,000
c. nearly 5,000
d. nearly 10,000
e. more than 20,000
55. According to author Eric Foner, what was a key component of the dominant definition of freedom in the
twenty-first century?
a. economic security
b. the ability to fulfill potential unrestricted by authority
c. active participation in the democratic process, both as voters and candidates
d. fair treatment and equal pay for workers
e. universal health insurance
56. What did President Obama do in his second term that involved dealing with a historic enemy of the United
States?
a. He apologized to the governments of Colombia and Honduras for the use of unauthorized military force in
the war on drugs.
b. He moved to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba.
c. He established diplomatic relations with Afghanistan.
d. He supported a military coup in Egypt that ended badly for the United States.
e. He brokered peaceful relations with Iran.
57. Khizr Khan confronted Trump for
a. being a TV star.
b. mistreating women.
c. disrespecting minorities.
d. not serving in the U.S. military.
e. using social media.
58. To which of the following rights did Khizr Khan think Trump need to pay attention?
a. equal protection under the law
b. the right to bear arms
c. freedom of the press
d. rights of life and property
e. voting rights
59. In the early twenty-first century, how many nations had American soldiers stationed within their borders?
a. 20
b. 45
c. 80
d. 175
e. 215
60. The claims of the conservative Tea Party focused on
a. the president wanting to repeal the Fourteenth Amendment birthright to citizenship.
b. a denunciation that racial inequality continued to exist.
c. reducing the overbearing power the Obama administration was giving to the states.
d. the growth of the federal government and immigration policies.
e. banning free trade agreements with foreign nations.
61. National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden was charged with
a. publishing fake information.
b. violating the Espionage Act.
c. robbery.
d. embezzlement.
e. domestic violence.
62. Senator Bernie Sanders
a. had the support of the Democratic Party’s establishment.
b. lost to Donald Trump in the presidential election.
c. planned to dismantle the entire welfare system.
d. denounced the Occupy Wall Street movement.
e. restored the word “socialism” to the political vocabulary.
63. Which, according to Trump, were the issues of most concern to voters?
a. social inequality and development
b. criminality rates
c. foreign affairs
d. globalization and immigration
e. immigration and gender rights
64. Which of the following groups voted overwhelmingly for Trump?
a. residents of large cities
b. residents of rural areas and small towns
c. blacks
d. immigrants
e. Democrats
65. What allowed Donald Trump to be chosen as the Republican presidential candidate?
a. Other candidates within the party believed he had no chance at winning the nomination.
b. The Democratic establishment supported his candidacy.
c. He had the support of the liberals from the North.
d. He inspired the youth.
e. He got the support of immigrants.
66. How did Trump intend to promote American manufacturing?
a. by promoting free trade
b. by lowering tariffs on imported goods
c. by raising taxes paid by large corporations
d. by raising tariffs on imported goods
e. by dismantling NATO
67. How did federal courts react to Trump’s ban on travel to the United States from Muslim-majority countries?
a. They declared it unconstitutional because it violated religious freedom.
b. They declared it unconstitutional because it violated individual liberty.
c. They upheld its validity.
d. They declared it unconstitutional based on a legal technicality.
e. They stated it was constitutional because Muslims were a danger to the nation.
68. Which of the following shows how Trump felt about environmental issues?
a. He withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change.
b. He promised to stop the coal industry.
c. He reduced fuel efficiency standards for automobiles.
d. He curbed regulations aimed at controlling emissions.
e. He supported research on renewable energy.
69. On which of the following issues did Trump focus during the midterm 2018 campaign?
a. successful economic recovery
b. low unemployment
c. gender equality
d. political freedom
e. immigrants and crime
70. March for Our Lives
a. was the follow-up to the Occupy Wall Street movement.
b. was organized by high school students to demand gun control.
c. took place after Trump’s inauguration and was mostly led by women.
d. was organized by Mexican immigrants demanding citizenship.
e. was organized in support of religious freedom.
71. What does the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum commemorate?
a. the thousands of victims of lynching
b. the soldiers who died during the Iraq War
c. the soldiers who died during the Afghanistan War
d. the victims of gun violence
e. the victims of 9/11
Matching
TEST 1
___ 1. George W. Bush
___ 2. Hillary Clinton
___ 3. Barack Obama
___ 4. Colin Powell
___ 5. John McCain
___ 6. Nancy Pelosi
___ 7. Michael Brown
___ 8. Sonia Sotomayor
___ 9. John Roberts
a. sponsored a bill banning the use of torture
b. Bush’s secretary of state
c. House majority leader
d. Obama appointee to the Supreme Court
e. unarmed black eighteen-year-old shot dead in Ferguson, Missouri
f. Democratic presidential candidate in 2008
g. compassionate conservative
h. chief justice of the Supreme Court
i. elected president in 2008
TEST 2
___ 1. General Motors
___ 2. “toxic assets”
___ 3. Hurricane Katrina
___ 4. subprime mortgage
a. significantly reduced workforce
b. 2008 financial crisis
c. housing bubble
d. revealed the deep poverty in America
True/False
1. By 2007, polls showed that a large majority of Americans considered the invasion of Iraq a mistake.
2. The USA Patriot Act is a remarkably short and concise document.
3. Vice President Cheney was found guilty of perjury in Bush’s second term for a leak to the press about a CIA
operative in Africa.
4. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry served in the first Gulf War.
5. Despite the fact that there were 20 million new voters in the presidential election of 2004, only three states
changed their electoral votes compared to 2000.
6. Trump’s victory signified that the contested issue of who is entitled to full freedom and equality in America
remained unresolved.
7. Boumediene v. Bush was a victory for George W. Bush.
8. Illegal immigrants coming to the United States raised wages at the bottom of the economic ladder but failed to
spend money and pay taxes.
9. Lawrence v. Texas upheld that sexual acts between persons of the same gender were not a criminal act.
10. The 2008 financial crisis was linked to subprime mortgages.
11. The unemployment rate for African-Americans was double that for whites.
12. The Gulf oil spill showed some of the benefits of deregulation.
13. The Affordable Care Act prevented insurance companies from denying coverage to people with existing
illnesses.
14. Edward Snowden’s release of National Security Agency documents revealed the United States had spied on the
private communications of foreign leaders, including the German chancellor and French president.
15. The conservative governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, surprised his critics by supporting collective bargaining
rights for state employees.
16. According to Khizr Khan, if Donald Trump could have decided on the fate of his family, they would never have
become American.
17. Donald Trump ran an unorthodox campaign.
18. In the 2016 election, more citizens voted for Donald Trump than for Hillary Clinton.
19. Trump’s presidency seems to have softened the polarization that Americans had experienced in the last couple
of decades.
Short Answer
1. Identify and give the historical significance of each of the following terms, events, and people in a paragraph or
two.
2. In which way did Donald Trump’s election coincide with a global trend?
Essay
1. Evaluate whether the United States is an empire today. Be sure to discuss why some believe that it is and why
others disagree.
2. Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath revealed to Americans the extent of poverty in the United States, much as earlier
publications such as Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives (1890) and Michael Harrington’s The Other America
(1962) had done. Compare the responses by the federal government and by the American people to those
publications versus the aftermath of the hurricane. What do you believe needs to be done today to alleviate poverty
in the United States?
3. Write an essay that analyzes the successes and failures of Mexican immigration since the 1930s, paying close
attention to the debates surrounding Mexican immigration today.
4. How did Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns connect with the history of American freedom?
5. Assess the status of African–Americans at the beginning of the twenty–first century. Had America transformed
into a so-called postracial nation as some social commentators claimed? Why, or why not? Explain.
6. What did “freedom” mean for Americans in the early twenty–first century? Was America an “exceptional”
nation? How so? Describe the range of freedoms people experienced, or perhaps did not experience. How
would Americans describe their status at home and in the world by the end of the Obama presidency? Explain.
7. Analyze Donald Trump’s path to the White House. Make sure to include his campaign, mention his opponent,
and discuss his main ideas.
8. Compare Barack Obama and Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns. Describe their similarities and
differences.