Which of the following accurately assesses the way most white Americans understood
slavery?
A) They saw it as a beneficial institution.
B) They deplored it as an immoral sin.
C) They ardently wished for its nationwide expansion.
D) They understood it primarily as a local issue.
The Oregon Trail __________.
A) crossed New Mexico Territory before heading north
B) ran along the border between the United States and Canada for much of its route
C) led from western Missouri to the Willamette Valley
D) ran perpendicular to the Old Spanish Trail
What happened to violence in popular culture beginning in the late 1980s?
A) It was almost entirely eliminated in movies and television because of voluntary
censorship by producers and directors.
B) It was defended by both the National Rifle Association and the American Civil
Liberties Union.
C) It became more intense and bloody in movies, television, and music.
D) It was ignored by politicians and religious leaders.
Next to new transportation infrastructures, the U.S. economy of the early nineteenth
century also benefitted from which of the following?
A) supportive legal infrastructure
B) a powerful executive branch
C) farsighted federal monetary policy
D) a sectionally divided Congress
Until late in the eighteenth century, the Chesapeake Bay area was characterized by a
__________.
A) surplus of women settlers
B) well-ordered, church-dominated society
C) high death rate
D) large number of unmarried widows
The expansionist mood of “Young America” best explains which of the following?
A) the numerous utopian communities such as the Shakers
B) Lincoln’s election as president
C) the flood of new immigrants
D) Commodore Perry’s expedition to Japan
The use of steam __________.
A) made previous uses of water power obsolete
B) caused longer railroad lines to be built
C) competed with the use of coal in developing factories
D) allowed for greater flexibility in locating factories
An economic cause of increasing sectional conflict on the eve of the Civil War was the
decreasing importance of the __________.
A) canal system
B) cotton crop on the foreign market
C) southern wheat crop
D) Mississippi River
Who believed that the Second Bank of the United States was making “the rich richer
and the potent more powerful”?
A) Nicholas Biddle
B) Daniel Webster
C) Henry Clay
D) Andrew Jackson
Which of the following best describes Queen Liliuokalani?
A) radical communist
B) determined nationalist
C) resolute advocate of democracy
D) ardent socialist
Which of the following properly assesses the results of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713?
A) France lost its sugar colonies but was able to hold on to its Canadian provinces.
B) Spain lost its hold on Florida.
C) France gained the Louisiana Territory from the Dutch.
D) England acquired Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the Hudson Bay.
What retail shift was brought about by Sam Walton in the 1980s?
A) the use of professional salespeople and creation of a ‘shopping experience”
B) the creation of large, shopper-accessible warehouses
C) the move, against trend, to the downtown of many small communities
D) the closing of physical shops and the move to exclusively online merchandising
The October 1929 collapse of __________ signaled the end of speculative boom.
A) Morgan Guarantee and Trust
B) Ford Motor
C) the New York Stock Exchange
D) Standard Oil
In January 1815, which of the following gave states the right to assert their authority
should “deliberate, dangerous and palpable infractions of the Constitution” be made?
A) the Essex Junto
B) the Hartford Convention
C) the Federalist Papers
D) the Kentucky and Virginia Resolves
The election of James A. Garfield precipitated a great political battle over which of the
following?
A) patronage
B) pensions
C) tariffs
D) currency
Throughout the colonial era, small-scale manufacturing in the southern colonies
__________.
A) was more important than agriculture
B) stagnated
C) was comparable to that in the northern colonies
D) was instrumental in promoting rapid urban growth
After the railroads, the transformation of which of the following was the second most
important development in America’s industrial advance in the late nineteenth century?
A) petroleum production
B) iron manufacturing
C) flour and other grain milling
D) precision tool manufacturing
Individual reformers who tried to care for the physically and mentally disabled were
__________.
A) resorting to technological innovations, legal change, and education to bring about
change.
B) too unscientific to achieve anything
C) unable to make substantial progress because of the enormous scale of the problems
to be corrected
D) usually less effective than the more pragmatic and less flamboyant communitarians
Beginning in the 1880s, the source of American immigration shifted to new immigrants
from which areas?
A) northern and western Europe
B) southern and eastern Europe
C) southern and western Europe
D) northern and eastern Europe
Which of the following statements about immigrants in the West in the late 1800s is
true?
A) Only 10 percent of all Californians were foreign-born.
B) Many Mexicans came to the United States to serve as cheap labor on the railroads.
C) There were large populations of Chinese immigrants in the Southwest.
D) The West attracted Chinese immigrants, but many Irish and German ones as well.
What Texas billionaire ran as an independent candidate for president in 1992, spending
his own money to present a direct platform that combined both liberal and conservative
planks?
A) T. Boone Pickens
B) Patrick Buchanan
C) Ross Perot
D) Lamar Alexander
What was the leading issue in the presidential election of 1916?
A) Wilson’s inept efforts at domestic reform
B) American policy toward the warring powers
C) government regulation of business
D) child-labor legislation
What was a result of the new fugitive slave law from the Compromise of 1850?
A) Many Northerners were outraged at the sight of people being forced to return to
slavery.
B) Abolitionists no longer aided runaway slaves.
C) State governments in Massachusetts and Wisconsin actively helped capture runaway
slaves.
D) The Underground Railroad was destroyed.
During the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Douglas argued that territories could circumvent
the Dred Scott decision by not enacting the laws necessary for slavery. This was called
the __________.
A) Ostend Manifesto
B) Peoria Doctrine
C) Freeport Doctrine
D) Dred Scott Proviso
What was the flourishing of black literature, theatre, and music during the twenties
known as?
A) the Back to Africa Movement
B) the Cotton Club Rebellion
C) the Black Power Movement
D) the Harlem Renaissance
Who was the Wisconsin senator identified with wild charges about communists in
government?
A) Robert Taft
B) Roy Cohn
C) Joseph McCarthy
D) Adlai Stevenson
When the United States entered the Great War, from a military point of view, the
country was __________.
A) lacking both a standing army and navy
B) poorly prepared
C) extremely well prepared
D) lacking an adequate navy, although the army was first-rate and well-equipped
Why did gang violence remain a persistent problem in the new millennium?
A) Increased access to narcotics strengthened gangs’ role in the drug trade.
B) Repressive state and city governments gave urban youth no other choice but to turn
to crime.
C) Millennials tend to have lower moral standards and apprehensions than boomers.
D) Lack of job opportunities and the decline of cities made gangs attractive to youth in
the new millennium.
Who was the first Watergate special prosecutor whom Nixon fired in the Saturday Night
Massacre? was
A) Elliott Richardson
B) Peter Rodino
C) Archibald Cox
D) Sam Ervin
Which of the following was an American advantage in the war for independence?
A) an incompetent and unprofessional British army
B) a strong centralized government capable of organizing the war effort
C) British reluctance to engage in full-scale war against the colonies
D) the undivided loyalty of Americans to the patriotic cause
Which of the following accurately describes higher education in the United States in
first half of the nineteenth century?
A) Colleges tended to be overcrowded and encouraged ruthless competition among
students.
B) Coursework was intense and discipline severe.
C) A breeding ground for the nation’s political and economic elite, college curricula
focused on applicable skills and modern science.
D) There were too many colleges for too few students.
Which of the following is the best description of Kennedy’s initial approach to the race
question?
A) daring, because he integrated the National Guard
B) exceedingly cautious, urging both sides to show restraint
C) focused on the grass roots level of voting rights
D) concerned primarily with electing black members of Congress
How did the German attack on Poland affect Americans’ thinking?
A) It confirmed their isolationism and made them even more unwilling to support any
hints of mobilization for war.
B) Keeping out of the war remained an almost universal hope, but preventing a Nazi
victory became their ultimate objective.
C) They rallied to the Allied cause, demanding an immediate declaration of war against
Germany.
D) Americans realized war could no longer be avoided, but were unwilling to begin
mobilization for war.
Prior to 1943, Americans __________.
A) had no idea that the Nazis were persecuting Jews
B) urged Roosevelt to liberate the concentration camps
C) dismissed the news of Jewish persecution as either propaganda or serious
exaggeration
D) were keenly aware of the deaths of millions of Jews in German death camps
In opposition to Wilmot’s Proviso in the House of Representatives, South Carolina’s
John C. Calhoun __________.
A) organized a boycott of Congress by southern states
B) took a cane to the head of the Pennsylvania Representative, injuring him severely
C) marched out of Congress in protest
D) introduced resolutions in the Senate barring the prohibition of slavery in the
territories