Which of the following was the key evidence in the Watergate Affair, several pieces of
which were deliberately erased or disposed of?
A) Nixon’s letters offering to pay the burglars to keep quiet
B) Nixon’s nightly memos that detailed all the directives he gave to “the plumbers”
C) Nixon’s secret tape recordings of White House conversations and telephone calls
D) Nixon’s extensive diaries that detailed the many illegal acts he authorized
Which of the following became a major weakness for the presidential candidacy of
John McCain?
A) his “maverick” voting record in Congress
B) his selection of the inexperienced Sarah Palin as his running mate
C) his lack of proof of his claim that he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam
D) Barack Obama’s vast experience
How were families of the unemployed affected by the Great Depression?
A) Grandparents tended to become more important than parents.
B) Wives’ influence tended to increase.
C) Parents’ authority tended to increase.
D) The birthrate increased sharply.
What did the Roosevelt administration do in response to the slaughter of Jews by the
Nazis?
A) almost nothing
B) destroyed railroads leading to the death camps
C) helped Jewish refugees escape
D) bombed the death camps
The idea that “cotton is king” played a major role in the way __________.
A) the South conducted foreign affairs
B) Lincoln viewed slavery
C) Davis was chosen president of the Confederacy
D) Lincoln viewed foreign policy
An examination of the Confederate war effort reveals which of the following?
A) There was a serious lack of arms and ammunition.
B) Northern military might was overwhelming.
C) Southern armies did not lose any battles because of a lack of armaments.
D) Southern armies were well supplied with shoes and uniforms.
In works like The Gross Clinic, American painter Thomas Eakins __________.
A) captured the realism of the new scientific age
B) revealed his great debt to the French impressionists
C) demonstrated his raw, untrained talent
D) explored a brooding, mystical world
Senator Charles Sumner was beaten unconscious by a member of the House of
Representatives after __________.
A) he gave his “The Crime Against Kansas” speech
B) he himself had assaulted a Senator from South Carolina
C) the sacking of Lawrence in Kansas in 1856
D) he had openly protested the capture of the free African American Anthony Burns in
Boston
In 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Republican Party effectively used which issue
to defeat the Democrats?
A) the Korean War
B) the espionage crisis
C) the economic recession
D) the escalating national debt
Why did the British change their strategy against the United States in 1814?
A) They could expect the support of France and Spain at that time.
B) The war in Europe, which had diverted their attention earlier, was now over.
C) The American military effort had broken down completely.
D) They had been soundly defeated in Europe.
In 1900, the United States insisted that the constitution of __________ grant America
naval bases and authorize American intervention whenever necessary to protect life,
property, and individual liberty.
A) the Philippines
B) Puerto Rico
C) Cuba
D) Panama
In conferences with the Japanese ambassador in the spring of 1941, Secretary of State
Cordell Hull __________.
A) attempted to satisfy Japanese demands for raw materials
B) threatened Japan with war unless it withdrew from the Philippines
C) insisted that Japan withdraw from China and pledge no further aggression
D) demonstrated his sophisticated appreciation of the military and political situation in
East Asia
John C. Calhoun of South Carolina was __________.
A) a smooth political manipulator who avoided taking political positions whenever
possible
B) a poorly educated, rough-and-tumble, frontier politician
C) possessed by all of the virtues and most of the vices of the puritan, being suspicious
both of himself and of others
D) devoted to the South, but known for his broad national view of political affairs
In August 1991, hard-line communists launched an unsuccessful coup against which
Soviet president?
A) Boris Yeltsin
B) Eduard Shevardnadze
C) Mikhail Gorbachev
D) Vladimir Putin
Which statement about President Bush and the Persian Gulf War is true?
A) President Bush was highly criticized by the American public for embroiling U.S.
troops in the Middle East.
B) There was general ambivalence by the American public regarding U.S. involvement
in the Persian Gulf and of President Bush’s performance in general.
C) People generally approved of the war, but not President Bush’s performance as chief
executive.
D) An overwhelming majority of the American public approved of President Bush’s
handling of the war and his performance as president.
The __________ broadly defined American citizenship and reduced the power of all the
states.
A) Reconstruction Act
B) Fourteenth Amendment
C) Fifteenth Amendment
D) Wade-Davis Bill
What was the purpose of the Grand Army of the Republic in the late nineteenth
century?
A) to fight Prairie Indians
B) to quell labor strikes
C) to provide disasters relief and aid in fires
D) to organize Union veterans of the Civil War
By the 1850s the United States led the world in the production of which of the
following?
A) coal, steel, and iron
B) heavy industrial machinery
C) goods manufactured with precision instruments
D) woolen and cotton textiles
In May 1775 shortly after it convened, the Second Continental Congress __________.
A) declared independence from Great Britain because of the battles at Lexington and
Concord
B) formed the Continental Army under the leadership of George Washington
C) organized the Continental Association to force England to repeal the Intolerable Acts
D) refused to take any action that might be seen as disloyal to England
During the Great War, the federal government asked citizens to do which of the
following?
A) Continue vigorous consumer spending.
B) Invest in the stock market.
C) Increase domestic food consumption.
D) Buy “Victory” and “Liberty” bonds.
By taking the lead in drafting the Nine-Power-Treaty, the United States did which of the
following?
A) tacitly acknowledged Japan’s territorial ambitions in China
B) formally closed the troubled chapter of the Open Door Policy
C) secured a promise from the major powers that each respect each other’s interests in
the Pacific
D) regained some of the moral influence it had lost by not joining the League of
Nations
Which of the following properly assesses the role of government in the construction of
early “internal improvements”?
A) Roads and canals were built by state and local governments.
B) Private businesses built internal improvements without any financial aid from
governments.
C) Early infrastructure projects were typically built by private businesses with
substantial aid from governments.
D) State governments built roads and canals with little involvement of private business.
Why did federal immigration agents round up Mexican Americans in the early 1930s
for deportation?
A) There was fear they might become dependent on public funds.
B) Anti-immigrant sentiment reached an all-time high in the Great Depression.
C) Republican officials resented their unionization efforts and socialist propaganda.
D) The Hoover administration did not want to alienate the Mexican government under
its new “good neighbor” policy.
Why did Jackson oppose John Marshall’s rulings about the Cherokee Nation in
Georgia?
A) He was hoping to appease his southern supporters.
B) He believed no independent nation could be allowed to exist within the United
States.
C) He was a strong advocate of states’ rights.
D) He hated Native Americans and wanted to destroy them completely.
Western opinion on public land policy in the early nineteenth century generally favored
which of the following?
A) increasing the price and the minimum size offered for sale
B) reducing the price, but increasing the minimum size offered for sale
C) reducing the price and the minimum size offered for sale
D) increasing the price, but reducing the minimum size offered for sale
Under the Dawes Severalty Act, Indians who accepted land allotments, lived ‘separate
from any tribe,” and “adopted the habits of civilized life” were allowed to __________.
A) buy the land they occupied
B) leave the reservation
C) receive cash benefits
D) become citizens
Who was the American ally and leader of the Chinese Nationalists after World War II?
A) Mao Zedong
B) Chou En-lai
C) Chiang Kai-shek
D) Sun Yat-sen
What was Jackson’s most powerful weapon against the Bank of the United States?
A) the power to remove Bank officers
B) the ability to withdraw government revenues from the Bank
C) the Specie Circular, which required the Bank to redeem its notes in gold
D) the loyal backing of prominent National Republicans such as Daniel Webster
Which of the following best characterizes the transition from a nomadic existence to a
settled agricultural life for Archaic American Indians?
A) The melting of ice sheets forced this transition abruptly.
B) In almost all tribes, this transition involved a highly personal choice.
C) The move from hunting and foraging to farming was slow and uneven.
D) Whereas the transition happened early in North America, it happened much later in
South America.
Which of the following best summarizes the point Martin Luther King Jr. was making
in his letter from the Birmingham jail?
A) He would keep demonstrating until the federal government took action.
B) He was going to love white Southerners like a good Christian no matter what they
did.
C) Asking African Americans for moderation and patience after centuries of injustice
was misguided.
D) If Southern whites could only give blacks a chance they would see how good a
people they were.
One of the causes that eventually led to restrictions on immigration was the
__________.
A) strong Protestantism of the “new” immigrants
B) immigrants’ unwillingness to work hard for low wages
C) social Darwinists’ fears that immigrants would undermine American “racial purity”
D) overwhelming number of immigrants who took advantage of the Homestead Act