Deck 11: Technology, Culture, and Everyday Life

Question 1

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Minstrel shows

Answer 1

Answer not provided.

Question 2

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Hydropathy

Answer 2

Answer not provided.

Question 3

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Isaac M. Singer

Answer 3

Answer not provided.

Question 4

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
P.T. Barnum

Question 5

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Railroad expansion

Question 6

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
American system of manufacturing

Question 7

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
James Fenimore Cooper

Question 8

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Samuel Colt

Question 9

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
New York Stock Exchange

Question 10

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Romanticism

Question 11

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
American Renaissance

Question 12

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Telegraph

Question 13

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
James Gordon Bennett and the penny press

Question 14

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
John Deere, Cyrus McCormick

Question 15

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Astor Place Riot

Question 16

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Phrenology

Question 17

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Anesthesia

Question 18

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Grahamites

Question 19

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Catharine Beecher, Treatise on Domestic Economy

Question 20

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Epidemics

Question 21

In 1851 a journal editor wrote that this had become "the great agent of civilization and progress, the most powerful instrument for good the world has yet reached." What was he referring to?

A) the locomotive
B) Hydropathy
C) American democracy
D) The New York Stock Exchange
E) Plantation slavery

Question 22

What statement best describes life for the average American farm worker in the antebellum period?

A) Most workers found it difficult to raise enough capital to buy a farm.
B) Most agricultural workers eventually owned their own farms.
C) Small family farms were rapidly being replaced by agribusiness.
D) Unlike urban workers, agricultural workers tended to have consistent employment throughout the year.
E) Compared with urban workers, farm workers placed greater emphasis on education for their children.

Question 23

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Nathaniel Hawthorne

Question 24

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
George Catlin

Question 25

Besides inventing the cotton gin, what did Eli Whitney do that furthered American manufacturing?

A) He developed railroad ties that were capable of supporting heavy weight.
B) He showed how water could be used to power textile mills.
C) He introduced the concept of interchangeable parts
D) He marketed American manufacturing products in Europe
E) He invented a heating process that removed impurities from iron.

Question 26

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Henry David Thoreau

Question 27

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Walt Whitman

Question 28

What impact did technological changes have on the American worker before the Civil War?

A) Prices of many commodities rose.
B) Hourly wages rose.
C) The purchasing power of the average worker rose.
D) The purchasing power of the average worker declined.
E) Annual income declined.

Question 29

How did the McCormick reaper help the North when the Civil War?

A) It forced the South to invest more and more into slavery to keep up production
B) It proved to the border states that the North was technologically more advanced.
C) It allowed the North to keep agricultural production high even though many farmers went to fight.
D) It ensured that France would remain pro-North during the war.
E) It enabled the North to grow more corn than the South.

Question 30

How did the penny press change publishing?

A) Political and commercial coverage became subordinated to human interest stories of robberies, murders, rapes, and abandoned children.
B) Many publishers were driven out of business because of overproduction and low prices.
C) Newspapers could now afford to publish more hard-core news.
D) For the first time, politicians could afford to use the presses to print leaflets and treatises.
E) None of these choices

Question 31

What was one of the advantages of the "American system" of manufacturing?

A) Inventors would have more time to develop their inventions slowly.
B) Manufacturers would have a convenient way of excluding outside investors.
C) Foreigners would have no way of copying American machines.
D) Damaged parts could be replaced easily.
E) American craftsmen could demonstrate their skills to the British.

Question 32

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Literary Nationalism

Question 33

Romanticism in literature was characterized by

A) show learning and refinement.
B) veneration of timeless traditions and respect for previous work.
C) emphasis on the author's inner feelings and emotions.
D) respect for kings, queens, knights, and nobles.
E) sex and violence.

Question 34

Which of the following statements accurately describes railroads in the United States in 1860?

A) The United States had more track than the rest of the world combined.
B) American railroads lacked government support and therefore lagged behind the rest of the world.
C) Railroad owners faced financial difficulties because they could not compete with canals.
D) The railroads brought about the decline of the once great city of Chicago.
E) They had an international reputation for punctuality.

Question 35

Which of the following statements best captures the attitude of many antebellum Americans about technology?

A) They believed that technology was democratic and would help everyone.
B) They believed that technology was a force for positive change.
C) They believed that technology was God's chosen instrument of progress.
D) They believed that technology would help to make up for a labor shortage.
E) All of these choices

Question 36

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Margaret Fuller

Question 37

Isaac Singer transformed American society by

A) designing a practical sanitation system that enabled cities to clean up their streets.
B) patenting a practical sewing machine that allowed for the mass production of textiles.
C) organizing inventors into specific groups which allowed them to work on projects together.
D) introducing science into farms and showed how healthier animals and larger crop yields could be produced.
E) persuading Congress to create the National Academy of Sciences.

Question 38

How was the building of the railroads in the United States financed?

A) By state and local governments
B) By the federal government
C) By private investors
D) By overseas investors
E) All of these choices

Question 39

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Edgar Allan Poe

Question 40

Instructions: Identify the following. Be as specific as possible, and include names, dates, and relevant facts as appropriate. Be sure to explain the significance of the person or term.
Hudson River school

Question 41

Which of the following was not one of the causes of nationwide epidemics in the United States during the antebellum period?

A) Municipal health boards had little power and therefore could do nothing to stop diseases from spreading.
B) People distrusted physicians and their advice.
C) Doctors did not understand the causes of disease.
D) The transportation revolution enabled epidemics to spread.
E) The widespread use of laughing gas by young people seriously suppressed their immune systems.

Question 42

Which of the following statements does not accurately describe railroad travel in the antebellum period?

A) Delays were frequent.
B) Trains often traveled at night to avoid bandit attacks.
C) Scheduling was a nightmare.
D) Passengers sometimes had to help stop the train.
E) Locomotives often showered passengers with sparks.

Question 43

Which of the following was not a popular health or scientific movement in antebellum America?

A) Hydropathy
B) Vegetarianism
C) Epidemiology
D) Phrenology
E) Temperance

Question 44

What was one of the changes that transformed American newspapers in the decades before the Civil War?

A) Publishers had to increase the price in order to maintain a profit.
B) Fewer newspapers were printed because Americans turned to other sources of information.
C) Most of them became semi-official organs of national political parties.
D) They began to print more political and commercial news rather than celebrity news.
E) They began to print "human-interest" stories rather than just political and commercial news.

Question 45

Transcendentalism was the belief that

A) All people (male and female; black and white) were equal in their shared humanity.
B) each person should discover truth on their own.
C) the true source of creativity was the divine.
D) women and men should each occupy and dominate their own separate spheres in society.
E) human beings' true nature was revealed by their outer demeanor.

Question 46

The popular minstrel show helped to shape public perceptions of blacks during the antebellum period because it

A) accustomed white Americans to seeing blacks in public roles.
B) helped to convince northerners that slavery should be abolished.
C) reinforced stereotypes of blacks as stupid and clumsy.
D) exposed middle class audiences to the beauties of African-American music.
E) presented free blacks as suave and sophisticated urbanites.

Question 47

Which of the following statements is true concerning a typical antebellum theater?

A) Lawyers were welcomed, but prostitutes were excluded.
B) There were very few seats, and most of them were expensive.
C) Classical Greek drama was usually performed.
D) Audiences were rowdy.
E) It was not a popular form of entertainment because revivalists accused theaters of being houses of sin.

Question 48

What type of urban housing developed during the early nineteenth century?

A) Unattached frame houses
B) One-story brick houses
C) Row houses
D) Condominiums
E) Garden apartments

Question 49

How did John Deere's steel-tipped plow change American agriculture?

A) It cut in half the labor needed to till the soil for planting.
B) It facilitated crop rotation which allowed each acre under cultivation to produce greater yields.
C) It made farming so efficient that more people could afford to buy land and start farms.
D) It persuaded Congress to subsidize the development of other farm technology.
E) It could harvest wheat seven times as fast and with fewer work than previously.

Question 50

What was one of the results of rising urban land values in the early nineteenth-century American city?

A) Many row houses were subdivided and occupied by many families.
B) Homeownership became more common.
C) Cities expanded by annexing additional land.
D) Fewer people occupied each row house.
E) Tenements were replaced with lavish mansions.

Question 51

What medical development greatly advanced the image of surgeons and the success of health care in the decades before the Civil War?

A) The development of anesthesia
B) The discovery of the cause of epidemics
C) The development of new varieties of surgical steel that resulted in sharper scalpels
D) The realization of the importance of cleanliness
E) All of these choices

Question 52

Phrenology - the belief that bumps on the skull reveal an individual's personality - was appealing to Americans because

A) It had deep roots in the scientific community.
B) In a rapidly changing world, it provided a quick way to size up other people.
C) It had the endorsement of major religious organizations.
D) It was quick and easy to learn and master.
E) None of these choices

Question 53

How did home furniture change during the antebellum period?

A) Furniture came to reflect an informal style of life.
B) Furniture became "democratized" as rich and poor were more likely to buy the same types.
C) Furniture became more ornate.
D) Furniture became more expensive but less durable.
E) The upper classes distinguished themselves from the rising middle class through ornate furniture.

Question 54

Why were novels popular among American women in the antebellum period?

A) They often contained very realistic descriptions of intimate relationships.
B) Since they were fairly expensive, owning books was a sign of status.
C) They taught women to depend upon strong males.
D) The sentimental or domestic novel addressed themes and taught lessons that spoke to middle class women.
E) Middle class women liked the escapism of sensationalist stories of murder mystery and horror.

Question 55

What region was the center of gun manufacturing by 1860?

A) the South
B) The Mid-Atlantic
C) New England
D) the Midwest
E) the Southwest

Question 56

Phineas T. Barnum was described as the father of mass entertainment in the U.S. because

A) He was famous for shows featuring oddities and curiosities that drew audiences.
B) He knew how to profit from the public's demand for stimulation and excitement.
C) He knew how to drum up publicity to bring people out to his shows.
D) All of these choices
E) None of these choices.

Question 57

Who was the most popular dramatist in antebellum America?

A) Edwin Forrest
B) William Shakespeare
C) Stephen Foster
D) James Fenimore Cooper
E) Lydia Sigourney

Question 58

Sylvester Graham was

A) a prominent health food advocate.
B) a crusader for improved public sanitation.
C) the manager of a popular hydropathic sanatorium.
D) the nation's leading phrenologist.
E) the founder of a utopian community.

Question 59

What is the significance of Margaret Fuller's book Woman in the Nineteenth Century ?

A) It is the first complete history of U.S. women.
B) It was the first book to promote separate spheres ideology.
C) It argued that a woman could not achieve intellectual fulfillment unless she was free to develop her mind without the fear of being labeled "masculine."
D) It became the cornerstone of the women's suffrage movement.
E) None of these choices

Question 60

What advance in heating and cooking occurred in antebellum America?

A) Americans adopted the open-hearth method of cooking.
B) Central heating became standard in tenement buildings.
C) Natural gas stoves became less common.
D) Coal-burning stoves were introduced
E) Electricity became common.

Question 61

How did technology help to improve the quality of life for the antebellum American? Who benefited the most, and who benefited the least, and why did the gap between some classes widen? Discuss especially the impact of house construction, furniture, heating, and diet.

Question 62

By the 1850s where was the center of modern investment firms?

A) Washington, D.C.
B) Chicago
C) New York
D) Boston
E) Pittsburgh

Question 63

What was the "American system of manufacturing"? Why did it intrigue Europeans? What were its advantages?

Question 64

How did the writings of Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman differ from those of Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville?

A) Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman wrote only novels.
B) Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville had a pessimistic view of the human condition.
C) Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman celebrated the aggressiveness of their countrymen.
D) Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville sought wide commercial success, while Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman preferred to write for a small elite audience.
E) Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville wrote mainly about European themes and experiences.

Question 65

How did Americans' relationship to and understanding of the land contribute to agricultural innovation in the decades before the Civil War? How did other factors contribute to innovation?

Question 66

Analyze American entertainment before 1860. What were the principal forms of entertainment, and how did they reflect American stereotypes and prejudices?

Question 67

Why did many antebellum Americans turn to practical or popular science? How does that interest demonstrate a basic American optimism about life and society?

Question 68

Which of the following statements concerning Samuel Colt is true?

A) He was a master publicist.
B) He patented a repeating pistol with a rotating chambered-breach.
C) He helped to bring the price of guns down.
D) He had a genius for popularizing gun ownership.
E) All of these choices

Question 69

Which of the following scents would have been present in most antebellum cities?

A) Body odor
B) Animal manure
C) Human waste
D) All of these choices
E) None of these choices

Question 70

How did technological advancements in the antebellum period influence the development of agriculture? How and why did these developments increase the differences between the North and the South?

Question 71

Which of the following does not reflect an accurate description of the budget of a working-class family in an urban area?

A) The main breadwinner in a family typically made less than $300 per year.
B) Approximately 70 percent of a family's income went towards food and rent.
C) To meet basic needs, many working-class children had to work.
D) Most families lived close to the margin.
E) Skyrocketing commodity prices pushed many families to the edge of starvation.

Question 72

What were the goals of the Hudson River school of painters?

A) They wanted to depict natural scenes with photographic accuracy.
B) They wanted to preserve a record of a disappearing wilderness.
C) They wanted to depict scenes of ruined castles and crumbling temples.
D) They wanted to demonstrate that art could thrive outside of New York City.
E) None of these choices

Question 73

Who argued that technological advances would allow the American woman to transform her home into a "glorious temple"?

A) Elizabeth Cady Stanton
B) Dorothea Dix
C) Catharine Beecher
D) Alice Paul
E) Abigail Adams

Question 74

How did railroads grow in the decades before the Civil War? What impact did they have on the economic development of the antebellum United States? In what sense were railroads the nation's first "big business"?

Question 75

What was one of the purposes of the lyceum lectures?

A) They were designed to introduce controversial topics.
B) They were designed to spread and popularize knowledge and self-improvement.
C) They were designed to teach Americans how to paint.
D) They were designed to prevent the working class from spending their free time in saloons.
E) They were designed to stimulate interest in gambling.

Question 76

What happened in New Orleans in 1832 and 1833?

A) Hurricane Camille destroyed most of the city and killed 25,000 people.
B) Measles swept through the city killing 50 percent of the children under age 10.
C) An epidemic of yellow fever and cholera killed 1/5 of the population.
D) After a group of slaves attempted a rebellion, the army occupied the city and executed 250 slave leaders.
E) A fire swept through most of the housing districts killing 15,000 people.

Question 77

Why did movements for rural cemeteries and urban parks develop during the antebellum period?

A) There was a fear that sprawling urban growth was destroying the spiritual healing that nature provided.
B) There was a desire to meet the working-class demand for a quiet place to relax.
C) There was a desire to demonstrate that cities could support themselves.
D) There was a hope of taming the undeveloped areas that still remained within city borders.
E) There was a need to find a use for undeveloped city land.

Question 78

Which of these did physicians attribute to the cause and spread of epidemic diseases in the mid-nineteenth century?

A) Intercontinental travel.
B) Gases that arose from rotten vegetables or dead animals.
C) Bacteria.
D) Sinfulness.
E) All of these choices

Question 79

In his 1837 address "The American Scholar," Ralph Waldo Emerson argued that Americans needed to

A) improve their literature by emulating European forms.
B) trust themselves rather than rely on Europeans for their sense of culture.
C) create literature that conformed to universal standards of beauty and taste.
D) reform their education system.
E) to turn away from scholarship and concentrate on farming.

Question 80

Explore some of the major public health issues in the antebellum period. What major health problems existed? How did Americans attempt to deal with them? How successful were they in either eliminating and/or improving the conditions?