Deck 8: From New Era to Great Depression, 1920-1932

Question 1

What did the presidential election of 1924,in which Calvin Coolidge defeated John W.Davis and Robert La Follette,reveal about American voters?

A) Their lack of support for labor unions,the regulation of business,and the protection of civil liberties
B) Their strong support for government regulation of industry and for other progressive principles
C) Low turnout showed that their interest in consumer goods far outweighed their interest in politics.
D) Their strong support for the candidate who was more physically attractive,despite his lack of political experience

Answer 1

A

Question 2

"[T]he byproducts of the [advertiser's] efforts have had prodigious effects upon our opinions,our standards of taste,our habits,and even upon our picture of a good life. We arise in the morning and we bathe.Why? Merely because soap makers have taught us the importance of cleanliness....
Beards and even mustaches have gone out of fashion because razor manufacturers persuaded us to shave.
We clean our teeth because toothpaste manufacturers have made us believe in the importance of oral hygiene.They have saved us from more aches than the dentists could cure.
Our breakfast habits are the results of the teaching of food manufacturers.The old heavy American breakfast has gone the way of the hoop skirt.Our health is better.Advertising did it.
The clothes we wear,the houses we live in,the furniture we use,our very conception of a home is the product of advertising....
If journalism is the little sister of literature,advertising began certainly as the Cinderella of selling.Now it is the great motive force in our commercial life.It is the life blood of public demand.Our material civilization has been made possible by it."
According to William Chenery's 1930 Collier's article,what represented a positive outcome of the new advertising culture?

A) Rising responsibilities faced by women homemakers
B) Changing views of homeownership
C) Improved diets
D) Greater social equality

Answer 2

C

Question 3

What did the authors of Middletown conclude from their study of life in a small midwestern town in the 1920s?

A) Modern America was by and large producing remarkably well-adjusted citizens.
B) America's basic moral and spiritual framework had been virtually untouched by rapid modernization.
C) The United States had developed a culture in which everything hinged on money.
D) The United States' technological revolution did not lead to significant social dislocation.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

What factor diluted the influence of women in politics in the 1920s?

A) A lack of unity around the issues
B) A major crime wave,which kept women from venturing to the polls
C) Required literacy tests for all new women voters
D) Laws prohibiting women from joining the major political parties

Question 5

What was the purpose of the Dawes Plan,instituted in 1924?

A) It authorized the mobilization of U.S.military forces to ensure that Germany would pay reparations.
B) It cut Germany's annual reparations payments in half and initiated fresh American loans to Germany.
C) It called for the United States to join the League of Nations in order to enforce the Kellogg-Briand pact.
D) It made provisions for the United States to assume Germany's war debts in exchange for their commitment to peace.

Question 6

In its effort to create prosperity at home,the Harding administration supported

A) high tariffs to protect American businesses.
B) nationalization of American agriculture.
C) tight government regulation of industry.
D) a large public works program called Teapot Dome.

Question 7

What was the outcome of the shift toward repetitive assembly-line work and specialized management divisions in the 1920s?

A) Lower enrollment in college and university managerial training programs
B) A worsening of safety and sanitary conditions in American factories
C) Massive layoffs of American workers in all heavy industries
D) A tremendous increase in business productivity and overall efficiency

Question 8

What was Detroit's second largest industry during the 1920s?

A) Illegal alcohol sales
B) Automobile manufacturing
C) Steel production
D) Railroad construction

Question 9

Who was responsible for the creation of "welfare capitalism" in the 1920s,and why did they use it?

A) The government created welfare capitalism to address the needs of the less fortunate.
B) Traditional labor unions established welfare capitalism to assist workers.
C) Businesses created welfare capitalism to encourage workers' loyalty to the company.
D) Socialists designed welfare capitalism to bring apolitical workers into the radical fold.

Question 10

The National Woman's party supported which of the following?

A) An Equal Rights Amendment
B) Special legal protection for women
C) Laws against black voting
D) Laws allowing child labor

Question 11

America's return to a peacetime economy in 1920 and 1921 was marked by

A) steady prices and economic well-being for most Americans.
B) a narrowing of the gap between rich and poor.
C) a 3.5 percent national unemployment rate,the lowest to date.
D) a 20 percent unemployment rate,the highest to date.

Question 12

What was the goal of the Washington Disarmament Conference?

A) To negotiate peace treaties with Germany,Austria,and Hungary
B) To convince Congress to authorize $25 million to compensate Mexico for the loss of its territory in the 1840s
C) To persuade England and France to forgive the reparations they wanted Germany to pay after World War I
D) To establish a balance of naval power among Britain,France,Japan,and Italy

Question 13

Federal authorities sent Al Capone to prison on what charge?

A) Murder
B) Income tax evasion
C) Bootlegging alcohol
D) Armed robbery

Question 14

Which of the following statements describes the Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921,which gave federal assistance to states seeking to reduce high infant mortality rates?

A) It was the first of a long string of women's political successes in the 1920s.
B) It demonstrated the political powerlessness of women.
C) It was a minor achievement for women in politics.
D) It was women's only significant national legislative success in the 1920s.

Question 15

Which relatively new industry in the 1920s linked the possession of material goods to the fulfillment of spiritual and emotional needs?

A) The automobile industry
B) Public relations
C) Chemical manufacturing
D) Advertising

Question 16

Which element of the American economy during the 1920s lay at the heart of its fundamental lack of stability?

A) Production
B) Increasing wages
C) Consumption
D) Employment

Question 17

What did President Calvin Coolidge's economic policy include?

A) Advocacy for government regulation of corporate America
B) Reductions in government regulation of business
C) Support for higher taxes for American businesses
D) Pressure on the courts to prosecute companies that violated antitrust laws

Question 18

President Harding's administration was characterized by

A) ongoing government control of industry.
B) financial wrongdoing on the part of the president.
C) scandals that touched many members of his administration.
D) an aggressive foreign policy.

Question 19

During the 1920s,most American women who worked had

A) manufacturing jobs in factories.
B) office and sales jobs.
C) jobs in domestic and food service.
D) medical,legal,and financial jobs.

Question 20

"By far the most famous of these dramatic advertisements of the Post-war Decade was the long series in which the awful results of halitosis were set forth through the depiction of a gallery of unfortunates whose closest friends would not tell them.'Often a bridesmaid but never a bride....Edna's case was really a pathetic one.' ...'Why did she leave him that way?' ....'That's why you're a failure,' ...and then that devilishly ingenious display which capitalized on the fears aroused by earlier tragedies in the series: the picture of a girl looking at a Listerine advertisement and saying to herself,'This can't apply to me!' Useless for the American Medical Association to insist that Listerine was 'not a true deodorant,' that it simply covered one smell with another.Just as useless as for the Life Extension Institute to find 'one out of twenty with pyorrhea [gum disease],rather than Mr.Forhan's [a mouth product] famous four-out-of five.' ...Halitosis had the power of dramatic advertising behind it,and Listerine swept to greater and greater profits on a tide of public trepidation." What attitude did Frederick Lewis Allen take toward Listerine's advertising campaign?

A) He appears apprehensive of its manipulative qualities and the lack of medical evidence supporting its product.
B) He sees the advertising campaign as a triumph for public health.
C) He believes the advertising is a nefarious example of capitalism.
D) He is pleased that advertisers are able to enforce hygienic standards on young women.

Question 21

Who wrote the 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God,an example of Harlem Renaissance literature?

A) Langston Hughes
B) Countee Cullen
C) Claude McKay
D) Zora Neale Hurston

Question 22

For which group of Americans did authors Ernest Hemingway,F.Scott Fitzgerald,William Faulkner,and Sinclair Lewis speak?

A) Corporate America and the nation's consumer society
B) Their co-participants in the Harlem Renaissance
C) Critics of American anti-intellectualism and materialism
D) Republicans and supporters of prohibition

Question 23

What did the outcome of the Sacco and Vanzetti trial suggest about the United States in the 1920s?

A) The American judicial system was a model of impartiality.
B) Americans generally loathed thieves and murderers.
C) The legal appeals process often brought a fairer verdict than the original trial.
D) Antiforeign hysteria was rampant in many areas of American life.

Question 24

According to Map 23.2: The Shift from Rural to Urban Population,1920-1930,what was a major destination for African American migrants in the 1920s?

A) Tampa
B) San Francisco
C) Los Angeles
D) Washington,D.C.

Question 25

What accounted for the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan in the United States in 1915?

A) The widespread belief that blacks,immigrants,radicals,feminists,Catholics,and Jews threatened traditional American values
B) The notion that African Americans were gaining equality in the new world of giant corporations and needed to be kept in their place
C) The belief that the government was conspiring to subvert the fundamental rights of U.S.citizens
D) The belief that some apocalyptic event was about to occur and the Klan would bring salvation

Question 26

The image of the new woman in American society in the 1920s

A) reinforced the traditional concept of separate spheres.
B) created a double standard for the sexual conduct of men and women.
C) was felt by all women,even those who believed in traditional gender roles.
D) reduced acceptance of and access to birth control for most women.

Question 27

What did popular culture and consumer goods have in common in the 1920s?

A) Both condemned by the Catholic Church as sinful.
B) Both had become so inexpensive that most Americans could afford them.
C) Neither had penetrated the rural areas of the United States.
D) Both were mass-produced and mass-consumed.

Question 28

Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association urged black Americans in the 1920s to

A) revolt against the U.S.government and their white oppressors.
B) rediscover their African heritage and take pride in their culture and achievements.
C) adopt the accommodationist stance advocated by Booker T.Washington to increase their status.
D) lobby the federal government for reparations for the time they and their ancestors spent in slavery.

Question 29

What was the purpose of the immigration laws of the 1920s,including the Johnson-Reed Act?

A) To open the nation's borders to an unprecedented influx of new immigrants
B) To place strict limits on immigration
C) To close off immigration to the United States from other areas of the Western Hemisphere
D) To overturn the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Question 30

One result of the loosening of the traditional bonds of community,religion,and family in the United States in the 1920s was

A) more crime and an increase in the number of school dropouts.
B) a rapidly increasing divorce rate in urban areas.
C) the emergence of youth as a distinct social class with their own culture.
D) a significant increase in cohabitation among young,unmarried couples.

Question 31

Who funded the rapid growth of radio in the United States between 1922 and 1929?

A) Record companies
B) The federal government
C) Sports teams
D) Advertisers

Question 32

In the 1920s,Harold "Red" Grange was associated with

A) Madison Avenue advertising firms.
B) Calvin Coolidge's administration.
C) football.
D) boxing.

Question 33

In 1927,Charles Lindbergh became the first person to

A) swim the English Channel alone.
B) fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean.
C) drive an automobile across the United States in less than a week.
D) fly around the world.

Question 34

When Herbert Hoover took office in 1929,he brought to the presidency

A) modern ideas about how businesses should operate.
B) decades of experience in elected office.
C) few credentials to lead a prosperous nation.
D) strong opposition to progressive ideals.

Question 35

What earned Herbert Hoover the nickname "the Great Humanitarian"?

A) His managing efforts to feed civilian victims of the fighting during World War I
B) His service as secretary of commerce under the Coolidge administration
C) His reform agenda as president and his response to the Great Depression
D) His commitment to individual self-reliance,industrial self-management,and limited government

Question 36

How did Americans respond to Alfred E.Smith's candidacy for president in 1928?

A) Positively,which is why he came so close to defeating Hoover in the election
B) As a symbol of the traditional values of the heartland-Americanism,family,the Bible,chastity,and temperance
C) As a symbol of all they feared-Catholicism,immigration,cities,and liberal attitudes
D) With concern that he did not have the experience for the White House

Question 37

Which of the following describes the Ku Klux Klan of the mid-1920s?

A) It dominated politics in California,New Jersey,New York,Connecticut,and Vermont.
B) It had embraced the changes that came with modernity.
C) It had stopped its attacks on foreigners and Jews and was concentrating on cleansing the nation of Negroes.
D) It had a strong influence on politics in California,Illinois,Indiana,Kansas,Louisiana,Oklahoma,Oregon,and Texas.

Question 38

Which of the following statements describes professional baseball in the 1920s?

A) It was dominated by college rivalries.
B) Games were played on weekdays,when workers could not attend.
C) It was fully integrated,both on the field and in the seats.
D) It attracted players and spectators from the working class.

Question 39

What was the central issue addressed by the highly publicized Scopes trial of 1925?

A) The Ku Klux Klan's right of the to be involved in politics at the state level
B) The legality of the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution in Tennessee
C) The 1920s-era conflict between fundamentalist Protestants and Catholics in America
D) The biblical evidence for human evolution from lesser primates

Question 40

In the United States,the flapper of the 1920s represented

A) the determination of women to become writers and artists.
B) the hopelessness that was pervasive among American youth.
C) a youth culture that sought radical cultural and political reform.
D) a challenge to women's traditional gender roles.

Question 41

How did the Hoover administration respond to the World War I veterans who asked for the immediate payment of their pension or bonus?

A) It ordered the U.S.army to forcibly evict them from their camp on the edge of Washington,D.C.
B) It welcomed them to Washington,thanked them for their service,and sent them home with government checks.
C) It organized a ceremony to reiterate the government's gratitude for their service and award medals.
D) It provided a hearty meal on the White House lawn but refused to pay the bonuses early.

Question 42

Which group sponsored a team of lawyers to defend the nine young black men in Scottsboro,Alabama,who were arrested on trumped-up rape charges in 1931?

A) The Republican party
B) The Communist party
C) The NAACP
D) The League of Women Voters

Question 43

How did the Great Depression affect the American family in the 1930s?

A) It caused an increase in the number of marriages among young adults whose parents could no longer support them.
B) It sparked an increase in the birthrate among middle- and upper-class whites.
C) It created resentment among men,who lost their jobs more often than women did.
D) It led to the stabilization of the birthrate,which had been increasing since the turn of the century.

Question 44

What was the purpose of the President Hoover's Reconstruction Finance Corporation,created in 1932?

A) Assisting the millions of Americans who had lost their jobs
B) Aiding rural black southerners who had been in an agricultural depression for years
C) Lending money to endangered American banks,insurance companies,and railroads
D) Shoring up faltering West Coast shippers plying the Pacific trade

Question 45

Among the first signs of economic distress in the United States in the mid-1920s was

A) a reluctance to buy stocks on margin.
B) the tremendous increase in the number of labor strikes.
C) a decrease in the rate of unemployment.
D) a slowdown in new construction and in automobile sales.

Question 46

By the early 1930s,unemployed workers were responding to the Great Depression by

A) becoming increasingly passive and despondent,assuming that they were not worthy of jobs.
B) seeking to improve their job qualifications by enrolling in vocational training programs.
C) becoming increasingly outraged and turning toward militant forms of protest.
D) turning on one another with violence as the competition for scarce jobs became even steeper.

Question 47

Which of the following characterized the U.S.economy when Hoover moved into the White House in 1929?

A) There was a huge disparity in wealth between rich and poor.
B) The country had low tariffs and a strong balance of trade with foreign nations.
C) The gap between rich and poor was narrowing.
D) Consumers were reluctant to rely on credit to fund purchases.

Question 48

What was the fundamental cause of the Great Depression in the United States?

A) The stock market crash in the fall of 1929
B) Problems in the American and international economies
C) Herbert Hoover's election to the U.S.presidency
D) Massive fraud in the New York and Chicago stock exchanges

Question 49

Which groups were hardest hit by the Great Depression?

A) East and West coast bankers and other businesspeople
B) Union members and other industrial workers in the Northeast
C) Western miners and cattle ranchers
D) The unemployed,tenant farmers,and sharecroppers

Question 50

What did President Hoover do to offer a solution to the human problems of the depression in 1929?

A) He instituted a voluntary recovery plan,protective tariffs,and some government intervention,including public works projects and small federal loans to states.
B) He created a federal aid modeled after the dole in England that would provide basic food,clothing,and shelter to the unemployed.
C) He provided federal loans to private citizens who could prove that they had not participated in speculation.
D) He decided to let the depression run its course without significant government aid for either businesses or individuals.