Deck 19: Intellectual and Cultural Trends in the Late Nineteenth Century

Question 1

In the late nineteenth century, the way Americans thought was transformed by

A) Christian socialism.
B) Sigmund Freud.
C) industrialization.
D) Albert Einstein.

Answer 1

industrialization.

Question 2

In 1870, most American colleges were

A) beginning to establish graduate programs based on the model of German universities.
B) already well on their way to becoming major centers of research and innovation.
C) just completing a decade of significant experiments in curriculum offerings and teaching methods.
D) small and intellectually stagnant with few professors of any intellectual repute.

Answer 2

small and intellectually stagnant with few professors of any intellectual repute.

Question 3

In 1869, Harvard introduced the _____ system and took the lead in reforming higher education in the Gilded Age.

A) elective
B) intramural
C) German
D) honors

Answer 3

elective

Question 4

University President Charles W. Eliot pioneered the

A) establishment of law and medical schools.
B) adaptation of German teaching techniques to America.
C) preparation of graduates for a career as ministers.
D) introduction of the elective system.

Question 5

Johns Hopkins became the leader in graduate education under the presidency of

A) Henry Adams.
B) William Rainey Harper.
C) Daniel Coit Gilman.
D) Charles W. Eliot.

Question 6

The Morrill Act land-grant university system

A) specialized in graduate education.
B) provided land deeds to establish universities.
C) opened its doors only to women students.
D) received almost no assistance from the federal government.

Question 7

Vassar College holds the distinction of

A) establishing the first modern graduate school.
B) admitting the first woman to college.
C) being the first college for women.
D) being the first coeducational, racially integrated college.

Question 8

Because of the increase in both the number of college graduates and the influence of alumni, in the late nineteenth century American higher education

A) regained its focus on training clergy.
B) became the dominant force in the economy.
C) was increasingly focused on social activities, fraternities, and organized athletics with winning teams.
D) developed programs in graduate education which attracted students from all over the world.

Question 9

Under the influence of Charles Darwin, the new social sciences turned much of their energy to studying the

A) development of institutions and their interactions with each other.
B) evolution-based patterns in human behavior.
C) parallels between human and primate forms of social organization.
D) immutable natural laws which govern all human behavior.

Question 10

Members of the institutionalist school of economics such as Richard T. Ely and John R. Commons thought that

A) Darwin's ideas explained how slowly society evolved.
B) religion, not science, was the key to truth.
C) economic problems should be totally divorced from moral concerns.
D) actual industrial conditions should be studied with practical social reform as a goal.

Question 11

The most influential social Darwinist was the English thinker

A) Lester Frank Ward.
B) Aldous Huxley.
C) Alfred Lord Tennyson.
D) Herbert Spencer.

Question 12

The American disciple of Herbert Spencer, Edward L. Youmans, believed that society was

A) best understood using Aristotle's philosophical framework.
B) an impersonal set of institutions and could be easily changed.
C) an orderly, rule-governed system in which change was not necessary.
D) changed only by the force of evolution, which moved with cosmic slowness.

Question 13

According to German educator Johann Friedrich Herbart, good teaching called for

A) only facts and a birch rod.
B) psychological insight and imagination.
C) complete control of the child's environment.
D) strict discipline and rote learning.

Question 14

The educator John Dewey insisted that

A) education was the fundamental method of social progress.
B) schools should only teach the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic.
C) churches should assume a larger role in education.
D) education should simply reflect the dominant social trends and values.

Question 15

"Education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform." This statement is typical of the beliefs of

A) Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
B) Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
C) Herbert Baxter Adams.
D) John Dewey.

Question 16

The leader of what was called progressive education was

A) John Dewey.
B) Johann F. Herbart.
C) Horace Mann.
D) Francis W. Parker.

Question 17

The emphasis of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. on evolutionary change had a profound impact upon twentieth-century

A) education.
B) jurisprudence.
C) anthropology.
D) medicine.

Question 18

The late-nineteenth-century theory of the Teutonic origins of democracy

A) argued that the roots of democracy and the rule of law were found in the ancient tribes of northern Europe.
B) was violently opposed by Americans of British descent because it portrayed their ancestors so negatively.
C) was initially rejected but has been subsequently validated by extensive research by historians and archaeologists.
D) argued that the roots of democracy and the rule of law were found in the ancient peoples of the Middle East.

Question 19

In his frontier thesis, Frederick Jackson Turner argued that

A) the frontier was dominated by large corporations.
B) democracy began among the Teutonic people.
C) the frontier had inhibited democracy.
D) the frontier gave Americans their unique character.

Question 20

The importance of Frederick Jackson Turner's work was its

A) proof of frontier democracy.
B) complete explanation of American development.
C) purely political viewpoint.
D) encouragement of the study of social and economic subjects.

Question 21

American literature immediately following the Civil War is best described as

A) unrealistic, sentimental pandering to middle-class preconceptions.
B) philosophic explorations of human nature.
C) studies of the complexities of industrial society.
D) realistic portrayals of the contemporary world.

Question 22

The new literary style of the 1870s and 1880s which often examined social problems such as slum conditions and portrayed people of every social class was

A) romanticism.
B) pragmatism.
C) realism.
D) neo-classicism.

Question 23

The real name of the first great American realist, Mark Twain, was

A) Mark Clement.
B) Samuel L. Clemens.
C) William Dean Howells.
D) John Singer Sargent.

Question 24

The author of novels such as Huckleberry Finn, whose acute reportorial eyes and ears caught the spirit of his age, was

A) William Dean Howells.
B) Mark Twain.
C) Herman Melville.
D) Henry James.

Question 25

In novels like A Hazard of New Fortunes, William Dean Howells

A) dealt realistically with sexual love.
B) portrayed the whole range of metropolitan life.
C) popularized the "local color" school of writing.
D) examined the burden of the Puritan past in New England.

Question 26

The most influential literary critic of the late nineteenth century was

A) Mark Twain.
B) Henry James.
C) Stephen Crane.
D) William Dean Howells.

Question 27

The late-nineteenth-century naturalist writers, such as Stephen Crane, portrayed

A) customs and dialects identified with a particular region of the country.
B) society somewhat realistically but emphasized the "smiling aspects" of life.
C) humans as mere animals in a merciless Darwinian world.
D) virtuous heroines and heroes in mortal combat with dastardly villains.

Question 28

One of the first books to treat sex forthrightly was

A) McTeague.
B) Sister Carrie.
C) A Modern Instance.
D) The Portrait of a Lady.

Question 29

The author who spent most of his adult life in Europe writing about the clash between American and European values in a rarefied, overly subtle style was

A) William Dean Howells.
B) Theodore Dreiser.
C) Henry James.
D) Stephen Crane.

Question 30

In his writing, Henry James was most interested in

A) social issues.
B) his subjects as individuals.
C) the issues faced by artists in the modern world.
D) uneducated Americans.

Question 31

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.

Question 32

American painters of the late nineteenth century such as Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins painted in a style called

A) impressionism.
B) neo-classicism.
C) realism.
D) naturalism.

Question 33

Although he had almost no formal training, Winslow Homer is considered a master because of his

A) portrayal of American slums.
B) magnificent oils depicting classical subjects.
C) non-representational explorations of shape and color.
D) brilliant watercolors.

Question 34

The late-nineteenth-century American environment for art was

A) rather unproductive in the area of painting.
B) friendly only to European artists.
C) receptive only to artists working in watercolors.
D) congenial to first-rate artists.

Question 35

Probably the most famous painting by an American, Arrangement in Grey and Black, is the work of

A) James A. McNeill Whistler.
B) Winslow Homer.
C) Mary Cassatt.
D) Thomas Eakins.

Question 36

The American expatriate artist deeply influenced by French impressionism was

A) Mary Cassatt.
B) Charles L. Freer.
C) Winslow Homer.
D) Thomas Eakins.

Question 37

Which of the following best describes Darwin's theory of evolution's impact on religious thought in America?

A) It had almost no effect. It did not even have an impact on intellectuals.
B) It seriously crippled the appeal of fundamentalist churches.
C) It gravely weakened the religious faith of a majority of Americans.
D) It did not undermine the faith of a large percentage of the population.

Question 38

The effects of Darwinism in America were apparent in the philosophy of ________ which stated that all truths are constantly evolving and can be judged only by their concrete results.

A) evolutionism
B) transcendentalism
C) pragmatism
D) existentialism

Question 39

The most influential philosopher of his times and the main exponent of pragmatism was

A) Josiah Royce.
B) Charles S. Pierce.
C) John R. Commons.
D) William James.

Question 40

The pragmatic concept that the mind has a "vote" in determining truth was propounded by whom?

A) Josiah Royce
B) Henry Adams
C) William James
D) Lester Frank Ward

Question 41

Pragmatism encouraged

A) the use of theory.
B) intellectualism.
C) materialism.
D) conventional morality.

Question 42

One of the problems with pragmatism was that it

A) seemed to be against the American ideal of rugged individualism.
B) was based only on emotional appeal.
C) originated in Europe.
D) seemed to suggest that the end justified the means.

Question 43

A form of education which illustrated the popular desire for new information in the late nineteenth century was the

A) Chautauqua movement.
B) kindergarten.
C) settlement house reading session.
D) lyceum.

Question 44

Industrialist Andrew Carnegie donated millions of dollars to help

A) build public libraries.
B) stimulate new women's colleges.
C) underwrite collections of American art.
D) promote public appreciation of symphonic music.

Question 45

To what methods did publishers turn in the nineteenth century to appeal to the masses?

A) printing mostly conservative political articles
B) lowering cultural and intellectual standards and appealing to emotions
C) remaining neutral and ignoring popular or radical causes
D) focusing on law, sociology, anthropology, and the implications of pragmatism

Question 46

The first newspaper editor to reach a truly massive audience without abandoning his basic integrity was

A) William Randolph Hearst.
B) Joseph Pulitzer.
C) Horace Greeley.
D) Frank Leslie.

Question 47

Harper's, Century, and Atlantic Monthly were all magazines specializing in

A) cheap, romantic fiction.
B) illustrations of current events.
C) colored reproductions of artistic masterpieces.
D) serious, conservative articles.

Question 48

The so-called "Seven Sisters" were the first seven women to earn Ph.D. degrees from Harvard.

Question 49

The discipline of economics was revolutionized in the 1890s by Richard Ely who argued that economic laws and theories must be modified as times changed.

Question 50

John Dewey believed that the sole purpose of education was the instruction of the "three Rs," which could be achieved through strict discipline and rote learning.

Question 51

Charlotte Perkins Gilman believed that society had been deprived of the creativity and ideas of women through its belief in the domestic ideal.

Question 52

Mark Twain was both a satirist of American optimism in his writings and its victim in many misguided business ventures.

Question 53

The popularity of William Dean Howells stemmed from his shocking lack of social conscience.

Question 54

The influence of pragmatism was limited to intellectual circles in leading universities.

Question 55

Summarize the changes that took place at all levels of American education in the late nineteenth century. Summarize the general characteristics these changes shared.

Question 56

Explain how the new social sciences of the late nineteenth century reflected the influence of Darwinism.

Question 57

Define realism in late-nineteenth-century art and literature. Explain the basic values of realism and describe works of specific writers and artists who would be classified as realists.

Question 58

Define pragmatism. Explain its major ideas and assumptions. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of this philosophy. Evaluate to what extent it is an especially American system of thought.

Question 59

Summarize the developments in the late nineteenth century that were inspired by a public thirst for knowledge. Describe the kinds of knowledge that were made available.