Deck 20: From Business Culture to Great Depression: The Twenties, 1920-1932

Question 1

The automobile

A) was not as popular as expected when it first came out.
B) prevented the growth of other industries.
C) was the second most important American industry after the textile industry.
D) experienced stagnation in its production during the 1920s.
E) was the backbone of economic growth.

Answer 1

was the backbone of economic growth.

Question 2

Assess the state of individual American financial savings by the end of the 1920s.

A) Rising wages had allowed Americans to build significant savings accounts in the 1920s.
B) While the rich spent most of their earnings lavishly, poor and middle-class Americans saved conscientiously.
C) Savings rates among the middle class were as high as 40 percent, causing significant challenges for the mass consumer economy.
D) By the end of the 1920s, the majority of American families had no savings whatsoever.
E) Americans had largely turned their backs on stocks and turned to the far safer bond market instead.

Answer 2

By the end of the 1920s, the majority of American families had no savings whatsoever.

Question 3

Why did Los Angeles's population increase significantly during the 1920s?

A) Many East Asians emigrated to the United States, and most arrived in Los Angeles first.
B) Many misplaced Midwest farmers came looking for jobs.
C) Numerous people from the Pacific Northwest moved to Southern California.
D) As thousands of factories closed in the Northeast, most of their workers migrated west.
E) The Hollywood film industry became the biggest private employer in the United States.

Answer 3

Many misplaced Midwest farmers came looking for jobs.

Question 4

What region does the textbook identify as having experienced chronic unemployment due to deindustrialization in the 1920s?

A) Midwest
B) New England
C) Southeast
D) Southwest
E) West Coast

Question 5

Which statement about farms in the 1920s is accurate?

A) Farmers were not productive in arid areas.
B) Organic farming started for the first time, and this trend steadily increased throughout the decade.
C) For the first time in U.S. history, the number of farmers declined.
D) Sharecropping was invented and dominated in the Northeast.
E) Asian immigrants comprised the biggest group of farm laborers by the end of the decade.

Question 6

How was American life different in the 1920s than in the years prior?

A) In this new era of consumerism, Americans drank more heavily.
B) Women's suffrage led to a new wave of political activism among both women and men.
C) The strict standards of morality imposed by the fundamentalist revival meant that Americans had less sex.
D) Although Americans worked hard in an industrial world, they also enjoyed more vacations.
E) Interracial marriages became far more common in this more urban and modern society.

Question 7

During the 1920s, American multinational corporations

A) resisted new ventures abroad in the aftermath of World War I.
B) demonstrated limited interest in controlling raw materials in other countries.
C) produced few automobiles for international markets.
D) extended their reach throughout the world.
E) reduced investments overseas.

Question 8

Politically, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti

A) dreamed of a society with no government, no church, and no private property.
B) believed in democracy.
C) supported the Democrats.
D) tried to join the Socialist Party.
E) supported the Anti-Communist League.

Question 9

What did the congressional hearings led by Arsène Pujo between 1912 and 1914 bring to light?

A) State senators were being bribed by large businesses.
B) The federal government had been taxing citizens at higher rates than was legal.
C) A Wall Street money trust was manipulating stock prices.
D) Foreign dictators were spying on Americans who had emigrated from their countries.
E) Employers were requiring employees to work fifteen-hour days.

Question 10

The 1920s political scene was dominated by

A) liberals.
B) socialists
C) the labor movement.
D) feminist groups.
E) conservatism.

Question 11

During the 1920s, the U.S. economy

A) stagnated.
B) fluctuated constantly.
C) enjoyed prosperity.
D) saw some regions enjoy prosperity while others suffered deeply.
E) internationalize.

Question 12

American farmers in the 1920s

A) managed to remain in business due to time-saving mechanization.
B) understood that prices for produce would remain high despite the end of World War I.
C) decreased their output of crops due to declining demand on the American and overseas markets.
D) increasingly migrated out of rural areas.
E) did not take advantage of new technological innovations.

Question 13

During the 1920s

A) poverty was cut in half.
B) consumer goods multiplied.
C) automobile production declined.
D) values of frugality flourished among Americans.
E) there was a massive migration from urban to rural areas.

Question 14

Which of the following statements about farm mechanization is correct?

A) It discouraged the use of migrant labor on factory farms.
B) It transformed the scale of agricultural production, which ended the practice of irrigation in the West.
C) It delayed the onset of the "Dust Bowl" on the Great Plains thanks to the new steam tractor.
D) It included innovations such as the disk plow, which made planting easier.
E) Farm output decreased in previous fertile areas.

Question 15

Henry Ford's "Fordlandia"

A) was considered a success.
B) was a town created by Henry Ford in Mexico.
C) was respectful of locals' customs and habits.
D) was created to secure a supply of rubber for tires.
E) was created to sell cars in Brazil.

Question 16

Which of the following best describes America in the 1920s?

A) Class divisions were more visible in the United States than they were in Europe.
B) Radical politics dominated mainstream American thought.
C) Radio and movies reflected the uniformity of American society.
D) Very few factory jobs were created.
E) China manufactured a greater volume of goods than the United States did.

Question 17

Which of the following statements accurately describes the state of consumer goods in the 1920s?

A) Home products, such as vacuum cleaners, increased the demand for domestic labor.
B) Advertising created a desire among buyers to purchase new goods.
C) Americans increasingly spent money on food staples rather than entertainment.
D) Coca-Cola quickly declined in popularity after consumers learned how much sugar it contained.
E) Many purchases were bought with cash because credit was not popular.

Question 18

The Sacco-Vanzetti case

A) placed the welcoming of Italian immigrants at the center of the debate.
B) revealed local governments could influence judicial decisions.
C) symbolized that the anti-immigrant sentiment had died.
D) showed how the Red Scare undermined basic American freedoms.
E) demonstrated how thorough the judicial system was.

Question 19

How did World War I's Committee on Public Information (CPI) inspire business in the 1920s?

A) The wartime experience proved that the best way to prevent excessive speculation in the stock market was to inform the public of its dangers.
B) Business leaders hired private data collectors to measure the effects of propaganda on consumers.
C) The CPI's success suggested government intervention could have a positive impact on business growth.
D) Public relations departments were established in many firms to counteract bad publicity.
E) The CPI discouraged consumers from buying commodities on credit.

Question 20

Why did General Motors (GM) surpass Ford in sales of automobiles in the 1920s?

A) because GM focused on producing only one cheap car model
B) because GM designed and produced several models with stylish designs
C) because GM cars were produced in Mexico
D) because GM cars were specifically designed to satisfy the needs of the rural areas
E) because the mechanics were far better

Question 21

President Harding's call for a "return to normalcy" meant

A) bringing back the Progressive spirit of reform.
B) demobilizing from World War I.
C) getting women back into the home from their wartime jobs.
D) a call for the regular order of things, without Progressive reform.
E) an end to the radicalism of the Red Scare.

Question 22

Which statement about politics in the 1920s is correct?

A) Voter turnout had increased dramatically since the turn of the century.
B) Women took an active role in national politics, mostly with the Republican Party.
C) Republicans controlled the White House and supported pro-labor policies.
D) The South was dominated by the Democratic Party.
E) Congress continued restrictive immigration policies.

Question 23

The flapper

A) epitomized the change in sexual behavior.
B) represented a new political movement.
C) represented a new economic radicalism.
D) disapproved of smoking.
E) demanded a return to earlier standards of behavior.

Question 24

To what nineteenth-century decision did Florence Kelley compare the 1923 Adkins v. Children's Hospital decision?

A) Dred Scott v. Sandford
B) Marbury v. Madison
C) Gibbons v. Ogden
D) Plessy v. Ferguson
E) McCulloch v. Maryland

Question 25

During the 1920s

A) the Federal Trade Commission aggressively regulated business.
B) government policies reflected the pro-business ethos of the decade.
C) Nebraska senator George W. Norris represented big business.
D) the Harding administration distanced itself from the business community.
E) the courts became increasingly pro-labor.

Question 26

The Teapot Dome scandal involved

A) President Harding's illicit affair with a young woman.
B) the Veterans' Bureau, which took bribes from the sale of government supplies.
C) the attorney general, who took bribes not to prosecute accused criminals.
D) bribes for the secretary of the interior in exchange for leases of government oil reserves.
E) Herbert Hoover, who received money in exchange for granting favored trading status to Great Britain.

Question 27

What did Walter Lippmann conclude about democracy during the 1920s?

A) American voters were not well informed on issues.
B) Democracy was stronger than ever in the United States.
C) America was shifting away from democracy toward socialism.
D) There was too much focus on being a consumer.
E) The government did not try to influence public opinion.

Question 28

How did Bruce Barton's book The Man Nobody Knows depict Jesus Christ?

A) as a he-man of business
B) as a religious man
C) as the savior
D) as a ghost
E) as a unionist

Question 29

In their 1929 study Middletown, Robert and Helen Lynd

A) found that Americans were increasingly involved in local politics.
B) argued that leisure and consumption had replaced political involvement.
C) based their findings on a study of Los Angeles and New York City.
D) based their findings on a study of Chicago.
E) noted the increase in voter participation with the enfranchisement of women.

Question 30

The prevailing jurisprudence of the United States Supreme Court in the 1920s can best be described as

A) laissez-faire.
B) progressive.
C) paternalistic.
D) authoritarian.
E) deferential.

Question 31

What did Alice Paul propose regarding women's rights?

A) That women should be primarily dedicated to raising and educating their children.
B) That all gender-based legal distinctions should be eliminated.
C) That all new legislation should favor women to atone for past discrimination.
D) That women associations should focus on enforcing the Fifteenth Amendment in the South.
E) That women needed special protection.

Question 32

In the 1920s, employers embraced the American Plan because

A) it promoted the creation of a workplace free of government and union regulations.
B) all employees were unionized.
C) it supported government regulations.
D) it took the "human factor" into consideration.
E) it provided employees with private pensions.

Question 33

Which of the following groups demanded the Fifteenth Amendment be enforced in the South?

A) white plantation owners
B) black feminists
C) leaders of international corporations
D) anarchists
E) the urban middle class

Question 34

Why did cigarettes become known as "torches of freedom" during the 1920s?

A) Women began to smoke cigarettes as an expression of personal freedom.
B) Soldiers returning from the war identified the modest comfort of a cigarette with American freedom.
C) For African-Americans in northern cities, cigarette smoking was an expression of a new and freer urban lifestyle.
D) By smoking American-brand cigarettes, immigrants could embrace American culture and leave behind the stigma of their ethnicities.
E) The prohibition on tobacco in many states made smoking an open act of rebellion.

Question 35

The Equal Rights Amendment

A) intended to eliminate legal distinctions made on the basis of sex.
B) intended to eliminate the wage gap between blacks and whites.
C) was only supported by the League of Women Voters.
D) was supported by every major female organization.
E) was approved by Congress in 1929.

Question 36

In the 1920s, what did employers tout as the cornerstone of prosperity?

A) a socialist model where employees controlled the means of production
B) complete vertical integration
C) unions
D) employee satisfaction
E) complete freedom of action for businesses

Question 37

During the 1920s, what happened to union membership?

A) It remained the same from the beginning of the decade to the end.
B) Membership increased by 20 percent.
C) It declined slightly.
D) Membership declined by more than 2 million members.
E) Immigrants refused to join unions.

Question 38

Why did Calvin Coolidge veto the McNary-Haugen bill?

A) It did not provide enough support for farmers.
B) Coolidge was against free markets.
C) America did not need overseas products.
D) Coolidge was a Progressive politician.
E) Coolidge favored laissez-faire economics.

Question 39

In the 1920s, movies, radios, and phonographs

A) helped create a "new society" willing to maintain a standard of living at any price.
B) were only accessible in public spaces.
C) ridiculed celebrity culture.
D) appealed only to the lower classes.
E) were consumed by teenagers and young adults.

Question 40

For the feminist woman in the 1920s, freedom meant

A) voting.
B) owning her own property.
C) the ERA.
D) the right to choose her lifestyle.
E) becoming a wife and mother.

Question 41

American foreign policy during the 1920s

A) reflected the close ties between government and business.
B) expanded on Woodrow Wilson's goal of internationalism.
C) included the lowering of tariffs.
D) discouraged American business investment abroad.
E) included a complete retreat from military intervention.

Question 42

In his 1921 "Speech in Congress on Immigration," why did Lucian W. Parrish believe the United States should have stopped immigration entirely?

A) He argued that immigrants have always disobeyed American ideals.
B) He believed that oppression was an insufficient reason for immigrating to the United States.
C) He thought that immigrants weakened job opportunities for native citizens.
D) He viewed new immigrants as unsympathetic to the Constitution.
E) He said that immigrants brought violence to the United States.

Question 43

Anita Whitney, a California socialist, was involved in two cases before the Supreme Court involving the Fourteenth Amendment and what other amendment?

A) the First Amendment, which guarantees the freedom of speech
B) the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to bear arms
C) the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unwarranted searches and seizures
D) the Sixth Amendment, which guarantees the rights of criminal defendants
E) the Fifteenth Amendment, which guarantees a citizen's right to vote, regardless of race or previous conditions of servitude

Question 44

In Schenck v. United States, the Supreme Court

A) overturned the lower court conviction of a socialist.
B) ruled that bans on dangerous speech were constitutional.
C) expanded the protection of free speech.
D) found certain fire-safety regulations unconstitutional.
E) overturned the conviction of Eugene V. Debs for an anti-war speech.

Question 45

During the 1924 presidential election, which Progressive politician received one-sixth of the electorate's votes?

A) John Dewey
B) John Davis
C) Robert La Follette
D) Will Rogers
E) Herbert Hoover

Question 46

Which of the following legal bans no longer passed constitutional scrutiny by the end of the 1920s?

A) prohibiting movies from depicting nudity
B) barring scripts that portrayed clergymen in a negative light
C) prohibiting wealthy African-Americans in all-white public facilities
D) criminalizing the advocacy of unlawful acts for the sake of political change
E) prohibiting marriages between whites and Asian immigrants or African-Americans

Question 47

The Hays Code

A) prohibited exhibitions of nudity in public venues.
B) prohibited movies from depicting criminals sympathetically.
C) prohibited public discussions on sexual behavior.
D) banned scripts where businessmen were portrayed in a negative light.
E) banned certain works of literature.

Question 48

What is the name sometimes given to the 1920s U.S. foreign policy?

A) isolationism
B) interventionism
C) Americanism
D) corporativism
E) gradualism

Question 49

Regarding religion, what tactic did Billy Sunday use to influence America?

A) He attacked Prohibition because it affected the Catholic mass.
B) He attended small religious services in people's homes.
C) He defended science by using the Bible.
D) He employed a theatrical style.
E) He held short church services before movies in theaters.

Question 50

The Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922

A) raised tariffs on agricultural goods.
B) promoted free trade.
C) raised tariffs on all imported goods.
D) was created to lure Europeans to commercialize in the United States.
E) was supported by American diplomats.

Question 51

"Banned in Boston" referred to

A) a book ban that was an object of ridicule among writers and artists.
B) Prohibition coming to the city and the elimination of all liquor.
C) the crackdown on prostitution and gambling, both perceived to be run by the Irish.
D) the condemnation of Americanization programs, meaning diversity was celebrated in the city.
E) Calvin Coolidge's tenure as governor when he banned all strikes of public service employees.

Question 52

During the 1920s most acts of foreign policy were conducted

A) though an international relations committee.
B) through intermediary countries.
C) through governmental action.
D) by diplomatic emissaries.
E) through private economic relations.

Question 53

Assess the record of the U.S. Supreme Court on civil liberties during World War I.

A) The Court's failed efforts at restoring constitutional protections for free speech during the war propelled Americans into activism during the 1920s.
B) A majority of the justices agreed that the Espionage Act under the Wilson administration constituted a "clear and present danger" to American freedom.
C) The Supreme Court had largely upheld government restrictions on First Amendment rights during the war.
D) The majority of Supreme Court justices were ready to strike down federal infringements on free speech, but the slow appeals process prevented that opportunity.
E) The Court made a strong push for civil liberties, but with the explicit intent to exclude African-Americans.

Question 54

Still active today in pushing for individual rights, the American Civil Liberties Union started during what conflict?

A) World War II
B) World War I
C) Spanish-American War
D) U.S. Civil War
E) Korean War

Question 55

Which of the statements about Prohibition during the 1920s is true?

A) Prohibition increased American consumption of alcohol.
B) Prohibition rules and regulations were rarely violated.
C) Prohibition led to widespread corruption among law officials.
D) Prohibition cut into the profits reaped by the owners of speakeasies.
E) Religious fundamentalists opposed Prohibition on the grounds that it violated individual freedom.

Question 56

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

A) generally voted with Oliver Wendell Holmes to further limit free speech.
B) was a conservative force during the 1920s.
C) voted in favor of the Hays Code.
D) crafted an intellectual defense of civil liberties during the 1920s.
E) voted in support of Anita Whitney's attempt to overturn her conviction.

Question 57

What was, according to Walter Lippmann, the "manufacture of consent"?

A) the working consent given by industrial union workers
B) the art of creating and manipulating public opinion
C) the name of the newspaper he created
D) the society of mass consumption
E) the possibility of educating citizens through public politics

Question 58

What dictator gained power due to help from the U.S. Marines in the 1920s and 1930s?

A) Hitler in Germany
B) Castro in Cuba
C) Stalin in Russia
D) Somoza in Nicaragua
E) Mussolini in Italy

Question 59

In the Meyer v. Nebraska case, the Supreme Court cited a violation of what amendment?

A) Fourteenth
B) Fifteenth
C) Sixteenth
D) Seventeenth
E) Eighteenth

Question 60

Which of the following trends of the 1920s did fundamentalists support?

A) the easing of restrictions on immigration
B) the prohibition of liquor sales
C) military interventionism
D) socialism
E) increased income taxes on the wealthy

Question 61

Which of the two following countries suffered the largest reductions in the immigration quotas accepted by the United States after the Immigration Act of 1924?

A) Great Britain and Ireland
B) Poland and Germany
C) Italy and Russia
D) Germany and Great Britain
E) Ireland and Sweden

Question 62

In the 1920s, immigration restriction included which of the following?

A) an easing of anti-Asian immigration policy with the Johnson-Reed Act
B) legislation that severely limited immigration from southern and eastern Europe
C) a ban on Mexican and Canadian immigration
D) the abolition of the Border Patrol, to be replaced by Homeland Security
E) the first construction of a wall along the border with Mexico

Question 63

What broad popular sentiments did the Ku Klux Klan express in the 1920s?

A) African-Americans and immigrants should not be allowed to vote.
B) Prohibition should only be applied to nonwhites.
C) Control of the nation should be returned to native-born Protestants.
D) Southern states should never quit their fight for complete home rule.
E) Women's suffrage was a violation of natural law and needed to be repealed.

Question 64

Which of the following statements best assesses Herbert Hoover's qualification for the presidency in 1928?

A) He could point to a decade of experience as an elected official.
B) His modest upbringing in rural Iowa had equipped him with a natural affability and charm.
C) His bold embrace of government regulation as a tool for economic development made him stand out among laissez-faire Republicans.
D) His skill in economic planning and the organization of food relief made him a good choice for both good and hard times.
E) His courage under fire in World War I made him a role model similar to one of his predecessors, Theodore Roosevelt.

Question 65

While many Americans embraced modern urban culture, others found it alarming. Which of the following groups felt threatened by mass entertainment and the presence of other religions due to immigration?

A) Catholics
B) Jews
C) Mormons
D) Evangelical Protestants
E) Anarchists

Question 66

Immigration policies changed during the 1920s as the government started to restrict wholesale immigration. How did employers react to these changes in policy?

A) They accepted the changes, as their fear of immigrant radicalism outweighed their desire for cheap labor.
B) Many of them declared bankruptcy.
C) They created a business association hoping to change said policies.
D) They protested fanatically, as they would have to pay higher salaries.
E) Their opinions were divided, as half feared the radicalism brought by immigration and the other half preferred to pay lower salaries to immigrants.

Question 67

What were the National Catholic Welfare Council and the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith lobbying for in the 1920s?

A) more Catholic and Jewish schools funded by federal monies
B) laws prohibiting discrimination against immigrants by employers, colleges, and government agencies
C) benevolent societies for religious groups to be supported by the federal government in the major East Coast cities
D) a stronger effort by the federal government to dismantle the Ku Klux Klan
E) a new immigration law to overturn the Immigration Act of 1924

Question 68

In 1921, Congress imposed country-by-country immigration quotas. Which of the following regions was not subject to them?

A) Eastern Europe
B) central Asia
C) the Western Hemisphere
D) southern Africa
E) the Northern Hemisphere

Question 69

Cultural pluralism

A) was the adopted philosophy of the Ku Klux Klan.
B) described a society that gloried in ethnic diversity.
C) was denounced by Randolph Bourne.
D) described the mood in Congress when it passed the Immigration Act.
E) was the driving force behind the conviction of Sacco and Vanzetti.

Question 70

The Harlem Renaissance

A) has often been compared to twenty-first-century "gentrification" efforts in the urban Northeast.
B) describes the quest by writers like Claude McKay to locate the roots of the black experience.
C) was a phrase coined by Winston Churchill.
D) marked a turning point in race relations in America.
E) did not begin until the end of the 1920s.

Question 71

"Slumming" meant

A) blacks migrating from the South to the North during the Great Migration.
B) flappers not working and living off their parents' wealth.
C) whites going to Harlem's dancehalls, jazz clubs, and speakeasies.
D) speculating on the stock market.
E) living in the Hoovervilles.

Question 72

Which of the following is true of the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s?

A) Many of its members held respected positions in their communities.
B) It had more than 10 million members.
C) Its influence skyrocketed after 1925.
D) The majority of its members were foreign-born Catholics.
E) It embraced unionization as the ultimate form of Americanism.

Question 73

How did fundamentalist Christians define freedom in the 1920s?

A) as the freedom of religion
B) as the freedom of speech
C) as the freedom of congregation
D) as voluntary adherence to moral liberty
E) as the fundamental right to self-expression

Question 74

What statement best summarizes the ideas behind the term "New Negro"?

A) Stereotypes were to be rejected.
B) Racism could not be challenged.
C) Politics could not help.
D) Pan-Africanism was unacceptable.
E) Artistic movements did not have a place in America.

Question 75

The American Civil Liberties Union helped to reshape the meaning of traditional civil liberties and invented new ones. Which of the following was considered a "new" civil liberty in the 1920s?

A) freedom of speech
B) voting rights
C) right to privacy
D) freedom of movement
E) right to divorce

Question 76

Meyer v. Nebraska

A) overturned the ban on child labor.
B) ruled that the maximum number of hours a woman could work could not be legislated.
C) overturned a law that stated public schools had to instruct classes in English.
D) upheld the Espionage Act as constitutional.
E) ruled that evolution could not be taught in public schools.

Question 77

Regarding public education, in 1922, Oregon became the first state to

A) require students to be instructed only in English.
B) ban private schools.
C) formally segregate its schools.
D) allow women to earn postgraduate degrees.
E) allow students to attend private schools instead.

Question 78

What new category did the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act establish?

A) green-card workers
B) illegal aliens
C) labor-citizens
D) naturalized citizens
E) Asian-Americans

Question 79

By the 1930s, a few Supreme Court decisions showed that, in terms of civil liberties

A) the federal government was getting involved in judicial decisions.
B) the debate continued to center on issues of racial discrimination.
C) the Court did not demonstrate consistency, but instead ruled case by case.
D) the judicial foundation for civil liberties was slowly being laid.
E) the judiciary would continue ruling against freedom of speech.

Question 80

How did 1920s immigration policy reflect the concept of race in the United States?

A) Native Americans were denied citizenship based on a biological definition of "inferiority in race."
B) Nonwhites were excluded in the calculation of immigration quotas.
C) The Supreme Court ruled in 1923 that Indian national Bhagat Singh was black, not "pure Aryan" as he claimed.
D) Southern and eastern Europeans were granted citizenship if they could prove their "whiteness."
E) The United States allowed an unrestricted number of "whites" from Europe to immigrate.