Deck 21: A Turbulent Decade: The Twenties

Question 1

This image showing a group entering a speakeasy suggests that speakeasies were

A) seedy and unpleasant
B) dark and dangerous
C) glamorous and mysterious
D) quiet and quaint

Answer 1

glamorous and mysterious

Question 2

What was one major effect of the widespread acquisition of radios in American homes during the 1920s?

A) the emergence of a platform for local businesses to compete equally with large chains
B) an alarming rise in debt taken on to purchase the expensive technology
C) fading interest in the products of Hollywood
D) the development of mass culture

Answer 2

the development of mass culture

Question 3

What do these images of gas stations reveal about commercial roadside businesses in the 1920s?

A) Retailers used both familiar and whimsical images to attract passers-by.
B) Service stations were mostly located in urban rather than remote areas.
C) Roadside restaurants, lodging quarters, and gas stations were only available to white customers.
D) Gasoline was so profitable that owners could afford to create eye-catching buildings.

Answer 3

Retailers used both familiar and whimsical images to attract passers-by.

Question 4

How would an American traditionalist have best described this 1927 photomontage of Charles Lindbergh's arrival in Paris on the Spirit of St. Louis?

A) Lindbergh's flight illustrated the nation's industrial march forward.
B) Lindbergh's flight renewed faith in the benefits of technology.
C) Lindbergh exhibited the same adventurous spirit that propelled pioneers across the West.
D) Lindbergh demonstrated that individual initiative still mattered in American society.

Question 5

This 1926 photograph of two young flappers dancing on the ledge of a Chicago hotel implies that one important cultural conflict that arose in the United States during the 1920s was that women were _.

A) resorting to the values and morals of the Victoria era.
B) dealing with issues that involved taking control of their bodies
C) putting the tragedy of World War I behind them
D) getting involved in civic and political affairs resulting from gaining suffrage

Question 6

What role did the federal government take in supporting Americans who wanted to travel by car to vacation and see other parts of the country?

A) It funded money to states to build a new national highway system.
B) It dropped the price of gasoline to new lows so that people could travel more freely.
C) It provided low interest loans so that people could purchase more automobiles.
D) It offered the Ford Motor Company lucrative incentives to drop the price of automobiles.

Question 7

What was one major reason why the Immigration Act of 1924 instituted a quota system to restrict the number of immigrants coming to the United States?

A) Americans wanted to revive Asian immigration to this country at the expense of European immigration.
B) Americans wanted to limit the number of immigrants coming from Latin America.
C) Americans feared and distrusted German immigrants who came to the United States after World War I.
D) Americans were afraid that immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe would spread communism and anarchy.

Question 8

Which of the following words best describes the crime associated with the Teapot Dome political scandal that was one of many connected to Warren G. Harding's presidency?

A) violence and murder
B) bribery and corruption
C) voter fraud and deception
D) treason and anarchy

Question 9

As exemplified by this candy wrapper, what did professional baseball player George Herman "Babe" Ruth pioneer as a way for sports and movie celebrities to become wealthy during the 1920s?

A) giving frequent interviews on radio
B) endorsing and marketing products that were popular with the public
C) providing photos and memorabilia to celebrity fan magazines
D) sponsoring nationally syndicated radio shows to boost sales for a company's products

Question 10

Charles Lindbergh became a celebrity when he .

A) completed the first nonstop, solo flight across the Atlantic
B) dealt with the kidnapping and murder of his oldest son
C) joined with other Americans who argued against U.S. intervention in World War II
D) starred in the most popular films of the 1920s

Question 11

How did this efficiency chart from the Central Tube Company in Pittsburgh associate the beliefs of social Darwinists to scientific management of skilled and unskilled jobs at that company?

A) Asian workers from China and Japan outperformed African Americans.
B) Irish workers were valued as highly skilled workers at this company.
C) White Americans performed strongest in almost every task available at the company.
D) Southern and eastern Europeans like Italians and Poles outperformed northern Europeans.

Question 12

Although many city dwellers saw the introduction of the car as beneficial to urban areas, what unforeseen circumstances related to automobiles had negative impacts on cities?

A) expenses in building tunnels and bridges
B) asphalt-paved roads and an increase in gasoline prices
C) heavy traffic and hazardous exhaust fumes
D) high traffic fatalities and a decline in the building trades industry

Question 13

Both the Eighteenth and Twenty-First Amendments to the U.S. Constitution were associated with .

A) increased public participation in federal elections
B) African American civil rights
C) women's voting rights
D) prohibition

Question 14

Who were referred to as the "wets" in the debate over Prohibition?

A) those who opposed Prohibition
B) the criminals who thrived during Prohibition
C) Southern preachers, especially Baptists, who supported temperance
D) members of the Anti-Saloon League

Question 15

What did author Dorothy Parker allude to when she said that "the best way to keep children home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant-and let air out of the tires"?

A) Younger people grew more independent as they used cars to travel further from home.
B) Attendance at school and church dropped as younger people chose instead to joyride in cars.
C) Use of automobiles by younger people boosted illegal drinking.
D) The automobile promoted looser courting and sexual morals among younger people.

Question 16

Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, Republican presidents during most of the 1920s,

A) openly supported business interests
B) used their power to directly aid the ailing farm economy
C) pursued programs that effected social reform
D) avoided implication in political scandals

Question 17

Which of the following statements best characterizes "the Lost Generation," a term coined by American writer Gertrude Stein to describe white intellectuals and artists of the 1920s who primarily lived abroad?

A) Members of this group rejected liberal values and the idealism of youth.
B) "The Lost Generation" honored suburban, middle-class lifestyles and values.
C) These writers and artists celebrated a new attitude of living spontaneously.
D) This group encouraged a return to the values of the Victorian era.

Question 18

What did evangelical preacher Billy Sunday mean when he stated in a 1908 speech that his listeners should "get on the water wagon; get on for the sake of your wife and babies…"?

A) Working-class laborers deserved to have a drink after finishing a hard day's work.
B) Temperance had positive benefits on health and thrift.
C) It was better for teenagers to drink supervised at home rather than risk drinking contaminated "moonshine."
D) Those who drank alcohol should give it up for the sake of their family's well-being.

Question 19

What was Russian-born immigrant Emma Goldman describing when she wrote that it "stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from the dominion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government"?

A) communism
B) anarchy
C) socialism
D) hedonism

Question 20

Proponents of welfare capitalism believed that .

A) the theory of scientific management had to be entirely rejected
B) the federal government should provide unemployment insurance
C) corporations could build a loyal workforce by providing certain benefits
D) the national government should be more active in programs of social reform

Question 21

What was NAACP leader W. E. B. Du Bois alluding to when he stated that Garvey's Black Star Line, a black-owned fleet of steamships, "…arose and disappeared, and with it went some
$800,000 of the savings of West Indians and a few American Negroes…" in his 1923 biographical sketch "Marcus Garvey"?

A) Garvey's incompetence and dishonesty as a business leader
B) Garvey's prowess in running a successful enterprise
C) Garvey's idea of encouraging self-sufficiency by encouraging black-owned businesses
D) Garvey's insistence on establishing an independent nation in Africa

Question 22

Jazz could best be described as a melding of European musical traditions and .

A) Latin music
B) folk music
C) African-American music
D) country music

Question 23

The passage of the Sheppard-Towner Act in 1921 .

A) established a system for enforcing Prohibition
B) provided federal funds for maternity care
C) severely curtailed child labor
D) required less regulation of national banks

Question 24

Based on this souvenir postcard from a lynching in Marion, Indiana, and the photograph of the 1925 Ku Klux Klan march in Washington, D.C., what conclusion can be reached about both lynch mobs and the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s?

A) They revived their activities after being suppressed during Reconstruction.
B) Their targets included not only African Americans, but also Jews, Catholics, immigrants and feminists.
C) They were unashamed of their actions and unafraid to reveal their identities.
D) Although they were usually prosecuted for their crimes, juries rarely found them guilty.

Question 25

Philosopher Alain Locke's anthology of essays and poems known as The New Negro
Embodied .

A) a new aesthetic vision
B) a proud work ethic
C) black racial pride
D) a deep connection to Africa

Question 26

Which of the following best characterizes the Harlem Renaissance?

A) The Harlem Renaissance inspired the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the industrial North.
B) The Harlem Renaissance failed to nurture the emergence of black cultural pride in northern cities.
C) The Harlem Renaissance undermined the goals of the NAACP and other political civil rights groups.
D) The Harlem Renaissance produced some of the greatest literature and music of the Jazz Age.

Question 27

How would members of the urban black middle class of the 1920s most likely have reacted to Aaron Douglas's drawing that accompanied James Weldon Johnson's poem "The Prodigal Son"?

A) They would have encouraged additional black men from the South to migrate to northern cities.
B) They would have taken pride in the development of an original American musical style with African roots.
C) They would have joyfully seen this image as an expression of the times that included increased African American dignity.
D) They would have disapproved of the temptations of jazz and the other illustrated vices that confronted the young man in the image.

Question 28

African-American leader Marcus Garvey rejected integration into white society in favor of

A) ensuring that African Americans acquire education through vocational schools
B) having African Americans take pride in their natural appearances
C) dismantling Jim Crow laws in the South
D) establishing an independent nation in Africa

Question 29

Why did Marcus Garvey choose to appear in full military regalia and plumed hat as the founder and leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association?

A) He wanted to emphasize his background as a veteran of World War I.
B) He believed that wearing such a uniform would challenge the white stereotype of racial subservience.
C) He wanted to prove to his followers that he was much more militant than Booker T. Washington.
D) He desired to rule Liberia as a monarch once African Americans resettled there.

Question 30

What attitude regarding the northward migration of African Americans can be inferred from this particular Jacob Lawrence painting from his Migration series?

A) irony
B) joy
C) condescension
D) detachment

Question 31

What two opposing issues were used by prosecutors and defenders of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in trying to prove their guilt or innocence regarding the robbery and murder of a Massachusetts payroll guard in 1920?

A) communism versus striking on the job
B) temperance versus alcoholism
C) terrorism versus xenophobia
D) organized crime versus anarchy

Question 32

In 1925, John T. Scopes, a science teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, was arrested by local officials for teaching .

A) creationism
B) evolution
C) sexual education and contraception
D) black history

Question 33

Lena Ruffner, the young woman in this photograph, likely supported the tenets of

A) evolution
B) modernism
C) the ACLU
D) fundamentalism

Question 34

What factors most likely inspired the image of the "new women" such as those portrayed in this advertisement?

A) the emergence of mass culture combined with young women's turning away from social movements and toward their economic prospects
B) the perception of women as controlling most purchasing decisions combined with their exodus from the workplace
C) the continuing success of the women's movement in the wake of the success of the suffragists combined with overall American prosperity
D) the emergence of car culture combined with the growing wealth of American families

Question 35

What was the result of Margaret Sanger's 1929 appearance with her mouth bandaged at Boston's Ford Hall Forum after local officials refused to let her speak publicly about birth control?

A) She was arrested and served 30 days in jail for distributing information about birth control.
B) Her birth control clinic in Brooklyn was permanently shut down by the government.
C) Her protest against censorship gave the birth control movement more national publicity.
D) There was an increase in the number of female deaths due to illegal abortions.

Question 36

Why did modern Progressive reformers, who dominated the League of Women Voters and included future first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, oppose passage of an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) during the 1920s?

A) They felt that gaining the right to vote ensured that women were equal to men in the United States.
B) They were concerned that the ERA could endanger the protective legislation for women that they had created in the recent past.
C) They questioned whether equality would mean that women would have to serve in the Armed Forces.
D) They feared that the ERA would not guarantee women equal pay for equal work when competing with men in the job market.

Question 37

What was NAACP director James Weldon Johnson referring to when he coined the term "The Red Summer of 1919"?

A) the wave of vicious assaults by whites against black communities
B) the attacks and arrests made on communists and anarchists during the First Red Scare
C) the deadly attacks made by rival gang members in organized crime over the sale of alcohol
D) the militant protests undertaken by suffragists as they tried to get the states to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment

Question 38

The passage of the Nineteenth Amendment .

A) repealed Prohibition
B) outlawed the manufacture and distribution of alcohol
C) gave women the right to vote
D) provided for the direct election of U.S. senators

Question 39

To what aspect of modern life in the 1920s were both the Lost Generation and Christian fundamentalists responding?

A) its championing of industry and technology
B) its apparent inability to meet the needs of the human spirit
C) its rampant immorality
D) its sustenance of bigotry toward minorities

Question 40

In the 1920s, the best predictor of how a woman would vote was how her voted.

A) husband
B) female friends
C) local elected officials
D) coworkers

Question 41

What attitude toward birth control did Margaret Sanger encounter in her work?

A) dismay at her prudish recommendation that women simply avoid sex
B) shock at the possibility that birth control could be used to support eugenics
C) disinterest from women, who generally wanted as many children as possible
D) the idea that birth control and the women who used it were indecent

Question 42

During negotiations for the Kellogg-Briand Pact in 1928, the United States worked to

A) limit industrial overproduction
B) withdraw its commitment to free trade
C) start an arms race with European powers
D) renounce aggression and condemn war

Question 43

As shown in this graphic, what conclusion can be made about the World War I reparation payment system in the 1920s?

A) The entire reparation system was financed by American capital.
B) Germany was able to make regular reparation payments to the Allies with its own funds.
C) The United States remained an isolationist nation during the 1920s.
D) The Allies failed to repay their war debts to the United States.

Question 44

President Coolidge was asked by the French government in 1928 to sign a treaty with their country renouncing war, and instead, he decided to .

A) negotiate a nonaggression pact with multiple nations
B) abstain and develop a policy of isolationism
C) finally enter the League of Nations
D) sign a nonaggression pact with Britain and Japan

Question 45

The political cartoon "A Christmas Carol: Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards Man" expresses which of the following views of the Kellogg-Briand Pact?

A) It was a step in the right direction toward world peace.
B) It was unlikely to prevent future wars.
C) It had been negotiated in good faith.
D) It would protect only the United States, not Europe.

Question 46

The Dawes Plan resulted in the United States' loaning Germany .

A) its agricultural expertise
B) naval battleships
C) diplomatic support in negotiating with the Allies
D) millions of dollars to pay reparation obligations to the Allies

Question 47

In the 1920s, President Coolidge famously said, "They hired the money, didn't they?" What situation was he referring to?

A) financing German reparation payments to the Allies with American capital
B) French and Belgian occupation of the Ruhr Valley after Germany missed a reparation payment
C) a reduction of overseas loans by American bankers after the stock market crash
D) opposition to canceling the repayment of World War I war debts by the Allies

Question 48

How does the design of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was dedicated in 1921 during the Washington Conference, represent the diplomatic goals of the Harding and Coolidge administrations?

A) The laurel wreaths signify that the United States was a world power in the postwar period.
B) The allegorical figures represent the diplomatic goals of peace, valor, and victory.
C) The concept of interring an unknown soldier reaffirmed the need for global disarmament.
D) The hand-joined allegorical figures represent the success of a multinational nonaggression pact.

Question 49

The 1927 political cartoon Looking into the Black Hole of Ruin that was created just prior to the 1927 Geneva naval disarmament meeting .

A) convinced the United States, Britain, and Japan to successfully negotiate a naval disarmament treaty
B) led to the United States, Britain, and Japan gaining control of the waters closest to them
C) was unable to persuade the leading powers to reach an agreement on naval disarmament
D) swayed nine nations to formally respect the Open Door policy in China

Question 50

How were the goals of the Washington Conference of 1921-1922 reflective of President Harding's foreign policy?

A) Harding wanted the United States to isolate itself from all foreign affairs.
B) Harding wanted to use dollars and disarmament to secure peace.
C) Harding wanted to end the Open Door Policy to prevent armed conflict.
D) Harding believed that Germany needed to make reparations to avoid future wars.