Deck 19: The Vitality and Turmoil of Urban Life, 1877-1920

Question 1

Which of the following was a provision of the Chinese Exclusion Act passed by Congress in 1882?

A) The act relaxed restrictions on the number of Chinese who could immigrate to the United States.
B) The act prohibited the employment of Chinese Americans.
C) The act prohibited Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens of the United States.
D) The act allowed for the gradual removal of all Chinese Americans from the United States.

Answer 1

The act prohibited Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens of the United States.

Question 2

Which of the following is true of American women at the turn of the century?

A) Their economic standing was usually defined by the men in their lives.
B) They could not own property.
C) Their rights were no longer restricted by law.
D) They were as likely as men to experience occupational advancement.

Answer 2

Their economic standing was usually defined by the men in their lives.

Question 3

Which of the following is true of urban housing conditions in the late nineteenth century?

A) Because of the construction of model tenements in most American cities, even the poor had clean, affordable housing.
B) Because population growth outpaced housing supplies in many large cities, low-income families often experienced extreme overcrowding.
C) Legislation establishing a national housing code made inhumane living conditions a thing of the past.
D) In many cities, urban renewal projects funded by the federal government displaced the poor to cardboard shanties.

Answer 3

Because population growth outpaced housing supplies in many large cities, low-income families often experienced extreme overcrowding.

Question 4

As a result of the introduction of mass transit in cities,

A) working-class neighborhoods were broken apart.
B) members of the middle class could live in neighborhoods on the urban outskirts and commute to work in the inner city.
C) more mixed-use areas consisting of residences, shops, and factories emerged.
D) human resources were drawn inward toward the central city.

Question 5

African American migrants differed from other migrants in which of the following respects?

A) African Americans lacked the economic motivation of other migrants.
B) African Americans, unlike other migrants, did not usually come from rural backgrounds.
C) African American migrants were more likely to be female.
D) African Americans, unlike other migrants, tended to migrate to rural rather than to urban areas.

Question 6

Which of the following enabled city dwellers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to live in greater comfort and safety?

A) Indoor plumbing, central heating systems, and the adoption of public health regulations.
B) The increased use of coal-burning stoves
C) Pollution control legislation
D) Government financing of low-income housing

Question 7

Most immigrant newcomers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

A) converted to a Protestant sect.
B) supported liberalizing trends in church services.
C) sought to retain their familiar religious practices.
D) did not go to church because they worked on Sundays.

Question 8

Which of the following is true of the Supreme Court's ruling in Fong Yue Ting v. United States?

A) The Court struck down the Chinese Exclusion Act by ruling that immigration laws had to be racially neutral.
B) The Court held that Congress could prohibit Chinese immigration and require Chinese Americans to carry certificates of residence.
C) The Court declared unconstitutional a San Francisco ordinance that prohibited Chinese laundries in white neighborhoods.
D) The Court upheld laws restricting the dress of immigrant groups in the United States as long as those groups were deemed to pose an "imminent" threat to order and stability.

Question 9

Which of the following is true of Denis Kearney?

A) He and his followers intimidated employers in San Francisco into refusing to hire people of Chinese descent.
B) He was the motivating force behind the massacre of hundreds of Chinese immigrants.
C) As a member of the San Francisco city council, he gained passage of a city ordinance prohibiting anyone of Chinese descent from living within the city limits.
D) He argued that immigrants who were not of Anglo-Saxon descent should not be allowed to become naturalized citizens of the United States.

Question 10

Studies of America's wealthiest men at the turn of the century indicate that the vast majority

A) grew up in relatively prosperous families.
B) had almost no formal education.
C) were of foreign birth.
D) began their careers as independent shopkeepers.

Question 11

The padrone performed an important function by

A) maintaining the authority of the Catholic Church.
B) encouraging Italians to abandon the traditions of their homeland.
C) countering the influence of the Mafia.
D) acting as a broker between employers and unskilled workers.

Question 12

In most cases, the ethnic identity of a neighborhood was primarily based on the

A) primary language spoken by the children in the neighborhood school.
B) specific dialect spoken by the residents.
C) institutions and businesses found in the neighborhood.
D) ethnic background of the people who lived in the neighborhood.

Question 13

Which of the following is true of late-nineteenth-century immigrants to the United States?

A) Most settled in agricultural areas.
B) Family tended to be the focus of their lives.
C) They usually flocked together on the edges of major American cities.
D) They were predominantly female.

Question 14

In the early 1900s, was it difficult for working-class families to buy their own homes? Why or why not?

A) Yes, because it was impossible for such families to save enough money for the down payment.
B) Yes, because mortgage interest rates were high and repayment periods were short.
C) No, because employers often would help finance homes.
D) No, because government programs made homeownership possible for all.

Question 15

Which of the following was a provision of the Geary Act passed by Congress in 1892?

A) The act relaxed restrictions on the number of Chinese who could immigrate to the United States.
B) The act required Chinese Americans to carry certificates of residence.
C) The act declared that immigrants of Chinese descent posed an imminent threat to the customs and traditions of American society.
D) The act prohibited Chinese immigrants from wearing traditional Chinese hair braids called queues.

Question 16

Which of the following made the erection of skyscrapers possible?

A) The elevator
B) The flushable indoor toilet
C) New engineering techniques for reinforcing and stabilizing the foundations of such buildings
D) Steel-frame construction

Question 17

What impact did the urban growth of the late nineteenth century have on industrialization?

A) Urbanization greatly slowed industrialization in the United States.
B) Urbanization had little effect on industrialization.
C) Urban growth and industrialization fed off and promoted each other.
D) Urban growth negated the positive aspects of industrialization.

Question 18

Which of the following statements concerning occupational mobility is accurate?

A) Upward occupational mobility was much greater than downward occupational mobility.
B) Occupational mobility was rare in the United States in the years following the Civil War.
C) Native whites had a lower rate of upward mobility than immigrants.
D) Upward social mobility was more easily achieved by females than by males.

Question 19

Conservative Judaism was established in America by eastern European Jews who

A) wanted to incorporate aspects of the Protestant church service into the Jewish service.
B) believed that Reform Judaism had sacrificed too much to American ways.
C) believed that the traditional Jewish service was too rigid and structured.
D) wanted to recognize the contributions and worth of Jewish women by fully incorporating them into the service.

Question 20

Which of the following was especially important in helping African Americans cope with urban life?

A) The urban political machine
B) The availability of jobs
C) Government relief agencies for the urban poor
D) Religious activities associated with black churches

Question 21

Most civic reformers

A) supported structural changes in city government so that its administration could be placed in the hands of experts rather than politicians.
B) wanted to introduce welfare programs for the poor.
C) were willing to use the tax system to redistribute wealth.
D) suggested building low-income housing for the elderly.

Question 22

American city governments in the late nineteenth century were

A) better and more efficient than they ever had been before.
B) so poorly organized that they were often incapable of dealing with the urgent need for sewers, police protection, and other services created by urban growth.
C) appointed, from the mayor down, by corrupt state legislatures.
D) for the most part able to deal successfully and intelligently with the problems of urban growth.

Question 23

Hazen S. Pingree, Samuel Jones, and Thomas L. Johnson were all examples of

A) political bosses who thrived on graft and corruption.
B) reform mayors who demonstrated genuine concern for social problems.
C) Democrats who succeeded in appealing to the business elite by favoring deregulation of electric companies.
D) civic reformers who were concerned primarily with structural change.

Question 24

Which of the following statements best expresses the belief of most middle- and upper-class Americans about poverty in the late nineteenth century?

A) Most poverty is caused by the business cycle.
B) The greed of the wealthy is the major reason for poverty.
C) The poor are poor because of their own personal weaknesses.
D) Much poverty is caused by the degrading environment in which people live.

Question 25

Which of the following is true of law enforcement officials in late-nineteenth-century American cities?

A) They often had to answer to various groups that differed on their views of the law and how it should be enforced.
B) They were merely volunteers with no professional training or status.
C) They were far more consistent in how they applied the law to various social classes and ethnic groups than is the case in today's society.
D) They usually showed far more leniency in applying the law to the disadvantaged.

Question 26

Political machines spread and thrived in urban areas during the late nineteenth century because

A) they, unlike existing city governments, were able to provide much-needed services to urban residents.
B) they represented efficiency and honesty in an age of political corruption.
C) people were tired of the autocratic nature of existing city governments.
D) the middle classes were angry at the favoritism shown by existing city governments to the urban poor and ethnic minorities.

Question 27

Which of the following is true of the City Beautiful movement?

A) It inspired the urban renewal programs of the New Deal.
B) The plans it advanced transformed the heart of most American cities in the early twentieth century.
C) The major projects it envisioned went largely unfulfilled because of insufficient funding.
D) It resulted in virtually nothing other than graft and corruption.

Question 28

Which of the following statements best expresses the new attitude about poverty accepted by some humanitarians in the late nineteenth century?

A) Only the unfit are poor.
B) Relief of poverty should be tolerated but never encouraged.
C) Anyone can escape poverty through hard work and clean living.
D) Environment, rather than personal defects, causes poverty.

Question 29

The urban political machines of the late nineteenth century

A) survived by providing relief, security, and services to large numbers of people.
B) were successful only when it came to giving bribes and dispensing graft.
C) conducted city business in a fair and open manner.
D) faced strong opposition from business and industrial leaders.

Question 30

American cities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries differed from cities in other industrialized nations in which of the following ways?

A) American cities had municipal welfare agencies that provided relief to the urban poor.
B) American cities had professional law enforcement officers.
C) American cities had no housing codes and no zoning restrictions.
D) American cities experienced a significant rise in homicide rates.

Question 31

Most urban political bosses

A) tried to distribute favors in an equitable way.
B) were disdainful of local government and of the people they were supposed to serve.
C) retained their power because they knew people's needs and tended to those needs.
D) were thoroughly corrupt and assumed dictatorial powers.

Question 32

Middle- and working-class families often supplemented their income by

A) doing piecework at home in the evening.
B) taking in boarders.
C) working as maids or servants on their days off.
D) running small businesses out of their homes.

Question 33

Civic reformers sought to

A) give elected officials greater local decision-making power.
B) put politics back into city government.
C) abolish the city-manager form of government.
D) make city government more efficient by running it like a business.

Question 34

Which of the following appears to have caused the decline in the birthrate in the late 1800s and early 1900s?

A) The spread of the wage-based urban economy
B) The decrease in the number of married couples
C) The increase in infant mortality rates
D) The climbing divorce rate

Question 35

The main goal of the urban political machines of the late 1800s was to

A) facilitate industrial development.
B) gather votes for presidential candidates.
C) improve the lives of the urban poor.
D) gain the rewards that accompanied political power.

Question 36

Which of the following is true of people who were part of the gay subculture in late-nineteenth-century American cities?

A) They usually faced little or no discrimination from the larger community.
B) There is no evidence that such people ever formed lasting relationships with same-sex partners.
C) They were labeled as "homosexuals" and faced laws specifically designed to deny them employment and housing.
D) They were usually categorized by their actions rather than by their sexual partners.

Question 37

Which of the following statements is true of individual life patterns before the late nineteenth century?

A) Parenthood took up little of people's adult lives.
B) Older children were not expected to help with younger ones.
C) Old people were not generally isolated from other age groups.
D) Considerable "gaps" existed between generations.

Question 38

Settlement-house workers such as Jane Addams

A) tried to impose their Protestant beliefs on immigrant newcomers and did little to deal with the real problems of urban life.
B) became reform leaders by fighting for such things as factory safety regulations.
C) approached immigrants with an attitude of righteous superiority and made few meaningful contributions.
D) assumed that immigrants should immediately discard Old World customs.

Question 39

By the early twentieth century, cities increasingly depended on urban engineers to

A) establish public health regulations for hospitals, schools, and restaurants.
B) establish efficient refuse removal and disposal systems.
C) design buildings that would enhance the beauty of the inner city.
D) strictly enforce regulations designed to reduce air and water pollution within the urban environment.

Question 40

Which of the following was often true of moral reformers?

A) They were especially sensitive to the needs of the diverse people inhabiting the cities.
B) They believed that cities were filled with sin and depravity and ultimately wanted to abolish urban areas.
C) They failed to understand that the crusades they launched were often seen as interference by others.
D) They recognized that it was futile to push moral reforms in urban areas.

Question 41

The rise of amusement as a commercial activity in the late 1800s took place for which of the following reasons?

A) Immigrants brought sports with them from Europe.
B) Employers wanted to draw workers' attention away from union organization.
C) Labor-saving devices brought a substantial increase in leisure time.
D) City reformers believed organized amusements would relieve working-class boredom and reduce the urban crime rate.

Question 42

Which of the following is true of family life and the functions of the family by 1900?

A) People's roles in the home were no longer defined by age.
B) Kinship was no longer of any importance.
C) Age-based peer groups had far more influence over people's values than previously.
D) Parents spent a far larger portion of their lives caring for children than previously.

Question 43

Which of the following is true of African Americans in the entertainment business in the early twentieth century?

A) They suffered the same prejudice as elsewhere in society.
B) They were paid extremely low wages.
C) They appeared only as stagehands to move props.
D) They were occasionally used in movies but were barred from vaudeville.

Question 44

The most popular intercollegiate sport for women in late-nineteenth-century America was

A) croquet.
B) soccer.
C) volleyball.
D) basketball.

Question 45

Yellow journalism focused on

A) factual accuracy.
B) sensationalism.
C) thoughtful editorials.
D) want ads.

Question 46

The popularity of bicycling in the late 1800s led to

A) the formation of immigrant "bike gangs" that terrorized neighborhoods.
B) fear that the automobile and related industries would be adversely affected.
C) the founding of the asphalt paving industry in America.
D) more practical and comfortable clothing styles for women.

Question 47

Which of the following is generally considered to have been the most popular form of mass entertainment in America in the early 1900s?

A) Comic opera
B) Musical comedy
C) The minstrel show
D) Vaudeville

Question 48

The youngest daughter in an immigrant family might expect to be

A) given more opportunities than older siblings.
B) farmed out to a relative as a housekeeper.
C) given a larger inheritance than his or her siblings.
D) pressured to remain at home to care for aging parents.

Question 49

D. W. Griffith's early motion picture Birth of a Nation

A) was an attempt to further the prohibition movement.
B) depicted the important role of women in the shaping of the republic.
C) was strongly anti-German in content.
D) furthered racial prejudice because of the way it depicted African Americans.

Question 50

The Intercollegiate Athletic Association was founded to

A) police college sports.
B) rank college football teams.
C) scout high-school prospects for college football teams.
D) establish a scholarship fund for college athletes.

Question 51

The master of musical comedy in early-twentieth-century America was

A) George M. Cohan.
B) Victor Herbert.
C) Jerome Kern.
D) Florenz Ziegfeld.

Question 52

This sport appealed to both sexes and renewed opportunities for social contact between men and women.

A) Baseball
B) Croquet
C) Football
D) Tennis

Question 53

Which of the following statements about urbanization is accurate?

A) As bad as American cities were, they were more orderly and beautiful than their European counterparts.
B) American cities proved the truth of "America, the melting pot."
C) American cities were dull, boring, and lifeless.
D) American cities were characterized by a mixture of social classes, ethnic groups, and racial groups that sometimes lived in harmony and sometimes did not.