Deck 20: Cities, Peoples, Cultures, 1890-1920

Question 1

In 1870, approximately 1/3 of black men in northern cities were skilled tradesmen; however, by 1910 ____ of black men made a living in skilled trades.

A) 10 percent
B) 25 percent
C) 50 percent
D) 75 percent
E) 90 percent

Answer 1

90 percent

Question 2

The quintessential force in late-nineteenth-century city government was

A) city hall.
B) the political machine.
C) the political party.
D) the mayor.
E) the wealthy private citizen.

Answer 2

the political machine.

Question 3

The skyscraper

A) was a new kind of building.
B) was made possible by the use of steel.
C) needed electric-powered elevators.
D) were impelled upward by rising real estate values.
E) all of these choices

Answer 3

all of these choices

Question 4

A major problem with waterworks in the large cities was

A) location of pipes.
B) water contamination.
C) quality of the pipes.
D) reluctance of people to use the supply.
E) all of these choices

Question 5

Most of those who worked and died at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company were

A) young males.
B) young immigrant females.
C) older men.
D) children.
E) middle age "old immigrant" women.

Question 6

Of all the new migrants, the group with the least reason to return home would be

A) The Russian Jewish population.
B) Chinese migrants.
C) Japanese migrants.
D) German migrants.
E) Italian migrants.

Question 7

Most European immigrants who arrived between 1880 and 1914 came from

A) northern and western Europe.
B) eastern and southern Europe.
C) Africa.
D) Asia.
E) Mexico.

Question 8

By 1900, American cities pumped ____ gallons of water a day for each of their inhabitants.

A) 39
B) 100
C) 139
D) 239
E) 500

Question 9

The most popular form of entertainment in turn-of-the-century urban America was

A) baseball.
B) vaudeville.
C) the movies.
D) amusement parks.
E) opera.

Question 10

By 1920, the majority of workers in American cities were

A) highly skilled and well paid.
B) women.
C) immigrants.
D) highly skilled and poorly paid.
E) migrants from America's farms.

Question 11

The living conditions for most of the working class can best be described as

A) pleasant.
B) squalid.
C) spacious.
D) sanitary.
E) healthy.

Question 12

Racial issues were evident in the Columbian Exposition in which of the following ways?

A) African American writers completely ignored the exposition.
B) The exposition completely erased the question of race in its design.
C) The exposition revealed unity and diversity of the U.S.
D) Fair organizers did not include African Americans.
E) none of these choices

Question 13

For the most part, native-born Americans viewed the "new immigrants" as

A) culturally sophisticated and racially fit.
B) politically mature.
C) groups who would enrich America's multicultural society.
D) capable of assimilating to American traditions.
E) racially inferior and culturally impoverished.

Question 14

What author of the essay "Trans-National America" defined America's uniqueness in the encounters that occurred between immigrant cultures and the nation's atmosphere of freedom and democracy?

A) Israel Zangwill
B) Horace Kallen
C) Emma Goldman
D) Charlotte Perkins Gilman
E) Randolph Bourne

Question 15

The primary motivation for late-nineteenth-century immigration was

A) religious persecution.
B) political persecution.
C) economic hardship.
D) forced migration.
E) hardship caused by war.

Question 16

The "White City" refers to which of the following?

A) New York City
B) Boston
C) Chicago
D) Charleston
E) Memphis

Question 17

William "Big Bill" Haywood was the leader of which of the following unions?

A) American Federation of Labor (AFL)
B) Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)
C) Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
D) Knights of Labor (K of L)
E) National Labor Union (NLU).

Question 18

The skyscrapers celebrated which of the following?

A) God
B) man
C) religion
D) faith
E) all of these choices

Question 19

Robert Hunter estimated in 1904 that ____ percent of the Northern industrial population lived in poverty.

A) 5
B) 10
C) 15
D) 20
E) 25

Question 20

Many radical artists, writers, and activists during this period, such as Crystal Eastman, lived in what area of New York City?

A) Brooklyn
B) Queens
C) Greenwich Village
D) The Bronx
E) Staten Island

Question 21

Older middle-class Americans had a problem with Coney Island.That problem had to do with which of the following?

A) The pleasure working class Americans were affording themselves.
B) The fact that they could not control their worker's every moves.
C) The fact that young men and women were unchaperoned.
D) The rampant prostitution.
E) The fact that it was segregated.

Question 22

The idea of American's nationality being cosmopolitan was first discussed by which of the following?

A) Israel Zangwill
B) Horace Kallen
C) Margaret Sanger
D) Theodore Roosevelt
E) Randolph Bourne

Question 23

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was

A) the largest labor union in the United States.
B) a conservative craft union that advocated collective bargaining agreements.
C) a revolutionary labor union that represented the poorest, most isolated workers.
D) a semireligious organization that promoted class and racial harmony.
E) opposed to the use of strikes.

Question 24

All of the following are true of women in this time period except

A) some women were calling for the release of women from domestic responsibilities.
B) some women were denouncing marriage.
C) some women were calling for full female freedom and equality.
D) some women organized for woman suffrage.
E) some women were championing for female leaders in Congress.

Question 25

All of the following were characteristics of urban life in the late nineteenth century except

A) city governments provided clean water and paved roads for the middle and upper classes.
B) most city dwellers lived in overcrowded, unsanitary, disease-ridden tenements.
C) ethnic minorities maintained their communal identity by establishing churches and fraternal societies.
D) social classes and ethnic groups mixed freely in city housing areas.
E) many working class families laced running water.

Question 26

One of the new elements to the dime novels were

A) working class women.
B) romance.
C) fantasies.
D) experience of immigration.
E) domestic women.

Question 27

The one thing feminism, pluralism and cosmopolitanism all had in common was

A) they all made Americans anxious.
B) they would benefit all Americans equally.
C) none of the presidents paid them much attention.
D) they seem to be overlooked by most Americans.
E) all of these choices

Question 28

The Mann Act was passed to address which of the following social problems?

A) poor housing
B) birth control
C) education
D) prostitution
E) sanitation

Question 29

The one element that seems to help explain the movement among women toward more equality appears to be the fact that

A) the U.S.had more women in its population than men.
B) the rise of female writers were articulating their goals more frequently.
C) more women were working now than before.
D) men seemed more enlightened about the place of women in society.
E) more men seemed willing to accept a greater role for women in government.

Question 30

In the early twentieth century, the American middle class

A) did not include any significant numbers from ethnic groups.
B) was entered into by significant numbers of Jewish manufacturers.
C) slowed assimilation of ethnic groups.
D) was entirely urban in nature.
E) came to be dominated by ethnic groups.

Question 31

It is estimated in 1920 that the number of women who engaged in premarital sex was

A) less than 2 percent.
B) 10 percent.
C) 25 percent.
D) 40 percent.
E) 50 percent.

Question 32

In 1908, Israel Zangwill wrote a play encouraging

A) civil service reform and an elimination of party machines.
B) feminism.
C) assimilation by new immigrants.
D) the celebration of diversity.
E) more women to go to work.

Question 33

In African American communities one would find which of the following?

A) funeral homes.
B) newspapers.
C) grocery stores.
D) doctor's offices.
E) all of these choices

Question 34

The one major issue that all writers discussing nationality ignored was

A) race.
B) class.
C) gender.
D) religion.
E) immigrant status.

Question 35

The political boss of Boston was

A) "King Richard" Croker.
B) Abe Ruef.
C) James Michael Curley.
D) Tom Pendergast.
E) James Duke.

Question 36

Horace Kallen was an early spokesman for

A) cultural pluralism and a celebration of ethnic difference in America.
B) the melting pot assimilation to American culture.
C) feminism and working class women's labor movements.
D) national woman suffrage.
E) an end to child labor.

Question 37

America's first illegal aliens were

A) Mexicans.
B) Puerto Ricans.
C) Italians.
D) Chinese and Japanese.
E) Canadians.

Question 38

Margaret Sanger crusaded for

A) birth control.
B) free love.
C) automation for of housekeeping chores.
D) women's suffrage.
E) all of these choices

Question 39

Most of the "new immigrants"

A) intended to establish permanent homes and to become U.S.citizens.
B) moved to the South to take advantage of industrial development there.
C) immediately joined labor unions.
D) hoped to work and save money in the United States and then to return to their homelands.
E) bought farms.

Question 40

Most African Americans were

A) landowners.
B) businessmen.
C) sharecroppers and tenant farmers.
D) railroad contractors.
E) none of these choices

Question 41

The black middle class tended to be smaller and more precarious than its counterpart in other ethnic communities.

Question 42

The nation's first subways were constructed in

A) New York City.
B) Boston.
C) Philadelphia.
D) Chicago.
E) Trenton.

Question 43

Chinese and Japanese immigrants

A) settled primarily in the South.
B) worked primarily in the automobile industry.
C) made up the majority of the urban workforce.
D) were generally more prosperous than European immigrants.
E) were ineligible for citizenship.

Question 44

Coney Island offered commercial amusements in a setting in which social mores were decidedly loosened.

Question 45

Some Japanese immigrants achieved success as

A) small western farmers.
B) railroad managers.
C) politicians.
D) garment factory owners.
E) middle managers.

Question 46

American vaudeville

A) grew out of antebellum minstrelsy.
B) would be best described as song shows.
C) had largely died out by 1900.
D) initially catered to the wealthy, leisure class.
E) never appealed to the respectable middle class.

Question 47

The audience for novelist Laura Jane Libbey was mostly

A) men.
B) working class.
C) wealthy.
D) southern.
E) children.

Question 48

As a result of the new emphasis on productivity in manufacturing,

A) the United States had the world's highest rate of on-the-job injuries.
B) most women and children could not compete and therefore lost their jobs.
C) the labor movement was undermined.
D) fewer foreign immigrants applied for work in major industries.
E) workers enjoyed safer working conditions.

Question 49

Which of the following is true about labor in the early twentieth century?

A) Immigrant men and male children constituted 70 percent of the workforce in 15 leading industries.
B) Of 750,000 Slovaks arriving in America before 1913, at least 600,000 went to work in the coal mines and steel mills of Pennsylvania.
C) First- and second-generation immigrants constituted more than 96 percent of the labor force that built and maintained the nation's railroads.
D) all of these choices
E) none of these choices

Question 50

The goal of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was to overthrow the capitalist system.

Question 51

Many immigrants between 1900 and 1914 returned to the land of their birth.

Question 52

Most working families required two to three wage-earners in order to make ends meet.

Question 53

By 1920, a majority of states prohibited child labor.

Question 54

Skyscrapers were reaching to the sky but smaller and shorter than European cathedrals.

Question 55

Immigrants who came to the United States tended to do so regardless of whether or not they had friends or relatives already in the United States.

Question 56

Most Japanese and Chinese immigrants came to America

A) to escape political oppression.
B) to practice their religion freely.
C) because of economic deprivation.
D) because Americans welcomed them and treated them well.
E) because of the bloody war between Japan and China.

Question 57

Employers tended to use black strikebreakers because they were sympathetic to their economic plight.

Question 58

In the 1870s man American cities were walking cities where people lived within walking distance of work.

Question 59

Museums in the Gild Age worked the hardest to attract the attention of the

A) well-to-do.
B) intellectual community.
C) widest possible audience.
D) female club members.
E) working class.

Question 60

Which of the following is true about the 1893 Columbian Exhibition?

A) It was held in Philadelphia.
B) "White City" was by far the most popular part of the fair.
C) It was a commercial flop.
D) It deliberately rejected displaying achievements by black Americans.
E) all of these choices

Question 61

The structure of the Columbia Exposition reinforced a racial hierarchy.

Question 62

By 1900, the average work week in American industry was fifty hours.

Question 63

More than half of the early films shown in American nickelodeons came from France, Germany, and Italy.

Question 64

The least successful fair in American history was the Columbia Exposition.

Question 65

By the early twentieth century, northern industrialists preferred to hire southern blacks over the "new immigrants."

Question 66

Between 1880 and 1920 the number of immigrants coming to the United States declined significantly.

Question 67

Most mass immigration to the United States after 1880 was propelled by economic hardship.

Question 68

Most Asian migrants came into the country through Ellis Island.

Question 69

This time period saw a great deal of government corruption and organized crime.

Question 70

There were big changes both above and below ground in the growing cities.

Question 71

In 1900 American manufacturing workers' earnings were twice the amount of immigrants working in skilled jobs.

Question 72

Few Americans attended the Columbia Exposition.

Question 73

By the early twentieth century, Japanese immigrants owned about 25 percent of California's total farm acreage.

Question 74

The "old" and "new" immigrants had nothing in common.

Question 75

Many "new" immigrants rose to the prosperous ranks of skilled labor.

Question 76

The typical workweek for steelworkers was more than 72 hours.

Question 77

A total of 23 million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1880 and 1920.

Question 78

Many local politicians made money through graft.

Question 79

Most of the "new" immigrants were women and children.

Question 80

Big city machines were both positive and negative forces in urban life.