Deck 27: From Triumph to Tragedy, 1989-2004

Question 1

What did demonstrators demand in the "Battle of Seattle"?

A) international standards for working conditions
B) an end to sanctions against Cuba
C) an end to global trade and capital flows
D) the resignation of Bill Clinton
E) a new contract for workers in the coffee trade

Answer 1

international standards for working conditions

Question 2

Bill Clinton's foreign policy centered on

A) elevating human rights to a central place in international relations.
B) defeating the few pockets of communism left in the world.
C) taking a hard line against economic competitors like Mexico and Canada.
D) building what he called a New World Order.
E) preemptive strikes to weed out dictatorial leaders that posed a threat to American security.

Answer 2

elevating human rights to a central place in international relations.

Question 3

What, according to author Eric Foner, would be the best possible outcome of the Rwandan genocide and the ethnic cleansing during the Balkan wars in the mid-1990s?

A) a United Nations with a stronger military arm
B) an expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
C) a European Union with a more interventionist mindset
D) a more effective international system for the protection of human rights
E) a two-state solution for Hutu and Tutsi

Answer 3

a more effective international system for the protection of human rights

Question 4

Globalization

A) had little to do with the collapse of communism.
B) was symbolized by corporations such as Microsoft and organizations like the WTO.
C) is closely associated with the 1970s, although it was not a new phenomenon.
D) opposed the free flow of goods and services across borders.
E) involved a strict regulatory apparatus for the control of global trade.

Question 5

What were the student protesters who occupied Tiananmen Square in Beijing in June 1989 demanding?

A) socialism
B) suspension of martial law
C) U.S. aid
D) democracy
E) labor rights

Question 6

Bill Clinton was easily reelected in 1996 because he

A) promised to restore the welfare state.
B) pledged to increase the Aid to Families with Dependent Children.
C) vowed to get a national health insurance bill through Congress.
D) supported abolishing affirmative action.
E) embraced popular Republican policies.

Question 7

By the end of Bill Clinton's presidency, what was the state of affairs between Israel and Palestine?

A) Israel recognized Palestine as a separate nation.
B) Israel stopped building settlements on the West Bank.
C) Palestine relinquished its claim of being an independent state.
D) A final peace treaty ended the violence.
E) In the absence of an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty, violence continued.

Question 8

During Bill Clinton's first term, what federal economic policy helped lift millions out of poverty?

A) Great Society legislation
B) "Don't ask, don't tell"
C) welfare
D) the Earned Income Tax Credit
E) the North American Free Trade Agreement

Question 9

What was a result of the burst of the "dot com" bubble?

A) Stock market prices quickly recovered.
B) Use of the Internet declined for several years.
C) Stock market prices declined for three straight years.
D) Apple created the iPhone for tracking stocks.
E) Stock market prices bounced back after a year's decline.

Question 10

How did Mikhail Gorbachev react when pro-democracy movements started across eastern Europe?

A) He held a meeting with eastern Europe communist leaders.
B) He sent Soviet Union troops to some of these countries.
C) He blamed the United States.
D) He made it clear that the Soviet Union would not intervene.
E) He ordered the assassination of the pro-democracy leaders.

Question 11

What was the fate of the chief officers of Enron?

A) They were never tried before a court of law.
B) They left the country for a Caribbean island.
C) They were ordered to pay billions of dollars to compensate investors.
D) They were convicted of multiple counts of fraud.
E) They were sentenced to life in prison.

Question 12

In 1992, Bill Clinton secured the Democratic nomination for president because he

A) promised to expand welfare.
B) pledged to continue the policies of President Bush in the Middle East.
C) combined social liberalism with elements of conservatism.
D) promised to restrict access to abortion.
E) did not support gay rights.

Question 13

What was the Contract with America?

A) a press term for the Clinton reelection strategy
B) Clinton's 256-page proposal to overhaul the nation's welfare system
C) a 1994 Republican plan to steeply cut federal education, medical, and environmental programs
D) a speech delivered by Clinton that promised to continue to work on health care reform
E) what Democrats called Bill Clinton's victory in 1992

Question 14

"Dot coms"

A) were high-tech companies that attracted many investors in the 1990s.
B) were companies against which economic journalists repeatedly warned investors.
C) were never warmly embraced by stockbrokers in the 1990s.
D) helped stabilize the fluctuating 1990s stock market.
E) helped create thousands of jobs for American workers.

Question 15

Health care reform during Clinton's first term

A) was not a major issue for the president.
B) was opposed by drug companies, insurance companies, and doctors.
C) was championed by First Lady Hillary Clinton, who succeeded in getting Congress to back her universal coverage plan.
D) became a policy priority for congressional Republicans who opposed the Clinton plan.
E) was easily understood by most voters and received little criticism.

Question 16

Which of the following describes what happened after the Soviet Union dissolved?

A) Fifteen new independent nations arose in its place.
B) Russia emerged as a superpower.
C) The war on communism ended, as no other country claimed it as a form of government.
D) East European countries rapidly prospered.
E) The United States exercised, once again, an isolationist policy.

Question 17

How did President Clinton respond to the Republican victory in the 1994 congressional elections?

A) He grew increasingly radical in his opposition to Republicans.
B) He brought Republicans into his cabinet in order to build a more bipartisan government.
C) He campaigned against radical Republicans and moved toward the center.
D) He increasingly embraced the position of the Democratic left.
E) He intensified his alliance with Democrats in the Senate.

Question 18

Which of the following best explains George H. W. Bush's loss in the 1992 presidential election?

A) Bush seemed out of touch with wealthy Republican campaign donors.
B) America was in a recession in 1992.
C) Pat Buchanan turned off some moderate Republican voters.
D) Third-party candidate Ross Perot became a viable option for many voters.
E) Bush's handling of foreign policy had left many Americans angry and alienated.

Question 19

What sparked the development of improved computer technology in the 1960s?

A) the space program
B) the automobile industry
C) the telephone industry
D) the development of video games
E) news broadcasting

Question 20

What was the first post-Cold War international crisis?

A) the invasion of Grenada
B) the Vietnam War
C) the Iraq War
D) the war in Afghanistan
E) the Gulf War

Question 21

How could many of the security frauds of the late 1990s and early 2000s have been prevented?

A) with a less litigious Securities and Exchange Commission
B) with a return to the gold standard
C) with fewer interventions by labor unions
D) with an emphasis on bonds rather than stock markets
E) with the extension of the Glass-Steagall Act

Question 22

President George H. W. Bush's first major foreign policy action was

A) to establish negotiations with Vietnam.
B) sending troops to Iran.
C) to meet with the Chinese president.
D) to travel to the former Soviet Union.
E) to overthrow the government of Panama.

Question 23

In the 1999 "Declaration for Global Democracy," who was blamed for worldwide economic problems?

A) corporate interests
B) socialists
C) corrupt governments
D) totalitarian regimes
E) the United States

Question 24

Because of the 1965 changes in immigration laws, thirty-five years later the immigrant population in the United States

A) had declined significantly.
B) increasingly came from Asia and Latin America.
C) increasingly came from eastern Europe.
D) had stayed about the same.
E) centered on rural areas.

Question 25

During the Balkan crisis, President Clinton

A) supported NATO's attack against Bosnian Serb forces.
B) supported the Bosnian forces.
C) only sent American troops to support NATO.
D) asked the UN not to get involved.
E) refused to get involved.

Question 26

By the end of 1991, Soviet attempts at economic reform had

A) unraveled a Soviet military coup.
B) proven successful.
C) trickled down into other eastern European countries.
D) forced the Soviet Union to seek assistance from the United States.
E) turned into chaos.

Question 27

What did Nelson Mandela do as the president of South Africa?

A) He reestablished commercial relations with the United States.
B) He ended state-sponsored racial inequality.
C) He implemented a communist system.
D) He reinforced apartheid.
E) He declared independence.

Question 28

Operation Desert Storm

A) was not supported by Bush.
B) was a failure for the United States.
C) was criticized by the United Nations.
D) forced the Iraqi army out of Kuwait.
E) was quick, easy, and left no casualties.

Question 29

What did Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East and evangelical Christianity in the United States have in common at the beginning of the twenty-first century?

A) Both religious movements overwhelmingly attracted white men.
B) Both religious trends were only possible because of the Internet.
C) Both aided in the radical redistribution of wealth from top to bottom.
D) Both attracted followers partly because of the global spread of mass entertainment.
E) Both were strongly anti-capitalist in their theology.

Question 30

Who did public opinion mostly blame for the government shutdown in 1995?

A) George Bush
B) President Clinton
C) the judiciary
D) the Republicans
E) the banking system

Question 31

The third-party candidate Ross Perot

A) presented a similar agenda to that of Bush and Clinton.
B) was not credible with the voters.
C) ran the Green Party.
D) showed there was great dissatisfaction with the major parties.
E) received few votes and consolidated the bipartisan system.

Question 32

Who in George H. W. Bush's administration disagreed strongly with Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney about the future of national security after the Cold War?

A) Vice President Donald Rumsfeld
B) George W. Bush, the president's son
C) Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell
D) a young senator from Illinois, Barack Obama
E) President Bush himself

Question 33

What is true of immigration to America at the turn of the twenty-first century?

A) About 5 percent of the immigrants had some college education before their arrival.
B) For the first time, the majority of immigrants were women.
C) The top job category was factory labor.
D) Immigration was at an all-time low during this period.
E) The majority of immigrants came from European countries.

Question 34

During the last two decades of the twentieth century

A) the poor and the middle class became worse off, while the rich became significantly richer.
B) there was a significant rise in real income among working-class Americans.
C) Americans saved more and invested less.
D) America entered a profound recession, the likes of which had not been seen since the 1930s.
E) job growth for Americans increased at an unprecedented rate.

Question 35

What did President Bill Clinton predict would happen with NAFTA?

A) He thought it would create a million jobs within five years.
B) He believed it would hurt the environment.
C) He felt it would lead to building a wall between the United States and Mexico.
D) He believed it would wreck the U.S. economy.
E) He thought it would result in a higher protective tariff on Mexican goods.

Question 36

The North American Free Trade Agreement

A) created a free-trade zone for the United States and Latin America.
B) created a free-trade zone for the United States and eastern Europe.
C) was drafted by organized labor and environmental groups.
D) lowered tariffs significantly for imports from South America.
E) demonstrated Bush and Clinton's passion for free trade.

Question 37

Which of the following technologies transformed American life in the 1990s more than any of the others?

A) computers
B) medical equipment
C) digital cameras
D) cell phones
E) videocassettes

Question 38

Countless corporate scandals and stock frauds stemmed directly from the 1999 repeal of which New Deal measure?

A) the Glass-Steagall Act
B) the Federal Communications Act
C) the Securities and Exchange Act
D) the Reconstruction Finance Corporation
E) the Bank Holiday Act

Question 39

President Bill Clinton

A) abolished all aid to poor families.
B) abolished the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program.
C) expanded the welfare system.
D) reduced poverty.
E) abolished the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

Question 40

What were the Oslo Accords?

A) an outline that hoped to bring peace in the Middle East
B) a treaty between Israel and the United States
C) a pact to stop conflict in Kosovo.
D) a human rights treaty signed by NATO members
E) a commercial agreement between Palestine and the United States

Question 41

What does the United States Census Bureau predict will happen by the middle of the twenty-first century?

A) Factory jobs will increase as the service sector declines.
B) More than half of the people in the United States will be nonwhite.
C) More people will live in Alaska than Texas.
D) The Latino population will be massively reduced.
E) The United States will be the most populous country.

Question 42

In the 1990s, the prison population

A) declined because there was little new prison construction.
B) experienced shorter sentences and more rehabilitation programs than before.
C) increased because crime rates increased in the 1990s.
D) grew as state governments increased penalties for crimes.
E) declined because states refused to fund the "prison-industrial complex."

Question 43

School segregation

A) increased in the 1990s due to new racial mandates overseen by local school districts.
B) declined significantly in the 1990s thanks to changing racial attitudes.
C) increased in the 1990s as a result of housing patterns.
D) declined because of two key Supreme Court rulings.
E) remained about the same despite federal support.

Question 44

What was one outcome of the Americans with Disabilities Act?

A) It created special jobs for persons with disabilities.
B) It helped Americans with disabilities working overseas.
C) It created a program that distributed a monthly stipend to workers with disabilities.
D) It prohibited discrimination in hiring and promotion against persons with disabilities.
E) It brought about a cure for AIDS.

Question 45

Proposition 187, approved by California voters in 1994,

A) denied illegal immigrants and their children access to welfare and education.
B) expanded the "prison-industrial complex" with a tough three-strikes law.
C) reinstated the bracero program and solved many of the state's immigration problems.
D) banned bilingual education and abolished the segregation of immigrant schoolchildren.
E) banned affirmative action in education, employment, and government.

Question 46

By the year 2000, the AIDS epidemic

A) affected only homosexuals and transgender Americans.
B) affected only drug users and hemophiliacs.
C) was spreading less rapidly among gay Americans.
D) brought an end to the gay rights movement.
E) had been brought under control around the world.

Question 47

What statement is true of the years between 1970 and 2010?

A) The income of black families surpassed that of white families.
B) Nearly 70 percent of the black population attended college.
C) African immigrants settled largely in suburbs.
D) Schools became increasingly diverse, as most city public schools had an equal mix of white and black students.
E) More than twice as many Africans immigrated to the United States as had entered during the entire period of the Atlantic slave trade.

Question 48

The Mexican-American group Los Tigres del Norte wrote the song "La Jaula de oro," in which they mention being trapped within cage of gold. What is the cage of gold a metaphor for?

A) their situation in the United States where they are unable to visit their home country
B) the U.S. banking system
C) the Mexican national government
D) the U.S.-Mexican border
E) the CIA

Question 49

Walmart

A) was the second-largest employer in Mexico by 2010.
B) by the early twenty-first century was the second-largest corporate employer in America (after Apple).
C) paid most of its 1.6 million nonunionized workers slightly more than minimum wage.
D) refused to produce in Mexico.
E) supported collective bargaining.

Question 50

By the turn of the century, which of the following formed the largest immigrant group in the United States?

A) Asians
B) Latinos
C) Europeans
D) Jews
E) Africans

Question 51

What was the impact of the creation of Indian casinos?

A) The casinos made Las Vegas casinos go bankrupt.
B) Gambling became legal in all fifty states.
C) All Indian casinos combined only made several million dollars a year.
D) It introduced Indians to gambling.
E) Most individual Indians did not benefit from casinos and remained poor.

Question 52

How could the trend of mass imprisonment in the late twentieth century have been avoided?

A) Schools could have offered more civic lessons.
B) Hospitals should have kept a closer eye on the mentally ill.
C) State legislators could have refused to criminalize drug use.
D) Northeastern states should not have abolished the death penalty.
E) States could have applied the death penalty more liberally.

Question 53

In the song "La Jaula de oro," how are the children of Mexican immigrants portrayed?

A) as wanting to go back to Mexico
B) as greedy
C) as reluctant to learn English
D) as Americanized
E) as tired and sickly

Question 54

The Internet

A) expanded the flow of information more radically than any invention since the printing press.
B) began as a high-speed communications network for large corporations.
C) privatized the use of information.
D) failed to contribute to the democratization of information.
E) has no drawbacks.

Question 55

Which of the following countries executed as many or more of its prisoners than the United States?

A) China
B) Japan
C) Israel
D) Germany
E) France

Question 56

The majority of imprisoned Americans in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries were incarcerated for what crime?

A) spousal abuse
B) nonviolent drug offenses
C) embezzlement
D) insider trading
E) sexual assault

Question 57

What was one area where multiculturalism had a strong influence, bringing about dramatic change in the 1990s?

A) corporate boardrooms
B) Hollywood films
C) farming
D) national political offices
E) higher education

Question 58

Rodney King's

A) beating by white police officers was recorded on a smartphone.
B) handgun was taken from the glove compartment of his car.
C) four assailants were acquitted, setting off riots in the city of Los Angeles.
D) routine traffic stop resulted in a citation and caused no further incident.
E) arrest had been planned carefully by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Question 59

Where did most Latinos living in the United States move to by the turn of the century?

A) to the ghettos
B) to rural areas
C) close to factories
D) to the suburbs
E) close to train stations

Question 60

During the 1990s, twenty-three states passed laws

A) legalizing gay marriage.
B) limiting the rights of gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans.
C) banning all abortions except for medical emergencies.
D) making English the official language.
E) raising the drinking age to twenty-one.

Question 61

Increasingly visible during the 1990s, Asian-Americans

A) arrived in the United States with superb educations.
B) continued to be discriminated against.
C) were a homogenous group.
D) were singled out as a "model minority."
E) positioned themselves in high-paying jobs.

Question 62

At the end of the twentieth century, the Christian Coalition

A) was a major force in Republican Party politics.
B) reversed its long-standing opposition to abortion.
C) declined in numbers but grew more vocal at the same time.
D) campaigned for the introduction of a national tax funding community churches.
E) dominated the Democratic Party.

Question 63

What made the U.S. Supreme Court case of Bush v. Gore in 2000 so unusual?

A) It was decided in a 5-4 vote.
B) The case had far-reaching implications.
C) The public interpreted the justices' disagreements as political in nature.
D) It involved two former vice presidents.
E) This case was not meant to be a precedent.

Question 64

The $1.5 billion cost of the congressional and presidential elections in 2000 came mostly from where?

A) a poll tax
B) Internet fund-raising
C) wealthy individuals and corporate donors
D) potluck campaign dinners
E) federal income tax election donations

Question 65

What general political trend coincided with a significant increase in private and corporate spending in political campaigns at the turn of the twenty-first century?

A) an increase in voter participation
B) an increase in party membership
C) an increase in newspaper subscriptions
D) a withdrawal of people from the public sphere
E) an increasing interest in anti-monopoly legislation

Question 66

In 1998, Congress brought impeachment charges against President Clinton because he

A) had an extramarital affair with a White House staff member.
B) authorized a break-in at the Republican national headquarters.
C) extorted money from oil companies in exchange for government contracts.
D) ordered troops into Somalia without congressional approval.
E) lied about his extramarital affair before the grand jury.

Question 67

Casey v. Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania

A) upheld the view that those who used violence against abortion clinics had to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
B) ruled that a woman had to inform her husband before getting an abortion.
C) overturned Roe v. Wade.
D) repudiated the centuries-old claim that a husband had a legal claim to control his wife's body.
E) was a triumph for supporters of the pro-life position.

Question 68

Following the Gulf War of 1991, what increased Osama bin Laden's anger at the United States?

A) The United States did not tolerate religious minorities.
B) The United States showed support for Israel.
C) The United States refused to get involved in military operations in Saudi Arabia.
D) The United States invaded Afghanistan.
E) The United States donated money to the Palestinian cause.

Question 69

The 2000 presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore was

A) finally decided by the Supreme Court.
B) decided by the Florida attorney general.
C) in question because of voter fraud in Florida.
D) a landslide victory for Bush.
E) finally decided by the U.S. Senate.

Question 70

Militia groups arose in America during the 1990s

A) to protest the increasing influence of the Christian Coalition.
B) and engaged in acts of domestic terrorism.
C) but were quickly eliminated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
D) but posed no immediate threat to the nation.
E) and were based primarily in the Northeast.

Question 71

The Defense of Marriage Act

A) redefined marriage as a state-sanctioned union of either same or opposite-sex couples.
B) was vetoed by Bill Clinton.
C) applied only to members of the military.
D) was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2013.
E) failed to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority to pass Congress.

Question 72

Bush v. Gore ordered

A) victory to be given to Bush.
B) the recount in Florida to finish within one week.
C) Florida to vote again in a separate election.
D) Florida to halt its recount.
E) Florida to audit its balloting machines.

Question 73

What statement below best summarizes the difference between the impeachments of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton?

A) Johnson's impeachment involved trivial matters, while Clinton's concerned matters of the utmost importance to the nation.
B) The impeachments of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were virtually indistinguishable; the defending parties even used much of the same rhetoric.
C) Andrew Johnson's impeachment concerned matters of Reconstruction and the rights of former slaves, but Bill Clinton's concerned what many deemed a juvenile escapade.
D) Johnson had a Senate that voted unanimously to convict him, but Clinton was not convicted.
E) Johnson broke many more laws than Clinton.

Question 74

The 1995 truck bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City was organized by

A) militant African-American separatists.
B) a left-wing paramilitary group.
C) a far-right private militia group.
D) Islamic fundamentalists.
E) Osama bin Laden.

Question 75

Who was the special counsel investigating the scandals of Bill Clinton?

A) Archibald Cox
B) Clarence Thomas
C) Kenneth Starr
D) Anita Hill
E) Robert Mueller

Question 76

Which of the following factors drove increasing emigration from Mexico in the 1990s?

A) poverty in Mexico
B) superior public services in the United States
C) opportunities for highly educated professionals
D) low birth rates in Mexico.
E) volunteer positions in the United States

Question 77

By the turn of the century, Latinos in the United States

A) accepted white-collar jobs.
B) were highly educated.
C) were poorer than the rest of the country.
D) tended to live among the white middle class.
E) refused to apply for U.S. citizenship.

Question 78

In response to the September 11 attacks, the Bush administration

A) banned all Muslims from entry into the United States.
B) blamed the shadowy terrorist organization known as Al Qaeda.
C) blamed the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of mastermind Osama bin Laden.
D) declared a war on Iran.
E) issued an immigration ban against all citizens of Muslim nations.

Question 79

Anita Hill

A) worked for the Environmental Protection Agency.
B) charged Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas with sexual harassment in 1991.
C) testified against Clarence Thomas at Senate hearings, resulting in the denial of his confirmation to the Supreme Court.
D) retracted her sexual harassment charges upon Clarence Thomas's confirmation to the Supreme Court.
E) left politics to attend law school.

Question 80

The term "pay gap" refers to the difference in

A) pay rates between workers and CEOs.
B) pay rates for skilled and unskilled workers.
C) pay rates between men and women.
D) pay rates between new hires and senior employees.
E) gross income and take-home pay.