Contemporary American History
Practice Questions
Course Introduction
Contemporary American History explores the major political, social, economic, and cultural developments in the United States from the end of World War II to the present day. The course examines key events such as the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, shifts in domestic and foreign policy, globalization, and the impact of technology. Special attention is given to evolving debates on race, gender, and identity, as well as the influence of mass media and popular culture. Students analyze the causes and consequences of significant events and trends, fostering a deeper understanding of modern Americas role in the global context.
Recommended Textbook Liberty Equality Power A History of the American People Volume 2 Since 1863 7th Edition by John
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Chapter 1: Reconstruction, 1863-1877
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Q1) In response to the Hamburg Massacre,President Grant
A)sent in federal troops.
B)withdrew troops from the South.
C)decided not to run for a third term.
D)encouraged the southern states to create their own militia units.
E)organized black militia units.
Answer: A
Q2) In the 1870s and 1880s the U.S.Supreme Court
A)strengthened the authority of federal officials in prosecuting individuals who violated the civil rights of blacks.
B)declared the military occupation of the South unconstitutional.
C)banned racial discrimination in public transportation and accommodations.
D)ordered the desegregation of public schools in the South.
E)declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional.
Answer: E
Q3) After the election of 1876 the Reconstruction Republican governments collapsed in the last two southern states,____________________ and
Answer: Louisiana,South Carolina South Carolina,Louisiana
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Chapter 2: A Transformed Nation: The West and the New
South, 1865-1900
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Q1) The Cheyenne at Sand Creek were led by A)Black Kettle
B)Sitting Bull
C)Chief Joseph
D)Little Crow
E)John Brown
Answer: A
Q2) The landmark Supreme Court case that sanctioned Jim Crow laws was
Answer: Plessy v.Ferguson
Q3) Most of the New South's iron and steel industry was concentrated in A)central Georgia.
B)northern Alabama.
C)southern Mississippi.
D)eastern Tennessee.
E)Texas
Answer: B
Q4) The best known and most wide-open cow town in Kansas was
Answer: Dodge City
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Chapter 3: The Rise of Corporate America, 1865-1914
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Q1) Ironically,labor was prevented from organizing because of the government's use of the
A)Interstate Commerce clause.
B)Jim Crow laws.
C)Sherman Antitrust Act.
D)Voting Rights Act.
E)Fourteenth Amendment.
Answer: C
Q2) The Haymarket strike sparked a wave of hysteria against so-called labor radicals.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) The book Work was written by ____________________ and focused on female workers.
Answer: Louisa May Alcott
Q4) In the 1920s,few Americans could afford automobiles.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 4: Cities, peoples, cultures, 1890-1920
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Q1) The Triangle Shirtwaist fire was characterized by A)the large number of young boys who perished that day.
B)the ability of the fire department to rescue many of the workers.
C)the employers locking the entrances which hindered workers' escape.
D)failed safety measures implemented weeks earlier.
E)All of these choices.
Q2) This time period saw a great deal of government corruption and organized crime.
A)True
B)False
Q3) There were big changes both above and below ground in the growing cities. A)True B)False
Q4) The black middle class of the nineteenth century went into decline as whites no longer wanted to employ blacks for services such as barbering or food preparation. A)True
B)False
Q5) The designer of Central Park was ____________________.
Q6) Examine the changing sexual mores and attitudes toward women in the period from 1890 to 1920.
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Progressivism, 1900-1917
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Q1) The NAACP was an organization composed entirely of northern blacks whose goals included desegregation and elimination of voting restrictions for blacks throughout the nation.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The problems associated with corrupt voting practices,such as bribing voters with food and drink,was solved partially by the introduction of the
Q3) As a result of election-law reform in the late 19th and early 20th century,
A)blacks in the South were largely disenfranchised.
B)Asian immigrants were granted voting rights when they became citizens.
C)all citizens over the age of 18 were granted voting rights.
D)it became possible to register and vote on the same day.
E)more immigrants became involved in politics.
Q4) The Progressive Era president who managed to pass a tariff-reduction bill was
Q5) The most important socialist publication during the Progressive Era was
Q6) The charismatic speaker and leader of American socialists was
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Becoming a World Power, 1898-1917
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Q1) When the United States annexed Puerto Rico,the intent was
A)to allow Puerto Ricans to govern themselves.
B)to encourage Puerto Rico to seek statehood.
C)to rule the island and its inhabitants.
D)to establish cooperative governance between the United States and Puerto Rico.
E)to pave the way for returning the island to Spanish rule.
Q2) Open Door notes
Q3) The 1900 Foraker Act made Puerto Ricans U.S.citizens.
A)True
B)False
Q4) U.S.foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere after 1900 was
A)defensive geared toward limiting European influence.
B)isolationist.
C)cooperative geared toward building strong relationships with other nations.
D)never criticized by U.S.citizens.
E)aggressive geared toward expanding American influence
Q5) American soldiers held racist attitudes toward the Cuban guerrillas.
A)True
B)False
Q6) William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer
Page 8
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Chapter 7: War and Society, 1914-1920
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Q1) Which of the following was not a factor in the growing U.S.movement toward war?
A)German submarine warfare
B)two revolutions in Russia
C)German overtures toward Mexico
D)German-American support of the war
E)the desire to fight for freedom and democracy
Q2) Which of the following was not included in Woodrow Wilson's vision of a settlement that would achieve peace without victory?
A)disarmament
B)reaffirmation of the Monroe Doctrine
C)freedom of the seas
D)security against aggression
E)right of self-determination
Q3) The worst antiblack violence after World War I occurred in Mississippi.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Describe how Woodrow Wilson's vision for a "new world order" differed in key ways from the foreign policies of his predecessors.
Q5) Palmer raids
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Chapter 8: The 1920s
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Q1) By 1929,as many as 7 million Americans,most of them people of ordinary,middle-class means,owned stock.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Disillusioned white writers of the 1920s are called the ____________________.
Q3) The unemployment rate between 1922 and 1929 never rose above ____________________ percent.
Q4) The pseudoscience known as ____________________ contended that nations could improve their population by expanding stronger racial strains and shrinking weaker ones.
Q5) The concept of introducing new automobile model styles each year was started by Ford Motor Company.
A)True
B)False
Q6) The rise of fundamentalism was
A)fueled by renewed popularity of broad interpretations of the Bible.
B)a reaction to the growth of liberal Protestantism.
C)most pronounced in large cities.
D)short-lived.
E)supportive of scientific theories.
Page 10
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Chapter 9: The Great Depression and the New Deal
1929-1939
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Q1) From 1929 to 1932,industrial production fell by
A)10 percent.
B)25 percent.
C)50 percent.
D)75 percent.
E)90 percent.
Q2) The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act of 1930
A)lowered U.S.tariff rates to provide markets for European goods.
B)raised tariff rates and contributed positively to economic recovery worldwide.
C)encouraged European nations to lower their tariff rates to enable U.S.companies to sell their goods abroad.
D)did not pass.
E)raised U.S.tariff rates,causing European nations to raise their rates and thus weaken international trade.
Q3) End Poverty in California (EPIC)was led by socialist and novelist
Q4) Describe FDR's "First Hundred Days."
Q5) Wagner Act
Q7) Works Progress Administration Page 11
Q6) Compare and contrast the First and Second New Deals.
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Chapter 10: America During the Second World War
1939-1945
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Q1) The United States was unprepared for the attack at Pearl Harbor because A)coded messages intercepted by U.S.agents indicated that an attack on Southeast Asia was planned.
B)American military leaders were overconfident and believed that no nation would dare attack.
C)Franklin Roosevelt deliberately exposed the fleet to destruction in order to bring the United States into the war.
D)the United States and Japan were on friendly terms.
E)Germany had assured the U.S.that Japan would not attack.
Q2) The American economy underwent a transformation during the years of the Second World War.Explore this transformation and examine its long-range effects on American society.
Q3) Office of War Information
Q4) The most effective radio communications "code" used by the United States in the Pacific was the ____________________.
Q5) The Hoover-Stimson Doctrine of nonrecognition of Manchukuo had no effect on Japan.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 11: The Age of Containment 1946-1953
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Q1) When the Soviet Union cut off all access to West Berlin,the ___________________ delivered supplies that people there needed.
Q2) In the late 1940s,the Supreme Court began to chip away at the separate-but-equal principle.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Explore the postwar domestic "red scare."
Q4) Many historians now believe that Alger Hiss did pass along information to the Soviets in the 1930s and 1940s.
A)True
B)False
Q5) baby boom generation
Q6) Each of the following ran for the presidency in 1948 except
A)Harry Truman.
B)Thomas Dewey.
C)Strom Thurmond.
D)Dwight d.Eisenhower.
E)Henry Wallace.
Q7) National Security Act
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Chapter 12: America at Midcentury 1953-1963
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Q1) According to the Eisenhower doctrine of "massive ____________________" the threat of U.S.atomic weaponry would hold Communist powers in check.
Q2) In December 1953,the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff called for a review of the U.S.military and strategic powers; this review came to be known as the "____________________".
Q3) The AFL and the CIO merged in 1955.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Rock 'n' roll music
A)signified the development of a consumer-oriented,middle-class youth culture in the United States.
B)was a sinister Communist plot to corrupt American society.
C)was the first musical style to appeal equally to all generations of Americans.
D)promoted segregation by culturally dividing ethnic minorities from mainstream society.
E)was imported from Europe.
Q5) The author of The Organization Man (1956)was William H.Whyte,Jr.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 13: America During a Divisive War 1963-1974
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Q1) Describe the personality of Richard Nixon and examine the characteristics that led to his downfall.
Q2) Explore the changing role of the United States in Vietnam,from the Johnson escalation through the Paris Peace Accords in 1973.
Q3) ____________________ succeeded Earl Warren as Chief Justice of the U.S.Supreme Court.
Q4) The ____________________ Doctrine claimed that the United States would provide military assistance to anti-Communist governments in Asia but would not provide military forces.
Q5) Black Power
Q6) The author of the expose on auto safety titled Unsafe at Any Speed was
A)Ralph Nader.
B)Betty Friedan.
C)Earl Warren.
D)George Wallace.
E)John Kenneth Galbraith
Q7) In 1968,the ____________________,a coordinated attack on South Vietnam by National Liberation Front and North Vietnamese troops,shocked and confused the United States.
Page 16
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Chapter 14: Uncertain Times 1974-1992
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Q1) Jessie Jackson emerged as a key African American leader.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Throughout the 1980s,the Reagan administration attempted to overthrow the leadership of what Latin American nation?
A)Guatemala
B)El Salvador
C)Nicaragua
D)Honduras
E)Panama
Q3) The minimum wage when measured in constant dollars rose throughout Ronald Reagan's presidency.
A)True
B)False
Q4) ____________________ served as Jimmy Carter's first secretary of state.
Q5) In the 1970s,worldwide shortages of oil resulted in long lines at gas stations for American drivers.
A)True
B)False
Q6) "Operation Just Cause" involved a U.S.invasion of ____________________.
Page 17
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Chapter 15: Economic, social, and Cultural Change in the
Late 20th Century
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Q1) The ____________________ Act obliged banks to invest in low-income neighborhoods.
Q2) During the 1970s and 1980s,the number of immigrants arriving from Europe exceeded the number arriving from Asia and Latin America.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The use of steel cargo containers lowered the cost of transporting finished goods and raw materials over great distances.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The practice of cutting back or trimming the workforce is called ____________________.
Q5) Corporate restructuring resulted in lower union membership.
A)True
B)False
Q6) After the 1980s,the number of personal bankruptcies increased.
A)True
B)False
Q7) "exurbs"
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Chapter 16: A Time of Hope and Fear 1993-2014
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Q1) In 1993,a bomb ripped through ____ in New York City,evidence that terrorism had reached the United States.
A)the Empire State Building
B)Grand Central Station
C)Penn Station
D)the World Trade Center
E)Metropolitan Museum
Q2) In the election of 2008
A)John McCain mounted a significant smear campaign against Barack Obama.
B)Sarah Palin became the first female vice presidential candidate.
C)Barack Obama choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate.
D)Barack Obama became the first African American president.
E)John McCain tried to ride on the immense popularity of George W.Bush.
Q3) John McCain more successfully used social networking sites than Barack Obama.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The highest priority of Bill Clinton's foreign policy was to lower trade barriers and expand global markets.
A)True
B)False
Page 19
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