Deck 28: The Affluent Society

Question 1

Between 1945 and 1960, the birth rate in the United States

A) reversed a long pattern of decline.
B) peaked in 1949.
C) led to a doubling of the nation's population in this period.
D) led to shortages of many consumer goods.
E) fell precipitously from its World War II highs.

Answer 1

reversed a long pattern of decline.

Question 2

During the 1950s, the U.S. government's primary motive for the development of rocket and missile technology was

A) exploration of outer space.
B) the establishment of communication and spy satellites around the earth.
C) the quest to land a man on the moon.
D) the long-range delivery of weapons.
E) to catch up with German knowledge of rocketry.

Answer 2

the long-range delivery of weapons.

Question 3

In the early twentieth century, the vaccine that raised the most safety concerns in the United States was for the prevention of

A) typhoid.
B) tetanus.
C) small pox.
D) rubella.
E) tuberculosis.

Answer 3

tuberculosis.

Question 4

With highways, travel by automobile, truck, and bus was as fast or faster than by trains and contributed to the decline of

A) drive-in restaurants.
B) downtowns.
C) supermarkets.
D) drive-in movies.
E) None of these choices is correct.

Question 5

In 1954, the American scientist Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for the prevention of

A) polio.
B) tuberculosis.
C) influenza.
D) yellow fever.
E) typhoid.

Question 6

In 1946, Dr. Benjamin Spock's best-selling Baby and Child Care contended that

A) fathers needed to spend as much time as mothers in the care and raising of their children.
B) mothers should subordinate their physical and emotional needs to those of their children.
C) families should not have more than three children.
D) the ages of children in a family should not be spaced out over more than five years.
E) children should not be breast-fed or allowed to sleep with their parents.

Question 7

All the following statements regarding the use of DDT are true EXCEPT that

A) the pesticide likely saved the lives of thousands of soldiers during World War II.
B) the pesticide was recognized to be extremely toxic to insects.
C) after its introduction, it quickly gained a positive reputation for its effectiveness.
D) scientists during WWII knew the pesticide had a long-term toxic effect on humans and animals.
E) it was first used on a large scale in Italy in 1943-1944, during a typhus outbreak.

Question 8

All of the following researchers made important contributions to the development of antibiotics EXCEPT

A) Louis Pasteur.
B) Paul Muller.
C) Joseph Lister.
D) Alexander Fleming.
E) Howard Florey.

Question 9

The first significant public awareness of computers in the United States came during the

A) 1961 Mercury space flight.
B) 1957 launch of Sputnik.
C) 1958 launch of the first American satellite.
D) 1950 Bureau of Census tabulations.
E) 1952 election tabulations.

Question 10

The primary goal of the American Apollo program was to

A) launch manned vehicles into space to orbit the earth.
B) land men on the moon.
C) build an orbiting space station.
D) send men to Mars.
E) develop a reusable spaceship.

Question 11

During the 1950s, the region of the United States that experienced the most dramatic change as a result of economic growth was

A) the North.
B) the South.
C) the East.
D) the West.
E) Alaska and Hawaii.

Question 12

Between 1945 and 1957, the growth of American consumerism was aided by

A) an 800-percent increase in consumer credit.
B) the development of credit cards.
C) low-payment credit plans.
D) revolving charge accounts.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 13

During the 1950s, the American Federation of Labor in the United States

A) was intimidated by powerful and wealthy corporations.
B) made significant concessions in benefits in order to gain higher wages.
C) merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
D) represented nearly half of all working Americans.
E) saw its president, David Beck, charged with the misappropriation of union funds.

Question 14

Following World War II, the American economy

A) gave the average American 50 percent more purchasing power in 1960 than in 1945.
B) gave Americans the highest standard of living in 1960, after Switzerland and Sweden.
C) grew, between 1945 and 1975, nearly ten times faster than the population.
D) produced wealth that was equally distributed throughout the nation's population.
E) gave the average American 10 percent more purchasing power than during the 1920s.

Question 15

The United States first successfully launched a missile from a submarine in 1960, with the

A) Polaris.
B) Minuteman.
C) Titan.
D) Atlas.
E) Mercury.

Question 16

During the 1950s, the general economic conditions of the United States included

A) stagnant economic growth.
B) high inflation.
C) low federal government spending.
D) a slowly rising gross national product.
E) low unemployment.

Question 17

The first American to be launched into space, in 1961, was

A) Yuri Gagarin.
B) John Glenn.
C) Alan Shepard.
D) Edwin Aldrin.
E) Neil Armstrong.

Question 18

During the 1950s, the popularity in the United States of suburban living was partly explained by

A) the social importance placed on the family.
B) a desire for racial segregation.
C) a desire for larger homes.
D) both the social importance placed on the family, and a desire for racial segregation.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 19

Following World War II, American scientists made a critical contribution to the development of penicillin by

A) demonstrating the value of antiseptic solutions to prevent infection.
B) first using the antibacterial agent known as sulfanilamide.
C) developing methods for its mass production and commercial distribution.
D) discovering the antibacterial properties for which the drug was named.
E) discovering it could be used to treat streptococcal blood infections.

Question 20

The correct chronological order for developments in electronic technology, from earliest to latest, is

A) vacuum tube, integrated circuit, transistor.
B) transistor, vacuum tube, integrated circuit.
C) vacuum tube, transistor, integrated circuit.
D) integrated circuit, transistor, vacuum tube.
E) transistor, integrated circuit, vacuum tube.

Question 21

In 1957, the effort to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, required

A) President Dwight Eisenhower to remove the governor of Arkansas from office.
B) the presence of federal troops to enforce court orders.
C) the replacement of many of the school's teachers.
D) the arrest of hundreds of whites protesting at the school.
E) the Supreme Court to issue another decision, Brown II.

Question 22

The rapid rise in the popularity of rock music was partly due to

A) innovations in radio programming.
B) innovations in television programming.
C) the success of American Bandstand.
D) jukeboxes.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 23

During the 1950s, television networks

A) refused to show how the lower classes lived in America.
B) generally sought to convey an idealized image of a homogeneous America.
C) created conditions that helped to ameliorate social conflict.
D) both refused to show how the lower classes lived in America and generally conveyed an idealized image of America.
E) None of these answers is correct.

Question 24

In his 1950 book, The Lonely Crowd, sociologist David Riesman argued that Americans were

A) increasingly more likely to judge themselves on the basis of their own values.
B) increasingly interested in winning approval in their jobs and from their family.
C) increasingly more likely to be "other-directed."
D) both increasingly more likely to judge themselves on the basis of their own values, and increasingly interested in winning approval in their jobs and from their family.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 25

All of the following statements regarding early television are true EXCEPT that

A) in the 1920s there were experiments in broadcasting pictures and sound.
B) in 1946 there were 17,000 television sets in the United States.
C) the federal government largely kept big business sponsorship out of television advertising.
D) all three major television networks had started as radio companies.
E) television quickly became the most powerful medium of mass communication in history.

Question 26

The Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

A) reaffirmed the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision.
B) passed by a narrow 5-4 vote.
C) set specific timetables for enactment.
D) declared that separate educational facilities were unlawful.
E) arose from a case involving segregation in Mississippi.

Question 27

In 1960, the city in the United States with the largest Mexican American population was

A) New York.
B) San Antonio.
C) Chicago.
D) San Diego.
E) Los Angeles.

Question 28

In the 1950s, crimes committed by juveniles

A) were the most visible evidence of widespread restiveness among young Americans.
B) did not receive much public attention.
C) soared, particularly in categories of violent crimes.
D) resulted in widespread social unrest during the decade.
E) did not dramatically increase.

Question 29

Rural America

A) lost 10 percent of its population in 1956 alone.
B) saw its percentage of the national income drop to less than 2 percent in the 1950s.
C) saw the South increase plantings of cotton as a cash crop in the 1950s.
D) both lost 10 percent of its population in 1956 alone, and saw its percentage of the national income drop to less than two percent within the decade of the 1950s.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 30

Like many early white rock musicians, Elvis Presley drew heavily from black traditions in

A) jazz.
B) rhythm and blues.
C) country western.
D) gospel.
E) folk.

Question 31

The popular "beat" novel On the Road (1957) was written by

A) Allen Ginsberg.
B) J. D. Salinger.
C) Jack Kerouac.
D) William Burroughs.
E) Saul Bellow.

Question 32

In the civil rights movement, the spirit of "massive resistance" is associated with the actions of

A) northern blacks.
B) southern blacks.
C) northern whites.
D) progressive liberals.
E) southern whites.

Question 33

During the 1950s in the United States, married women who worked outside the home

A) faced social pressures to continue working.
B) decreased in number throughout the decade.
C) accounted for only one-third of all married women.
D) both decreased in number throughout the decade, and accounted for only one-third of all married women.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 34

The Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-1956

A) failed to end the segregation policies on public city buses.
B) was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court.
C) was sparked by a beating of an African American woman.
D) marked the emergence of an effective form of racial protest.
E) led to the creation of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

Question 35

All of the following statements regarding poverty in America between 1950 and 1960 are true EXCEPT that

A) more than 30 million Americans lived in poverty at any given time during the year 1960.
B) the percentage of the population living in poverty rose during the decade.
C) Native Americans were the single poorest group in the country.
D) most of the poor experienced poverty only temporarily.
E) many rural Americans lived on the margins of the affluent society.

Question 36

All of the following were factors in rising poverty rates in inner cities in the 1950s, EXCEPT

A) large numbers of poor people migrating into these areas.
B) increasing automation.
C) a growth of unskilled industrial jobs in these areas.
D) persistent racial discrimination.
E) the movement of factories and mills to new locations.

Question 37

Michael Harrington's 1962 book, The Other America, focused on the problems of

A) sexism.
B) racism.
C) poverty.
D) the alienation of youth.
E) McCarthyism.

Question 38

In his 1956 book on corporate America, The Organization Man, William Whyte Jr. contended

A) the ideal of rugged individualism had been reestablished in the business community.
B) women and minorities had little chance for advancement in American corporations.
C) corporate wealth was not being fairly shared with workers.
D) the "inner-directed man" had become "other-directed."
E) a worker's most valuable trait in the corporate work setting was to get along.

Question 39

Martin Luther King Jr. was leader of the

A) Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
B) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
C) United Negro Improvement Association.
D) Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
E) Congress of Racial Equality.

Question 40

During the 1950s, the American environmental preservation movement was mobilized by

A) a proposed dam on the Green River in Echo Park, Utah.
B) the construction of a dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley at Yosemite National Park.
C) the diverting of water from Owens Valley to Los Angeles, California.
D) the growing proliferation of nuclear power plants.
E) the nuclear incident at Three Mile Island.

Question 41

By the late 1950s, the Remington Rand Company was the largest American maker of business computers.

Question 42

In 1954, the United States Senate voted to

A) expel Joseph McCarthy from the Senate.
B) censure Joseph McCarthy for "conduct unbecoming a senator."
C) charge Senator McCarthy with slander and libel.
D) fine Senator McCarthy.
E) convict Senator McCarthy of perjury.

Question 43

Under John Foster Dulles's policy of "massive retaliation," announced in 1954, the United States would

A) counter any Soviet military move with a larger American force.
B) win the Cold War regardless of the financial cost.
C) use nuclear weapons against communist aggression.
D) use military force before diplomacy in dealing with the Soviet Union.
E) rely primarily on large conventional forces in local conflicts to defeat communism.

Question 44

As part of his economic agenda, President Dwight Eisenhower

A) cut back public welfare programs.
B) lowered federal support for farm prices.
C) generally followed the lead of the right wing of his party.
D) allowed the federal deficit to rise due to high military spending.
E) maintained the wage and price controls of the Truman administration.

Question 45

Until the early 1950s, the country the United States assisted in trying to control Vietnam was

A) France.
B) Taiwan.
C) Japan.
D) England.
E) China.

Question 46

Between 1945 and 1959, U.S. policy in the Middle East saw

A) the Eisenhower administration assist in the construction of the Aswan Dam.
B) the Truman administration refuse to recognize the state of Israel.
C) President Eisenhower seek to end the rule of Egyptian leader Gamal Nasser during the Suez crisis.
D) the CIA engineer a coup that brought the shah of Iran to power.
E) the U.S. refuse to join in a UN resolution denouncing British and French actions during the Suez crisis.

Question 47

Since World War II, the developments in antibiotics have made bacterial infections one of the most successfully treated of all human illnesses.

Question 48

The first large-scale use of the pesticide DDT was to improve American crop production.

Question 49

Economic growth was at its peak in the early 1950s, when military spending was at its highest.

Question 50

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization resolved their differences during the 1950s.

Question 51

The prosperity of the 1950s occurred with relatively low inflation.

Question 52

Factors in the rise of the civil rights movement included

A) the events of World War II.
B) the growth of the urban middle class.
C) the rapid spread of television.
D) Cold War politics.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 53

The Soviet Union's announcement in 1960 that it had shot down an American U-2 spy plane

A) proved to be false.
B) occurred at the close of an important summit conference in Paris.
C) compelled President Dwight Eisenhower to apologize for invading Soviet airspace.
D) resulted in a UN proclamation that criticized the United States.
E) led Soviet Premier Khrushchev to withdraw his invitation to Eisenhower to visit Moscow.

Question 54

The political decline of Senator Joseph McCarthy began when he investigated

A) the United States Senate.
B) the Central Intelligence Agency.
C) Dwight Eisenhower's family.
D) the civil rights movement.
E) the army.

Question 55

Between 1945 and 1950, 10 percent of all the new businesses in the United States began in Los Angeles.

Question 56

The most significant and largest public works project of the federal government under President Dwight Eisenhower involved

A) a nuclear energy program.
B) the space program.
C) a federal highway system.
D) a national healthcare system.
E) a large tax cut.

Question 57

The development of the transistor was an electronic breakthrough that helped lead to the development of computers.

Question 58

The Eisenhower administration responded to Fidel Castro's coming to power in Cuba by

A) ending diplomatic relations.
B) blockading Cuban ports.
C) establishing a military presence in Guantanamo Bay.
D) ending diplomatic relations, blockading Cuban ports, and establishing a military presence in Guantanamo Bay.
E) None of these answers is correct.

Question 59

In 1954, the Eisenhower administration ordered the CIA to help overthrow the government of

A) Panama.
B) Colombia.
C) Guatemala.
D) Cuba.
E) Haiti.

Question 60

In his farewell address to the nation, President Dwight Eisenhower warned against the dangers of

A) global nuclear war.
B) excessive consumer materialism.
C) "brinkmanship" diplomacy.
D) the "military-industrial complex."
E) the growing communist threat.

Question 61

The crime rate of American youths soared during the 1950s.

Question 62

During the 1950s, television created a uniform image of American life, even as it showed conditions that could well accentuate social conflict.

Question 63

While radio made an enormous contribution to the popularity of rock music in the 1950s, television tended to limit its appeal.

Question 64

The first American space satellite went into orbit shortly before the Soviet Union achieved the same feat.

Question 65

Eastern and Midwestern industrial cities experienced a major expansion of their black populations between 1940 and 1960.

Question 66

Dr. Benjamin Spock made a career of helping women have professional careers and be mothers at the same time.

Question 67

John Glenn was the first American launched into space.

Question 68

Early missile research in the United States was conducted almost entirely by the Air Force.

Question 69

By the late 1950s, the United States could send a guided missile several thousand miles.

Question 70

Rising prosperity in the 1950s was accompanied by restlessness among American youth.

Question 71

To the "beat" writers, American society in the 1950s was sterile and meaningless.

Question 72

Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were the first men to walk on the moon.

Question 73

Consumer credit cards were developed in the years following World War II.

Question 74

In his book, The Organization Man, William Whyte Jr. praised modern corporations.

Question 75

The rise of rock musicians such as Elvis Presley is an example of the limited willingness of white audiences at the time to accept black musicians.

Question 76

In the 1950s, Disney was able to effectively market entertainment as a tool to sell consumer goods.

Question 77

In the 1950s, the great majority of American poor people lived in a permanent state of "hard-core" poverty.

Question 78

In the 1950s, advertisers played an enormously important role in television programming.

Question 79

In the 1951 novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden Caulfield, was disaffected with American society.

Question 80

The number of women working outside the home declined between 1945 and 1960.