Deck 25: America at Midcentury, 1945-1960

Question 1

President Truman contributed to American anticommunist sentiment after the Second World War by

A) recommending that "procommunist" books be removed from the nation's libraries and bookstores
B) claiming that all liberal Democrats were communist sympathizers
C) releasing classified information revealing an international communist conspiracy
D) ordering investigations into the loyalty of federal employees

Answer 1

ordering investigations into the loyalty of federal employees

Question 2

President Eisenhower responded to the three economic recessions that occurred during his presidency by _________________.

A) resorting to deficit spending
B) persuading Congress to increase taxes
C) increasing farm subsidies
D) ordering massive budget cuts

Answer 2

resorting to deficit spending

Question 3

Which of the following is a reason for Eisenhower's victory in the 1952 presidential election?

A) Many voters hoped he would end the Korean War.
B) African Americans were led to believe he would actively work for enactment of civil rights legislation.
C) He publicly denounced Joseph McCarthy.
D) He promised to end American support of the French in Indochina.

Answer 3

Many voters hoped he would end the Korean War.

Question 4

The Dixiecrats who attracted national attention in 1948 were __________________.

A) Southern activists who fought to end the poll tax and voter literacy requirements
B) teams of Carolina businessmen promoting new industry in their region
C) a political party made up of breakaway Democrats opposed to the Democratic Party's position on civil rights
D) union leaders who lobbied Southern state legislatures to pass pro-union laws

Question 5

The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 _____________________.

A) repealed most of the 1935 Wagner Act
B) allowed states to pass right-to-work laws outlawing the "closed shop"
C) weakened labor unions by making collective bargaining illegal
D) allowed union contributions to political funds in federal elections

Question 6

Federal housing programs after the Second World War ___________________.

A) provided increased subsidies for the construction of rental units
B) sometimes made the lives of poor Americans worse
C) helped to further suburban racial integration
D) primarily benefited low-income families

Question 7

Many Americans accepted which of the following beliefs in the 1950s?

A) The diversity within American society means that tension and conflict are inevitable in the United States.
B) Citizens in a mass democracy must always harbor a healthy distrust of their elected officials and question their decisions.
C) Americans must work to bring about the moral regeneration of American society.
D) As the United States struggles against the Soviet Union for the future of the world, critics of America are suspect and perhaps even unpatriotic.

Question 8

The 1958 National Defense Education Act was passed in response to ___________________.

A) an alarming decline in the literacy rate of army draftees
B) the launching of the first earth-orbiting satellite by Russia
C) the growing problem of juvenile delinquency
D) the decline in American exports to the world market

Question 9

Which of the following is true of the amendments to the Social Security Act signed into law by President Eisenhower?

A) They raised benefits and expanded the program's coverage.
B) They raised benefits and reduced the program's coverage.
C) They lowered benefits and reduced the program's coverage.
D) They lowered benefits and expanded the program's coverage.

Question 10

Which of the following was a consequence of the Highway Act of 1956?

A) It led to the revitalization of inner-city neighborhoods.
B) It caused a weakening of the tourist industry.
C) It further separated the South from the rest of the nation.
D) It encouraged the process of suburbanization.

Question 11

The National Defense Education Act of 1958 _________________.

A) offered fellowships and loans to college students
B) provided federal research grants to major universities
C) created the ROTC program
D) desegregated the Naval Academy

Question 12

Which of the following was accomplished during the Eisenhower years?

A) Congress authorized construction of an interstate highway system.
B) Federal funding was provided for civilian aviation research.
C) The Amtrak system was created to centralize control over the nation's railroads.
D) Congress provided the first federal grants for construction of urban mass transit facilities.

Question 13

A series of strikes began in late 1945 and extended through 1946 largely because ________________________.

A) major unions were competing with one another to get the best deal for their members
B) the Communist Party had actively recruited workers during the war and was now ready to assert itself
C) most major corporations had withdrawn vacation and pension benefits that had been extended during the war years
D) with the end of price controls, workers were hit hard by skyrocketing inflation

Question 14

Which of the following explanations of Truman's presidential victory in 1948 is correct?

A) His opponents were political unknowns.
B) The Democratic party was united.
C) He won the African-American vote in key Northern states, thus gaining those states' electoral votes.
D) He won the Progressive vote.

Question 15

If striking workers in an industry considered vital to national security refused a presidential order to return to work, Truman requested that Congress ______________________.

A) fire all strikers and prevent them from ever returning to their jobs
B) imprison strikers who refused to negotiate in good faith with management representatives
C) force labor and management to settle their differences within a specified period of time
D) draft all such strikers into the armed forces

Question 16

What was the subject of President Eisenhower's farewell address?

A) World overpopulation and starvation.
B) The "military-industrial complex"
C) The threat of environmental pollution
D) The "international communist conspiracy"

Question 17

The GI bill did not provide _____________.

A) college tuition
B) job training
C) low-interest home loans
D) benefits for those dishonorably discharged

Question 18

The aspects of elementary and high-school education that the National Defense Education Act most focused on were _________________.

A) textbooks and equipment
B) school lunches and school breakfasts
C) ROTC and physical education programs
D) programs in mathematics, foreign languages, and the sciences

Question 19

In the 1948 presidential election, Henry Wallace of the Progressive Party _______________.

A) advocated friendship with the Soviet Union
B) advocated that Americans defy the desegregation order of the Supreme Court
C) advocated the passage of immigration-restriction laws
D) pledged to send troops to Europe to liberate Eastern Europe from Soviet domination

Question 20

What made William Levitt famous?

A) The design of the modern mobile home
B) Modular home construction
C) On-site assembly of factory-built homes
D) The adaptation of assembly-line methods to the process of home construction

Question 21

The Supreme Court's decision in Smith v. Allwright benefited African Americans by _____________________.

A) ending racially discriminatory hiring practices
B) desegregating the nation's public schools
C) desegregating all public accommodations
D) outlawing whites-only primaries

Question 22

The Internal Security (McCarran) Act of 1950 __________________________.

A) stipulated that critics of American foreign policy could not hold defense jobs
B) prohibited American citizens from traveling to the Middle East, China, or Eastern Europe
C) required members of "Communist-front" organizations to register with the government and prohibited them from holding government jobs
D) made it illegal to belong to an organization that advocated the violent overthrow of the United States government

Question 23

Which of the following statements is most consistent with the ideas expressed by Martin Luther King, Jr., in his speech launching the Montgomery bus boycott?

A) Whites must be excluded from the African-American protest movement.
B) African Americans should rely on bloc voting to end the oppression under which they live.
C) African Americans should attack white racism with the same tactics used by their oppressors, namely violence and intimidation.
D) The African-American protest movement is just and is right in the eyes of God.

Question 24

Supreme Court decisions in such 1940s cases as Smith v. Allwright, Morgan v. Virginia, and Shelley v. Kramer suggest that by the 1950s ___________________________.

A) environmentalists had little reason to expect help from the Supreme Court
B) the NAACP had some reason to hope for a favorable ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
C) big business could be virtually sure of a sympathetic hearing in the Supreme Court
D) labor unions had no reason to expect pro-labor rulings from the Supreme Court

Question 25

Which of the following made possible the computer revolution?

A) The invention of the transistor
B) The use of radar in the Second World War
C) The founding of IBM
D) Funding from the federal government

Question 26

Which of the following is true of the Civil Rights Act of 1957?

A) It was vetoed by President Eisenhower.
B) It suspended literacy tests for voting.
C) It outlawed racial discrimination in public accommodations.
D) It created the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Question 27

In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the Supreme Court accepted the argument that _______________________.

A) educational facilities that are separate are, by their very nature, unequal
B) Society's need for an educated citizenry outweighed any freedom-of-association rights of minors
C) segregation of any public facility threatened American relations with other nations
D) as taxpayers, African Americans were part owners of all facilities paid for by taxes and, therefore, had the right of equal access to those facilities

Question 28

In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the Supreme Court ruled that ________________.

A) states could require a period of silent meditation in public schools
B) racially segregated public educational facilities were unconstitutional
C) pro-Communist statements expressed by a public school teacher were sufficient grounds for the teacher's dismissal
D) local school boards could require students to complete a sex-education course without infringing on students' religious rights

Question 29

What entity or event connects Richard Nixon, Alger Hiss, Julius Rosenberg, and Ethel Rosenberg?

A) Brown v. Board of Education
B) The House Un-American Activities Committee
C) Smith v. Allwright.
D) The SCLC

Question 30

Which of the following is true of White Citizens' Councils?

A) Made up primarily of the white power elite within Southern communities, they denounced the racist beliefs of the Ku Klux Klan.
B) Members of these organizations attempted to implement the Brown decision in a peaceful and orderly manner.
C) Made up primarily of rural whites, these organizations advocated the violent overthrow of the government of the United States.
D) Supported by white professionals and businesspeople, they used their economic power against African-American civil rights activists.

Question 31

What statement best expresses the significance of the report issued by President Truman's Committee on Civil Rights?

A) It indicated the willingness of the president to acknowledge the federal government's responsibility to strive for racial equality.
B) It indicated that the president was willing to respond to congressional demands that he provide a comprehensive legislative agenda to protect minority rights.
C) It indicated the government's willingness to bow to public pressure and actively protect the rights of minorities.
D) It indicated that the president was unwilling to support ideas that would cost him white votes in the Southern states.

Question 32

Which of the following is considered a major contributor to the postwar economic boom?

A) The success of labor unions in gaining more control over corporate affairs
B) Government spending
C) The growth of service industries
D) Television production

Question 33

In its report To Secure These Rights, President Truman's Committee on Civil Rights proposed which of the following?

A) An increase in the number of Supreme Court justices
B) Federal aid to African American colleges
C) The enactment of antilynching and antisegregation legislation
D) Legislation to bring about a redistribution of wealth in the United States

Question 34

How did Senator Joseph McCarthy eventually contribute to his own downfall?

A) He charged that fellow senators were communist dupes.
B) He took on the U.S. Army in front of millions of television viewers.
C) He appeared on the Senate floor in an obviously inebriated state.
D) He publicly stated that President Eisenhower was a "communist sympathizer."

Question 35

One result of the anticommunist crusade during the late 1940s and early 1950s was the dismissal, as a "security risk," of ______________________________.

A) alcoholics, homosexuals, and debtors in the employ of the federal government
B) J. Edgar Hoover from the Federal Bureau of Investigation
C) Ethel and Julius Rosenberg from the State Department
D) Henry A. Wallace as Secretary of Commerce

Question 36

How did the CIO respond to the HUAC "witch hunts" of the late 1940s?

A) It labeled them as un-American.
B) It called for solidarity among all workers against management while also pledging its support for the capitalist system.
C) It participated in them by expelling some unions for allegedly being dominated by communists.
D) It denounced them as a management tool to weaken organized labor.

Question 37

Who held the philosophy that civil disobedience fused the spirit of Christianity was the ideal strategy of achieving racial justice through nonviolent resistance?

A) Joseph R. McCarthy
B) Dr. Benjamin Spock
C) Martin Luther King Jr.
D) Dwight D. Eisenhower

Question 38

The 1954 Communist Control Act ____________________________.

A) put all labor unions suspected of communist domination under surveillance
B) effectively made membership in the Communist Party illegal
C) provided for the internment of known communists during a national emergency
D) denied employment to communists in defense-related industries

Question 39

The target of Rosa Parks's protest in Montgomery, Alabama was the denial of the right of African Americans to _____________________.

A) use Montgomery city buses to transport African-American children to after-school activities
B) sit wherever they liked on city buses in Montgomery without having to give up their seats to white passengers
C) secure jobs driving Montgomery city buses
D) ride on Montgomery city buses during the evening hours

Question 40

With regard to school desegregation, President Eisenhower ____________________.

A) ordered the Justice Department to speed desegregation through court suits
B) encouraged white resistance to the Brown decision by speaking ambiguously on the issue of federal enforcement of desegregation
C) refused to do anything in response to Southern resistance to school desegregation
D) sought but failed to pass federal legislation to desegregate public schools in the South

Question 41

During the 1950s, most Americans who were poor ____________________.

A) were nonwhite
B) lived in households headed by a person with an eighth-grade education or less
C) were over sixty-five and lived on fixed incomes
D) lived in households headed by a single woman

Question 42

In his book Baby and Child Care, Dr. Benjamin Spock asserted that _________________.

A) mothers should not breast-feed their babies
B) fathers should take an active role in bringing up their children
C) a mother's full-time attention was necessary for the well-being of her child
D) mothers should ignore a baby's crying except at feeding time

Question 43

During the 1950s, books such as The Crack in the Picture Window and The Lonely Crowd _________________.

A) praised rock 'n' roll as the music of a revolutionary generation
B) commented on the loss of individuality in middle-class consumer society.
C) were shallow, juvenile writings that had virtually no long-term significance
D) chastised American teenagers for their political complacency and hedonistic lifestyle

Question 44

During the 1950s, it was increasingly likely that Americans below the poverty line were living in _____________________.

A) small towns
B) community-sponsored shelters for the homeless
C) the inner cities
D) rental suburban houses

Question 45

The Beats were important culturally because they ___________________.

A) introduced the "bebop" style
B) produced some important literary works through which they laid the groundwork for the counterculture of the 1960s
C) were the first group to perform rock 'n' roll publicly
D) introduced the new, sophisticated advertising techniques associated with the television era

Question 46

What is the term used to describe a generation of nonconformist writers who rejected the conventional middle class?

A) Beat
B) Religion
C) Baby boom
D) Fair deal

Question 47

One way in which Alfred Kinsey's work on human sexuality was important is that it ____________________________.

A) immediately led to a nationwide demand for sex education in American schools
B) let many Americans know that they were not alone in breaking certain sexual rules
C) removed the stigma attached to young women who had children outside of marriage
D) triggered a nationwide movement to close down Playboy magazine

Question 48

Which of the following is true of organized labor during the 1950s?

A) The major unions were unsuccessful in getting pension plans for their members.
B) Union membership grew slowly because of the transition to a service-oriented economy.
C) Since most of the new jobs created were for blue-collar workers in heavy industry, union membership increased dramatically.
D) Through collective bargaining, workers considerably narrowed the wage gap between men and women.

Question 49

One thing that the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, William H. Whyte's The Organization Man, and J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye had in common was that they all _____________________.

A) promoted the acceptance of family values as the salvation of American society
B) criticized the social conformity present in 1950s American society
C) reflected American fears of the Soviet Union
D) demonstrated the popularity of science fiction during the 1950s

Question 50

As a result of Silent Spring, ________________________.

A) most farmers stopped using pesticides until they were proven to be environmentally safe
B) the widespread use of DDT in the United States ended
C) the government established a process by which it began to test the safety of America's farm produce
D) environmentalists organized a boycott that was successful in forcing farmers to stop using harmful pesticides

Question 51

The importance of religion during the Cold War era was demonstrated by ________________________.

A) congressional legislation requiring every school in America to open each day with a prayer
B) the introduction of a prohibition amendment in Congress.
C) the religious messages included in popular TV shows like Leave It to Beaver
D) the growth of membership in mainline Christian churches

Question 52

In his bestselling book, William H. Whyte advanced which of the following arguments?

A) Many corporate employees succeed through conformity rather than through individual initiative and hard work.
B) Women should seek fulfillment by pursuing a career rather than through motherhood.
C) When the children of the 1950s become adults, they will be more secure and more independent than any previous generation.
D) Most American men suffer from an unhealthy emotional attachment to their mothers.

Question 53

Which of the following was a consequence of the increased use of automated electronic processes in American industry during the 1950s?

A) Industrial productivity increased.
B) Small corporations could compete successfully with large corporations.
C) White-collar workers successfully unionized.
D) Job opportunities for women increased.

Question 54

The 1950 agreement known as the Treaty of Detroit between the United Auto Workers and General Motors was significant because ___________________.

A) it gave workers a greater role in company management
B) it provided workers with health insurance, pensions, and protection against inflation, which labor exchanged for greater control in corporate affairs
C) organized labor obtained representation on federal and state safety inspection agencies
D) organized labor's use of paid lobbyists increased its influence in Congress

Question 55

Industry was attracted to the Sunbelt for which of the following reasons?

A) The availability of credit in the region
B) The progressive political leadership in the region
C) The region's right-to-work laws which outlawed closed shops
D) The region's technical schools

Question 56

Which of the following was an important social trend during the 1950s?

A) Early marriages
B) A high divorce rate
C) Low interest in religious activities
D) Small families

Question 57

One of the features of the classic movie Rebel Without a Cause that ties it to the culture of the 1950s is its reflection of

A) early Cold War fears of communist corruption of American youth
B) parental fears that rock 'n' roll music promoted sexual promiscuity among American teenagers
C) popular psychological theories of the 1950s such as "the crisis of masculinity"
D) post-World War II pacifism

Question 58

During the 1950s, unionized blue-collar workers _____________________.

A) found that their wages did not keep pace with inflation
B) frequently discovered that they could not afford to retire
C) were able to enjoy a middle-class lifestyle
D) increased tremendously in numbers and influence

Question 59

The roots of 1950s rock 'n' roll music lay in ________________.

A) early jazz
B) folk songs
C) Indian war songs
D) African-American rhythm-and-blues

Question 60

The acronym COLA refers to contractual agreements that guaranteed workers

A) protection against inflation.
B) job security.
C) a percentage of corporate profits.
D) the right to participate in labor unions.

Question 61

Discuss the content and significance of the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, and explain the response of the Eisenhower administration and the Southern states to this decision.

Question 62

Discuss the impact of television on Americans and their lifestyles during the 1950s.

Question 63

Which of the following was a consequence of the growth of large agribusinesses and the mechanization of agriculture in the South?

A) Rural poverty was largely eliminated.
B) Many tenant farmers were displaced.
C) Migrant workers in the region could no longer find work.
D) African-American landowners could compete successfully with white landowners.

Question 64

Discuss the ways in which the popular media (television, movies, books, and music) both reflected and shaped American society in the postwar era.

Question 65

Examine the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1948 presidential election.

Question 66

Discuss the military-industrial complex in the context of the Cold War.

Question 67

Explain and assess President Truman's policies designed to deal with domestic economic problems from 1945 to 1948.

Question 68

Which of the following made up the nation's poorest group after the Second World War?

A) Single women
B) Mexican Americans
C) Native Americans
D) African Americans

Question 69

Analyze the ways in which "whiteness" informed mass culture and the ways in which black culture affected white America in the 1950s.

Question 70

Discuss the factors that gave rise to the anticommunist hysteria in the United States after the Second World War. What were the consequences of this hysteria?

Question 71

Explain the growth of the Sunbelt during the 1950s, and discuss the political and economic consequences of this growth.

Question 72

Examine the factors that facilitated the emergence of a national middle-class culture during the 1950s, and discuss the characteristics of that culture.

Question 73

Examine the Truman administration's record in the area of civil rights, and discuss the gains made by African Americans from 1945 to 1954.

Question 74

Discuss the factors that created the sustained economic boom after the Second World War, and explain the consequences of this economic boom.

Question 75

Discuss and evaluate the response of President Truman to the anticommunist hysteria of the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Question 76

Discuss the characteristics of McCarthyism, the tactics used by Senator McCarthy, and the consequences of McCarthy's anticommunist crusade. What eventually caused the political demise of Senator McCarthy?

Question 77

Defend or refute the following statement: "During the 1950s, Americans were confident to the verge of complacency about the perfectibility of American society, and anxious to the point of paranoia about the threat of communism."

Question 78

Although Truman was highly unpopular when he left office, he is now regarded by historians as one of the nation's ten best presidents. Why?

Question 79

Explain the growth of the suburbs during the 1950s, and discuss the positive and negative features of life in suburban America.

Question 80

Which of the following is true of the Eisenhower administration's termination policy?

A) It ended attempts to assimilate Indians into mainstream American society.
B) It placed control of federal benefit programs on Indian reservations in the hands of Indian leaders.
C) It allowed reservation lands to be sold, thus worsening the lives of many Indians.
D) It allowed reservation lands to be sold, thus improving the lives of many Indians.