Deck 30: The 1950s: Affluence and Anxiety in an Atomic Age

Question 1

Rural areas experienced practically no population growth in the 1950s and 1960s.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Detroit became known as the capital of black America due to the huge growth of its African American population.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The Beats took their name because of their pervasive sense that society had beaten them, or triumphed over their spirits.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The years during and after World War II witnessed tremendous growth in big business.

Question 5

By 1960, nine out of ten homes in the United States had a television set.

Question 6

During the 1950s, the black population of Chicago declined by half as a result of the great migration.

Question 7

The phrase "In God We Trust" was added to coins and currency in the 1950s.

Question 8

The best salesman of this gospel of reassuring "good news" was the Reverend Norman Vincent Peale.

Question 9

Many adults, having experienced the Depression and wartime rationing, were eager to consume more in the 1950s.

Question 10

Jackson Pollock became best known for painting landscapes and scenes from small-town life.

Question 11

Ralph Ellison wrote Invisible Man.

Question 12

Due to the overall prosperity of the decade, blacks were able to close the income gap with whites by the end of the 1950s.

Question 13

The postwar economic boom was fueled mainly by:

A) a massive government jobs program
B) new inventions
C) cold war-related military spending
D) the work ethic of the American population
E) trade with Europe and Japan

Question 14

The postwar era witnessed tremendous economic depression and failing social contentment.

Question 15

During the 1950s, the income gap between whites and blacks:

A) lessened
B) stayed about the same
C) widened
D) could not be accurately measured
E) inspired widespread commentary and outrage

Question 16

Society's message to women in the 1950s was that they should strive to combine motherhood and professional careers.

Question 17

Two decades after 1940:

A) poverty practically disappeared
B) the standard of living was about that of western Europe
C) people were pessimistic, fearing the return of the Depression
D) life expectancy for nonwhites rose ten years and black wage earnings increased fourfold
E) there was growing concern about diminishing supplies of natural resources

Question 18

After the war, Americans were most eager to:

A) purchase
B) save
C) travel
D) pursue education
E) work overtime

Question 19

Elvis Presley's first national smash hit was "Heartbreak Hotel."

Question 20

The GI Bill of Rights provided financial assistance for home loans and college expenses.

Question 21

The postwar era witnessed its most dramatic population growth in:

A) the sunbelt
B) the Midwest
C) rural areas
D) the Northeast
E) the Mississippi Valley

Question 22

In the postwar era, the trend in the corporate sector was toward:

A) freewheeling competition
B) partnerships with government
C) racial equality in hiring practices
D) consolidation and concentration
E) risk taking and speculation

Question 23

Blacks who moved to northern cities found:

A) middle-class status
B) quality public housing
C) acceptance and respect
D) inability to vote
E) new problems and forms of exploitation

Question 24

With the end of World War II, women workers were encouraged to:

A) give up their jobs to returning veterans
B) work longer hours
C) limit family sizes
D) stay single
E) upgrade their job skills through technical training or college

Question 25

All of the following increased through the postwar years EXCEPT:

A) urban populations
B) advertising
C) the number of shopping centers
D) family savings
E) credit purchases

Question 26

The phenomenon of "white flight" in the 1950s:

A) stopped when the federal government banned housing discrimination
B) involved poor whites fleeing the South for jobs in big northern cities
C) showed the improvement in race relations since the end of World War II
D) was a major cause of the growth of the suburbs
E) was discouraged by the open-housing policies of William Levitt

Question 27

Houses in Levittown in the early 1950s all sold for just under:

A) $1,000
B) $6,900
C) $20,000
D) $50,000
E) $100,000

Question 28

By the mid-1950s, most workers:

A) were women
B) were white collar
C) were industrial wage laborers
D) worked in small businesses
E) were discontented and rebellious

Question 29

Life magazine's ideal woman of the mid-1950s was:

A) educated and single
B) career oriented
C) able to juggle home and career
D) an equal partner with her husband
E) a white suburban housewife

Question 30

Many critics of American life in the 1950s believed that middle-class society suffered from:

A) declining purchasing power
B) declining sexual morality
C) an absence of stable families
D) excessive conformity
E) lack of leisure time and recreation

Question 31

A very important reason for passage of the GI Bill was to:

A) keep men in the military beyond their term of enlistment
B) spend surplus funds in the federal budget
C) help Roosevelt get reelected
D) prevent the return of the Depression
E) create a bureaucracy to administer it

Question 32

Between 1945 and 1960, home ownership:

A) declined, due to the construction of cheap apartments
B) significantly increased
C) was hampered due to shortages of credit
D) became almost universal
E) was not as popular as government-provided public housing

Question 33

Which of the following is NOT true of the GI Bill?

A) It caused a dramatic increase in college enrollments.
B) It enabled many veterans to buy new homes.
C) Its huge cost did not justify its benefits.
D) It led to the creation of the Veterans Administration.
E) It is also known as the Servicemen's Readjustment Act.

Question 34

Most blacks who moved to Chicago were fleeing terrible poverty in:

A) southern cities such as Memphis and New Orleans
B) the rural South
C) the Dust Bowl
D) New England
E) other northern cities

Question 35

The location of William Levitt's first suburban development was:

A) Los Angeles
B) Long Island
C) Baltimore
D) Phoenix
E) Boston

Question 36

Suburban growth was spurred by all of the following EXCEPT:

A) federally insured loans
B) highway construction
C) increases in car ownership
D) veterans benefits
E) new construction of mass public transportation

Question 37

While college enrollments soared in the postwar period:

A) most professors were dull and uninspiring
B) black veterans encountered barriers to entrance
C) student debt became a major problem
D) few students were able to finish and earn a degree
E) campuses became hotbeds of student protest and misbehavior

Question 38

The baby boom:

A) has been overrated in importance as a social phenomenon
B) produced a generation devoted to sacrifice
C) started in the early days of World War II
D) continued the twentieth century's steady increase in birthrate
E) started in 1946

Question 39

In 1954, all of the following were major TV shows EXCEPT:

A) Father Knows Best
B) I Love Lucy
C) Leave It to Beaver
D) The Price Is Right
E) The General Electric Theater

Question 40

By the 1950s, suburban life was marked by an increasing:

A) uniformity
B) cultural innovation
C) diversity
D) intellectual excitement
E) economic stagnation

Question 41

Ultimately, the Beats:

A) changed the political landscape of the 1950s
B) proved largely irrelevant to history
C) had their greatest success in promoting equality for women
D) helped inspire the youth revolt of the 1960s
E) launched the gay rights movement

Question 42

Elvis was especially controversial because of his:

A) rude manner toward adults
B) scandalous sex life
C) identity as an atheist
D) fondness for Beat poetry
E) suggestive gyrations on stage

Question 43

Newsweek magazine discouraged women from even attending college when it proclaimed that:

A) "it is not for their backs"
B) "it disrupts the natural order of man"
C) "books and babies don't mix"
D) "college is an evil institution"
E) "it leads to passive behavior"

Question 44

The African American writer who explored the theme of social alienation in Invisible Man was:

A) Arthur Miller
B) William Styron
C) Ralph Ellison
D) John Updike
E) James Jones

Question 45

One major reason for religion's growing appeal in the 1950s was:

A) the desire to combat godless communism
B) tax breaks for people who joined churches
C) the fire-and-brimstone style of television preachers
D) widespread guilt over the country's material abundance
E) huge new churches that sponsored social and recreational activities

Question 46

Elvis Presley's recordings:

A) were never very commercially successful
B) blended a variety of musical styles
C) appealed equally to all ages and generations
D) are best remembered for his guitar and piano playing
E) truly promoted "a pagan concept of life"

Question 47

In regard to New Deal programs, Eisenhower:

A) was intensely hostile
B) ended subsidies to agriculture
C) promised to outdo Roosevelt
D) retained most and even expanded some of them
E) wanted to privatize Social Security

Question 48

The Reverend Norman Vincent Peale emphasized:

A) man's sinful nature
B) the spiritual appeal of Eastern faiths like Buddhism
C) faith, enthusiasm, and joy
D) the need to give lots of money to churches
E) the difficulty of attaining salvation

Question 49

One sign of the times came in 1954 when Congress added the words "under God" to:

A) the president's oath of office
B) coins and currency
C) the Capitol building
D) the Pledge of Allegiance
E) the Constitution

Question 50

Alan Freed was a notable:

A) musician
B) songwriter
C) record company owner
D) record producer
E) disc jockey

Question 51

The music Alan Freed labeled rock and roll was actually:

A) jazz
B) rhythm and blues
C) pop
D) gospel
E) big band swing

Question 52

Jackson Pollock pioneered the style of painting known as:

A) pop art
B) social realism
C) modern landscape
D) abstract expressionism
E) new impressionism

Question 53

Senator Joseph McCarthy's power began to unravel when he made reckless charges about Communist influence in:

A) the Democratic party
B) the U.S. Army
C) Ivy League colleges
D) the Eisenhower administration
E) the media

Question 54

In The Affluent Society, John Kenneth Galbraith pointed out the:

A) benefits of limited government
B) infallibility of the marketplace
C) persistence of poverty
D) economic value of the cold war
E) environmental costs of prosperity

Question 55

In The Crack in the Picture Window, John Keats described suburban life as:

A) "the best of all possible worlds"
B) "the true American way"
C) "better than any of the alternatives"
D) "a life of quiet desperation"
E) "homogeneous, postwar Hell"

Question 56

The youthful rebels known as the Beats:

A) formed their own political party
B) numbered about 1 million
C) favored road trips, Buddhism, and jazz
D) preferred country living to urban living
E) were based primarily in Los Angeles

Question 57

Before becoming president, Eisenhower was most shaped by his experience in:

A) business
B) the military
C) higher education
D) politics
E) the law

Question 58

By 1960, about 65 percent of Americans

A) read the Bible
B) prayed
C) believed in God
D) believed in evolution
E) belonged to a church

Question 59

In regard to the Rosenbergs, who had been convicted of atomic espionage, President Eisenhower:

A) refused to halt their executions
B) expressed his sympathies
C) ordered a new trial
D) believed life in prison was sufficient punishment
E) did not believe their crime had actually hurt the United States

Question 60

During the 1950s, novelist John Updike observed:

A) he and other writers felt estranged "from a government that extolled business and mediocrity"
B) communism had become popular in the U.S.
C) federal government was not receptive to the needs of poor Americans
D) the "land of the free" was not the "land of the free"
E) nothing

Question 61

How did religious revival and neo-orthodoxy fit into the culture of the 1950s?

Question 62

In the Brown decision, the Supreme Court:

A) struck down "separate but equal" in public education
B) ordered an immediate end to Jim Crow segregation
C) rejected the legal arguments of the NAACP
D) was closely divided
E) recognized the high quality of black schools in the South

Question 63

How did America become involved in Indochina? How did that involvement escalate during Eisenhower's administration?

Question 64

Discuss the civil rights movement in the 1950s. What civil rights did blacks achieve in that decade?

Question 65

Compare the achievements of Eisenhower's "dynamic conservatism" to those of the New Deal.

Question 66

Dulles's policy of "brinksmanship" involved:

A) averting war through the threat of nuclear force
B) massing troops on the borders of Communist countries
C) constant provocations of the Soviets
D) regular flights over Soviet territory
E) the abandonment of the containment policy

Question 67

Describe the major trends in American foreign policy in the 1950s.

Question 68

Trace the rise of youth culture in the 1950s.

Question 69

Discuss how the various aspects of culture changed in the 1950s. Focus particularly on theater, literature, and painting.

Question 70

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles could be viewed as a sixteenth-century religious zealot in that he:

A) prayed a lot
B) was stuck in the sixteenth century
C) opposed communism
D) divided the world into forces of good and evil
E) believed only a few people would go to heaven

Question 71

What were the main reasons for suburban growth in this period? How did it affect American society?

Question 72

Detail the provisions and effects of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, more popularly known as the GI Bill.

Question 73

Describe the growth in the postwar American economy. What factors might account for this growth?

Question 74

Describe those who challenged the moral complacency and social conformity of American life in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Question 75

Detail the postwar great black migration. What impact did it have on the new locations that were settled?

Question 76

Show briefly how playwrights, novelists, painters, and the Beats reacted to the corporate life.

Question 77

The First Indochina War ended when the French suffered a major defeat at:

A) Dien Bien Phu
B) Hanoi
C) Saigon
D) Taipei
E) Khe Sanh

Question 78

Adlai E. Stevenson was:

A) a senator revealed by Joseph McCarthy to be a Communist
B) secretary of state for most of Eisenhower's presidency
C) Eisenhower's opponent for president in both 1952 and 1956
D) appointed by Eisenhower to be chief justice of the Supreme Court
E) a leader unusually skilled in communicating with common people

Question 79

Since the nineteenth century, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia had been ruled by:

A) China
B) Japan
C) France
D) Great Britain
E) themselves

Question 80

How did the image of women reflect the corporate life of the 1950s?