Deck 26: Affluence and Anxiety in the Atomic Age, 1950-1959

Question 1

The Supreme Court ruling in Shelley v.Kraemer (1948) successfully ended racially segregated housing practices and increased the number of African American homeowners in white neighborhoods.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The Federal-Aid Highway Act created a national network of interstate highways across America.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The postwar era witnessed tremendous economic depression.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

According to the textbook, the United States experienced a wave of juvenile delinquency in the 1950s because of access to automobiles.

Question 5

The consumer culture of the 1950s was limited and encouraged activities that did not require spending money.

Question 6

A major reason for the tremendous growth of the U.S.economy after World War II was a lack of foreign competition.

Question 7

President Eisenhower was committed politically to "moderate Republicanism."

Question 8

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

Question 9

A financial innovation that helped the growth of a consumer economy in the 1950s was the credit card.

Question 10

Martin Luther King, Jr.encouraged a tactic known as nonviolent civil disobedience to promote the civil rights movement.

Question 11

Despite increased income across classes, a quarter of whites and half of African Americans were afflicted by poverty during the 1950s.

Question 12

The Civil Rights Act of 1957 established the Civil Rights Commission and a new Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department.

Question 13

In October 1957, the United States took the lead in the space race by launching the first satellite into orbit around the earth.

Question 14

A major weakness of the policy of mass retaliation was that by the mid-1950s, the United States and the Soviet Union had created more powerful hydrogen bombs, meaning that every global dispute turned into a possible war of annihilation.

Question 15

Ralph Ellison wrote Invisible Man, part of a growing body of literature about individuals who find no contentment or respect in the modern world.

Question 16

Rural areas experienced a loss of population in the 1950s and after.

Question 17

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

Question 18

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

Question 19

Some of the "Beats" liked that term they were known by because it implied being "beaten down" in life-a quality none of them actually showed.

Question 20

President Eisenhower believed that pushing for civil rights progress in the South could only do more good than harm.

Question 21

Eisenhower's nickname was

A)Bill.
B)the Gipper.
C)the Dandy.
D)Blood and Guts.
E)Ike.

Question 22

President Eisenhower's domestic policy of "dynamic conservatism" was defined as conservative when it comes to

A)warfare and liberal when it comes to communism.
B)money and liberal when it comes to human beings.
C)capitalism and liberal when it comes to socialism.
D)state rights and liberal when it comes to minority rights.
E)immigration and liberal when it comes to creating jobs.

Question 23

What was a major limitation of the GI Bill of Rights of 1944?

A)The bill failed to address veteran unemployment and only included subsidized health care for the first year.
B)Many African American veterans did not benefit because most colleges and universities were segregated and did not accept black students.
C)The bill failed to take into account any questions about where veterans would live when they returned from war, leaving many of all backgrounds homeless.
D)The bill was only in effect during wartime, with programs being discontinued in the years after a war.
E)The bill brought an influx of veterans into the workforce, resulting in a disruption to the economy in which a large number of seasoned workers lost their jobs.

Question 24

Which of the following occurred immediately after World War II in the United States?

A)The United States declared war on the Soviet Union.
B)There was a mild economic recession and then a booming economy.
C)Another Great Depression began.
D)Women started to outnumber men in the workplace.
E)High government spending ended.

Question 25

Which of the following contributed to the state of the economy in the United States after World War II?

A)Decreased U.S.federal government spending
B)Decreased industrial productivity in the United States
C)Increased income taxes on the wealthy in the United States
D)European dominance in international trade
E)Massive construction of U.S.highways and airports

Question 26

Who wrote the book The Affluent Society in the 1950s and challenged the idea that U.S.prosperity was solving difficult social problems?

A)Maurice McDonald
B)John Philips Souza
C)John Galbraith
D)George Meany
E)Dwight D.Eisenhower

Question 27

Which of the following was part of Eisenhower's moderate Republicanism?

A)Restraining the federal government from social "engineering"
B)Increasing federal government activity at the local level
C)Passing civil rights legislation
D)Staying away from "virtuous" and "visionary" ideals
E)Decreasing state and local government authority

Question 28

In 1952, President Truman fired 250 employees of the IRS because

A)they were communists.
B)they specifically targeted conservative groups.
C)corruption within several federal agencies had been disclosed.
D)they were trying to unionize.
E)they refused to recognize his authority.

Question 29

Why did both Republicans and Democrats recruit Dwight Eisenhower to run for president in 1952?

A)He planned to follow Truman's containment policy in regards to the spread of communism.
B)He had displayed great organizational and diplomatic abilities, especially in World War II.
C)He was hardly known outside his home state.
D)He sought to start a second Korean War.
E)He had no war experience and, thus, would focus on domestic issues.

Question 30

In an attempt to provide aid for returning servicemen after World War II, Congress passed the

A)GI Bill of Rights.
B)Hopwood Act.
C)Federal-Aid Highway Act .
D)New Deal.
E)Soldiers' Beneficiary Act.

Question 31

After World War II, __________ migrated to the urban North in record numbers.

A)Chinese immigrants
B)Hispanics
C)Cuban exiles
D)Filipino exiles
E)African Americans

Question 32

Which of the following statements accurately describes the experiences of women in the 1950s?

A)After World War II, women were encouraged to stay in the industrial, traditionally male jobs they had taken on during the war.
B)The fall in birth rates after World War II demonstrated that women were increasingly adopting roles outside the traditional family.
C)The average age of marriage for women had gotten significantly higher after World War II, showing that women usually had careers before starting families.
D)Although advertisements and popular culture emphasized middle class women's role as homemakers, many women worked outside the home out of necessity.
E)The prevailing images of middle class life no longer portrayed women as devoted servants to their husbands.

Question 33

In order to reassure some conservatives, the Republican Party chose the youthful and ambitious __________ as Eisenhower's running mate in 1952.

A)Ronald Reagan
B)Harry S Truman
C)Walter Mondale
D)Richard Nixon
E)Jimmy Carter

Question 34

At the end of his administration, which of the following had President Eisenhower done?

A)He had removed most of the New Deal's programs.
B)He had retained most of the basic New Deal structure and in some ways expanded the programs.
C)He had eliminated government involvement in construction projects.
D)He had dismantled Social Security, decreasing the number of people with access to retirement programs.
E)He had enacted his own program that created more jobs than those of his Democrat is predecessors.

Question 35

Which of the following statements about the growth of suburbia in the 1950s is accurate?

A)Moving to suburbia was reserved for upper class families because cars were still expensive and limited in availability.
B)African Americans were most commonly the owners of suburban homes, with whites remaining in inner cities.
C)After World War II, there was already an overabundance of housing in cities, so building suburban neighborhoods proved a form of excess.
D)The expansion of the middle class contributed to the growth of suburbs, which provided needed affordable housing close to cities.
E)Suburbia at the time remained much like cities in that the architecture of each newly built home was highly unique.

Question 36

The renewed __________ program allowed Mexican workers to serve as migrant workers in the United States during planting and harvest seasons.

A)empresario
B)bracero
C)hacienda
D)Alan Freed
E)Federal-Aid Highway

Question 37

Which of the following was characteristic of the 1952 Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson?

A)He was brilliant but came across as too intellectual.
B)He was a well-known "man of the people."
C)He was unquestionably decisive.
D)He was not viewed as intelligent enough to be president.
E)He was a socialist.

Question 38

Between 1940 and 1950, the average African American income

A)decreased by 50 percent.
B)increased by 100 percent.
C)remained stagnant.
D)grew by 400 percent.
E)experienced mild growth.

Question 39

What contributed to the low cost of fuel across the United States after World War II?

A)The general fall in the efficiency of American industries
B)The discovery of oil fields in the Middle East
C)The struggling aircraft industry
D)The oil boom in Texas, Wyoming, and Oklahoma
E)The oil boom in Mexico

Question 40

President Eisenhower's presidential platform was committed to

A)moderate Republicanism.
B)the New Deal.
C)the New Frontier.
D)the Final Frontier.
E)the Fair Deal.

Question 41

In 1957, nine African American students attended Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas for the first time.Which of the following statements accurately describes the actions taken by Eisenhower?

A)Eisenhower did not take federal action because the students' first day had gone so smoothly.
B)Eisenhower reluctantly dispatched federal troops there to maintain law and order, angering many southern politicians.
C)Eisenhower passionately enforced desegregation, insisting that dispatching troops was a moral judgment on his part.
D)Eisenhower overrode desegregation rulings and forced the students to return to their previous segregated schools.
E)Eisenhower openly joined in the rallying cry for "massive resistance."

Question 42

President Eisenhower used the __________ theory to explain why the United States needed to fight communism in Vietnam.

A)social Darwinist
B)Asian inferiority
C)Chinese empirical
D)western superiority
E)falling domino

Question 43

What finding did the Supreme Court cite in its ruling of Brown v.Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas?

A)Even if segregated schools were equal in quality, the very practice of segregating schools caused feelings of inferiority among black students.
B)It would be better for the economy to wait to decide on the case until the next Administration after Eisenhower's took over.
C)Desegregating schools would be a "clear abuse of judicial power" that would cause a "dangerous" state of affairs in the South.
D)African American students experienced more academic success when learning in racially segregated classrooms.
E)Instead of focusing on integrating schools, administrators should devote more time and money to training teachers.

Question 44

What was one way in which the intervention of the United States in Iran in the 1950s was significant?

A)Intervening in Iran proved to be the first and last time since World War II that the United States detonated a nuclear weapon, signaling the height of the Cold War.
B)The rise of an increasingly authoritarian regime in Iran as a result of U.S.involvement convinced Eisenhower that he must refuse to target the government of Guatemala.
C)The United States proved unsuccessful in toppling Iranian rulers and lost many soldiers in the process, causing Eisenhower to prevent similar interventions in the future and adopt a more isolationist policy.
D)A CIA-engineered coup in Iran was viewed as successful and emboldened Eisenhower to authorize other secret operations to undermine governments thought to be falling victim to communism.
E)By giving assistance to the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, U.S.forces made Iran more stable, earned the trust of the Iranian people, and ensured peaceful interactions with Iran decades later.

Question 45

What was the line of thinking behind the creation of Dulles's and Eisenhower's strategy of mass retaliation?

A)The United States could not afford more military expenditures like those of the Korean War, so it would use the threat of nuclear warfare to combat the global threat of communism.
B)The United States should continue Truman's containment policy because it was already on a massive enough scale in its efforts to liberate the "captive peoples" of Eastern Europe and China.
C)The United States should counterattack the Soviet Union in response to their detonation of nuclear weapons at the end of the Korean War.
D)The only way for the United States to eradicate communism in the Soviet Union would be to begin a ground war, sending massive numbers of American soldiers overseas.
E)The United States and Soviet Union should join forces in bombarding North Korea because they would then have double the number of soldiers, resources, and weapons.

Question 46

The first Supreme Court case to tackle the separate but equal standard in the twentieth century was

A)Plessy v.Ferguson.
B)William v.McKinley.
C)Sweatt v.Painter.
D)Brown v.Board of Education.
E)Hill v.Stone.

Question 47

First organized by Martin Luther King Jr.in 1957, the __________ grew into a powerful group that would lead civil rights protests and activities into the 1960s.

A)Massive Resistance
B)Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
C)National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
D)Southern Christian Leadership Conference
E)Beats

Question 48

During the Cold War, Soviet diplomats used __________ to draw attention to defects in the American way of life.

A)union activity
B)America's lack of religious affiliation
C)America's racial discrimination
D)the materialistic lifestyle in the suburbs
E)the declining productivity of U.S.workers

Question 49

On December 1, 1955 __________, an African American seamstress, refused to relinquish her seat to a white man on a city bus.

A)Rosa Parks
B)Emma White
C)Wilma Ruble
D)Lynda Johnson
E)Sheryl Clements

Question 50

In Indochina, the League for Independence of Vietnam was led by

A)Ho Chi Minh.
B)Sun Tzu.
C)Mao Tse-tung.
D)Chiang Kai-shek.
E)Viet Cong.

Question 51

A controversial new group of young artists, writers, and poets emerged in the 1950s that rejected traditional middle-class values and materialism.What were they known as?

A)Beats
B)Hippies
C)Yuppies
D)Baby boomers
E)Mods

Question 52

Eisenhower considered that __________ was the biggest mistake he had ever made.

A)the D-day invasion
B)campaigning for the presidency
C)abolishing segregation in all areas
D)appointing Chief Justice Earl Warren
E)only running for one term

Question 53

Some patriotic cultural conservatives of the 1950s claimed that rock 'n' roll was

A)in keeping with Roman Catholicism.
B)developed in Nazi Germany.
C)part of a communist plot to corrupt American youth.
D)part of a vast liberal conspiracy to get eighteen year olds to vote Democrat.
E)a mind-control experiment conducted by fascists.

Question 54

During the Cold War at the time of the promotion of their mass retaliation strategy, Dulles and Eisenhower secretly began to use the __________ to influence world politics.

A)FBI
B)CIA
C)DEA
D)NSA
E)ORP

Question 55

According to the textbook, the most important social movement in the United States in the twentieth century was

A)universal women's suffrage.
B)the call for foreign aid.
C)civil rights.
D)civil liberties.
E)abolishing land requirements to vote.

Question 56

According to the textbook, Beat writers and poets wanted their art to change __________ rather than address social ills.

A)civil rights
B)consciousness
C)foreign policy
D)the electoral system
E)party politics

Question 57

Encouraged by Radio Free Europe, __________ nationalists rebelled against occupying communist troops in 1956.

A)Prussian
B)Serbian
C)Hungarian
D)Austrian
E)Bulgarian

Question 58

Although largely ineffective in the South, what was the Civil Rights Act of 1957 primarily intended to do?

A)End the Montgomery Bus Boycott
B)Decrease the involvement of the federal government in matters of civil rights
C)Declare all forms of segregation unconstitutional
D)Ensure that Americans, no matter their race or ethnicity, could vote
E)Give African Americans better jobs and pay equal to that of whites

Question 59

In the case __________, the Supreme Court ruled the concept of "separate but equal" unconstitutional.

A)Plessy v.Ferguson
B)Brown v.Board of Education
C)Sweatt v.Painter
D)Hill v.Stone
E)Smith v.Allwright

Question 60

Many authors and social critics of the 1950s alleged that despite the American ideal of rugged individualism, the nation was actually celebrating

A)conformity.
B)communism.
C)democratic socialism.
D)agnosticism
E)socialism.

Question 61

Describe the civil rights movement in the 1950s.What civil rights did blacks achieve and by what means did the progress occur?

Question 62

Describe America's increasing involvement in Indochina during the 1950s.What was at the heart of the internal conflicts in Vietnam, French interests, and U.S.decisions to intervene?

Question 63

Describe the various groups who challenged the moral complacency, social conformity, and middle-class values of postwar American life in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Question 64

The idea that by the late 1950s the United States had to replace Great Britain and France as the protector of Western interests in the Middle East was known as the

A)Eisenhower Doctrine.
B)Dulles Doctrine.
C)Kennan Doctrine.
D)Nixon Doctrine.
E)MacArthur Doctrine.

Question 65

The first step in Egyptian General Gamal Abdel Nasser's bid to become the leader of the Arab world was

A)joining with the Soviets.
B)declaring an armistice with Hungary.
C)seizing the Suez Canal.
D)establishing a caliphate in Egypt.
E)establishing a democracy.

Question 66

Describe President Eisenhower's "Middle Way." What were the political, economic, and social aspects of this philosophy?

Question 67

Describe the growth in the postwar American economy.Elaborate on the factors that accounted for this growth.