Deck 20: The Emergence of Urban America

Question 1

By 1900, all of the following technologies had helped transform mass transit EXCEPT:

A) subways
B) electric trolleys
C) cable cars
D) gasoline-powered buses
E) elevated trains

Answer 1

gasoline-powered buses

Question 2

Charles Darwin coined the phrase "survival of the fittest."

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The college-student population declined between 1890 and 1920.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Padrones were hiring agents who secured jobs for immigrants in return for a share of their wages.

Question 5

One major task in big cities was disposing of horse waste.

Question 6

In major cities, politics was often a form of public entertainment.

Question 7

Why was the development of cast-iron and steel-frame construction techniques significant to the growth of cities?

A) The growth of streetcars depended on such techniques.
B) They were the primary engines of job growth.
C) They allowed developers to erect high-rise buildings.
D) They were invented by immigrant laborers.
E) They demonstrated the value of female ingenuity.

Question 8

By 1920, more than half the U.S. population was urban.

Question 9

Tenement housing gave city dwellers substantially healthier and more comfortable living conditions.

Question 10

Ellis Island was opened in 1910 primarily to handle an influx of Asian immigration.

Question 11

The peak decade of immigration was the 1890s.

Question 12

Major league baseball, integrated in the 1880s, was the first professional sport to treat blacks and whites equally (at least on the field).

Question 13

As late as 1900, most New York City residents were still native-born Americans.

Question 14

The spread of mass transit was a major factor in the growth of the suburbs.

Question 15

Charles Darwin's Origins of Species put forward the theory of evolution.

Question 16

Which region of the United States had the greatest proportion of urban dwellers?

A) the Northeast
B) the South
C) the middle Atlantic
D) the Far West
E) the Great Plains

Question 17

One of the reasons mass transit was significant to developing cities was because:

A) it increased the reliance on horse-drawn transportation
B) it allowed larger numbers of people to become commuters and live away from the central city
C) it stifled the growth of the city by drawing jobs to the periphery
D) it prevented parks from being built inside city limits
E) it kept the population of women living in the city very low

Question 18

Saloons were the poor man's social clubs during the late nineteenth century.

Question 19

Tenement houses in New York City:

A) were cramped, yet offered more privacy than apartments
B) were urban, yet their courtyards offered children a sense of nature
C) had higher mortality rates than among the general population
D) were clean
E) usually had two to three families in each building

Question 20

William James believed that the main purpose of philosophizing should be to help people live better.

Question 21

"Nativists" believed:

A) immigration was a boon to the American economy
B) American Indians were the preferred source of workers
C) Chester Arthur was foreign-born and not a real U.S. citizen
D) religion had no place in the public sphere
E) immigrants threatened traditional American culture

Question 22

Angel Island was:

A) a federal penitentiary for immigrants convicted of heinous crimes
B) where the Statue of Liberty was located
C) a religious retreat for immigrants seeking refuge from being deported
D) the most popular horror story of the nineteenth century
E) the equivalent of Ellis Island located offshore from San Francisco

Question 23

Vaudeville shows were popular because:

A) they included something to please every taste, social class, and type
B) women and children were not permitted to attend them
C) native-born Americans liked that immigrants were banned from them
D) they were free
E) they doubled as inexpensive daycare for the working poor

Question 24

All of the following motivated nativists EXCEPT:

A) anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic sentiments
B) beliefs in the superiority of earlier generations of immigrants
C) concerns over the influence of Protestantism
D) convictions that Slavic, Italian, Greek, and Jewish immigrants were inferior
E) alarm that immigrants were taking jobs away from Americans

Question 25

Around 1900, saloons did all of the following EXCEPT:

A) offer mail services
B) provide public restrooms for poor people
C) serve alcohol
D) provide free lunches
E) serve as a great place for immigrant men to meet women

Question 26

All of the following contributed to epidemics, disease, and high mortality rates in the growing cities EXCEPT:

A) overflowing garbage
B) untreated sewage
C) contaminated water
D) the banishment of animals to outside city limits
E) overcrowding

Question 27

Ellis Island was located right outside the port of:

A) Boston
B) San Francisco
C) New York City
D) Philadelphia
E) Charleston

Question 28

With the move of American cities toward regular trash-collection services, by 1900 what percentage of cities provided this service?

A) 90 percent
B) 80 percent
C) 94 percent
D) 50 percent
E) 13 percent

Question 29

What do cholera, typhoid, and yellow fever all have in common?

A) They are all water-related diseases.
B) They are all air-related diseases.
C) They are all sexually transmitted diseases.
D) They are all food-related diseases.
E) They are all genetic disorders.

Question 30

As a result of overcrowding, sanitation, and ventilation problems in tenements:

A) the mortality rate among the urban poor was much higher than the general population
B) the urban poor often escaped the cities to live in suburbs
C) the high mortality rate was the same for all urban residents regardless of class
D) immigration declined in the late nineteenth century
E) tenements were outlawed in most American cities

Question 31

Why did the U.S. government open Ellis Island?

A) It needed an outpost to house immigrants before scheduled deportation.
B) The federal government wanted to ease prison overcrowding, so they used Ellis Island as a prison solely for criminal immigrants.
C) It was needed as a place on which to construct the Statue of Liberty.
D) It was a tourist site designed to show visitors how immigrants came to the United States.
E) It was part of a federal effort to take charge of admitting immigrants to the country in light of the corruption that afflicted the city of New York's system.

Question 32

One of the advantages of the large amount of animal waste generated in early cities was that it:

A) fertilized vegetable farms outside major cities
B) purified the water supply
C) kept away insects
D) could be used in construction
E) was exported to foreign markets

Question 33

In 1890, New York City had twice as many Irish as:

A) Limerick
B) Hamburg
C) Lodz
D) Warsaw
E) Dublin

Question 34

Middle- and upper-class urban families spent much of their leisure time:

A) together at home playing games or reading books
B) in saloons
C) attending vaudeville shows
D) travelling out West
E) helping poor people

Question 35

The exclusion of Chinese immigrants:

A) came only after the exclusion of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe
B) came only after the exclusion of immigrants from northern and western Europe
C) was opposed by white workers in the Far West
D) was supported by President Chester Arthur
E) originally called for a ten-year term

Question 36

Why was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 significant in American immigration history?

A) It sent all the Chinese immigrants in the United States back to China.
B) It was the first federal law to restrict immigration on the basis of race and class.
C) It was the first time Congress was unable to override a presidential veto of an immigration law.
D) It denied citizenship to any Chinese born in the United States.
E) It removed all restrictions from American immigration law.

Question 37

After 1890, most immigrants were:

A) from northern and western Europe
B) from southern and eastern Europe
C) of Teutonic and Celtic origin
D) from Mexico
E) members of the professional class

Question 38

The public health officials and municipal engineers that tried to clean up the city and its public health dangers were called:

A) garbage men
B) health care professionals
C) missionaries
D) sanitary reformers
E) cowboys

Question 39

All of the following statements about newspapers in the late nineteenth century are true EXCEPT:

A) they were the primary medium for political life
B) they usually did not support either of the national political parties
C) the number of newspapers grew twice as fast as the population between 1870 and 1900
D) they were openly partisan
E) many published poetry and fiction as well as news

Question 40

The American Protective Association:

A) was a group of pharmaceutical companies that began a sanitation campaign in New York City
B) was mainly an anti-Semitic organization operating in the Deep South
C) was a nativist group strongest in the upper Mississippi Valley
D) campaigned for a stronger navy from its base in the Northeast
E) consisted almost entirely of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe who favored liberal immigration policies

Question 41

In the late nineteenth century, the least likely place you would find a woman spending her leisure time was at:

A) the movies
B) a vaudeville show
C) a saloon
D) a public park
E) a dance hall

Question 42

Baseball could lay claim to being the most democratic sport in nineteenth century America because:

A) of its commitment to racial integration
B) both men and women played on the same team
C) people of all social classes attended the games
D) there were several different leagues spanning from the major to the minor leagues
E) local political organizations and parties fielded their own teams

Question 43

The Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890:

A) restricted Chinese immigration
B) placed severe quotas on "new immigrants" from Europe
C) established vocational schools aimed at giving job skills to immigrants
D) established and funded land-grant colleges
E) said that interstate trade of alcohol was illegal

Question 44

Facing severe restrictions in their free time, married working women often:

A) spent their days totally alone
B) found fellowship with other women on the public streets while tending to other responsibilities
C) divorced their husbands and abandoned their children
D) ran for political office to change the laws that hurt them
E) settled for having pets

Question 45

All of the following emerged as popular spectator sports with mass appeal in urban areas in the late nineteenth century EXCEPT:

A) baseball
B) football
C) basketball
D) shuffleboard
E) tennis

Question 46

The Hampton Institute in Virginia, which trained Booker T. Washington after the Civil War, is an example of that era's attention to:

A) expanding Ivy League education opportunities
B) opening the doors of traditionally female colleges to male students
C) increasing the emphasis placed on vocational education
D) eliminating racism as a problem in education
E) creating "diploma mills" in the South

Question 47

All of the following statements about football are true EXCEPT:

A) It was invented by James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts
B) It was one of many spectator sports gaining popularity in the late nineteenth century
C) It was generally played in the fall
D) It was initially popular at the college level
E) It was a modified form of soccer and rugby

Question 48

The first professional baseball team was the:

A) Boston Braves
B) the Cincinnati Red Stockings
C) Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers
D) New York Yankees
E) New York Knickerbockers

Question 49

Young, urban women eager for recreation often encountered far more obstacles than men because:

A) they lacked the strength to participate in the most popular leisure pursuits
B) they frequently had children born out of wedlock
C) few spoke English
D) of their religious convictions
E) parents and authorities tried to limit their access to "cheap amusements"

Question 50

Why did so many of the urban working poor often seek recreation and leisure on street corners and front stoops?

A) They were banned from public parks.
B) They did not have sufficient free time or money to enjoy many of the other leisure and entertainment options.
C) Amusement parks like Coney Island catered only to children.
D) Their work contracts forbade them to leave their neighborhoods after hours.
E) It was the safest way to avoid catching a debilitating disease.

Question 51

Herbert Spencer:

A) coined the phrase "survival of the fittest"
B) was the influential president of Harvard University
C) invented the modern game of basketball
D) was the first person to earn a Ph.D. from an American university
E) cowrote On the Origin of Species with Charles Darwin

Question 52

Which of the following statements about the expansion of American higher education in the late nineteenth century is accurate?

A) By the end of the century more women than men were enrolled at colleges.
B) Colleges remained largely male bastions, but women's access to higher education improved markedly.
C) Women remained barred from the institutions of higher education at the end of the nineteenth century.
D) More immigrants than native born were attending college.
E) Immigrants and native born Americans were attending colleges in equal numbers.

Question 53

One of the reasons parks and outdoor recreation became popular in the late nineteenth century was because:

A) of the vast amount of open space that was available in the cities
B) of the ideals of social Darwinism
C) most tenement buildings were constructed next to large parks
D) concerns over congestion and disease led many to seek ways to restore their vitality and improve their health
E) it was a way to escape the immigrant population in the city

Question 54

The spread of public education between the 1880s and 1900 reflected the desire:

A) to stop the proliferation of religious (namely Catholic and Jewish) schools
B) to Americanize immigrant children
C) to educate former slaves
D) to give southern children the broader context of a story about Republican ideology in the North
E) of college administrators to have better-prepared students

Question 55

Dr. James Naismith invented:

A) checkers
B) the cure for malaria
C) the game of basketball
D) the polio vaccine
E) the quarantine system at Ellis Island

Question 56

Why were bicycles especially popular with women?

A) They offered the quickest way to get to the saloon.
B) Women could not travel on streetcars.
C) They proved quite useful in outrunning thieves.
D) They allowed women to break free of Victorian restrictions by offering opportunities for freedom and exercise.
E) It was something they felt they could do better than men.

Question 57

As America industrialized and immigration increased, access to secondary education in the United States:

A) expanded dramatically
B) declined dramatically
C) remained as it always had been
D) was not provided to immigrants
E) was not provided to women

Question 58

Frederick Law Olmsted is most famous for designing:

A) the "safety" bicycle
B) an early skyscraper
C) the modern comic book
D) great urban parks in America
E) the game of baseball

Question 59

The first women's college to teach by the same standards as the best of the men's colleges was:

A) Princeton
B) Rutgers
C) Harvard
D) Iowa State
E) Vassar

Question 60

Women's access to higher education by the end of the century:

A) only existed in graduate schools in Boston and Baltimore until the 1870s
B) was practically nonexistent until the 1920s, and even then was only available to elites
C) was resisted most strongly by state universities in the West
D) expanded significantly to the point that women made up one-third of all college students
E) was impossible until Vassar's founding in 1865

Question 61

A strict social Darwinist would object to all the following EXCEPT:

A) the graduated income tax
B) sanitation and housing regulations
C) a governmental policy of "hands off" in regard to business
D) regulation of medical quacks
E) the idea that the law of God and the law of nature might be the same thing

Question 62

Describe the explosive growth of urbanization in the late nineteenth century. What factors led to this growth, and where did the largest growth take place?

Question 63

How did immigration to America change in the latter half of the nineteenth century, and what was the response to that change?

Question 64

Though both embraced "pragmatism," William James and John Dewey differed in their approaches to philosophizing because:

A) James was a strict social Darwinist, while Dewey rejected Darwin
B) James was a communist, while Dewey was a fascist
C) Dewey believed in free love, while James believed in monogamy
D) Dewey preferred the decimal system, while James insisted on using fractions
E) Dewey threw himself into progressive social movements, while James did not

Question 66

William Graham Sumner:

A) wrote "The Gospel of Wealth," a social Darwinist justification for accumulated wealth
B) was one of the most outspoken opponents of Darwinism in America
C) argued in his book Folkways that it was a mistake for the government to interfere with established customs
D) wrote System of Synthetic Knowledge
E) preached that the law of God and the laws of nature were one and the same

Question 67

Discuss the most serious public health challenges the urban population faced, how those challenges were addressed, and how effective the solutions were.

Question 68

Compare social Darwinism and reform Darwinism. What were the basic assumptions of each movement?

Question 69

Lester Frank Ward's version of reform Darwinism argued all of the following EXCEPT:

A) people compete, but they also collaborate
B) big government only hinders real progress in society
C) government could help society progress by promoting education
D) government could help society progress by eliminating poverty
E) humanity can not control the process of evolution

Question 70

Trace the rise of popular culture in America. Focus on the new patterns of recreation and leisure. Who led this movement, and what activities were available to Americans?

Question 71

John Dewey's "instrumentalism":

A) said that learning to play music literally made the brain grow larger
B) said that the most important years for education came between sixth and ninth grades and led to the creation of "middle schools"
C) claimed that vocational trades were absolutely necessary for Americans
D) said that ideas were instruments for action
E) argued that education for the masses was impossible in a polyglot society

Question 72

Discuss the spread of public education in nineteenth-century America. What was the motivation for this expansion? Detail the various educational opportunities that students had.

Question 73

The main idea of reform Darwinism was that:

A) humans, made in the image of God, should not be included among the animals when discussing Darwinism
B) government should not interfere with business
C) cooperation, not competition, would best promote progress
D) man continued to evolve according to Darwin's principles of natural selection
E) for society to truly reform, any "imitation" of welfare must cease

Question 74

Discuss the impact that rapid growth had on the environment.

Question 75

The author of Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking was:

A) William James
B) Henry James
C) Henry Adams
D) Herbert Baxter Adams
E) John Dewey

Question 76

Describe how living in an urban environment impacted women's lives.

Question 77

Why was Lester Frank Ward's Dynamic Sociology considered a challenge to William Graham Sumner's "social Darwinism"?

A) Ward embraced "survival of the fittest," while Sumner embraced "survival of the smartest."
B) Ward believed that humans had no control over their destiny, while Sumner argued the opposite.
C) Ward denied the existence of evolution, while social Darwinism was based entirely on the scientific theory of evolution.
D) Ward argued that cooperation among people better promoted progress, while Sumner believed in competition.
E) Ward was a Democrat, and Sumner was a Republican.

Question 78

MATCHING
Match each description with the item below.