History - American History
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The following questions are part of this assessment
Question and answer order might be different than the order the student experienced as questions and
answers can be randomized
Answers in bold are the correct answers to the questions.
Question: 1
Political power is that power, which every man having in the state
of nature, has given up into the hands of society…And this power
has its origin only from compact [agreement]…and the mutual
consent of those who make up the community…
The reason why men enter society is the preservation of their
property; and the end why they chuse and authorize a legislative, is,
that there may be laws made, and rules set, as guards and fences to
the properties of all the members of society…whenever the
legislators endeavor to take away, and destroy the property of the
people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put
themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon
absolved from any farther obedience. –John Locke
Locke says that people have the right of dissent. What grants them this right?
1: It is the Law of the Land to be allowed to dissent.
2: People may dissent because they are the creators of the
governing body.
3: The legislature has gone to war with the people, their creators.
4: It is both the Law of the Land and the legislature gone to war
with the people that grants this right.
Question: 2 Federalists
1: felt that The Constitution favored the wealthy and preserved their
power.
2: thought that a strong national government threatened the rights of
the common people.
3: thought that the Articles of Confederation weren't effective
enough and so agitated for the new Constitution.
4: thought that all power belonged in the hands of the common man.
Question: 3 The Federalist Papers were written by
1: John Jay, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison
2: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams
3: Roger Sherman, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison
4: Alexander Hamilton
Question: 4
The central conflict of the Constitutional Convention of 1787
was
1: the wording of the Preamble.
2: the question of representation, or, how many votes each
state should have.
3: ratification.
4: whether or not to create an Electoral College or vote by popular
vote for President.
Question: 5 True or False?
The Bill of Rights was added at the urging of the Anti-Federalists.
1: True
2: False
Question: 6
Which amendment below is not included in the Bill of Rights?
1. Right to freedom from self-incrimination
2. Right to a speedy and fair trial
3. Protection from slavery or involutary servitude
4. Rights retained by the people (Rights not specifically granted to the government,
state or federal, are granted to the people.)
1: 1
2: 2
3: 3
4: 4
Question: 7 The "peculiar institution" of slave ownership was actually in decline
before the invention of the cotton gin. After the device became widely available, this
downward trend reversed. Why?
1: Suddenly, vast quantities of cotton could be profitably processed.
2: Even though the gin made processing easier, owners still needed
slave labor to plant and harvest the cotton itself.
3: Too many fields had been converted to cotton production to scale
back slave labor.
4: All of the above
Question: 8 By the 1870s, many of the protections extended to former slaves
during Reconstruction were revoked and, as a result, thousands of African
Americans emmigrated from the South. Identify the three most common
destinations for the African American immigrant community during this period.
1: New York City, Chicago, and Kansas
2: New York City, Chicago, and California
3: New York City, Chicago, and New Mexico
4: New Orleans, Detroit, Chicago
Question: 9 "Consumerism" is
1: due in part to the advent of a unified national market.
2: the result of advances in meat-packing technology.
3: the idea that shopping itself is an enjoyable experience.
4: shopping as an enjoyable experience, and the advent of a
unified national market are both correct.
Question: 10 ___________ was/were crucial to industrialism.
1: technological innovation, steel, and improved transportation
2: capital, raw materials, and shrewd investments
3: congressional support, a readily available labor pool, and arable
land
4: the institution of slavery
Question: 11 True or false: Industrialization and advances in transportation DID
NOT contribute to urbanization; the phenomenon's true cause was the influx of
European immigrants.
1: True
2: False
Question: 12 _____________ appealed to business leaders during the Gilded Age
because it justified their aggressive practices.
1: Anarchy
2: Abolition
3: Social Darwinism
4: The National Market
Question: 13 What was Populism?
1: A movement aimed at stopping railroad strikes
2: A movement that called for extensive reforms, particularly
the cessation of exploitative practices by banks, railroads, and
merchants against working people and farmers
3: A movement that replaced skilled labor with automation
4: A movement encouraging the election of the president by popular
vote
Question: 14 True or false?
The Progressive Movement originally formed as an effort to maintain traditional
democratic values.
1: True
2: False
Question: 15 Tammany Hall was an example of
1: a political machine.
2: a trust.
3: a Settlement House.
4: a jazz club in New York City.
Question: 16
There would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been
rejected, and that was moldy and white-- it would be dosed with borax and
glycerine, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home
consumption. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the
dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions
of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms;
and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats
would race about on it.
--Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, 1906
Upton Sinclair, the author of The Jungle, was a
1: Muckraker.
2: Teetotaler.
3: Yellow Journalist.
4: Politician.
Question: 17 Even though the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, and the 15th
Amendement guaranteed African American men the right to vote (it would take
almost another 50 years for women to secure their suffrage), African Americans
were still effectively denied that right. Many states barred voting by means of
1: declaring that African Americans (and in some cases, Native
Americans) were legally only 3/5 of a person.
2: residency requirements.
3: literacy tests, poll taxes. and white-only primaries.
4: demonstrations in the streets of southern towns.
Question: 18 By the 1880s, the U.S.'s expansionist impulse led it to extend
"manifest destiny" beyond the borders of North America. What did this mean for the
island kingdom of Hawaii?
1: Favored-nation trading partner status
2: A coup and its annexation by the U.S.
3: A strengthened position in its clash with Samoa
4: Military invasion by the U.S.
Question: 19 The Spanish American War centered around
1: Cuba's fight for independence from Spain, and the U.S.
invoking the Monroe Doctrine.
2: The desire of Russian expansionists to annex Spanish territories
including Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico, and The Philipines.
3: Spain's cowardly attack on the battleship Maine.
4: the United States' occupation of Cuba.
Question: 20 What was the "Open Door" policy?
1: An early agreement between the U.S. and Tsarist Russia that
allowed for free trade across the Bering Strait
2: The introduction of Christianity into the Far East
3: The plan proposed by Secretary of State John Hay that
arranged open trade for competing Japanese, European, and
American powers in China
4: Willingness in the U.S. to allow immigrants to enter the country
without limitations
Question: 21 Match the following:
1. This policy protected U.S. business interests in the Carribean and Central
America by deploying military force to keep order and defend markets.
2. This policy encouraged U.S. business to invest in Central American countries,
and to lend their governments money. While more subtle than the policy that
preceded it, it was just as effective at controlling the Central American and
Carribean governments.
3. This is the policy of using American troops to force Mexican, Central ,and South
American countries to elect "good" officials.
Moral Diplomacy
Big Stick Diplomacy
Dollar Diplomacy
1: 1. Dollar Diplomacy, 2. Big Stick Diplomacy, 3. Moral Diplomacy
2: 1. Moral Diplomacy, 2. Dollar Diplomacy, 3. Big Stick Diplomacy
3: 1. Big Stick Diplomacy, 2. Dollar Diplomacy, 3. Moral
Diplomacy
4: Each of these is a case of Big Stick Diplomacy
Question: 22 Match the leader to his policy.
1. William Howard Taft
2. Theodore Roosevelt
3. Woodrow Wilson
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------A. Dollar Diplomacy
B. Moral Diplomacy
C. Big Stick Diplomacy
1: 1, B; 2,C; 3,B
2: 1,A; 2,C; 3,B.
3: 1A; 2A; 3B
4: 3,A; 2,C; 3,B
Question: 23
Theodore Roosevelt decided it was important to construct The Panama
Canal. Initially he tried to negotiate with Colombia, but they demanded more money
for rights to a canal zone. This move deeply angered the President. In retaliation, he
supported the people of Panama, who were agitating for their independence from
Colombia. The U.S. sent a gunboat in support of the uprising. Two days later,
Panama was recognized as an independent nation and, not incidentally, a nation
much more agreeable to Roosevelt's terms.
This history of the Panama Canal is an example of
1: Gunboat Diplomacy.
2: American benevolence toward other countries.
3: rule by force.
4: diplomatic negotiations.
Question: 24 The Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Amendment of 1918
made any obstruction of America's World War I war effort illegal, and infringed on
the civil liberties of any who spoke out against it. Some Americans didn't take kindly
to these abuses and formed the following organization to combat them.
1: The Sierra Club
2: The NAACP
3: The American Civil Liberties Union
4: The Anti-Defamation League
Question: 25 True or False?
The League of Nations was established by Woodrow Wilson for the purpose of
creating an "alliance of power" that provided for militarily strong countries to assume
control of smaller countries in their region.
1: True
2: False
Question: 26 The Bolshevik Revolution terrified much of the Western world, and
the resultant climate of fear spawned extreme counter-measures against perceived
radicals. One of the most shameful examples of this was ___________, a series of
round-ups of almost 4,000 people, for whom no arrest warrants were issued and
who were held without bail or counsel. Eventually, six hundred nonviolent radicals
were expelled from the country.
Fill in the blank above.
1: The Volstead Act
2: The Palmer Raids
3: The Sacco Vanzetti Raids
4: The Russian Reformation
Question: 27 Only one Amendment to the Constitution has ever been repealed.
What was it? (Don't worry; you don't have to cite its number.)
1: Prohibition
2: Federal Income Tax
3: The Gay Rights Amendment
4: Women's Suffrage
Question: 28
The Nineteenth Amendment finally granted women full suffrage all across the
United States. Prior to that time, women could only vote if the state they lived in
allowed it. Broadly speaking, which region of our country granted women full
suffrage first?
1: The Northeast
2: The Southwest
3: The Great Lakes states
4: The West
Question: 29 "Scientific Management" is a theory that suggests the time
necessary to do any job can be reduced if that job is broken down to its simplest
component parts; and, because less time equals bigger profits, the efficient
company is the successful company. Which industry first embraced this philosophy?
1: The oil industry
2: The communications industry (telephones and telegraphs)
3: The auto industry
4: The agricultural industry
Question: 30 While the Crash of 1929 was definitely the major contributor to the
Great Depression, other issues were also at fault. Which of the following WAS NOT
a factor?
1: depressed incomes for farmers and unequal distribution of wealth
2: unemployment
3: abuses in the stock market
4: Calvin Coolidge's delayed response to the crisis
Question: 31 In April of 1935, an enormous windstorm swept across the Great
Plains, scouring away topsoil and decimating crops. The storm and years of drought
and economic depression brought American farmers in the region to their knees.
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What name was given to the area hardest hit by the storm?
What were the people who fled from the area called?
1: Texas, Hillbillies
2: The Depression, Okies
3: The Dust Bowl, Okies
4: California, The Grapes of Wrath
Question: 32 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took unprecedented steps to
put Americans back to work. Among his programs were the Civilian Conservation
Corps, The Public Works Administration, the National Recovery Administration, and
the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. Collectively, what were these programs
called?
1: The Contract with America
2: The New Deal
3: The Great Awakening
4: The Second New Deal
Question: 33 What was the Tennessee Valley Authority?
1: A Roosevelt opposition group
2: An organization that built dams and produced cheap
electricity
3: Huey Long's political party
4: A public works project that built railways through isolated rural
Tennessee
Question: 34 What event precipitated the United States' entry into WWII?
1: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941
2: The landing at Normandy on June 6, 1944
3: The razing of Conventry, England
4: The fall of Paris to Nazi troops in 1940
Question: 35 President Roosevelt's State of the Union Address of January 6, 1941
has since come to be known as "The Four Freedoms Speech."
What were the "Four Freedoms" he articulated?
1: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from
Want and Freedom from Fear
2: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of SelfDetermination and Freedom from Tyranny
3: Freedom of Choice, Freedom of Thought, Freedom of Speech
and Freedom of Assembly
4: Freedom from war, freedom of political persuasion, freedom to
work, freedom of assembly
Question: 36 Match the battle to its description.
1. This was the last major battle of the war, and the largest sea-land-air battle in
recorded history. It was bloody, costly, and demonstrated the determination of the
Japanese people. It had a direct bearing on the decision to bomb Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.
2. This battle took place on D-Day (June 6, 1944). In it, British, American and
Canadian troops stormed the French coast and finally established a European
toehold.
3. This battle took place on June 5, 1942 in the Pacific Theater. It was the first
decisive blow against the Axis powers.
4. This brutal Pacific Theater battle stretched from February to March of 1945. In it,
the U.S. invaded a small island with a strategic air field at great human cost.
A. The Battle of Midway
B. Iwo Jima
C. Normandy
D. The Battle of Okinawa
1: 1,C; 2,B; 3A; 4,B
2: 1,D; 2,C; 3,B; 4,A
3: 1,D; 2,C; 3,A; 4,B.
4: 1,B; 2,A; 3,C; 4,D
Question: 37 Executive Order 9066 sent members of this/these ethnic group(s) to
internment camps throughout the American west.
1: Germans
2: Italians
3: Japanese
4: Germans, Italians, and Japanese
Question: 38 What was the name of the massive aid package the United States
implemented to rebuild Europe?
1: The Truman Doctrine
2: The Yalta Pact
3: The Marshall Plan
4: The Monroe Doctrine
Question: 39 This policy, articulated in 1947, stated that
"...it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are
resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."
1: The Marshall Plan
2: The Yalta Pact
3: The Truman Doctrine
4: The Monroe Doctrine
Question: 40 True or False?
"Containment" was the underlying cause of the Korean War.
1: True
2: False
Question: 41 True or False?
Senator Joseph McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee routed out
many Communists in our midst and greatly contributed to America's postwar safety.
1: True
2: False
Question: 42 Match the case to its description.
1. This 1896 Supreme Court decision ruled that "separate but equal" facilities are
constitutional.
2. In this 1857 case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Missouri Compromise was
unconstitutional, that Congress could not legally prohibit slavery in the territories,
and that enslaved people, regardless of where they lived, were the legal property of
their owners.
3. In this 1954 case, Chief Justice Earl Warren declared school segregation illegal.
Earl Warren
A. Brown v. Board of Education
B. Plessy v. Ferguson
C. Dred Scott v. Sandford
1: 1,A; 2,C; 3,B.
2: 1,B; 2,C; 3,A.
3: 1,C; 2,B; 3,A.
Question: 43 If you will protest courageously and yet with dignity and Christian
love, in the history books that are written in future generations, historians will have
to pause and say "there lived a great people-- who injected new meaning and
dignity into the veins of civilization. This is our challenge and our overwhelming
responsibility."
Who delivered the speech quoted above?
1: W.E.B. DuBois
2: Langston Hughes
3: A. Philip Randolph
4: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Question: 44
The greatest escalation of United States troops in Vietnam took place during the
administration of President
1: Eisenhower
2: Kennedy
3: Johnson
4: Nixon
Question: 45 The Bay of Pigs was
1: A foiled attempt by the United States to invade Cuba
2: A World War II battle in the South Pacific
3: A domestic dispute in Tennessee at the turn of the century
4: A financial scandal in Wall Street that set off the Great
Depression
Question: 46 Senator Joseph McCarthy made a career out of
1: defending people suspected of unamerican activities
2: fighting for the rights of Irish Americans
3: hunting down suspected communists and blacklisting them
4: spying in the U.S. for the soviet government
Question: 47 Before World War II, Korea was under occupation by
1: Japan
2: the Soviet Union
3: China
4: the League of Nations
Question: 48 The Vietnam War was ended
1: in a negotiated peace
2: without a clear military victory
3: during the term of President Nixon
4: All answers are correct
Question: 49 "White flight" from America's cities has resulted in all but
1: school bussing
2: prosperity for urban minorities
3: the deterioration of urban schools
4: de facto segregation
Question: 50 The central conflict between the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) and property rights advocates revolves around
1: private versus public property
2: national parks versus privately developed wilderness
3: government regulation of business versus private ownership
of the means of production
4: Democrats versus Republicans