1.The Postwar Economic Boom Was Fueled Mainly By

Multiple-Choice Questions - Chapter 30

1.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

2.After the war, Americans were most eager to:

A.purchase

B.save

C.travel

D.pursue education

E.work overtime

3.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

4.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

5.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

6.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

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

A.uniformity

B.cultural innovation

C.diversity

D.intellectual excitement

E.economic stagnation

8.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

9.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

10.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”

11.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

12.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

13.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

14.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