MODERN AMERICAN HISTORY
READING GUIDE
|
MODERN AMERICAN HISTORY READING GUIDE
|
|
Silent March, Harlem, 1917 to Protest Race Murders in East St. Louis (NYPL-Schomburg
OVERVIEW | ASSIGNMENTS | READING GUIDE
COMPUTER LAB | LINKS | EXAMS AND PAPERS
go to reading and quiz questions for:
CHAPTER ONE IN WHO BUILT AMERICA -- Quiz, Wednesday, February 7
Chapter one looks at major changes in
American history after the Civil War.
As you read, make a list of what you consider the ten most important
changes. On Wednesday,
February 7th, there will be a timed quiz on ten of the following
questions. Make sure you can answer
all the questions.
1. How did railroads change the U.S. conception of time in the late nineteenth century?
A)
Set up many competing local time zones.
B) Established a few standardized and geographically large time zones.
C) Created a single time-zone for the entire U.S.
D) Did away with train schedules.
2. Which word or words do NOT describe economic development in the late nineteenth century?
A)
Growth. B) Volatility.
C) Stability. D)
Overproduction.
3. Which grew at a faster rate, 1865-1900?
A) Agriculture.
B) Manufacturing.
4. Which grew at a faster rate, 1865-1900?
A) Rural America.
B) Urban America.
5. Which grew at a faster rate, 1865-1900?
A) Self employed workforce.
B) Wage labor force.
6. Which grew at a faster rate, 1865-1900?
A) Residents born in the U.S. B) Immigrants.
7. Which of the following characterized the trend in income distribution in the U.S., 1865-1900?
A) Growing income equality.
B) Growing income inequality. C)
No significant change in income distribution.
8. Between 1870-1890, real wages (how much your wages can buy) for working Americans:
A)
Increased. B) Decreased.
C) Stayed about the same.
9. Between 1870-1890, the U.S. working class became:
A)
More diverse and more stratified. B) More diverse and less stratified. C) Less diverse and less stratified. D) Less diverse and more
stratified.
10. John D. Rockefeller is an example of a late 19th century businessman who made his fortune by:
A)
Government land grabs for his railroads.
B) Creating railroad pools in the 1870s.
C) Vertical and horizontal integration in the oil industry.
D) Carrying vertical integration in the steel industry further than any
of his contemporaries.
11. Which of the following is NOT an example of vertical integration.
A) Andrew Carnegie building his steel empire. B) John D. Rockefeller’s domination of the oil industry. C. Jay Gould rigging the stock market by issuing watered stock.
12. The compromise of 1877
resulted in:
A)
A republican president and Democratic Party control of the South.
B) A democratic president and Republican Party control of the South.
C) A republican president and republican party control of the South.
D) A democratic president and Democratic Party control of the South.
13. After the Civil War (1865-1890), industrial development in the South was mainly financed by:
A)
Northern investors. B)
Southern investors. C) European
investors.
14. Cotton mills in the South paid workers___________than mill workers in Massachusetts.
A) Much more. B) Much less. C) About the same.
15. Textile workers in
post-Civil War southern cotton mills were:
A) Overwhelming black. B)
Overwhelmingly white. C)
Overwhelmingly immigrant. D)
Integrated racially and ethnically.
16. As southern agriculture changed from subsistence to commercial production after the Civil War, which of the following generally enjoyed a higher standard of living and more economic independence?
A)
Black sharecroppers. B)
White farmers in the crop lien system. C) Neither A or B. D)
Both A and B.
17. Which of the following disrupted traditional Indian culture:
A)
Destruction of the buffalo. B)
Protestant-oriented Indian Schools. C)
The Dawes Allotment Act. D) All the
above. E) None of the above.
18. Which of the following groups was most likely to be exploited as contract labor (on railroads and in mines) in the West, 1865-1900.
A) African-Americans. B) Native Americans (Indians). C) Chinese immigrants. D) Mexican migrants.
back to TOP
IRON HORSE VS THE BUFFALO -- Quiz, Wednesday, February 14
go to web version of Iron Horse vs the Buffalo
On
Wednesday, February 14th, there will be a timed quiz on
ten of the following questions. Make
sure you can answer all the questions.
1.
In 1883, General William T. Sherman argued that the “the railroad which used
to follow the rear now goes forward with the picket line [an advanced-guard
military contingent] in the great battle of civilization with barbarism and has
become the greater cause.” By
“cause” he meant:
A) U.S. civilization.
B) U.S. barbarism. C) Native
American civilization. D) Native
American barbarism.
2.
Who, among the following, saw the buffalo as a commodity?
A) Old Lady Horse.
B) Frank Morgan. C) Black
Elk. D) Wovoka.
3.
Government distribution of free land to the railroads during and after the Civil
War was:
A) Less than that received by pioneer families
under the Homestead Act.
B) Approximately equal to the combined size of Texas and Oklahoma.
C) Equal to the size of Manhattan. D)
None of the above because railroads paid for all of the land they owned.
4.
Who was least likely to believe in the concept of property rights in the post
Civil War West?
A) The U.S. government.
B) Railroad corporations. C)
Mining corporations. D) U.S.
pioneer farmers. E) Native American
hunters.
5.
Indian population in North America reached its lowest point in written
history in:
A) 1500. B)
1865. C) 1890.
D) 2001.
6.
The U.S. government pushed the policy of Indian “concentration” (segregating
Indians on reservations) mainly:
A) Before 1887.
B) After 1887. C) During
1887 (under provisions of the Dawes Act).
7.
The group “Friends of the Indian” advocated:
A) Preservation of Native American culture. B) The assimilation of Native American culture into white
society. C) Tribal ownership of
Indian land. D) Herding Native
Americans onto segregated reservations.
8.
By “kill the Indian, save the man,” Richard Pratt meant:
A) Kill Indian culture/ assimilate into white
culture. B) “The only good Indian
is a dead Indian.” C) Forced
removal of all Indians from all U.S. territory.
D) Preserve Indian culture.
9.
Under the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, the U.S.:
A) Distributed no land to Indians.
B) Distributed land only to
individual families willing to farm it. B)
Distributed land only to tribes willing to farm it.
B) Distributed land only to
tribes willing to hunt on it.
10.
Which of the following values did the Dawes Act NOT seek to promote among
Indians?
A) Property rights.
B) Individualism. C)
Farming. D) “We” instead of
“I.”
11.
After passage of the Dawes Severalty Act in 1887, Indian land holdings:
A) Increased dramatically.
B) Decreased dramatically. C)
Stayed about the same. D) Totally
disappeared.
12
– 14. Black Elk, a Sioux holy
man, commented: “"Once
we were happy in our own country and were seldom hungry, for then the two-leggeds
and four-leggeds lived together like relatives, and there was plenty for them
and for us. But then the Wasichus
came, and they made little islands for us and other islands for the four-leggeds,
and always these islands are becoming smaller, for all around them surges the
gnawing flood of the Wasichus; and it is dirty with lies and greed."
12.
Who are the “Wasichus?”
A) Sioux.
B) Commanches. C)
Pueblos. D) Whites.
E) Ghost Dancers
13.
What are the “islands for us?”
A) Mining camps.
B) U.S. military camps. C)
Indian reservations. D) Indian
schools. E) Ghost Dancers.
14.
Who are the “four-leggeds?”
A) Crawling Indian babies.
B) Buffalo. C) Horses.
D) Indians on horses. E)
White settlers on horses.
pp 121-161, CHAPTER THREE IN WHO BUILT AMERICA -- Quiz, Wednesday, February 21
On Wednesday,
February 21st, there will be a timed quiz on ten of the following
questions. Make sure
you can answer all the questions.
1.
Coxey’s Army:
A) Put down the striking Pullman workers.
B) Marched to Washington to demand federal relief for unemployed workers.
C) Avenged the sinking of the Maine in the Spanish American War.
D) Launched a successful attack against Manila Bay (Philippines) in 1898.
2.
Which of the following was NOT a factor in the defeat of the Pullman strike.
A) The
intervention of federal troops.
B) The intervention of state militia.
C) A sweeping federal court injunction outlawing the strike.
D) The total exclusion of low-skilled and unskilled workers from the
American Railway Union (ARU).
3.
The ARU was:
A) An industrial
union (skilled and unskilled).
B) A craft union (organized by skill).
C) A company union (organized by Pullman management).
D) A political party for railroad workers.
4.
In the late 1880s and early 1890s, the Farmers Alliance and Populist Party
successfully ran candidates who won:
A) Control of
some state legislatures. B)
Governorships. C)
U.S. Congressional seats. D)
All the above. E)
None of the above.
5.
The platform of the 1892 Populist Party did NOT include:
A) Nationalization (government ownership) of railroads and telegraph.
B) Nationalization of most farms.
C) A sub-treasury plan.
D) A graduated income tax.
E) Direct election of U.S. senators.
6. In one of the most important
and famous speeches in U.S. history, a candidate for office exclaimed “you
shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not
crucify mankind on a cross of gold.” Who
spoke these words?
A) William McKinley. B) Henry Demarest Lloyd.
C) J.P. Morgan. D)
Grover Cleveland. E) William
Jennings Bryan.
7. By 1900, the South was
overwhelmingly under the control of which party?
A) Republican. B) Democratic. C)
Populist. D) Farmers Alliance.
8. Ida B. Wells-Barnet:
A) Led an anti-lynching movement.
B) Advised African-Americans to accommodate to white power.
C) Founded the Tuskegee Institute for Industrial Education.
D) Wrote Souls of Black Folk and advocated integration.
9. Which group was NOT typically
part of the wave of new immigrants in the late 19th century?
A) Jews. B)
Catholics. C) Eastern Europeans.
D) Italians. E) English.
10.
Emilio Aguinaldo led the guerilla movement for Philippine independence at
the turn of the century. Which of
the following statements about Aguinaldo is true?
A) Commodore George Dewey transported the
exiled Aguinaldo to the Philippines as a U.S. ally in the war against colonial
Spain. B) The U.S. refused to
recognize the independent republic Aguinaldo declared in June 1898.
C) Aguinaldo mounted a guerilla war against U.S. occupation of the
Philippines. D) All the above.
E) None of the above.
11. Who was NOT an advocate of
imperialist expansion?
A) Industrialist and presidential adviser, Mark
Hanna. B) Steel tycoon, Andrew
Carnegie. C) Senator Albert
Beveridge. D) President Theodore
Roosevelt. E) Planter and
businessman, Sanford Dole.
12.
Between 1900-1920, where did the U.S. militarily intervene to protect
U.S. economic interests?
A) Nicaragua. B) Haiti.
C) Cuba. D) Dominican
Republic. E) All the above.
13.
The Anti-Imperialist league consistently opposed U.S. imperialism as
racist and as a threat to multi-cultural diversity in the U.S.
A) True. B)
False.
14. The U.S. strategy for
expanding markets and investments in China was:
A) Colonial rule. B) Military
Occupation. C) The Open Door
Policy. D) The Platt Amendment.
E) The Roosevelt Corollary.
Chapter 4 in Who Built America, pp 167-201 -- Quiz, Wednesday, February 28
CHAPTER 5 IN WHO BUILT AMERICA -- Quiz, Wednesday, March 7
1. Women first won the right to
vote in state and local elections:
A)
West of the Mississippi. B) In the
New England States. C) In New York
and Pennsylvania. D) In Virginia
and Maryland.
2. The first woman elected to the
U.S. Congress was:
A)
Clara Lemlich. B) Lillian Wald. C) Jeanette Rankin. D)
Ida Wells Barnett. E) Margaret
Sanger.
3. Between 1900-1920, which
region of the country was least likely to pass legislation regulating the labor
of women and children?
A) New England. B) South. C) Midwest. D) Far West. E) New York and Pennsylvania.
4. Who was a leader of the
“Uprising of the Twenty Thousand”?
A)
Clara Lemlich. B) Lillian Wald. C) Jeanette Rankin. D)
Ida Wells Barnett. E) Margaret
Sanger.
5.
Most of the 128 people who died in the 1911 Banner Coal Mine explosion were:
A)
Convicts. B) Jewish immigrants.
C) Italian immigrants. D)
Young children. E) Trade unionists.
6.
Who was a socialist candidate for president:
A)
Emma Goldman. B) Bill Haywood. C) Samuel Gompers. D)
Eugene Debs. E) Jeanette Rankin.
7.
Whom did the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) seek to organize?
A)
African Americans. B) Women.
C) Immigrants. D) Unskilled
workers. E) All the above.
8.
Where did state militia massacre strikers in the Rockefeller-owned mines, Easter
1914?
A)
Triangle. B) Banner (Birmingham).
C) Ludlow. D)
Patterson. E)
Lawrence.
9.
Who, of the following, advocated public ownership of utilities (e.g. Power
companies, street car lines, etc.)
A)
Hazen Pingree. B) Theodore
Roosevelt. C) Woodrow Wilson. D)
William Howard Taft.
10.
The percentage of those eligible voting tended to be higher in:
A)
1870s. B) 1890s.
C) 1920.
11.
The federal employment rolls were highest in:
A)
1881. B) 1901.
C) 1911. D) 1918.
12.
As president, Woodrow Wilson:
A)
Integrated the federal civil service. B)
Extended and defended segregation in the federal civil service.
C) Appointed more African-Americans to federal positions than any other
president. D) Excluded all African
Americans from the federal civil service.
13. Under the “progressive”
presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, the federal government:
A) Sent federal troops to the South
to halt lynchings. B) Reduced
lynching by half. C) Encouraged
lynchings. D) Did virtually nothing
to stop lynchings.
14.
Which of the following was a principle of progressive reform in the
1900-1920 period.
A) Government should play an active role in regulating the economy and controlling monopolies. B) Government should NOT play a role in regulating the economy. C) Government should use the courts and the military to defend corporate interests.
pp. 315-316, 318-319, 323-342, 347-353, 360-361, CHAPTER SEVEN IN WHO BUILT AMERICA – Quiz, Wednesday, March 21
On Wednesday, March 21st, there will be a timed quiz on ten of the following questions. Make sure you can answer all the questions.
1. Who said the "chief business of the American people is business"?
A) Henry Ford. B) Marcus Garvey. C) Calvin Coolidge. D) Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. E) Herbert Hoover
2. Between 1890-1930, the average size of the American household:
A) Increased. B) Decreased. C) Stayed about the same.
3. Which sector of the economy grew slowest in the 1920s?
A) Manufacturing. B) Construction. C) Service. D) Finance.
4. The average real earning of workers in the 1920s:
A) Increased. B) Decreased. C) Stayed about the same.
5. The gap between rich and poor in the 1920s.
A) Increased. B) Decreased. C) Stayed about the same.
6. By 1929, what fraction (percentage) of American families owned a car.
A) 1/5. B) 1/3.. C) 2/3.. D) ½. E) 3/4.
7. From 1900-1930, the percentage of married women working:
A) Increased slightly. B) Doubled. C) Declined slightly. D) Decline by 50%. E) Stayed about the same.
8. In the1920s, more women were likely to be employed as:
A) Management. B) Lawyers. C) Doctors. D) Domestics. E) Midwives.
9. After the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, women voted in _________ numbers than/as men throughout the 1920s.
A) Greater. B) Lesser. C. About the same.
10. Marcus Garvey founded the:
A) The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). B) The National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP). C) The Congress of racial Equality (CORE). D) The Pan African Congress. E) The Harlem Renaissance.
11. Marcus Garvey advocated:
A) Pan Africanism. B) Integrated schools, neighborhoods and business. C) Interracial marriage.
12. Most African-American voters in the 1920s cast their ballots for:
A) Democrats. B) Republicans. C) Socialists. D) Black nationalists.
13. Who, of the following, was NOT one of the intellectuals/authors/artists of the Harlem Renaissance?
A) Langston Hughes. B) Zora Neale Hurston. C) Alain Locke. D) Nella Larson. E) Marcus Garvey.
14. Who edited the NAACP’s magazine The Crisis?
A) Langston Hughes. B)W.E.B. DuBois C) Alain Locke. D)Booker T. Washington. E) Marcus Garvey.
15. Which presidential candidate was attacked in the 1928 election as the candidate of foreigners and drinkers?
A) Calvin Coolidge. B) Franklin Roosevelt. C) Al Smith. D) Herbert Hoover. E) Joseph Stalin.