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Nation of Nations A Concise Narrative of the American Republic Book Cover Image

Nation of Nations: A Concise Narrative of the American Republic, 3/e

James West Davidson, Historian
William E. Gienapp, Harvard University
Christine Leigh Heyrman, University of Delaware
Mark H. Lytle, Bard College
Michael B. Stoff, University of Texas, Austin

The Suburban Era (1945-1963)

Multiple Choice


1	The symbol that seemed to capture the 1950s was the:
		A)	drive-in movie.
		B)	automobile tailfin.
		C)	hot dog.
		D)	backyard patio.


2	William Levitt became famous after World War II for:
		A)	his bitter denunciations of the consumer society.
		B)	redesigning the Cadillac to increase the size of its tailfins.
		C)	suburban real-estate developments using mass production techniques.
		D)	authoring the Interstate Highway Act in Congress.


3	The American civil religion of the 1950s is best understood as:
		A)	worshipping the nation and its symbols rather than God.
		B)	the culture of consumption and suburbia.
		C)	the growing consensus that religion was central to American life.
		D)	a growing intolerance toward non-Protestants.


4	During the 1950s, American women were less likely to:
		A)	work outside the home.
		B)	go to college.
		C)	enter a professional job.
		D)	be portrayed as happy homemakers in the media.


5	David Riesman's The Lonely Crowd criticized Americans for:
		A)	becoming too other-directed and too willing to conform.
		B)	becoming too inner-directed, unconcerned with reforming society's ills.
		C)	overlooking teenage delinquency caused, in part, by rock-and-roll music.
		D)	failing to appreciate the effects of the baby boom on the planet's ability to sustain a growing population.


6	"Massive retaliation" was the phrase used to describe:
		A)	the Eisenhower Administration's threat to use nuclear weapons.
		B)	the Chinese threat against the U.S. if it did not stop supporting Taiwan.
		C)	the buildup of conventional weapons to prepare for of World War III.
		D)	Eisenhower's proposal to liberate "captive peoples" from communism.


7	The battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 was a terrible defeat for the military forces of:
		A)	Vietnam.
		B)	the United States.
		C)	France.
		D)	North Korea.


8	In the years just after the signing of the Geneva Accords in regard to Vietnam, the United States:
		A)	insisted on free, democratic elections in Vietnam.
		B)	sent in hundreds of thousands of ground troops to protect South Vietnam from communist aggression.
		C)	gave Ho Chi Minh the chance to lead a united country.
		D)	sent a military mission to help train Diem's South Vietnamese forces.


9	In the Hungarian crisis of 1956, President Eisenhower:
		A)	used the U.S. "Brinksmanship" to contain communism.
		B)	provided U.S. assistance in the liberation of an Eastern European nation.
		C)	ordered the CIA to incite a coup against the pro-Soviet government.
		D)	proved unwilling to intervene in the Soviet "sphere of influence."


10	President Kennedy's Alliance for Progress program promised to spend massive amounts of money to:
		A)	shore up U.S. businesses in danger of going bankrupt.
		B)	assist Latin-American nations.
		C)	rebuild urban America.
		D)	protect the non-Communist government in South Vietnam.


11	The Bay of Pigs fiasco:
		A)	led to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
		B)	was a bitter humiliation for President Kennedy.
		C)	brought Fidel Castro to power in Cuba.
		D)	convinced the U.S. that South Vietnamese President Diem had to be overthrown.


12	During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy negotiated primarily with:
		A)	Nikita Khrushchev
		B)	Joseph Stalin.
		C)	Leonid Brezhnev.
		D)	Fidel Castro.

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