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1 | |
Three of the following statements correctly describe conditions in the stock market during the year and a half preceding the Great Crash of 1929. Which is the exception? |
| | A) | There was a widespread speculative fever. |
| | B) | The average price of most stock increased dramatically. |
| | C) | The daily volume of stock traded increased dramatically. |
| | D) | Most brokers required cash payment in full for stock purchases. |
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2 | |
In the several months preceding the Great Crash of 1929, three of the following economic indicators decreased dramatically. Which one increased? |
| | A) | automobile sales |
| | B) | wholesale prices |
| | C) | freight-car loadings |
| | D) | business inventories |
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3 | |
One of the most important causes of the Great Depression was the fact that during the 1920s: |
| | A) | government regulation and trust busting had stifled free enterprise. |
| | B) | there was a fundamental maldistribution of purchasing power. |
| | C) | not enough profits were plowed back into business as new capital investment. |
| | D) | low tariff policies had benefited foreign competitors and seriously damaged domestic industry. |
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4 | |
In much of the 1920s, European nations were able to make their war-debt payments to the United States, and Germany and Austria were able to continue reparation payments by: |
| | A) | inflating their currencies. |
| | B) | draining their gold reserves. |
| | C) | expanding exports to the United States. |
| | D) | getting new loans from the United States. |
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5 | |
The stock market crash of 1929: |
| | A) | caused the Great Depression. |
| | B) | was a result of the Great Depression. |
| | C) | triggered a chain of events that led to the economic crisis. |
| | D) | had no effect on the onset of the Depression. |
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6 | |
At the depth of the Depression in 1932, the unemployment rate in the United States was estimated to have been: |
| | A) | 50 percent. |
| | B) | 75 percent. |
| | C) | 25 percent. |
| | D) | 10 percent. |
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7 | |
The Dust Bowl: |
| | A) | was caused solely by a particularly bad drought. |
| | B) | was largely a result of farming practices on the Great Plains. |
| | C) | caused the dust from the plains to blow as far as Chicago. |
| | D) | only lasted for about a year. |
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8 | |
In the early 1930s, the term "Okies" referred to: |
| | A) | moonshiners trying to make a living in Appalacia. |
| | B) | oil speculators losing money in the Southwest. |
| | C) | swamp dwellers out of the mainstream in the Deep South. |
| | D) | dispossessed farmers fleeing the Dust Bowl. |
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9 | |
Three of the following statements accurately describe the condition of blacks during the Great Depression. Which is the exception? |
| | A) | The migration of blacks to the North ended abruptly. |
| | B) | Blacks suffered a higher unemployment rate than whites. |
| | C) | Discrimination against blacks increased, particularly in competition for jobs. |
| | D) | Local government and private relief benefits for blacks were smaller than for whites. |
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10 | |
In the 1920s, the great majority of Hispanics in California and the American Southwest originally migrated from: |
| | A) | Cuba. |
| | B) | Mexico. |
| | C) | Puerto Rico. |
| | D) | none of these, for Hispanics were specifically excluded by the immigration laws of the early 1920s. |
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11 | |
One effect of the Great Depression on women was to: |
| | A) | Open up new opportunities for women in the professions. |
| | B) | Strengthen the belief that a woman's place was in the home. |
| | C) | Drive most women out of the labor force by the time the economic crisis was over. |
| | D) | Gain increased public support for such feminist organizations as the National Woman's Party |
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12 | |
Three of the following were effects of the Great Depression on the American family. Which is the exception? |
| | A) | The birth rate declined. |
| | B) | The marriage rate declined. |
| | C) | The divorce rate increased. |
| | D) | Middle-class families as well as working-class families suffered great traumatic impact. |
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13 | |
Popular culture during the Depression era, as manifested by radio, movies, and literature, was generally characterized by: |
| | A) | upbeat and romantic messages as a sort of escapism. |
| | B) | appeals to prurient interests in sex and crime. |
| | C) | a return to traditional religious values. |
| | D) | a deep social concern to portray the human consequences of the national economic disaster. |
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14 | |
Three of the following novels manifest an implicit protest against social injustices in then-contemporary American society. Which is the exception? |
| | A) | Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road (1932) |
| | B) | Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind (1936) |
| | C) | John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath (1939) |
| | D) | Richard Wright's Native Son (1940) |
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15 | |
Movie attendance during the Depression: |
| | A) | rose throughout the decade. |
| | B) | fell throughout the decade. |
| | C) | rose initially but then fell as the Depression worsened. |
| | D) | fell initially but then rose as the Depression worsened. |
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16 | |
The Popular Front: |
| | A) | was a radio show about detectives in New York City. |
| | B) | was a broad coalition of "antifascist" groups on the political left. |
| | C) | was one of the most successful programs of the New Deal. |
| | D) | was a name given to the Nazi party by the State Department. |
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17 | |
The Abraham Lincoln brigade was most closely associated with: |
| | A) | Coxey's Army. |
| | B) | the Bonus Army. |
| | C) | the Spanish Civil War. |
| | D) | veterans of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I. |
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18 | |
The tactics pursued by the American Communist Party between 1935 and 1939 were aimed at developing a broad alliance against: |
| | A) | fascism. |
| | B) | Franklin Delano Roosevelt. |
| | C) | racial injustice. |
| | D) | nonpolitical unionism. |
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19 | |
For the eight years immediately before becoming president, Herbert Hoover had been the: |
| | A) | vice president. |
| | B) | secretary of state. |
| | C) | secretary of commerce. |
| | D) | Speaker of the House of Representatives. |
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20 | |
The purpose of the Agricultural Marketing Act, proposed by Hoover even before the Great Crash of 1929, was to: |
| | A) | keep farm prices up. |
| | B) | impose government regulation on the commodities exchange market. |
| | C) | establish quotas for the importation of foreign agricultural products. |
| | D) | promote reciprocal trade agreements with foreign countries for agricultural products. |
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21 | |
Hoover's first efforts to control the Depression focused on: |
| | A) | a recovery program for the banking industry. |
| | B) | voluntary cooperation by business leaders in restoring the public confidence in the economy. |
| | C) | a massive federal relief bill. |
| | D) | all of the above. |
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22 | |
After the effects of the Depression spread to Europe, in an attempt to restore international economic stability, Hoover proposed: |
| | A) | a cancellation of war debts owed to the United States. |
| | B) | a moratorium on war debts, reparations, and private international debts. |
| | C) | that the United States follow Europe's lead in going off the gold standard. |
| | D) | that the United States, by means of massive loans, help the European countries to maintain the gold standard. |
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23 | |
Hoover's measures to deal with the Depression included support for three of the following. Which is the exception? |
| | A) | A large-scale federal program of direct relief to the unemployed. |
| | B) | A system of government home-loan banks to assist mortgage holders. |
| | C) | The Reconstruction Finance Corporation to make loans to businesses. |
| | D) | The Hawley-Smoot Tariff to protect agriculture from foreign competition. |
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24 | |
The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was largely ineffective in promoting recovery from the Depression because: |
| | A) | the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional. |
| | B) | its activities did not gain the support of President Hoover. |
| | C) | its programs benefited primarily the small banks and family corporations. |
| | D) | it was underfunded and overcautious in the use of the funds it did have. |
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25 | |
When it was first organized, how did the Farmers' Holiday Association seek to gain higher prices for farm products? |
| | A) | by lobbying in Washington |
| | B) | by withholding crops from the market |
| | C) | by running its own candidates for state legislatures |
| | D) | by establishing its own cooperative marketing facilities |
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