APUSH 18

Which of the following describes the Gilded Age? A) The peak of the social reform era in the nineteenth century B) An era marked by personal greed and a corrupt partnership between business and politics C) The period when the success of mining operations significantly lowered the price of gold D) The time in which poverty was nonexistent and wealth was shared by all

B

What was evident in the call for a New South in the decades after Reconstruction? A) The desire among some southerners to shift to an industrial economy B) A resurgence of the Republican party in the region C) The idea that the South could rebuild its war-torn economy through agriculture alone D) The end of efforts in the region to forge political alliances across the color line

A

According to Ida B. Wells, lynching was a problem rooted in A) economics and the shifting social structure of the South. B) attacks on white women by black men in the South and the North. C) attacks on black women by white men who employed them as domestics. D) the concept of separate spheres, particularly in the South.

A

How effective was the Interstate Commerce Commission, the nation's first federal regulatory agency? A) It was so weak in its early years that it served as little more than a historical precedent. B) It had unprecedented power to clean up and regulate the railroads. C) It was authorized to set interest rates for small-business loans. D) It was so powerful initially that the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.

A

The economic theory of laissez-faire gained political clout in the late nineteenth century because A) the Supreme Court increasingly was reinterpreting the Constitution to protect business. B) businessmen bribed congressmen to stay out of their affairs in exchange for stock trading tips. C) the Supreme Court increasingly was reinterpreting the Constitution to the detriment of big business. D) Republicans and Democrats in Congress could not agree on its tenets.

A

What was the main purpose of crude oil in the United States before the advent of the automobile? A) Lubrication and lighting in the form of kerosene B) Use as an additive to make paint adhere better to plaster surfaces C) Use as a cleaning fluid for printing and typesetting equipment D) Use as a food additive to retard spoilage

A

Which of the following developments was a key factor in the rise of the Gilded Age? A) The growth of industrialism in the United States B) Urban political reform C) The separation of business and politics D) Massive government programs to help the poor

A

Which of the following factors boosted nineteenth-century railroad construction in America significantly? A) Monetary aid and land grants from federal and state governments B) Federal restrictions of rates and railroad company competition C) The transportation demands of homesteaders D) The deterioration of the National Road

A

According to American businessmen who subscribed to the economic theory of laissezfaire, what was the role of the government in the economy? A) It should always intervene in the nation's economic affairs. B) It should not interfere in economic affairs except to protect private property. C) It had the responsibility to foster competition in industry. D) Only state governments should intervene in the nation's social and economic affairs.

B

Carnegie Steel achieved the tremendous productivity that Andrew Carnegie insisted on A) through the adoption of personnel policies that included profit-sharing and paid vacations. B) by forcing employees to work long hours under extremely dangerous conditions for low pay. C) by scheduling shifts at night, when it was cooler, which helped workers endure the high temperatures in the plant. D) by operating the plant for only part of the year, which made the equipment last longer.

B

How was it possible that Jay Gould was described as both the world's richest man and the most hated man in America when he died in 1892? A) Most Americans were envious of his wealth and his accomplishments. B) He was a symbol of all the most troubling aspects of big business in America. C) His wealth had been accumulated through criminal activity. D) The distribution of wealth in the United States had actually become more equitable during the 1890s.

B

Prominent business leader of the late nineteenth century J. P. Morgan believed that A) he was making American business more democratic and competitive. B) consolidation and central control were preferable to competition. C) he should make a huge amount of money and then give it all away before he died. D) his Christian faith led to his fabulous success in business and that he deserved that wealth.

B

To what did the term solid South refer in the decades after Reconstruction? A) The states of the old Confederacy, which voted Republican in every election for the next seventy years B) The states of the old Confederacy, which voted Democratic in every election for the next seventy years C) Four southern states that voted as a bloc over the next decade D) The states of the old Confederacy, which continued to lobby for the reinstitution of slavery

B

Where had electricity been put to use in the United States by the late nineteenth century? A) Mostly in rural areas B) Mostly in urban areas C) Only in factories D) Only in government offices

B

Which of the following was true of Standard Oil in the 1890s? A) It was not as strong as it had been in the 1880s. B) It controlled more than 90 percent of the oil business. C) It had cut its workforce to 50,000 people. D) It was broken up into a number of smaller companies by the federal government

B

How did Alexander Graham Bell's telephone revolutionize both communications and business in America? A) He had an instant monopoly on the communications market when he combined telephone and telegraph services in AT&T. B) He installed telephones in every office building in New York to facilitate communications between business and the stock exchange. C) He used a complicated organizational structure in his new company that allowed both local and cross-country communication. D) He sold the rights to his invention to John D. Rockefeller, who put it into national use.

C

How did American women respond to the denial of their right to vote in the late nineteenth century? A) They turned inward and refused to engage in the political process. B) They conceded that politics was a man's game and confined themselves to domestic concerns. C) They participated in the political process though the antilynching, suffrage, and temperance movements. D) They decided to take up a major role in the behind-the-scenes work of presidential politics.

C

Morgan acquired the core of what would be the largest corporation in the world when he purchased A) oil interests formerly controlled by John D. Rockefeller. B) railroads formerly controlled by Collis P. Huntington. C) steel interests formerly controlled by Andrew Carnegie. D) meatpacking interests formerly controlled by the Armour and Swift companies.

C

The tariff posed a threat to America's prosperity in the 1880s because A) it was too low to be effective. B) a number of foreign nations refused to export their goods to the United States. C) it created a surplus that was not used to produce goods and services. D) it exempted manufactured goods such as textiles.

C

What idea was promoted by the theory of social Darwinism in the late nineteenth century? A) Certain inequities should be ameliorated by government intervention. B) Charles Darwin actually was writing about people when he authored On the Origin of Species. C) Progress is the result of competition where the strong survived and the weak died out. D) Competition led rich Americans to have an unfair advantage over the poor.

C

Which of the following big businesses came to dominate American life in the second half of the nineteenth century? A) Steel manufacturing B) Oil refining C) Railroading D) Meatpacking

C

Which relatively new building material both improved railroading in the late nineteenth century and depended on it? A) Iron extracted from steel B) Aluminum produced by a process pioneered in France C) Steel produced through the Bessemer process D) Salt-treated railroad ties, which provided a substantial base for train tracks.

C

Why did Rockefeller ultimately reorganize Standard Oil as a holding company in the late nineteenth century? A) To control competition by purchasing the production facilities of competitors and shutting them down B) To purchase and hold the assets of competitors so that those competitors had no capital or collateral to use for expansion C) To legally combine competing companies under a central administration D) To minimize competition by investing heavily in both the production and the distribution of products

C

In her History of the Standard Oil Company published in McClure's Magazine, Ida M. Tarbell characterized John D. Rockefeller as A) a benevolent businessman whose company had provided cheap kerosene to millions. B) an inept businessman whose success rested on a host of overworked and underpaid managers. C) a success and a model for others hoping to prosper in business. D) a man who had used illegal methods to take over the oil industry.

D

What message did Andrew Carnegie promote in his gospel of wealth? A) Poverty is more than likely caused by moral weakness. B) Successful businessmen should be respected by the society at large. C) His own success was more due to luck than hard work. D) Millionaires should be trustees and agents for the poor.

D

What was the outcome of the notion that black men were a threat to white women in the South in the late nineteenth century? A) The desertion of southern whites from the Democratic party B) The decreased participation of white women in politics C) The solidification of cross-racial political alliances D) An increasing number of lynchings across the South

D

What was the purpose of vertical integration, which was pioneered by Andrew Carnegie in the late nineteenth century? A) It restructured the administrative hierarchy and, in the process, revolutionized managerial productivity. B) It focused on the systemic promotion of immigrants and African Americans who were working for Carnegie Steel. C) It concentrated on one aspect of production to the exclusion of all others. D) It placed all aspects of the business, from mining raw materials to marketing and transporting finished products, under the control of the chief operating officer.

D

Why did John D. Rockefeller first organize Standard Oil as a trust? A) To offer legal protections to oil refineries B) To divide the oil market among the top five competitors in the business C) To purchase shares of stock in competing companies D) To control the key elements of production and corner the market for oil

D