Chapter 24 flashcards + quiz

Although Americans in the 1950s grew more intensely religious, fewer than ever were affiliated with religious institutions.

False

In the post-World War II United States, Americans' daily lives were transformed by the widespread use of televisions, air conditioning, dishwashers, long-distance telephone calls, and jet travel.

True

Which of the following was a feature of suburban married life during the 1950s?

a decline in divorce rates

Brown v. Board of Education

1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down racial segregation in public education and declared "separate but equal" unconstitutional.

National Defense Education Act

1958 law passed in reaction to America's perceived inferiority in the space race; encouraged education in science and modern languages through student loans, university research grants, and aid to public schools.

When did the "golden age" of capitalism following World War II begin to decline?

1973

The tax rate for the richest Americans never fell below what percent during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s?

70 percent

Geneva Accords

A 1954 document that had promised elections to unify Vietnam and established the Seventeenth Parallel demarcation line which divided North and South Vietnam.

Southern Manifesto

A document written in 1956 that repudiated the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education and supported the campaign against racial integration in public places.

Urban Renewal

A series of policies supported by all levels of government that allowed local governments and housing authorities to demolish so-called blighted areas in urban centers to replace them with more valuable real estate usually reserved for white people.

The Beats

A term coined by Jack Kerouac for a small group of poets and writers who railed against 1950s mainstream culture.

Social Contract

Agreement hammered out between labor and management in leading industries; called a new "social contract." Unions signed long-term agreements that left decisions regarding capital investment, plant location, and output in management's hands, and they agreed to try to prevent unauthorized "wildcat" strikes.

What was the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case decided on May 17, 1954, in which the "Warren Court" unanimously asserted that segregation in public education violated the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment?

Brown v. Board of Education

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

Civil rights organization founded in 1957 by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders.

Dwight Eisenhower entered the presidency determined to dismantle the New Deal.

False

Sputnik

First artificial satellite to orbit the earth; launched October 4, 1957, by the Soviet Union.

Levittown

Low-cost, mass-produced developments of suburban tract housing built by William Levitt after World War II on Long Island and elsewhere.

Baby Boom

Markedly higher birthrate in the years following World War II; led to the biggest demographic "bubble" in American history.

In the aftermath of Rosa Parks's arrest for refusing to give her bus seat to a white rider, a yearlong bus boycott took place in what city?

Montgomery, Alabama

The so-called kitchen debate between Nixon and Khrushchev occurred in

Moscow, Russia.

Interstate Highway System

National network of interstate superhighways; its construction began in the late 1950s for the purpose of commerce and defense. The interstate highways would enable the rapid movement of military convoys and the evacuation of cities after a nuclear attack.

League of United Latin American Citizens

Often called LULAC, an organization that challenged restrictive housing, employment discrimination, and other inequalities faced by Latino Americans.

"In God We Trust"

Phrase placed on all new U.S. currency as of 1954.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Sparked by Rosa Parks's arrest on December 1, 1955, for refusing to surrender her seat to a white passenger, a successful yearlong boycott protesting segregation on city buses; led by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

Massive Retaliation

Strategy that used the threat of nuclear warfare as a means of combating the global spread of communism.

Missile Gap

The claim, raised by John F. Kennedy during his campaign for president in 1960, that the Soviet Union had developed a technological and military advantage during Eisenhower's presidency.

Military-Industrial Complex

The concept of "an immense military establishment" combined with a "permanent arms industry," which President Eisenhower warned against in his 1961 Farewell Address.

Although it was a nationwide phenomenon, 1950s suburbanization gathered its greatest momentum in the West.

True

Richard Nixon's rise in politics was fueled in part by his ability to make free market conservatism appealing to ordinary people.

True

Which was part of the new "social contract" between organized labor and management in leading industries during the 1950s?

Unions agreed to leave decisions regarding capital investment and plant location in management's hands.

The baby boom lasted until

mid 1960s

While most Americans saw the alliance of the Defense Department and private industry as a source of jobs and national security, President Eisenhower felt it was a threat to democracy, calling this power the

military-industrial complex.

In 1957, the Eisenhower Doctrine

pledged the United States to defend Middle Eastern governments threatened by communism.

The principal organization in the Southwest--the equivalent of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)--that challenged restrictions on housing and employment, as well as the segregation of Latino students, was named

the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

The National Defense Education Act, which for the first time offered direct federal funding for higher education, was passed into law by Congress in 1957 in response to

the Soviet launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik.

Milton Friedman's book Capitalism and Freedom outlined which of the following ideas regarding individual liberty?

the repeal of the Social Security system

Which of the following influenced Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1950s leadership of the civil rights movement?

the writings of civil disobedience of Thoreau and Gandhi

Under this kind of program, cities demolished poor neighborhoods in city centers that occupied potentially valuable real estate; in their place were constructed retail centers and all-white middle-income housing complexes.

urban renewal