Chapter 28: America in the Fifties

In "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas" (1954), the Supreme Court ruled that:

"Separate but equal" in public education was unconstitutional.

In the 1950s, all of the following were major television shows except:

"The Simpsons"

According to popular magazines, such as "Life," an ideal woman of the mid-1950s was:

A white suburban housewife.

Which of the following statements accurately characterizes the United States in the 1950s?

Although white, middle-class Americans enjoyed unprecedented economic growth, the idealized image of America at the time was much more complicated in terms of race and class, and many feared what the new age of nuclear terror might bring.

Which of the following was an effect of the availability of air conditioning during the postwar years?

An increase in the population of Sun Belt states.

Senator Joseph R. McCarthy went too far when he:

Charged that the United States army was "soft" on communism.

The First Indochina War (1946-1954) ended when the French suffered a major defeat at:

Dien Bien Phu

The Civil Rights Act of 1957:

Established the Civil Rights Commission and a Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department.

In 1959, _________________________________ assumed control of the Communist government in Cuba.

Fidel Castro

With the end of the Second World War, female workers who had taken on traditionally male jobs during the war were encouraged to:

Give up their jobs to returning veterans.

What stance did President Dwight D. Eisenhower take in terms of New Deal programs?

He retained most New Deal programs and even expanded some of them, while also working to rid the government of the "excesses" that had resulted from many years of Democratic control.

Which of the following factors did not fuel the United States' growing economic strength in the post-World War II period?

Increasing trade rates with Europe and Japan.

After the Second World War, what was the phenomenon of "white flight" in the 1950s?

It was the movement of many whites to the suburbs in response to the migration of African Americans from the rural South to Northern cities in search of better opportunities after the war.

Many literary critics of American life in the 1950s, including John Keats, John Cheever, and J. D. Salinger, believed that American society suffered from:

Moral complacency and bland conformity.

In the 1950s, which of the following factors did not spur suburban growth and an increase in planned suburban communities?

New construction of mass public transportation networks.

The music Alan Freed labeled "rock-and-roll" was actually:

Rhythm and blues.

What was the name of the African American woman who refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus on December 1, 1955? Make sure to answer the question using a full, complete sentence.

Rosa Parks

During the 1952 presidential campaign, Dwight D. Eisenhower promised to:

Secure "an early and honorable peace" in Korea.

The Suez War of 1956 occurred at the same time as the:

Soviet repression of an uprising in Hungary.

Which of the following statements is not accurate about the GI Bill of Rights?

The bill came with an exorbitant price tag that led to the eventual collapse of the program.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address (1961) dealt with:

The dangers of a military-industrial complex.

The Eisenhower administration's strategy of "massive retaliation" refers to:

The strategy of using the threat of nuclear war to prevent Communist aggression and, thus, keeping the financial cost manageable.

Which of the following statements accurately describes the Beats?

This controversial group of artists were self-absorbed and reckless, and often rejected traditional responsibilities of middle-class life.