Louisiana State University - HIST 2055

Chapter 37 Triumph and Tragedy: America at the Turn of the Century

TRUE/FALSE

1)During the 1970s and 1980s, women entered the workforce in increasingly larger numbers.

2. Most of the nation’s population growth in the 1980s occurred in the Northeast.

3. George W. Bush won the popular vote in the 2000 presidential election.

4. By 2000, for the first time in the nation’s history the majority of immigrants came not from Europe but from other parts of the world.

5. During the 1992 presidential campaign, critics called Bill Clinton Slick Willie for his inconsistent pos- ition on controversial issues.

6. Al Gore was elected vice president in 1992.

7. President Clinton, trying to persuade Congress to reject a free-trade bill, said that if the bill passed, the country would hear a “giant sucking sound” of American jobs being drawn to Mexico.

8. One legislative victory for President Clinton came when Congress approved NAFTA.

9. Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives.

10. In Afghanistan in 2001, the United States installed a democratic government led by the Taliban.

11. President George W. Bush gave control of Iraq’s oil supply as one major reason for the 2003 invasion.

12. Bush clinched reelection in 2004 by carrying the electoral votes of Ohio.

13. Upon the death of William Rehnquist, President Bush appointed John G. Roberts chief justice of the Supreme Court.

14. Between 1997 and 2006, home prices rose very impressively in sunbelt states.

15. In 2008, Barack Obama ran an impressive Internet-based campaign.

16. In the 2008 campaign, John McCain promised to withdraw from Iraq faster than Obama.

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. The United States entered the 1990s:
   1. threatened by rival alliances in Europe and Asia
   2. slipping behind much of the world in technological development
   3. with limited influence beyond its borders
   4. as the world’s only remaining superpower
   5. still preoccupied by the cold war

2. During the last quarter of the twentieth century, all the following were increasing EXCEPT the number of:
   1. single mothers
   2. women doctors
   3. New York members of the House of Representatives
   4. Latinos
   5. residents of California

3. The greatest number of violent crime victims were:
   1. women
   2. immigrants
   3. business owners
   4. poor whites
   5. young black men

4. By 2000, the largest number of legal immigrants to the United States came from:
   1. Canada

1. 2. Mexico
   3. India
   4. Korea
   5. Nigeria

5. The development of the personal computer was made possible by the 1971 invention of the:
   1. transistor
   2. microchip
   3. vacuum tube
   4. fiber-optic line
   5. laser beam

6. Bill Gates’s great contribution was to:
   1. invent the Internet
   2. found Apple Computers
   3. lead the Department of Computer Technology at Harvard
   4. develop personal computer software
   5. establish Amazon.com

7. The Christian Coalition, as led by Pat Robertson:
   1. unlike the Moral Majority, tended to favor Democrats
   2. founded a national chain of mega-churches
   3. became a major political force in the 1990s
   4. advocated government anti-poverty programs
   5. was dominated by mainline Protestants such as Methodists and Presbyterians

8. As George H. W. Bush prepared for the 1992 election, his greatest weakness became:
   1. a major downturn in the economy
   2. the end of the cold war
   3. his lack of a compelling vision for the future
   4. his support for the religious right agenda
   5. the continuing threat of Saddam Hussein to American security

9. In his bid for renomination by the Republicans, Bush faced spirited conservative opposition from:
   1. Pat Buchanan
   2. Bob Dole
   3. Newt Gingrich
   4. Pat Robertson
   5. Jack Kemp

10. Bill Clinton’s emerging strategy in the 1992 election was to:
    1. attack Bush’s character and fitness for office
    2. claim he would be much tougher on the foreign adversaries of the United States
    3. take more centrist positions to win middle-class white votes
    4. move leftward to win huge majorities among women and minorities
    5. stick to his principles no matter what the political cost might be

11. The major purpose of the passage of NAFTA was to:
    1. give Clinton an easy political victory
    2. protect American industries such as steel and textiles
    3. reward Clinton’s supporters in organized labor
    4. promote freer trade with Canada and Mexico
    5. send American jobs overseas

12. All of the following were arguments in favor of health-care reform EXCEPT:
    1. the need to contain soaring medical costs
    2. the huge number of people without health insurance
    3. the costs to businesses of insuring their employees
    4. successful health-insurance programs in other advanced countries
    5. the support of drug companies and the insurance industry for reform

13. Clinton’s plan for universal medical coverage:
    1. was partially approved
    2. was shot down in Congress
    3. increased his already impressive approval ratings
    4. was a minor part of his legislative agenda
    5. would make doctors federal employees

14. The politician who led the Republican takeover of Congress in the mid-1990s was:
    1. Kenneth Starr
    2. Newt Gingrich
    3. Dick Cheney
    4. Pat Buchanan
    5. Alan Greenspan

15. The Republican Contract with America:
    1. aimed to reduce big government and limit the welfare state
    2. was enacted by the new Republican Congress
    3. gave the Republicans a winning platform in the 1996 election
    4. revived the moderate Republicanism of the Eisenhower era
    5. stated general principles, but lacked specific proposals

16. The welfare-reform measure passed by Congress in 1996:
    1. was opposed by the Republicans
    2. was applauded by liberals
    3. limited the amount of time one could receive welfare payments
    4. quickly began to lower poverty rates
    5. significantly increased federal funding for welfare

17. All of the following were features of the economy during the Clinton years EXCEPT:
    1. declining worker productivity
    2. surging stock prices
    3. low unemployment
    4. federal budget surpluses
    5. a proliferation of dot-com enterprises

18. The conservative mood of the mid-1990s especially manifested itself in a number of court rulings that limited:
    1. capital punishment
    2. government spending
    3. church-state separation
    4. affirmative action
    5. sexual freedom

19. What nearly cost Clinton his presidency was:
    1. his long history of improper sexual behavior
    2. lying about his relationship with a White House intern
    3. using public office to illegally enrich himself
    4. improper hiring and firing practices in the White House
    5. trying to pressure members of a grand jury

20. As a result of the Starr Report:
    1. Clinton was completely exonerated
    2. the Senate convicted Clinton of obstruction of justice
    3. Clinton had no influence for the rest of his presidency
    4. Clinton was impeached
    5. the personal lives of presidents were declared to be off-limits

21. In 1993, Clinton was able to preside over the signing of a peace agreement between the leaders of Is- rael and:
    1. Egypt

22. The fundamental source of instability in the Balkans in the 1990s was:
    1. the poverty of the region
    2. conflict over supplies of petroleum
    3. the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991
    4. German and Italian ambitions in the area
    5. conflict between Orthodox Christians and Catholics

23. In 1999, NATO air strikes helped stop “ethnic cleansing” in:
    1. Bosnia
    2. Somalia
    3. Haiti
    4. Kosovo
    5. Northern Ireland

24. The dramatic growth in American exports in the last years of the twentieth century was mainly indicat- ive of:
    1. American military power
    2. globalization
    3. government regulation of trade
    4. the breakup of the Soviet Union
    5. the falling cost of transportation

25. During the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush:
    1. emphasized how different a president he would be from his father
    2. promised he would be known as the environmental president
    3. stated his opposition to “nation building” overseas
    4. promised to attack and “take out” Saddam Hussein
    5. accused Al Gore of being a tool of the oil industry

26. Ultimately, the outcome of the 2000 election depended upon the final result in:
    1. Iowa
    2. Texas
    3. California
    4. Ohio
    5. Florida

27. Bush’s major legislative victory in 2001 came with Congress’s passage of:

1. 1. new environmental regulations
   2. health-care reform
   3. term limits
   4. a tax cut
   5. banking industry regulation

28. The No Child Left Behind legislation passed by Congress required:
    1. schools and districts to meet certain learning standards
    2. teacher salaries to be dramatically increased
    3. less standardized testing
    4. schools to focus on teaching moral values
    5. more parental involvement in the education of their children

29. By the 1990s, the most dangerous enemies of the United States became:
    1. the world’s remaining Communist countries such as Cuba
    2. left-of-center governments in Latin America
    3. neo-Nazis in Germany and eastern Europe
    4. shadowy terrorist organizations
    5. computer hackers and other high-tech saboteurs

30. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, did all of the following EXCEPT:
    1. paralyze the United States in fear and disunity
    2. kill about 3,000 people
    3. include the Pentagon as a target
    4. destroy the twin towers of the World Trade Center
    5. turn the lower end of Manhattan into a hellish scene

31. Osama bin Laden was all of the following EXCEPT:
    1. a wealthy Saudi
    2. leader of al Qaeda
    3. founder and leader of the Taliban
    4. a Muslim extremist
    5. a fanatical enemy of the United States

32. Within a few weeks of the September 11 attacks, U.S. forces led an attack on:
    1. Pakistan
    2. Iraq
    3. Saudi Arabia
    4. Afghanistan
    5. Iran

33. Most Americans personally encountered the war on terror at home by:
    1. being recruited into the military
    2. having the government tap their phones
    3. being exposed to biological warfare
    4. being limited in their choice of reading material
    5. enduring more extensive airport security and screening

34. The Bush Doctrine emphasized:
    1. close coordination of U.S. foreign policy with the United Nations
    2. preemptive military action against terrorists and terrorist regimes
    3. a determination to contain terrorism by keeping it where it already existed
    4. strengthening America’s nuclear deterrent
    5. using terrorism against terrorists

35. Bush’s stated rationale for attacking Iraq in 2003 was:
    1. that country’s presumed threat to the United States
    2. his personal hatred of Saddam Hussein
    3. the need to acquire Iraq’s oil
    4. the desire to make Iraq a democracy
    5. revenge for Iraq’s involvement in the September 11 attacks

36. In the war against Iraq and Saddam Hussein, the United States was most closely supported by:
    1. Germany
    2. France
    3. Great Britain
    4. Russia
    5. Japan

37. The fight with Saddam Hussein’s army:
    1. lasted just a few weeks
    2. resulted in thousands of American deaths
    3. was primarily a series of tank battles
    4. was won strictly through air assaults
    5. required the use of some small nuclear weapons

38. In the aftermath of Iraq’s defeat and occupation:
    1. the country soon became peaceful and stable
    2. Saddam Hussein escaped to Syria
    3. no weapons of mass destruction were found
    4. U.S. troop levels were reduced to about 10,000
    5. terrorists fled that country for other locations

39. Bush won a second term in 2004 by defeating:
    1. Al Gore
    2. John Edwards
    3. Howard Dean
    4. John Kerry
    5. Hillary Clinton

40. Bush’s Supreme Court nominees, John Roberts and Samuel Alito, were:
    1. clearly unqualified
    2. safely conservative
    3. soon voting with the Court’s liberals
    4. rejected by the Senate
    5. openly supportive of abortion rights

41. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina:
    1. devastated the Texas Gulf coast
    2. caused the most deaths of any natural disaster in American history
    3. destroyed much of New Orleans
    4. brought an efficient response from government at all levels
    5. again allowed Bush to show his leadership skills during crisis

42. One major factor that increased Katrina’s destructiveness was:
    1. the fact that it made landfall on a weekend
    2. lack of warning that a major storm was coming
    3. the failure of antiquated roads and bridges
    4. coastal development that had destroyed wetlands
    5. cooler-than-normal Gulf waters that August

43. After Katrina, Bush’s presidency was marked by:
    1. renewed confidence and vigor
    2. growing public disapproval
    3. a series of legislative victories
    4. continued Republican unity
    5. serious attempts of impeachment

44. The Iraq Study Group co-chaired by James Baker and Lee Hamilton concluded that:
    1. U.S. combat troops should be withdrawn from Iraq as Iraqi troops were prepared to re- place them
    2. President Bush was wrong in deciding to invade Iraq in the first place
    3. Iraq should be divided into semi-independent states governed by Kurds, Sunnis, and

Shiites

1. 4. the United States should immediately cut its losses by leaving Iraq
   5. as soon as Iraq was stable, the United States should invade Iran and install a democratic government there

45. As a result of the “surge” ordered in Iraq by President Bush:
    1. Americans once more began to support our involvement there
    2. the Iraqi government became a model of democracy
    3. attacks on American troops stopped
    4. the war in Iraq dramatically decreased in its monetary cost
    5. levels of violence in Iraq declined

46. The housing bubble of the early 2000s was inspired by all of the following EXCEPT:
    1. subprime loans
    2. rising home prices
    3. people purchasing homes with large down payments
    4. speculative behavior
    5. recovery from the 2001 recession

47. The housing industry crash in 2007:
    1. affected only some reckless speculators
    2. proved the virtue of free-market capitalism
    3. sent bank profits soaring, given all the homes they were able to acquire through foreclos- ure
    4. froze credit and provoked a recession
    5. had long been predicted by the Bush administration

48. The most evident sign of the economic crisis by October 2008 was:
    1. plummeting stock prices
    2. fuel shortages and long lines at gas stations
    3. a drying up of illegal immigration
    4. a large number of bankers being sent to prison
    5. growing public support for socialism

49. President Bush’s response to the financial crisis was to:
    1. state publicly that nothing could be done until the markets corrected themselves
    2. support a federal bailout of the banking industry
    3. put the unemployed to work building roads and bridges
    4. say he had lost faith in the free-enterprise system
    5. blame it on Americans being greedy and not saving

50. As the Bush presidency drew to a close, a growing number of Americans viewed it:
    1. with warm feelings and nostalgia
    2. in a fair and balanced manner

1. 3. as one underestimated for its achievements
   4. as better than that of his father
   5. as one of the worst in American history

51. As the 2008 presidential campaign started, the early front-runner for the Democratic nomination was:
    1. Barack Obama
    2. Joe Biden
    3. Al Gore
    4. John Edwards
    5. Hillary Clinton

52. All of the following are true of Barack Obama EXCEPT that he:
    1. was a former community organizer
    2. is biracial
    3. was born in Kenya
    4. went to Harvard Law School
    5. was a U.S. senator from Illinois

53. Republican candidate John McCain:
    1. was a U.S. senator from Colorado
    2. was tortured in North Vietnam as a POW
    3. was a favorite of Republican conservatives
    4. promised to continue President Bush’s economic policies
    5. found his age to be a great advantage when compared with that of Obama

54. The issue that dominated the last couple of months of the 2008 campaign was:
    1. health care
    2. Iraq
    3. the war on terror
    4. the economic crisis
    5. illegal immigration

55. Obama won large majorities among all the following groups of voters EXCEPT:
    1. those over sixty-five
    2. Hispanics
    3. blacks
    4. first-time voters
    5. those under thirty

56. In moving quickly on key issues and campaign pledges just after his inauguration, President Obama: