Eisenhower Era

Which of the following factors was most likely responsible for the change in Chicago’s population from 1950 to 1990 ?

• Migration to the suburbs and surrounding regions

• Federal policies discouraging immigration

• Decreasing birth rates among city dwellers

• Continued racial discrimination in urban public housing

A significant demographic development in the two decades following the Second World War was a

• decline in marriage and birth rates

• rapid growth of suburbs

• movement from urban to rural communities

• rapid increase in the average age of Americans

In the mid-1950s, President Eisenhower’s argument for federal funding of highway construction emphasized

• economic stimulus

• national defense

• beautification

• defeating the domestic communist threat

“[After the Second World War, Americans] wanted...a secure country. Security would enable them to take advantage of the fruits of prosperity and peace.... And so they adhered to an overarching principle that would guide them in their personal and political lives: containment.... Domestic containment was bolstered by a powerful political culture that rewarded its adherents and marginalized its detractors.... [C]ontainment aptly describes the way in which public policy, personal behavior, and even political values were focused on the home.... Vast numbers of American women and men during the early years of the cold war...got married, moved to the suburbs, and had babies.... [Few] were willing to give up the rewards of conforming for the risks of resisting the domestic path.”

Elaine Tyler May, historian, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, 1988

The rise of what the excerpt describes as “domestic containment” most directly contributed to which of the following characteristics of United States society during the period?

• White Southern resistance to school integration

• Greater cultural homogeneity

• Evangelical Protestant churches’ increased political engagement

• The popularity of liberal politics

“Economic growth was indeed the most decisive force in the shaping of attitudes and expectations in the postwar era. The prosperity of the period broadened gradually in the late 1940s, accelerated in the 1950s, and soared to unimaginable heights in the 1960s. By then it was a boom that astonished observers. One economist, writing about the twenty-five years following World War II, put it simply by saying that this was a ‘quarter century of sustained growth at the highest rates in recorded history.’ Former Prime Minister Edward Heath of Great Britain agreed, observing that the United States at the time was enjoying ‘the greatest prosperity the world has ever known.’”

— James T. Patterson, historian, Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945–1974, published in 1996

Which of the following factors most directly contributed to the economic trend that Patterson describes?

• A surge in the national birthrate

• The expansion of voting rights for African Americans

• Challenges to conformity raised by intellectuals and artists

• The gradual emergence of détente with the Soviet Union

“Economic growth was indeed the most decisive force in the shaping of attitudes and expectations in the postwar era. The prosperity of the period broadened gradually in the late 1940s, accelerated in the 1950s, and soared to unimaginable heights in the 1960s. By then it was a boom that astonished observers. One economist, writing about the twenty-five years following World War II, put it simply by saying that this was a ‘quarter century of sustained growth at the highest rates in recorded history.’ Former Prime Minister Edward Heath of Great Britain agreed, observing that the United States at the time was enjoying ‘the greatest prosperity the world has ever known.’”

— James T. Patterson, historian, Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945–1974, published in 1996

The increased culture of consumerism during the 1950s was most similar to developments in which of the following earlier periods?

• The 1840s

• The 1860s

• The 1910s

• The 1920s

The 1950s picture above shows what some social critics believed to be

• the cause of decreased agricultural production

• tangible evidence of the strength of the nation’s largest cities

• a representation of the conformity of postwar culture

• the end of social and economic differentiation in housing

“Question: When is a dollar more than a dollar?

“Answer: When it’s used in Levittown, the most perfectly planned community in America!

“Anybody can build a house and charge a lot of money for it. But it’s news—big news—when you can find a house . . . to buy for only $8,990. It’s a beauty with 3 and a half delightful rooms.

“PLUS professionally landscaped grounds. . . .

“PLUS a complete bath with a tub, toilet, shower, basin . . .

“PLUS . . . all-steel kitchen cabinets, a stainless steel sink . . .

“PLUS free use of Levittown’s championship swimming pools,

“PLUS free use of all playgrounds, baseball fields, play areas. . . .

“So if you don’t want to be disappointed, come out as soon as you can—today if possible.”

Advertisement for Levitt and Sons housing development in Levittown, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Inquirer, 1951

The ideas expressed in the advertisement overlook which of the following contexts that allowed for the expansion of new suburban housing developments in the 1950s?

• The sharp increase in birth rates after the war

• The reliance on new roads and highways

• The growth of income for middle-class families

• The appeal of modern amenities to consumers

Which of the following statements about the emergence of rock and roll music as a part of 1950’s popular culture in the United States is true?

• It relied heavily on Black musical traditions.

• It adopted many of the big band tunes of the 1940’s.

• It was a spin-off from British popular music of the time.

• It was the first popular music broadcast nationally on radio.

Under the Articles of Confederation the United States central government had no power to

• levy taxes

• make treaties

• request troops from states

• amend the Articles