The Middle Class

What was one result of the GI Bill?

• The armed forces became desegregated, which helped integrate society.

• World War II veterans received pensions enabling them to buy their own homes.

• The middle class expanded as working class men were able to go to college.

• Women could no longer work outside the home.

What characteristic marked American mainstream society in the 1950s?

• frugality

• overspending

• individualism

• conformity

Where did rock and roll originate?

• in Cleveland, where Alan Freed was a DJ

• in the rhythm and blues music of black musicians such as Chuck Berry

• in the jazz-inflected writings of the Beats Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac

• in Elvis Presley's blend of blues, country, and gospel

What technology helped propagate consumerism and uniformity of American life in the 1950s?

• AM radio

• computers

• television

• the transistor

Which was an important effect of the Soviet Union's Sputnik launch?

• The United States invested in science education and created NASA.

• It initiated a race to the moon between the United States and the Soviet Union.

• The United States developed the first hydrogen bomb.

• President Eisenhower ordered NASA to build a rocket that could also hold a dog.

Who developed a critique of women's role as a "domestic goddess" in The Feminine Mystique?

• Alan Reisman

• J.D. Salinger

• J.D. Salinger

• Betty Friedan

How would you characterize teenage culture in the 1950s?

• conformist

• placid

• rebellious

• questioning

What was the importance of the Federal Highway Act of 1956?

• It established tolls on highways, which funded new home construction.

• It helped boost the economy and encouraged the growth of suburbia.

• It linked New York and San Francisco by one major highway.

• It helped increase union membership in the construction industry.

Who developed the polio vaccine?

• Alan Freed

• David Reisman

• Betty Friedan

• Jonas Salk

Which book describes 1950s society as one in which the individual's main concern is to be accepted by others?

• On the Road

• On the Road

• The Feminine Mystique

• The Feminine Mystique