Quiz for Thinking Like a Historian:
America Picks Up the Telephone

Question

1. When considered together, these six sources might lead a historian to which of the following conclusions?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is b. A historian examining all six of these sources—and especially sources 2, 4, and 5—would come to the conclusion that working- and middle-class Americans welcomed the telephone initially, but that elites were slower to accept that it could be used for respectable purposes and integrated into their daily lives.
Incorrect. The answer is b. A historian examining all six of these sources—and especially sources 2, 4, and 5—would come to the conclusion that working- and middle-class Americans welcomed the telephone initially, but that elites were slower to accept that it could be used for respectable purposes and integrated into their daily lives.

Question

2. Taken together, sources 1, 3, and 6 suggest which of the following conclusions?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is c. These three sources suggest that the telephone contributed to the breakdown of the traditional social boundaries between men and women that occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Incorrect. The answer is c. These three sources suggest that the telephone contributed to the breakdown of the traditional social boundaries between men and women that occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Question

3. Source 2 suggests that women serving as telephone operators needed to cultivate which of the following qualities?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is a. The document reveals that telephone operators were required to do their jobs quickly, accurately, and with unfailing courtesy. Like workers in many other fields, operators were supposed to function like cogs in a machine driving the growth of the new American industrial culture.
Incorrect. The answer is a. The document reveals that telephone operators were required to do their jobs quickly, accurately, and with unfailing courtesy. Like workers in many other fields, operators were supposed to function like cogs in a machine driving the growth of the new American industrial culture.

Question

4. Sources 1, 5, and 6 suggest that women’s adoption of the telephone had the most significant impact on which of the following elements of their traditional role?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is d. Sources 1, 5, and 6 all address the issue of women’s role as the organizers and controllers of social relationships and events, suggesting that the telephone became an important part of that role whether or not the women themselves welcomed it.
Incorrect. The answer is d. Sources 1, 5, and 6 all address the issue of women’s role as the organizers and controllers of social relationships and events, suggesting that the telephone became an important part of that role whether or not the women themselves welcomed it.

Question

5. Based on the evidence presented in these sources, which of the following groups of women was most impacted economically after the mass adoption of the telephone?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is d. Sources 3 and 4 address the importance of young working women’s role as telephone operators in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The arrival of the telephone created a new field of employment for this group of women, expanding their economic options.
Incorrect. The answer is d. Sources 3 and 4 address the importance of young working women’s role as telephone operators in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The arrival of the telephone created a new field of employment for this group of women, expanding their economic options.