Quiz for American Voices:
Coming of Age in the Postwar Years

Question

1. The passage by Art Buchwald, “Studying on the GI Bill,” serves as evidence for which of the following post-World War II developments?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is d. Buchwald’s description of his decision to use the GI Bill to attend college and his recollections about his experiences as an older student at the University of Southern California in the late 1940s serve as evidence of the government-funded expansion of higher education that took place after World War II.
Incorrect. The answer is d. Buchwald’s description of his decision to use the GI Bill to attend college and his recollections about his experiences as an older student at the University of Southern California in the late 1940s serve as evidence of the government-funded expansion of higher education that took place after World War II.

Question

2. Betty Friedan’s recollection of her experiences in the late 1940s provides examples to illustrate which of the following trends from that period?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is b. Betty Friedan’s recollections of her experiences in the workplace after male veterans returned stresses the impact of the resurgence of the domestic ideal on her occupational options. Once male veterans returned to the workplace, she found that she was limited to “women’s jobs.” She reported that she, like most other women, simply accepted that women’s status was the way things were and not a political problem that could be challenged.
Incorrect. The answer is b. Betty Friedan’s recollections of her experiences in the workplace after male veterans returned stresses the impact of the resurgence of the domestic ideal on her occupational options. Once male veterans returned to the workplace, she found that she was limited to “women’s jobs.” She reported that she, like most other women, simply accepted that women’s status was the way things were and not a political problem that could be challenged.

Question

3. The passage by Susan Allen Toth illustrates the dangers associated with which of the following types of conduct during the 1950s?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is a. Toth explained how, when she dared to ask “why is Communism so bad,” merely seeking clarification about a common assumption, she was teased, ostracized, and shamed. Her story illustrates not only the ways that communism was vilified in the United States, but the consequences individuals faced if they betrayed any deviation from the social and political norms of the period.
Incorrect. The answer is a. Toth explained how, when she dared to ask “why is Communism so bad,” merely seeking clarification about a common assumption, she was teased, ostracized, and shamed. Her story illustrates not only the ways that communism was vilified in the United States, but the consequences individuals faced if they betrayed any deviation from the social and political norms of the period.

Question

4. Melba Patillo Beals’s story about coming of age as an African American girl in the segregated South supports which of the following historical arguments?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is a. Beals’s story of Christmas shopping with her mother suggests that her family had achieved some level of economic prosperity and that they participated, to some degree, in the expanding consumer culture of the day. Her experience using the white-only bathroom, however, illustrates the extent to which Jim Crow segregation remained a potent force in southern life and conveys the degree to which African Americans in the South were victimized by white supremacy after World War II.
Incorrect. The answer is a. Beals’s story of Christmas shopping with her mother suggests that her family had achieved some level of economic prosperity and that they participated, to some degree, in the expanding consumer culture of the day. Her experience using the white-only bathroom, however, illustrates the extent to which Jim Crow segregation remained a potent force in southern life and conveys the degree to which African Americans in the South were victimized by white supremacy after World War II.

Question

5. The passage by David Beers compares his family’s experiences with shopping for a new house in suburbia in the early 1960s to which of the following American phenomena?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is b. Beers compared his family’s experiences with shopping for a new house in the California suburbs in the early 1960s with imperialism. As Americans in the nineteenth century claimed Manifest Destiny and moved into the West, conquering the Native Americans and annexing new territory, he and his family were “blithe conquerors” who “chose a new homeland, invaded a place, settled it, and made it over in our image . . . with a smiling sense of our inevitability.”
Incorrect. The answer is b. Beers compared his family’s experiences with shopping for a new house in the California suburbs in the early 1960s with imperialism. As Americans in the nineteenth century claimed Manifest Destiny and moved into the West, conquering the Native Americans and annexing new territory, he and his family were “blithe conquerors” who “chose a new homeland, invaded a place, settled it, and made it over in our image . . . with a smiling sense of our inevitability.”