Quiz for Sources for America’s History, Part 7

Question

1. In their 1912 letter to William Howard Taft protesting the New York Commissioner of Immigration’s assault (Document P7-1), the members of the Citizens Committee of Orchard, Rivington, and East Houston Streets defended their constituency by

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is c. The Citizens Committee of Orchard, Rivington, and East Houston Streets defended the virtue and respectability of its constituents by sidestepping the issue of their ethnic origins and emphasizing that “they have come to this country for the purpose of establishing permanent homes, of rearing and educating their children as good Americans, and of enjoying the blessings of freedom, at the same time assuming and performing the obligations which residence and citizenship entail.”
Incorrect. The answer is c. The Citizens Committee of Orchard, Rivington, and East Houston Streets defended the virtue and respectability of its constituents by sidestepping the issue of their ethnic origins and emphasizing that “they have come to this country for the purpose of establishing permanent homes, of rearing and educating their children as good Americans, and of enjoying the blessings of freedom, at the same time assuming and performing the obligations which residence and citizenship entail.”

Question

2. In his 1915 essay, “Democracy Versus the Melting Pot” (Document P7-2), the philosopher Horace Kallen wrote, “What is inalienable in the life of mankind is its intrinsic positive quality—its psychophysical inheritance. Men may change their clothes, their politics, their wives, their religions, their philosophies, to a greater or lesser extent: they cannot change their grandfathers. Jews or Poles or Anglo-Saxons, would have to cease to be. The selfhood which is inalienable in them, and for the realization of which they require ‘inalienable’ liberty, is ancestrally determined, and the happiness which they pursue has its form implied in ancestral endowment. This is what, actually, democracy in operation assumes.” According to this statement, Kallen believed which of the following?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is b. Kallen believed that ethnicity remained important, even to groups that had been in the United States for a long time. One’s ethnic background, he posited, formed his or her inalienable selfhood and liberty, which a democracy was bound to protect. Kallen believed that a melting pot society would obscure individuals’ fundamental selves, make it impossible for them to pursue happiness, and preclude democracy. Only in a society that accepted and promoted cultural pluralism, he argued, was true democracy possible.
Incorrect. The answer is b. Kallen believed that ethnicity remained important, even to groups that had been in the United States for a long time. One’s ethnic background, he posited, formed his or her inalienable selfhood and liberty, which a democracy was bound to protect. Kallen believed that a melting pot society would obscure individuals’ fundamental selves, make it impossible for them to pursue happiness, and preclude democracy. Only in a society that accepted and promoted cultural pluralism, he argued, was true democracy possible.

Question

3. In the photograph of woman suffragists picketing in front of the White House circa 1917–1918 (Document P7-3), the picketers were demanding votes for women based on their

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is d. The picketers in this photograph made no direct reference to women. They did so in order to emphasize that, while Wilson was claiming to be “making the world safe for democracy” during World War I, he was also denying democratic rights to millions of Americans. These protesters were not demanding the right to vote based on any claim about their particular sex, but were insisting that, as American citizens, they were entitled to voting rights.
Incorrect. The answer is d. The picketers in this photograph made no direct reference to women. They did so in order to emphasize that, while Wilson was claiming to be “making the world safe for democracy” during World War I, he was also denying democratic rights to millions of Americans. These protesters were not demanding the right to vote based on any claim about their particular sex, but were insisting that, as American citizens, they were entitled to voting rights.

Question

4. According to his 1927 essay, “The Faith of the Fundamentalists” (Document P7-4), W. B. Riley believed that the source of Fundamentalists’ loss of ascendancy in the United States and the world was which of the following?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is a. In his essay, Riley set out to define Fundamentalists as a minority group that was victimized by mainstream Christians’ theological integration of new scientific theories. He stressed that although Fundamentalists were the original Christians and had built the world’s religious institutions, they had been robbed of their institutions, their money, and their prominence by modernist Christians who had embraced science and abandoned the fundamentals of the church.
Incorrect. The answer is a. In his essay, Riley set out to define Fundamentalists as a minority group that was victimized by mainstream Christians’ theological integration of new scientific theories. He stressed that although Fundamentalists were the original Christians and had built the world’s religious institutions, they had been robbed of their institutions, their money, and their prominence by modernist Christians who had embraced science and abandoned the fundamentals of the church.

Question

5. In his 1944 letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt (Document P7-5), Private Charles F. Wilson justified his demand for the desegregation of the armed forces and the equal treatment of black soldiers based on which of the following?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is b. Charles Wilson’s letter used Roosevelt’s own wartime rhetoric as the basis for his demand that the U.S. military treat black soldiers and white soldiers equally. He began by quoting Roosevelt, who announced that “The United Nations are fighting to make a world in which tyranny, and aggression cannot exist; a world based upon freedom, equality, and justice; a world in which all persons, regardless of race, color and creed, may live in peace, honor and dignity.”
Incorrect. The answer is b. Charles Wilson’s letter used Roosevelt’s own wartime rhetoric as the basis for his demand that the U.S. military treat black soldiers and white soldiers equally. He began by quoting Roosevelt, who announced that “The United Nations are fighting to make a world in which tyranny, and aggression cannot exist; a world based upon freedom, equality, and justice; a world in which all persons, regardless of race, color and creed, may live in peace, honor and dignity.”

Question

6. According to Luisa Moreno’s 1940 speech (Document P7-6), the “caravans of sorrow” were becoming “caravans of hope” due to which of the following Depression-era developments?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is b. Moreno credited the union movement, which was organizing among Spanish-speaking cannery, agricultural, packing, and Allied workers, with improving Latinos’ prospects for economic stability and social equality in the United States.
Incorrect. The answer is b. Moreno credited the union movement, which was organizing among Spanish-speaking cannery, agricultural, packing, and Allied workers, with improving Latinos’ prospects for economic stability and social equality in the United States.