U.S. Intellectual and Cultural History from 1899 to the Present - AP U.S. History

The Temperance Movement arose in America as a backlash against the widespread use and abuse of alcohol among American men. It was most consistently supported by women and religious leaders. The movement culminated with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment, which legally prohibited the sale of alcohol in all US territories. The passage of the Volstead Act wrote the amendment into law.

Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois were both major political activists for the African American community in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. However, they disagreed heavily on how best to affect social equality for African Americans. Washington believed that economic equality was sufficient, and that if the African American community remained patient and peaceful, social and political equality would eventually follow suit. Conversely, DuBois vehemently believed that immediate change was needed, he argued that for too long blacks had been disenfranchised in America and that if African Americans did not have political equality, than they would never be socially or economically equal. Although he rarely went so far as to call for violence, DuBois was a big believer in the power of political agitation for affecting change.

Because FDR had debilitating polio, Eleanor Roosevelt often traveled for him, reporting her findings; therefore, she took a much more active role as First Lady than anyone had done before.

The other answers are all false. She held press conferences that only women reporters were invited to, so as to encourage news outlets to hire female reporters. She was also appointed to the United Nations by President Truman, but no longer holds that position as she passed away from tuberculosis. Additionally, Franklin Roosevelt did have a very public affair, but she did not divorce him for it.

The Red Scare, which began in the early 1920s but remained a constant fixture of American political and social life for several decades, is the name given to America's response to the growth of Communism in the Soviet Union. The primary political party behind Communism in the Soviet Union was the Bolshevik Party. The Mensheviks were the rival Communist Party, which were defeated by Lenin and his comrades. Chinese Communism would not arise for another thirty years. And McCarthyism is a name related to America's response to Communism, led by United States Senator Joseph McCarthy—it primarily has connotations of unfair or unfounded accusations of disloyalty directed at U.S. citizens during the Red Scare.

The Scopes Trial took place in 1925. The case was made against Tennessee school teacher John Scopes, on the grounds that he had violated Tennessee state law by teaching the theory of evolution in his classroom. The case immediately gained national media attention, especially once former Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan agreed to represent the prosecution and famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow agreed to represent the defense. The case contributed greatly to the growth of both the scientific movement and the anti-evolution movement in the United States.

On the Road is considered the principle novel of the so-called Beat Generation. It was written by Jack Kerouac in the early 1950s, and published for the first time in 1957. The book chronicles Kerouac’s real-life journeys across the United States and reflects the growing dissatisfaction among young people of the time with conventional forms of life. The Beat Generation can be classified a number of ways, but generally it refers to a certain type of youth culture that rejected conformist career and life choices in favor of drug experimentation, spiritual enlightenment, unorthodox sexual behavior, and the gaining of awareness of one’s own human nature.

Pop Art was developed in Great Britain and the United States in the 1950s, and reached its apex in the 1960s with artists like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns. These artists rejected the pre-World War II uses of abstract art, and instead used images culled from comic books, movies, and advertising. Iconic Pop Art pieces include Warhol's "Campbell's Soup Cans" and Johns' "Flag," both of which were paintings of iconic images in American culture.

The Reconstruction and Post-Reconstruction era saw a retrenchment of racial animosity towards newly freed slaves throughout the South. Many different black leaders proposed a variety of solutions and ways to better the status of African-Americans. Booker T. Washington became notable for advocating educational and societal improvements among African-Americans, rather than a direct engagement with segregationist policies, as reflected in the quote provided in the question.

The Other America was written by Michael Harrington. Harrington was disillusioned with the ignorance of his fellow Americans to the plight of the urban and rural poor in the United States. At a time when most Americans were enjoying significant economic growth and prosperity, Harrington argued that there was an “other America” that was being left behind. He argued that greater than a quarter of the population was still living in poverty and that the government had a moral obligation to alleviate suffering. The book was hugely influential in the United States, and many historians credit it with, at least in part, inspiring Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty.”

The America First Committee was founded in September of 1940, as American sympathy started to turn towards favoring Britain in its war against Nazi Germany. The leaders of the America First Committee all desired for America to remain out of foreign wars and to avoid conflicts like World War I. The America First Committee saw its popularity decline in June of 1941 after famed aviator and prominent Committee leader Charles Lindbergh gave a speech which defended and even seemed to promote Nazi Germany. The America First Committee formally disbanded just days after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941.

Sputnik was the first satellite launched into orbit around the Earth. It was launched in 1957, twelve years before America would put a man on the moon, representing a major point of discomfort for many Americans who suddenly felt as if the US was falling behind the Soviet Union. Shortly after Sputnik was launched, the US space program was greatly expanded and significant resources were put into education for scientists and engineers. In 1961, John F. Kennedy initiated the Apollo Program with the intention of putting a man on the moon by 1971.

James Meredith was the student whose integration of the University of Mississippi inspired riots that eventually led President Kennedy to deploy federal forces to Oxford, Mississippi in an effort to keep the peace. Meredith enrolled in the University of Mississippi after being inspired by President Kennedy himself, as well as a desire and belief in his right to attend the most prestigious educational institution in his home state.

Harlem would become overwhelmingly African-American during this time. This is because of the large numbers of African-Americans moving north from the southern states. This large influx of people, many of which concentrated themselves into this neighborhood of New York, led to a confluence of different thoughts and ideas. This meant that artists and thinkers of the time had an audience to play to and work with in forging a new identity.

While African-Americans faced many disadvantages while living in the southern states in this period, religious restrictions were not one of them. The south has many historic African-American churches that were and are well attended with little issue. While the Civil Rights Movement brought much ire to these institutions from radical elements of the segregationist population, at this point in history they were still largely sanctuaries from such issues.

The end of the First World War brought with it a change in American attitude. This major foreign entanglement made the American people desire to focus more on the issues at home. The American public no longer wanted to deal with the issues of foreign nations, but with building the communities of the United States and tackling pressing issues within those communities.

Like most of what was happening in American society at the time, the Great Depression brought the Harlem Renaissance to a halt. This down swing in fortune brought the hope and optimism that fueled the Harlem Renaissance to a stop. This new reality meant that the people of the Renaissance could no longer support themselves financially through the arts and this meant the movement would end with them.

Simply put, the people who brought about the Renaissance, artists and writers, could not keep writing and creating art because no one could afford to pay them for their works anymore. The depression meant that these people had to move on to other way of making a living, thus taking the wind out of the sails of the movement.

The Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco was the spiritual home of the hippie movement that swept through American popular culture in the 1960s. It was the sight of rampant drug use and rock-music culture. The significance of the hippie movement in creating a fractured America cannot be overstated; the next couple of decades would be culturally dominated by the radicals on one side and the reactionaries on the other.

The Feminine Mystique was written in 1963 by Betty Friedan, a notable member of the women’s rights movement. Friedan’s work focused on interviews with contemporary female housewives and found that many of them were dissatisfied with their lives.

In her book, Friedan concludes that a number of cultural forces have conspired to encourage women to seek fulfillment in domestic life. She contends that if women are to control their own happiness, they must resist these cultural forces and find fulfillment in work that brings out the full capacity of their minds. The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking a new wave of feminism.

The term “Lost Generation” was coined by Ernest Hemmingway in his novel The Sun Also Rises. The term refers to the generation of young Americans (and Europeans) who fought in World War One and lost a large proportion of their youth and optimism. Upon returning to America, many of these individuals became disillusioned with the over-commercialized lifestyle for which they had fought. Jack London died during World War One, and he is generally remembered, through his literature, as an avid advocate of unionization and socialism.