All SAT II US History Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #11 : Facts And Details In U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
All of the following were reform movements started in the early nineteenth century except __________.
public education
the labor movement
women's suffrage
abolitionism
temperance
the labor movement
The antebellum period saw a wide range of social reform movements develop. Most of these had their roots in the burgeoning evangelical Christianity of the time period. Abolitionism, women's rights and suffrage, public education, and temperance all saw reform societies founded on their behalf. The labor movement did not begin in force until the late nineteenth century and more widespread factory work in America.
Example Question #12 : Facts And Details In U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
The French author Alexis de Tocqueville is best known for the book __________.
The Last of the Mohicans
Democracy in America
The Scarlet Letter
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Democracy in America
Alexis de Tocqueville was minor French noble who undertook a tour of America in 1831, officially to study the American prison system, but instead analyzed all of American society. In 1835, he published his analysis of American society in his book Democracy in America. De Tocqueville's book is still widely read and considered one of the chief sources on society in Jacksonian America. In particular, de Tocqueville makes many claims about why America can produce a vibrant democracy.
Example Question #13 : Facts And Details In U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel about the grim reality of slavery is called ____________.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The Abolitionist
Free at Last!
The Jungle
Silent Spring
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel is entitled Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Example Question #14 : Facts And Details In U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
In 1845, periodical editor John L. O'Sullivan coined which of the following terms, used to describe the American desire to expand throughout the entire North American continent as providentially destined?
Providential Fortune
Emancipation Proclamation
Effective Call
Predestination of the Nation
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny
In 1845 in his periodical United States Magazine and Democratic Review, John L. O'Sullivan famously wrote that it was America's "manifest destiny" to expand and inhabit the rest of the continent. Manifest Destiny refers to the 19th century U.S. policy of expansion towards the Pacific coast.
Example Question #15 : Facts And Details In U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
The Second Great Awakening profoundly influenced all of the following movements except __________.
Education Reform
Fundamentalism
Temperance
Women's Rights
Abolitionism
Fundamentalism
The Second Great Awakening, a nation-wide religious revival that occurred from roughly 1801 to 1850, had widespread influence beyond just religious measures. Abolitionism, education reform, the women's rights movement, temperance, and prison reform were among the many outgrowths of the Awakening. As compared to later religious movements such as Fundamentalism, the Second Great Awakening promoted action over strict doctrine and theology.
Example Question #16 : Facts And Details In U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
Which prolific author's works, The Souls of Black Folks and Black Reconstruction in America, challenged the prevailing notion that African Americans were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction era?
James Baldwin
W. E. B. Du Bois
Langston Hughes
Booker T. Washington
Richard Wright
W. E. B. Du Bois
The Souls of Black Folks (1903) and Black Reconstruction in America (1935), which challenged the prevailing notion that African Americans were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction era, were written by W. E. B. Du Bois, one of the most prominent voices of the African American Civil Rights movement. Racist thinkers of the early twentieth century in America waged a continued campaign to demonize and vilify African Americans, and to scapegoat them for any social or economic failures seen during the Reconstruction Era. Dubois' clear, lucid prose directly and implicitly challenged these racist propaganda talking points.
Example Question #17 : Facts And Details In U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
What was the most significant effect of Plessy v. Ferguson?
It established a system of reparations for victims of violence and exploitation during the Civil War.
It established the "three-fifths rule," counting African-Americans as three-fifths of a citizen when measuring the population of an area for legislative and taxation purposes.
It inspired the passage of the 23rd Amendment.
Its decision upheld the constitutionality of state laws that enforced racial segregation within public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal."
It established the "one-drop rule" to determine whether someone was legally considered black under US law.
Its decision upheld the constitutionality of state laws that enforced racial segregation within public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal."
Plessy is important because it represents an example of significant legislative gains in racial equality being surreptitiously undermined by judicial mandate. The court in Plessy ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment was not violated when Homer Plessy was expelled from a "whites-only" train car, because so long as there existed "separate, but equal" facilities, there was no violation of equal rights.
Example Question #20 : U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History From 1790 To 1898
Which is an example of "muckraking journalism?"
Uptown Sinclair posed as a worker in a Chicago meat packing factor for seven weeks, seeking to investigate and bring to the public eye the struggles of immigrant workers. However, the numerous health risks and disgusting practices he documented ended up being what roused the public's attention instead, and his work directly contributed to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act.
Ida Tarbell's expose of the Standard Oil Company's practices, which brought to light many of the unscrupulous practices and monopolization going on in big industries.
Lincoln Steffens' investigation of local government in New York City and subsequent discovery of abundant corruption of politicians by businessmen seeking special privileges.
Nellie Bly pretended to be insane in order to be admitted to the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island and document first-hand the appalling conditions there.
All of these.
All of these.
Each of these writers was referred to as "muckraking journalists." The term muckraker was used in the Progressive Era to characterize reform-minded American journalists who wrote largely for all popular magazines. They relied on their own investigative journalism reporting; muckrakers often worked to expose social ills and corporate and political corruption. Muckrakers represented the beginning of modern investigative journalism and "watchdog" journalism as we still know it today.
Example Question #21 : U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is closest to which of the following, in terms of its portrayal of slavery?
Slavery: In Defense of an Advantageous System, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Common Sense by Thomas Paine
The Liberator by William Lloyd Garrison
The Liberator by William Lloyd Garrison
This had the potential to be a very difficult question, but the answer choices should have pointed you in the right direction:
The Liberator (founded in 1831) is the correct answer—William Lloyd Garrison was a staunch abolitionist and even created a newspaper to that effect. His portrayal of slavery was not positive—similar to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which was a massively-popular novel depicting the horrors of slavery.
Gone with the Wind (1936) is incorrect. While the book doesn’t necessarily praise slavery, it paints it in a much more positive light than the Liberator, and is written (essentially) from the perspective of a southern woman. Thomas Paine's Common Sense (1776) in incorrect. This pamphlet was, of course, massively influential during the pre-Revolutionary War. Slavery . . . is incorrect. It’s a great red herring, and it’s there simply to give you a tempting answer that is dead wrong. Moreover, and more importantly, while Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was a real person (he was a statesman from South Carolina) that book title is completely made up.
Example Question #21 : U.S. Intellectual And Cultural History
In the three decades before the Civil War, the largest numbers of immigrants came to the US from which two countries?
Italy and Russia
Germany and Italy
Germany and Ireland
Germany and England
England and Ireland
Germany and Ireland
The largest numbers of immigrants in this period came from Germany and Ireland. The Irish were fleeing extreme poverty and, from 1845 onward, a devastating famine in Ireland. The Germans were fleeing poverty as well as political disorder and oppression in Germany. English immigration to the US continued in this period, but was declining, surpassed by Irish and German immigration. Russian and Italian immigrants would not become major immigrant groups until the late 19th century.
All SAT II US History Resources
