Take this Exam: GED and HiSET social studies — United States history | Zestly

Question 1

Union membership in American industry grew sharply in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, through organizations such as the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor. What best explains why workers organized?

Accepted Answer

Factory work paid low wages for long hours and was dangerous, and a worker acting alone had no means of changing any of it.

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Federal law at the time required every factory of any size to recognize a union.

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Unions were formed chiefly to stop the federal government from collecting an income tax.

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Most organizers aimed to replace private ownership of industry with a government-run system.

Question 2

The Progressive Era is best characterized by which of the following goals?

Accepted Answer

The use of government power to regulate industry and address social inequality.

Answer

The total abolition of private property and corporate ownership.

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The return to an agrarian society based on subsistence farming.

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The expansion of the military to conquer overseas territories.

Question 3

The Social Security Act of 1935 created federal old-age benefits funded by a payroll tax, and gave the states money to run unemployment compensation and aid to dependent children. How did the New Deal change the role of the federal government?

Accepted Answer

It established the principle that the federal government bears responsibility for the economic security of its citizens.

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It required citizens to work for the federal government during an economic downturn.

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It removed state governments from the administration of social welfare programs.

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It closed the stock exchanges in order to prevent another crash.

Question 4

Which statement about the American home front during the Second World War is correct?

Answer

Wartime production was left entirely to the firms that had been making weapons before 1941.

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Racial segregation in the armed forces ended as soon as the United States entered the war.

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Civilian factories were converted to war production, and about 120,000 people of Japanese descent, most of them American citizens, were removed from the West Coast and held in camps.

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Immigration to the United States stopped completely for the duration of the war.

Question 5

Which of the following describes a common experience of the Cold War as it was lived in the United States?

Answer

The widespread belief that the government should not interfere in public education.

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The atmosphere of suspicion and fear regarding potential communist infiltration in domestic institutions.

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The complete absence of military spending due to a focus on international diplomacy.

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The voluntary decision of all citizens to move to rural areas for safety.

Question 6

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 barred discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin in employment and in places of public accommodation. What did the Act change in practice?

Answer

Segregation that law had required or permitted in hotels, restaurants and workplaces became unlawful, and the federal government gained means to enforce that.

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Economic inequality between black and white Americans was eliminated within a decade.

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The Supreme Court was given power to rewrite the constitutions of the states.

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Registration and voting rules in the states were placed under federal supervision.