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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What metaphor does Arthur Robinson use to describe Wall Street in the 1920's?
(a) A rigged casino.
(b) A private club.
(c) A candy store.
(d) A Roman orgy.

2. According to Harburg, who suffered most when the financial system collapsed?
(a) The financial giants.
(b) Those who thought it foolproof.
(c) Black people.
(d) Those who were poor already.

3. What book does Terkel quote in the introduction to explain his purpose in writing this history?
(a) Grapes of Wrath.
(b) Democracy in America.
(c) Les Miserables.
(d) The Great Gatsby.

4. How does Diana Morgan describe herself at the beginning of her interview?
(a) A lost cause.
(b) A woman of ill repute.
(c) A southern belle.
(d) A habitual instigator.

5. What did Blackie Gold do in the CCC during the Depression?
(a) He performed on the radio.
(b) He wrote for a national labor journal.
(c) He assessed people on relief.
(d) He maintained national forests.

6. What did many of Arthur Robinson's friends say was the only reason to have money?
(a) To provide for one's family.
(b) To have influence.
(c) To make more money.
(d) To give to the poor.

7. In a quote in the Introduction, how does the speaker describe the socioeconomic relationship between blacks and whites during the Depression?
(a) Blacks and whites were about equal for the first time.
(b) Blacks were always worse off.
(c) Blacks were actually better off.
(d) There was no way of telling, things were so bad.

8. What advertising outlet did William Benton exploit, making him his fortune?
(a) Direct mail.
(b) Radio advertising.
(c) Sponsoring shorts before films.
(d) Billboards.

9. How did Dr. Lewis Andreas help strikers in Chicago in 1937?
(a) He contributed thousands to their employment fund.
(b) He wrote op-eds for them.
(c) He lobbied senators and congressmen on their behalf.
(d) He provided free healthcare to them.

10. Why did Martin DeVries hate Roosevelt?
(a) Roosevelt tried to pack the court.
(b) Roosevelt attacked the free market system.
(c) Roosevelt came from money.
(d) Roosevelt got America into World War II.

11. What was Bob La Follette before he ran for President?
(a) A Republican governor of Wisconsin.
(b) The Secretary of Education.
(c) The owner of a chain of delis.
(d) A military advisor to Hoover.

12. How did strike organizers in Detroit finally stop scabs from coming?
(a) They shut down the highway.
(b) They paid scabs not to go to work.
(c) They burned a scab's house down.
(d) They nailed shut the factory doors.

13. Who were the "service department" of Detroit?
(a) The government officers who were on the company payroll.
(b) The series of vendors who provided food for strikers.
(c) Hired thugs working for management.
(d) The strike organizers.

14. In her interview, what does Diana Morgan say never interested her?
(a) Communism.
(b) The accumulation of money.
(c) Political struggle.
(d) The suffering of others.

15. What was the occupational community of which Jimmy Partland was a part, that lent back and forth regularly?
(a) Writers.
(b) Auto workers.
(c) Jazz musicians.
(d) Corn growers.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which famous American film critic is interviewed in Hard Travelin'?

2. What inversion of racial relationships happened regarding Robin Langston's father during the Depression?

3. What does Diane, the young journalist in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, resent about her parent's fixation on the Depression?

4. In Hard Travelin', Peggy Terry says that America teaches people that poverty is what?

5. What product did Benton manage after the Depression?

(see the answer keys)

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