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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did Hiram Sherman do in The Cradle Will Rock?
(a) He was a stagehand.
(b) He was an actor.
(c) He directed it.
(d) He wrote it.

2. To whom did Myrna Loy send her infamous wire?
(a) A Czech dissident.
(b) Trotsky.
(c) A Soviet defector.
(d) Churchill.

3. What moment excited Wilbur Kane to the point of mocking his German neighbors?
(a) Jesse Owens' win in the Berlin Olympics.
(b) The death of Adolf Hitler.
(c) America entering the War.
(d) Joe Louis's victory over Schmeling.

4. At the beginning of The Fine and Lively Arts, Hiram Sherman speaks glowingly of drinking covert gin out of what?
(a) Teacups.
(b) Bowls.
(c) Soda bottles.
(d) Flasks.

5. What public figure publicly raved about Jack Kirkland's play?
(a) Harold Ickes.
(b) Huey Long.
(c) Orson Welles.
(d) Eleanor Roosevelt.

6. What was Roosevelt trying to prevent with the Bank Holiday?
(a) A run on failing banks.
(b) The decimation of people's savings.
(c) The emigration of bank owners.
(d) Buyouts by large conglomerate banks.

7. In the 1930's W. Clement Stone made his money selling what?
(a) Cars.
(b) Bibles.
(c) Wholesale grain feed.
(d) Life insurance.

8. Why does Billy Green say he was unaffected by the Depression?
(a) He invested in his own business.
(b) He invested in gold.
(c) He had his money overseas.
(d) He had no stocks.

9. According to Buddy Blankenship in Sixteen Ton, what did coal companies often pay instead of money?
(a) IOUs.
(b) Food rations.
(c) Coal.
(d) Company vouchers.

10. What issue does Stanley Kell surprisingly support?
(a) George McGovern's campaign.
(b) Legalizing marijuana.
(c) Leaving Vietnam.
(d) Integration.

11. What marked Long's second-in-command Gerald Smith regarding his speeches?
(a) His anti-Semitism.
(b) His lack of clarity.
(c) His stutter.
(d) His vulgarity.

12. What was Dorothea Lange's profession?
(a) Nurse.
(b) Photographer.
(c) Economist.
(d) Newspaper columnist.

13. According to Max Shachtman, what international event ended credibility for Communism in the United States?
(a) The Hitler-Stalin Pact.
(b) The Cultural Revolution.
(c) Pearl Harbor.
(d) Stalin's purges.

14. What shocking information did General Smedley Butler report to Congress in the 1930's?
(a) Hoover was absent for most meetings regarding the Depression.
(b) A group of right wing military men attempted a coup.
(c) Roosevelt knew about Pearl Harbor ahead of time.
(d) There were Communists in the Roosevelt administration.

15. Why was Hiram Sherman removed from Equity leadership?
(a) He voted to disband the union.
(b) He quit acting.
(c) He was branded a communist.
(d) He performed The Cradle Will Rock.

Short Answer Questions

1. At the end of his interview, Horace Cayton discusses why black Americans never joined what group en masse?

2. According to Max Shachtman, why was Communism especially vital just before FDR was elected?

3. Who played the piano for opening night of The Cradle Will Rock?

4. What does Wilbur Kane remember most vividly about Franklin Roosevelt?

5. What was different about a teachers' strike in the 1930's?

(see the answer keys)

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