Only a small minority of American households owned stock in 1929.
Correct Answer
True
True. Only about one household in ten held stock, yet the crash and the depression that followed cost far more families their savings and jobs.
Category: The 1929 Crash
Question 2
On Black Thursday, stock purchases by leading bankers permanently halted the decline in stock prices.
Correct Answer
False
False. Major banks bought large blocks of stock to steady the market on October 24, 1929, but the effect was temporary, and the collapse resumed days later on Black Tuesday.
Category: The 1929 Crash
Question 3
Hoover opposed direct federal relief payments to individuals, fearing they would weaken self-reliance.
Correct Answer
True
True. Hoover believed in limited government and individual effort, so he preferred voluntary action by businesses, private charity and local relief to federal handouts.
Category: Hoover's Response
Question 4
The Ford Hunger March of 1932 ended peacefully when Ford agreed to rehire the laid-off marchers.
Correct Answer
False
False. Police and company security fired on the unemployed marchers outside Ford's River Rouge plant, killing several of them, and tens of thousands attended the funerals.
Category: Protest and Unrest
Question 5
Much of the public anger at Hoover stemmed from his refusal to provide direct federal aid to the unemployed.
Correct Answer
True
True. Many Americans did not blame Hoover for causing the Depression, but they resented his unwillingness to give direct aid as suffering grew.
Category: Hoover's Response
Question 6
The Bonus Army that marched on Washington in 1932 was made up of Spanish-American War veterans.
Correct Answer
False
False. The Bonus Army was made up of World War I veterans and their families, who wanted early payment of the bonuses promised for their service.
Category: Protest and Unrest
Question 7
During the Depression, unemployed white workers often pushed Black workers out of jobs such as household service and janitorial work.
Correct Answer
True
True. Even jobs long held by Black workers were taken over by white workers, and by 1932 about half of Black Americans were unemployed.
Category: Life in the Depression
Question 8
At their first trial, the Scottsboro Boys were acquitted by an all-white jury.
Correct Answer
False
False. An all-white jury convicted the young men, and all but one were sentenced to death, although the case was later retried and taken to the Supreme Court.
Category: Life in the Depression
Question 9
Hoover moved to withdraw U.S. troops from Nicaragua and Haiti, a step toward the later Good Neighbor policy.
Correct Answer
True
True. Hoover pulled the Marines out of Nicaragua by early 1933 and began the withdrawal from Haiti, which was completed under Franklin Roosevelt in 1934. These steps away from military intervention laid groundwork for Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy.
Category: Hoover's Foreign Policy
Question 10
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff lowered duties on imports to revive world trade.
Correct Answer
False
False. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff raised duties on thousands of imported goods, and retaliation by other nations shrank world trade.
Category: Hoover's Foreign Policy
Question 11
Dust storms on the Great Plains in the 1930s stripped away huge amounts of topsoil and caused a respiratory illness called dust pneumonia.
Correct Answer
True
True. The storms carried away hundreds of millions of tons of soil, and breathing the fine dust caused a lung illness that became known as dust pneumonia.
Category: Dust Bowl and Farms
Question 12
Most American farmers enjoyed rising crop prices throughout the 1920s.
Correct Answer
False
False. Farm prices fell after the brief recession of the early 1920s, leaving many farmers in debt well before the stock market crashed.
Category: Dust Bowl and Farms
Question 13
"Happy Days Are Here Again" served as Franklin Roosevelt's campaign song in 1932.
Correct Answer
True
True. The upbeat song became the theme of Roosevelt's 1932 campaign and offered a hopeful contrast to the mood of the Hoover years.
Category: Life in the Depression
Question 14
Unemployment eased within a year of the crash as Hoover's voluntary agreements with business took hold.
Correct Answer
False
False. Unemployment climbed steeply through 1930 and kept rising into 1932, as voluntary pledges failed to stop layoffs and wage cuts.
Category: Hoover's Response
Question 15
Federal spending on schools and health care for Native Americans increased during Hoover's presidency.
Correct Answer
True
True. Hoover backed reforms at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and federal spending on Native American schools and health care doubled while he was in office.
Category: Hoover's Record
Question 16
Critics charged that the Reconstruction Finance Corporation sent most of its early loans to small rural banks.
Correct Answer
False
False. Critics charged the opposite: the RFC lent only to banks with enough collateral, and $41 million of its first $61 million in loans went to just three large banks.
Category: Hoover's Response
Question 17
In 1932 the Bonus Army set up its main camp at Anacostia Flats in Washington, D.C.
Correct Answer
True
True. Thousands of veterans and their families camped at Anacostia Flats until army troops drove them out and burned the camp.
Category: Protest and Unrest
Question 18
Shortly after the crash, Hoover warned Americans that the economy was fundamentally unsound and needed sweeping federal action.
Correct Answer
False
False. Hoover repeatedly assured the public that the economy was fundamentally sound and that the worst would soon pass.
Category: Hoover's Response
Question 19
Marriage and birth rates in the United States declined during the Depression.
Correct Answer
True
True. Hard times led many couples to delay marriage and children, and many young people left school to work or wander in search of jobs.
Category: Life in the Depression
Question 20
Movie attendance collapsed for good during the Depression because Americans could no longer afford tickets.
Correct Answer
False
False. Ticket sales fell in the early 1930s but recovered by the middle of the decade, as cheap tickets let Americans escape their troubles at the movies.
Category: Life in the Depression