Use these CLEP History of the United States II sample questions to review American history from the end of Reconstruction through the late twentieth century. The set covers political, social, economic, cultural, and diplomatic developments, with most questions focused on the period after 1915.
Topics Covered
- The end of Reconstruction
- Industrialization and the Populist movement
- American expansionism and imperialism
- The Great Migration
- The Harlem Renaissance
- The New Deal and Social Security
- World War II and civil liberties
- Cold War containment
- The civil rights movement
- Modern conservatism
Sample Questions
- A. The federal government abolished sharecropping.
- B. The last federal troops overseeing Reconstruction were withdrawn from the South.
- C. African American men received voting rights for the first time.
- D. The Republican Party gained permanent control of southern state governments.
- E. Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment.
Show Answer
The political settlement surrounding the disputed presidential election of 1876 resulted in the withdrawal of the remaining federal troops from the South.
That withdrawal effectively ended federal enforcement of Reconstruction governments and protections in the former Confederacy.
- A. Charging small farmers higher shipping rates than large customers
- B. Refusing to transport manufactured products
- C. Supporting the unlimited coinage of silver
- D. Hiring workers from rural communities
- E. Operating only within individual states
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Farmers often argued that railroads charged discriminatory rates and favored large shippers.
Railroad regulation therefore became a major demand of agrarian organizations and the Populist movement.
- A. The United States returned all overseas territories to Spain.
- B. The United States annexed Canada.
- C. The United States acquired Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines from Spain.
- D. Cuba became a permanent state of the United States.
- E. The United States withdrew completely from Caribbean and Pacific affairs.
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The Treaty of Paris ending the war transferred Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines from Spain to the United States.
The war marked a major expansion of United States involvement in Caribbean and Pacific affairs.
- A. Large numbers of farmers moved from the Great Plains to Canada.
- B. Millions of African Americans moved from the South to cities in the North, Midwest, and West.
- C. European immigrants returned permanently to Europe after World War I.
- D. Industrial workers moved from northern cities to southern plantations.
- E. Native Americans moved voluntarily from reservations to eastern cities before 1900.
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During the Great Migration, millions of African Americans left the South for urban areas elsewhere in the United States.
Employment opportunities and the desire to escape Jim Crow segregation and racial violence were important motivations.
- A. Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston
- B. John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway
- C. Henry James and Edith Wharton
- D. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau
- E. Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards
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Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston were major literary figures of the Harlem Renaissance.
The movement contributed to an extraordinary expansion of Black American literature, music, visual art, performance, and intellectual life.
- A. Federal deposit insurance for commercial banks
- B. Old-age benefits and a federal-state unemployment insurance system
- C. Guaranteed employment for every adult citizen
- D. Universal health insurance for all Americans
- E. Government ownership of all major industries
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The Social Security Act established a national old-age insurance program and a federal-state unemployment insurance system.
It also provided federal assistance for certain vulnerable groups, making it a central part of the New Deal’s long-term social-welfare structure.
- A. The desegregation of the armed forces
- B. The creation of the United Nations
- C. The forced removal and incarceration of many Japanese Americans from the West Coast
- D. The admission of Hawaii as a state
- E. The establishment of the Marshall Plan
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Executive Order 9066 authorized military exclusion zones during World War II.
It became the basis for the forced removal and incarceration of approximately 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, most of whom were United States citizens.
Question 8 refers to the following excerpt.
—President Harry S. Truman, address to Congress, 1947
- A. Appeasement
- B. Containment
- C. Isolationism
- D. Neutrality
- E. Unrestricted nuclear warfare
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The Truman Doctrine pledged support for governments resisting communist pressure or expansion.
It became an early expression of containment, the strategy of limiting the further spread of Soviet influence and communism.
- A. State-mandated racial segregation in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause.
- B. Congress could not regulate discrimination in interstate commerce.
- C. Public schools were required to provide religious instruction.
- D. The federal government had to fund every school district equally.
- E. School districts could remain segregated if their buildings were similar.
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The Supreme Court held that legally segregated public schools were inherently unequal.
The decision rejected state-mandated school segregation under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
- A. Higher marginal tax rates and reduced military spending
- B. Nationalization of major industries
- C. Lower taxes, reduced economic regulation, and increased defense spending
- D. The elimination of private health insurance
- E. Federal control of all local school curricula
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Reagan’s domestic agenda emphasized tax reduction, deregulation, and a smaller role for the federal government in many areas of economic policy.
His administration also supported a major increase in defense spending as part of its Cold War strategy.
How to Use These Questions
Place each event within its broader historical context. Consider its causes, consequences, and relationship to political, social, economic, cultural, or diplomatic developments.
For excerpt questions, identify the policy or movement reflected in the language before evaluating the answer choices.
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