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AP®HistoryCollege BoardUS HistoryExam QuestionsPeriod 7: 1890-19451920s: Cultural & Political Controversies

1920s: Cultural & Political Controversies (College Board AP® US History): Exam Questions

7 mins7 questions
11 mark

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925

The perspective expressed in the excerpt most directly aligns with which literary and artistic movement?

  • The Harlem Renaissance

  • The Transcendentalists

  • The Lost Generation

  • The Beat Generation

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21 mark

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925

Which of the following best explains F. Scott Fitzgerald’s motivation for writing The Great Gatsby?

  • To advocate for stricter government regulation of the economy

  • To critique the materialism and moral decay of the Jazz Age elite

  • To explore the impact of rapid technological advancements on American culture

  • To encourage the expansion of suburban development in the 1920s

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31 mark

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925

The attitudes reflected in The Great Gatsby most directly influenced which of the following broader developments in 1920s American society?

  • Rejection of the Prohibition and the rise of speakeasies

  • Resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and anti-immigrant sentiment

  • Decline of consumer culture and a return to rural traditions

  • Passage of the Social Security Act to address income inequality

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41 mark
Cartoon of an old oak tree labelled "Christianity and the Bible," opposed by figures labelled "Bryan" and "Darrow," symbolising the Scopes Trial debate.
Arthur G. Racey, "The Oak That Braved A Thousand Storms", 1925. Originally published in the Montreal Daily Star and republished in the United States in The Literary Digest on July 25, 1925

The primary symbolism of the oak trees labeled "Christianity" and "Science" in the cartoon is that they

  •  Represent outdated and irrelevant institutions

  • Symbolize stable pillars of American society under attack

  • Depict mutually exclusive ideologies incapable of coexistence

  • Illustrate the victory of science over religion

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51 mark
Cartoon of an old oak tree labelled "Christianity and the Bible," opposed by figures labelled "Bryan" and "Darrow," symbolising the Scopes Trial debate.
Arthur G. Racey, "The Oak That Braved A Thousand Storms", 1925. Originally published in the Montreal Daily Star and republished in the United States in The Literary Digest on July 25, 1925

William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow are portrayed as

  • Champions defending their respective causes

  • Minor figures in the broader cultural debate

  • Aggressive but ineffective critics of larger institutions

  • Impartial observers of societal change

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61 mark
Cartoon of an old oak tree labelled "Christianity and the Bible," opposed by figures labelled "Bryan" and "Darrow," symbolising the Scopes Trial debate.
Arthur G. Racey, "The Oak That Braved A Thousand Storms", 1925. Originally published in the Montreal Daily Star and republished in the United States in The Literary Digest on July 25, 1925

What does the cartoon suggest about the outcome of the Scopes Trial and its cultural implications?

  • Tension between traditional and modern values continued

  • Bryan and Darrow resolved the conflict between science and religion

  • The trial had no significant impact on American society

  • A declining influence of fundamentalism in America

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71 mark
Cartoon of an old oak tree labelled "Christianity and the Bible," opposed by figures labelled "Bryan" and "Darrow," symbolising the Scopes Trial debate.
Arthur G. Racey, "The Oak That Braved A Thousand Storms", 1925. Originally published in the Montreal Daily Star and republished in the United States in The Literary Digest on July 25, 1925

What audience is most likely targeted by the cartoon "The Oak That Braved A Thousand Storms"?

  • Fundamentalist Christians seeking validation of their beliefs

  •  International readers unfamiliar with American cultural issues

  • Neutral observers interested in the cultural debate

  • Urban modernists concerned about rural conservatism

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