The USA 1945-1974: the People and the State | OCR GCSE History A (J410)
The USA 1945-1974: the People and the State
- 103 questions
- 8 subtopics
- Paper 1
- Paper 1
The USA 1945–1974: The People and the State is examined in Paper 1, Period study with non-British depth study.
It covers fears of Communism at home, the Red Scare and McCarthyism, jim Crow and the development and achievements of the civil rights movement, opposition to civil rights and the role of the Supreme Court and Eisenhower, the roles of Kennedy and Johnson in civil rights campaigns, black Power, radical leaders, and Native American and Chicano campaigns, the impact of feminism, stonewall, anti-war protest and the Great Society and the state and the American people, 1945–1974.
Sample questions from The USA 1945-1974: the People and the State
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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Fears of Communism at home, the Red Scare and McCarthyism
What is meant by the Red Scare of the late 1940s?
Show the answer
A wave of public fear that Communist spies and sympathisers had worked their way into American government and society. -
Jim Crow and the development and achievements of the civil rights movement
Why was the Brown ruling such a blow to segregation?
Show the answer
It destroyed the legal claim that separate facilities could ever be equal, and gave campaigners a national judgment to quote against every segregated institution. -
Opposition to civil rights and the role of the Supreme Court and Eisenhower
How did the Birmingham police treat marchers in 1963?
Show the answer
Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor set dogs and high-pressure fire hoses on them, including on schoolchildren, in front of the television cameras. -
The roles of Kennedy and Johnson in civil rights campaigns
What did Kennedy say in his televised address of June 1963?
Show the answer
That civil rights was a moral issue as old as the scriptures, and he announced a bill to end segregation in public places. -
Black Power, radical leaders, and Native American and Chicano campaigns
What did the Black Panther Party, founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966, do in its own communities?
Show the answer
It patrolled the streets armed to watch for police brutality, and ran free breakfast programmes and health clinics for the poor. -
The impact of feminism
Who set up the Commission on the Status of Women, and when?
Show the answer
President Kennedy, in 1961, with Eleanor Roosevelt as its first chair. -
Stonewall, anti-war protest and the Great Society
Why did so many students protest against the Vietnam War?
Show the answer
They objected to the draft taking young men away to fight, and to the killing of civilians they could see on television every night. -
The state and the American people, 1945–1974
Why did federal housing policy leave African American families in the inner cities?
Show the answer
Government-backed mortgages were withheld from black neighbourhoods, so families could not buy in the suburbs and were left in decaying districts.
The 8 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Fears of Communism at home, the Red Scare and McCarthyism | Why Communism at home was feared, the Loyalty Program and HUAC, the Freedom Train, Hollywood's films and the Pledge of Allegiance, J Edgar Hoover and the Rosenbergs, the Hollywood Ten and the blacklist, The Crucible, and McCarthyism, its support and its end. | 18 |
| Jim Crow and the development and achievements of the civil rights movement | The Jim Crow laws, segregated schooling, voting and work, Brown v Board of Education and southern delay, Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, King's non-violent direct action and the March on Washington, and the NAACP, SCLC and SNCC. | 15 |
| Opposition to civil rights and the role of the Supreme Court and Eisenhower | The Ku Klux Klan, White Citizens' Councils, the Southern Manifesto, Faubus at Little Rock, Bull Connor in Birmingham, Emmett Till, the Supreme Court and Boynton v Virginia, Eisenhower's response, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and why protest still mattered. | 12 |
| The roles of Kennedy and Johnson in civil rights campaigns | Kennedy's caution, the Freedom Riders, the June 1963 address, Johnson's use of Kennedy's death, the pressure for a new law, the Senate filibuster, what the Civil Rights Act outlawed, the new employment commission and voting rights. | 10 |
| Black Power, radical leaders, and Native American and Chicano campaigns | Malcolm X in and after the Nation of Islam, Stokely Carmichael and Black Power, the Black Panther Party and its effect on the movement, the American Indian Movement, Alcatraz and Wounded Knee, César Chávez and what Chicano campaigners won. | 9 |
| The impact of feminism | Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, the founding of NOW and the women's liberation groups, Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women, the Equal Pay Act, the use of the 1964 ban on sex discrimination, Eisenstadt v Baird and the Equal Rights Amendment. | 10 |
| Stonewall, anti-war protest and the Great Society | The Stonewall riots of 1969 and the first Pride marches, student protest against the Vietnam War and the Kent State shootings, the Poor People's Campaign, Johnson's Great Society, Medicare and Medicaid, and Nixon's welfare pledge. | 9 |
| The state and the American people, 1945–1974 | The Fair Deal, the anti-Communist machinery, the War on Poverty, segregation policy, the GI Bill, housing, women's education, the draft, school prayer, the 1965 Immigration Act, support and dissent, the silent majority and Watergate. | 20 |
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
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Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Nearby topics
OCR GCSE History A Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 1,449 questions with their answers.