The College Board Advanced Placement Examination
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United States History
SECTION II
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DO NOT OPEN THIS INSERT UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO.
Do not break the seal on the pink booklet until you are told to do so.
Use this green insert to outline your answers and make notes, but do not write your answers in the
green insert. They will not be scored.
WRITE ANSWERS IN THE PINK BOOKLET ONLY.
Use black or blue pen only
Total reading and planning period for Part A, Question 1 – 15 minutes.
Part A consists of Question 1 (document-based question) which appears on pages 4-8.
You MUST answer this question.
Total writing time for document-based question – 45 minutes
Part B consists of two questions (2 and 3) from which you will choose ONE question to answer. Part B
appears on page 9.
Suggested planning period for question in Part B – 5 minutes
Suggested writing period for question in Part B – 30 minutes
Part C consists of two questions (4 and 5) from which you will choose only ONE question to answer. Part
C appears on page 10.
Suggested planning period for question in Part C – 5 minutes
Suggested writing period for question in Part C – 30 minutes
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Be sure to indicate, at the top of each page in the pink booklet, the question you are answering on that
page by circling the appropriate question number
AFTER THE EXAM, YOU MUST CIRCLE YOUR QUESTION CHOICES ON THE BACK COVER OF
THE PINK BOOKLET. FAILURE TO DO SO MAY DELAY YOUR GRADE.
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The College Board Advanced Placement Examination
United States History
SECTION II
(Suggested writing time – 45 minutes)
Percent of Section II score - 45
Directions: The following question requires you to construct a coherent essay that integrates your
interpretation of Documents A – F and your knowledge of the period referred to in the question. High
scores will be earned only by essays that both cite key pieces of evidence from the documents and
draw on outside knowledge of the period.
1. David Halberstam writes in his book The Fifties that during this decade “the American dream was to
exercise personal freedom not in social and political terms, but rather in economic ones. Eager to be
part of the burgeoning middle class, young men and women opted for material well-being, particularly
if it came with some form of guaranteed employment.” Security “meant finding a good white-collar job
with a large, benevolent company, getting married, having children, and buying a house in the suburbs.”
Using the documents and your knowledge of the decade, evaluate how accurately Halberstam
describes the image of the 1950s as, in his own words, “an orderly era.”
Document A
Source: C. P. Trussell, “School Red Drive Held Incomplete,” New York Times, March 26, 1953.
Dr. William Jansen, Superintendent of New York City’s public schools, reported to the Senate
Internal Security subcommittee today that, while the long fight to rid classrooms of Communist
teachers had been effective, “we are by no means satisfied that we have cleaned up the
situation.”
Dr. Jansen stressed in his testimony . . . the following facts and figures . . .:
• About 180 teachers are now under investigation
• Since 1950 eighty-one teachers have been removed, suspended, retired or allowed to resign
after inquiries got under way.
• Although these numbers were small, when measured against the 37,000 teachers of the city’s
public schools, the “threat” was real because of the ability of extreme minorities of
Communists to override, at times, the influences of the overwhelmingly thoroughly loyal
majorities of teachers.
The Congressional inquiries [by Senator Joseph McCarthy’s subcommittee] into teaching staffs
of schools and colleges continued to provoke widespread opposition from many quarters as an
assault on academic freedom.
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Document B
Source: Edward Collins, “Economics and Finance: The Social Security Message,” .New York
Times, January 18, 1954.
President Eisenhower in his special message to Congress . . . on social security confined his
recommendations, on the whole, to comparatively modest proportions.
He dealt for the most part with the country’s major security plan, the old-age and survivors’
insurance program [ Social Security Act, and he] proposed:
1. A further broadening of worker coverage under this legislation, enacted in 1935 during the
first Administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His proposal, originally put forward
by him last August, contemplates bringing within the program about 10,000,000 more
individuals, mainly from the ranks of self-employed farmers, additional farm and domestic
workers and various groups of self-employed professional people.
2. Higher benefits. The minimum allowed at present is $25 a month, and the maximum $85
for a single person. . . . The President left details for presentation to Congress later by his
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Mrs. Oveta Culp Hobby. It was reported,
however, that the plan called for increases ranging from $5 to $13.50 a month in the case of
persons on the rolls now, to $5 to $23.50 a month for those retiring in the future.
Document C
Source: Urban, Rural, and Suburban Americans, 1940—1960.
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Document D
Source: Nan Robertson, “Homemakers Take Jobs To Stave Off Boredom,” New York Times,
January 22, 1958.
. . . Mr. Brandt is the executive vice president of the Kelly Girl Service, which calls itself the
nation’s biggest supplier of women white-collar workers for part-time office duty.
Mr. Brandt said the typical Kelly Girl was 37 1/2 years old, married and had 2.1 children (The
baby boom has affected these part-time workers too - two years ago, the typical Kelly Girl had
1.8 children.)
“She doesn’t want full-time work, but she’s bored with strictly keeping house. Or maybe she
just wants to take a job until she pays for a davenport [sofa] or a new fur coat,” he explained.
Document E
Source: I Love Lucy TV show, Oct. 15, 1951 to May 6, 1957 on the CBS television network
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Document F
Source: Chicago Daily Defender (an African-American newspaper) May 28, 1958.
Few incidents in recent American history can match the courage shown by the nine teen-age
Negroes of Little Rock. They risked their lives for the sake of establishing a principle: the right
to attend an integrated high school. They did it in the face of ugly and determined opposition;
they did it under circumstances that would have caused many stout-hearted grownups to
withdraw behind the protective shield of their own homes.
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Document G
Source: Advertisement, Motorola TV, 1950s.
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Document H
Source: Levittown, Bucks County, PA. 1957 Ariel photograph
END OF DBQ DOCUMENT