Ashbee Chapter 1
1. What percentage of the population is African-American?
2. What were the ‘Jim Crow’ laws?
3. What was the rough percentage of the black population below the
poverty line in 2001?
4. What are the characteristic political attitudes of the black population?
5. What are characteristic political attitudes of the white population?
6. How did JFK describe the US?
7. Where was the first settlement, and what was its main characteristic?
8. Where was the second settlement, and what was its main
characteristic?
9. How is the backbone of the new nation designated?
10. Who emigrated to America in large numbers between 1845 and 1855
and why?
11. Why was the US attractive to immigrants?
12. Where did the Latinos come from, and where did they settle?
13. What are the main problems of the Latinos?
14. What is the rough number of illegal immigrants?
15. What was proposition 187?
16. Suggest 5 main effects of large scale immigration.
17. How is the ethnic composition of the US likely to change in the future?
18. What is the ‘underclass’?
19. State the liberal (broadly democratic) and conservative (broadly
Republican) prescriptions for urban poverty.
20. What is the ‘overclass’?
21. What was the ‘manifest destiny’?
22. What are the main problems of the Native Americans?
23. Suggest the main features of the North-East.
24. Suggest the main features of the Midwest.
25. Suggest the main features of the South.
26. Identify an important economic trend in recent years.
27. Describe current differences in political outlook between men and
women.
28. What is meant by the gateway regions and the ‘heartland’? Suggest the
significance of the distinction.
29. Comment on 3 aspects of culture wars.
30. What is meant by affirmative action?
Ashbee Chapter 2
1. What is meant by the ‘American Dream’?
2. How do James A Garfield, Andrew Carnegie and Bill Clinton illustrate
the American dream?
3. How did Jack London view the US?
4. How did Christopher Lasch argue that the American dream has been
distorted?
5. What is meant by the US’s laissez-faire economics?
6. Why, arguably, did American socialism founder?
7. What is meant by populism?
8. Describe the 3 ways in which the US practices direct democracy.
9. What is meant by negative freedom?
10. Which philosopher is linked to negative freedom?
11. What is meant by positive freedom? Name 2 recent US presidents who
accepted the positive conception of freedom.
12. How does the American view of rights differ from the European?
13. Why has the American view been reinforced?
14. Describe the American understanding of equality, how could it be
criticised?
15. Suggest the influence of religion on the US.
16. What is meant by assimilation?
17. In what way have the black poor been assimilated?
18. How did the two World Wars contribute to the assimilative process?
19. Why have regional differences been eroded?
20. State 3 important contemporary divisions.