20 CLEP US History II practice questions, with answers and video walkthroughs

Twenty practice questions for CLEP History of the United States II, in the real exam's style. Score 16 of 20 here and you are in passing range. Miss more than four, and the pattern of your misses points straight at the topic to review next. Every question below is explained on video, including why the wrong answers trap most test-takers.

When I took CLEP History of the United States II for my degree at Thomas Edison State University, the move that mattered was steady practice in the exam's format, with an explanation for every miss. Use these the same way: answer, check, and read why the wrong choices are tempting. For the full plan around them, see the CLEP History of the United States II pillar guide.

Watch the full video walkthrough above, then test yourself on the twenty questions below. Each one is explained on the video, including why the wrong answers trap most test-takers.

Questions 1 to 5 (questions 1 to 5)

1. The constitutional amendment that abolished slavery in 1865 was the: Thirteenth Amendment. The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in 1865, ended slavery throughout the United States. The Fourteenth then granted citizenship and the Fifteenth protected voting rights.

2. The era of rebuilding the South after the Civil War was called: Reconstruction. Reconstruction, from 1865 to 1877, was the period of rebuilding the South and defining the rights of formerly enslaved people.

3. The Southern laws that enforced racial segregation for decades after Reconstruction were known as: Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation across the South, upheld by the 1896 Supreme Court ruling that allowed separate but equal facilities.

4. The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 by driving a ceremonial: golden spike. The transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 at Promontory Summit, Utah, joined by a ceremonial golden spike that linked the country coast to coast.

5. Wealthy industrialists like Carnegie and Rockefeller who dominated the late 1800s were nicknamed: robber barons. Critics called the era's powerful industrialists robber barons, for amassing vast fortunes in steel and oil, often by crushing their competition.

Questions 6 to 10 (questions 6 to 10)

6. Journalists who exposed corruption and harsh conditions in the early 1900s were called: muckrakers. Muckrakers were investigative journalists, like Upton Sinclair, whose exposes of business and government spurred Progressive Era reforms.

7. The 1920 amendment that gave women the right to vote was the: Nineteenth Amendment. The Nineteenth Amendment, ratified in 1920, guaranteed women the right to vote. The Eighteenth, by contrast, had begun Prohibition.

8. The United States entered World War One in 1917 largely in response to: German submarine warfare. Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare, including the sinking of the Lusitania, plus the Zimmermann Telegram, drew the United States into World War One in 1917.

9. President Woodrow Wilson's plan for peace after World War One was called the: Fourteen Points. Wilson's Fourteen Points outlined his vision for peace, including a League of Nations, though the United States ultimately never joined the League.

10. The nationwide ban on alcohol from 1920 to 1933 was known as: Prohibition. Prohibition, set by the Eighteenth Amendment, banned alcohol nationwide and fueled organized crime until it was repealed in 1933.

Questions 11 to 15 (questions 11 to 15)

11. The stock market crash that began the Great Depression happened in: 1929. The stock market crashed in October 1929, triggering the Great Depression, the worst economic downturn in American history.

12. President Franklin Roosevelt's programs to fight the Depression were collectively called the: New Deal. Roosevelt's New Deal created programs like Social Security and the Works Progress Administration to provide relief, recovery, and reform in the 1930s.

13. The United States entered World War Two after the 1941 attack on: Pearl Harbor. Japan's surprise attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into World War Two.

14. The 1944 Allied invasion of German-occupied France was known as: D-Day. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Allied forces landed at Normandy, opening the western front that helped end the war in Europe.

15. World War Two in the Pacific ended after the United States dropped atomic bombs on: Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, and Japan surrendered days later, ending World War Two.

Questions 16 to 20 (questions 16 to 20)

16. The decades-long rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union after 1945 was called the: Cold War. The Cold War was a long standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union, fought through arms races, proxy wars, and the space race rather than direct combat.

17. The 1954 Supreme Court case that declared school segregation unconstitutional was: Brown v. Board of Education. Brown v. Board of Education overturned the separate but equal doctrine and ordered the desegregation of public schools, a landmark of the civil rights movement.

18. The leader of the nonviolent civil rights movement who gave the "I Have a Dream" speech was: Martin Luther King Junior. Martin Luther King Junior led the nonviolent civil rights movement and delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech at the 1963 March on Washington.

19. The 1962 confrontation that brought the superpowers closest to nuclear war was the: Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a thirteen-day standoff in 1962 over Soviet missiles in Cuba, the closest the Cold War came to nuclear war.

20. The Berlin Wall, a symbol of the Cold War divide, fell in: 1989. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the collapse of communist control in Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union itself dissolved two years later.

What to do with your score

The point of twenty questions is not the twenty, it is the pattern. When I scored a practice set, I marked which topic each miss came from, then spent my next session on that topic alone. None of it requires starting over, only tightening the spots that cost you points.

A single twenty-question set is a snapshot, not a study plan. To pass with margin you need volume: enough questions, in the exam's format, with explanations that turn a wrong answer into a correction. That is what Flying Prep's CLEP History of the United States II practice is built for: every question explained, with a free trial before you decide.