Question

“The American experiment in self-government was now facing what was, excepting the Civil War, its greatest test.... And through [out] the world the free way of life was in retreat.... Thirty-three days before... while Franklin Roosevelt celebrated his fifty-first birthday...one hundred thousand massed Storm Troopers and National Socialist marched through the darkened streets of Berlin... waving swastika banners... Many had deserted freedom, many snore had lost their nerve. But Roosevelt, armored in some inner faith, remained calm and inscrutable, confident that American improvisation could meet the future on its own terms.... He was calm and unafraid... the collapse of the older order meant catharsis, rather than catastrophe... [the] crisis could change from calamity to challenge. The only thing America had to fear was fear itself.”
Arthur Schlesinger Jr., The Crisis of the Old Order, 1957

The “greatest test” that Schlesinger was alluding to was

A.) helping the people of Asia and Africa achieve their independence from their colonial rulers
B.) solving the economic problems of the Great Depression
C.) how to rid the world of the threat of the spread of communism
D.) the issue of the decline in morals and values afflicting America

Answer 1

The correct answer should be B.) solving the economic problems of the Great Depression

Colonization of Africa and Asia was not a problem fought by the US and it existed even after WW2. The threat and spread of communism happened after the war, in 50s and 60s. Moral values were not an issue but poverty was because of the great depression that ruined the economy of the US.