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20. The correct answer is (C). Isolationism in the 1930s aimed at withdrawing the United States from
foreign affairs, but, in a sense, “foreign” affairs did not include the affairs of the Western Hemisphere.
In fact, the very idea of isolationism required that the nations of the Western Hemisphere close ranks.
To that end, the United States during the 1930s was willing to offer Latin American countries eco-
nomic assistance to combat the worldwide depression and tacitly to disavow the “big stick” policy of
President Theodore Roosevelt.
21. The correct answer is (B). The “melting-pot” image was both a descriptive and a normative con-
cept. It was intended to describe the process whereby an immigrant was absorbed into the larger
American society. The concept was also used as a justification for liberal immigration policies: the
defining characteristic of American society is its rich diversity, and diversity requires the continuing
addition of new elements. But the idea of a “melting pot” depends on two notions that are in tension
with each other. On the one hand, the idea of the “melting pot” seems to imply that the foreign
cultures are valid in and of themselves. On the other hand, the idea implies that the American mixture
is the ideal culture and insists that the foreign culture be dissolved in to the “melting pot.”
The tension between these two ideas is reflected in American immigration policy as the struggle
between those who favor liberal immigration policies and those who oppose them. Opposition to
liberal immigration was particularly strong during the 1920s. Between 1900 and 1920, a large num-
ber of immigrants from southern and southeastern Europe had entered the United States, many of
them Catholic or Jewish, which made them targets of bigotry. In addition, during World War I, many
recent immigrants left to fight against the Allies. Opponents of liberal immigration policies argued
that the “melting pot” was a mistake. In 1921, Congress passed an immigration quota act restricting
the number of persons who could immigrate from a nation to three percent of the number of persons

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ARCO
■ SAT II Subject Tests
from that nation living in the United States as shown by the 1910 census. The National Origins Act of
1924 was even more restrictive. It lowered the relevant fraction to 2 percent and used as the basis the
1890 census. This was particularly restrictive of southern and southeastern Europeans since the mas-
sive immigration from those areas had begun after the base date.
So the 1920s were characterized by nativism, which included irrational hostility toward immi-
grant groups. Perhaps the most famous example of this hostility was the trial of Nicola Sacco and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immigrant radicals, who were charged with a payroll robbery dur-
ing which a guard was killed. The trial was highly politicized, and both defendants were found guilty
on very doubtful evidence. In 1927, both were executed in the state’s electric chair.
Al Capone was, of course, a famous gangster, but Capone was convicted only of income tax
evasion and was sentenced to prison. Fiorello LaGuardia was mayor of New York City during the
1930s. Vittorio Orlando was Italy’s representative at the peace conference at Versailles in 1919. And
Rocky Marciano was a professional boxer.