Test your basic knowledge |

SAT Subject Test: U.S. History Vocab

Subjects : sat, history
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. Trade that takes place within the boundaries of a state. Under the US Constitution - the power to regulate intrastate commerce is delegated to the states.






2. A term coined in the 1950s to describe illegal or undesirable behavior by teenagers.






3. A term used to describe an investment with a reward that can be great-if the investment is successful. It contributed to the stock market crash of 1929.






4. Teenagers - as an identifiable social group - emerged in the 1950s. Teenagers were seen both as a problematic - rebellious group - as well as a target for new products and cultural offerings.






5. The development of large military forces - not only for defense of the nation but for possible aggression into other nations. It was one of the causes of WWI.






6. Sensationalist - lurid - and often falsified accounts of events printed by newspapers and magazines to attract readers.






7. Laws made by the British government restricting colonial trade of sugar and tobacco to any country other than England or by any means other than on British ships.






8. The belief that the United States should not be involved in world affairs.






9. The theory that the path to economic growth is through tax cuts for the rich - who will then invest in new businesses and expand old ones - employing new workers as a result.






10. The series of laws designed to create separation between the races. These were by and large Southern state laws made constitutional by the Supreme Court decision Plessy. v Ferguson in 1896.






11. George W. Bush's belief in the propriety of using unilateral preemptive military strikes-essentially a preventive war- to fight terrorism.






12. Reading tests required in some Southern states before people were allowed to register to vote. They were mainly intended to prevent African Americans from voting.






13. A country whose affairs are partly controlled by a stronger country. The US established several protectorates - such as Cuba - in the 20th century.






14. Cattle handlers who drove large herds across the southern Great Plains. The era of the cowboy lasted from 1870 to the late 1880s.






15. The political position that claimed that we could have won the Vietnam War if we had declared war - put in more troops - had a more unified country - or given our generals free reign to fight. These positions are called revisionist because the consen






16. The movement to form labor organizations made up of skilled wokrers within a particular field.






17. The practice of paying for goods at regular intervals - usually with interest added to the balance - associated with consumption in the 1920s.






18. A method of mass production whereby the products are moved from worker to worker - with each person performing a small - repetitive task on the product and sending it to the next for a different task until the finished item is assembled. In the 18th






19. A grouping of nations where each one pledges mutual support to the others. This support is usually defensive in nature. The formation of alliances was a nunderlying cause of WWI.






20. An indictment or formal charge brought by the legislative body against a government official - especially the president - in an attempt to remove him or her from office. If the House of Representatives determines that a president has committed acts t






21. A type of colony in which the people of the colony chose the governor of the colony. Rhode Island was a self-governing colony.






22. A tax that is added onto the price of goods produced - sold - or distributed within a country; for example - sales tax.






23. The idea that each member of the British Parliament represented all British subjects - regardless of location.






24. An indictment or formal charge brought by the legislative body against a government official - especially the president - in an attempt to remove the person from office. If the House of Representatives determines that a president has committed acts t






25. The difference in the votes of men and women. Often men vote Republican in larger numbers that women - who are more likely to vote Democratic - producing a gender gap.






26. Illegal bars and saloons that operated during Prohibition.






27. A type of adjustable-rate mortgage - often requiring no down payment - offered to customers with risky credit ratings. The lending institution makes money by steadily increasing interest payments.






28. Large corporations created by the consolidation of competing companies to form a monopoly or near monopoly.






29. The political advocacy of black-owned businesses and independent black political action. Stokely Carmichael first used the term in a position paper for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1965.






30. The practice of granting the firstborn son the right to all the inheritance of the parent's estate - rather than subdividing it and giving portions to all offspring.






31. The result of a general shift in society in the 1920s characterized by a greater emphasis on purchasing goods.






32. The 19th and early 20th century movement to limit or outlaw the drinking of alcoholic beverages. The movement achieved its ultimate success with the passage of the 18th Amendment-or Prohibition- which went into effect in 1920.






33. A system of government in which the power to rule comes from the people.






34. Trade that takes place between states. Under the US Constitution - the power to regulate interstate commerce is delegated to the Congress.






35. The political and social conviction that only white Protestant Americans deserved civil rights and employment. Nativists tried to prevent the Irish and the new immigrants of the 1880's-1920's from becoming citizens or entering the country. The Know-N






36. Powers given to the national/federal government that are specifically stated in the Constitution. They are found in Article I Section 8 of the Constitution and may also be known as expressed or enumerated powers.






37. A policy developed by the Spanish in the 1500s in which the Spanish settlers in the New World were permitted to use Native American labor if the settlers promised to attempt to Christianize them. It led to the exploitation of the Native Americans






38. Settlers who were granted plots in the West - usually of 160 acres - under the Homestead Act of 1862.






39. An economic system in which the state controls the production and distribution of certain products deemed necessary for the good of the people






40. A slave owner in early Virginia or Maryland; later - according to the census - a man who owned 20 or more slaves.






41. Government policy of noninterference in business practices and in individuals economic affairs; literally translated as "to let do."






42. Worker organization formed to press for workplace demands - such as better wages and safer working conditions.






43. Residential communities near large urban centers. Although suburbs existed in the 19th century - they became a widespread social phenomenon in the 1950s.






44. Persons who do not represent a state or nation who participate in military conflict and do not adhere to accepted rules of war. According to the Bush administration - unlawful combatants captured on the battlefield and detained off of US soil are not






45. A tax placed on imports; its purpose is to make domestic goods cheaper to keep out foreign goods.






46. Motion pictures with sound. The Jazz Singer (1927) was the first movie to use sound in a significant way.






47. The name used by the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson to describe its domestic programs.






48. The idea that the Constitution was created by the states and so the states could dissolve it. This was advocated first by Madison and Jefferson in 1798 in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions and later by Robert Y Hayne in his debate with Daniel Web






49. The traditions - language - and modes of behavior of the field hands who lived together in slave quarters. They practiced many forms of resistance to the wills of their masters - told each other African-derived tales - sand spirituals - and practiced






50. A legislature composed of two houses. The US Congress - composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives - is an example.