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. A form of nonviolent protest used by antiwar and antisegregation activists. Protesters would take over buildings - camp out in front of administration offices - or sit at lunch counters and demand to be served on an integrated basis. The first sit-in






2. The belief the the US should not be involved in world affairs.






3. Umbrella term for biological - chemical - and nuclear weapons designed to kill large numbers of people.






4. A treaty in which the parties agree not to attack each other unless attacked first.






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






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






7. The joining together of companies to control all aspects of the production process of an item - from the mining or growing of materials through production and distribution of the final product.






8. Cotton that grew inland in the Black Belt of the South - an area characterized by its dark soil. Short-staple cotton could not be grown profitably until the cotton gin was invented.






9. 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.






10. A program providing health insurance and health care for people over the age of 65.






11. An increase in number - volume - scope. In reference to the Vietnam War - it refers to the increase in the number of troops and the intensity of involvement by the United States.






12. The joining together of companies engaged in similar business practices to create a virtual monopoly.






13. A policy of empire building in which a nation conquers other nations with an aim toward increasing its power and controlling those nations. This was a cause of WWI.






14. A belief in the ability of people to achieve success in difficult times by calling on their own abilities and resources without the interference of the government. Herbert Hoover subscribed to this notion; it affected the development of governmental






15. A defiant act of the colonies against the British government and its tea trade agreement with East India - which was causing colonial tea merchants to go bankrupt. Protesters dumped an entire shipment of tea into the Boston Harbor.






16. The Eisenhower-era theory that one communist country would infiltrate or influence its neighbors - supporting insurrection there and causing them to become communist too. They would fall like a series of dominoes standing close together. Kennedy - Jo






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






18. Progressive-era reform that created a mechanism for voters to approve or reject legislation placed on the ballot. It was designed to weaken the power of entrenched political machines.






19. 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






20. The power of the president to reject legislation. The US Congress can override a veto by the US president if it can pass the legislation by a two-thirds majority.






21. A high tax placed on imports. Its purpose is to make domestic goods cheaper than foreign goods - thus "protecting" domestic industry.






22. The exodus of white - middle-class families from cities to suburbia following WWII due to the migration of African Americans to urban centers.






23. Early 20th-century election reform that allowed citizens - rather than political machines - to choose candidates for public office.






24. 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.






25. A legislature composed of only one house or chamber.






26. Organizations - such as the underground press - Students for a Democratic Society and its offshoots - and women's groups (like the Red Stockings) - that were interested in social change but uninterested in the debates over whether to support Russia a






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






28. The economic state in which prices are rising (inflation) and unemployment is high - producing stagnation of growth.






29. 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.






30. The wave of immigration from the 1880s to the 1920s of Eastern and Southern Europeans - contrasted with the "old" immigration of Northern and Western Europeans.






31. A conference attended by leaders of two or more nations.






32. 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.






33. Agricultural labor system in the South following the era of slavery wherein a sharecropper could farm a piece of land in return for giving the landowner a share - usually half - of the crop.






34. The name used by the administration of John F. Kennedy to describe its proposed programs for the nation.






35. Journalists of the Progressive era who exposed urban poverty - unsafe working conditions - political corruption - and other social ills.






36. People who illegally manufactured - sold - or transported alcoholic beverages during the Prohibition period.






37. A company that developed in the early 1600s in England wherein a group of investors pooled their money to finance exploration of the new World. The investor would receive a portion of the profits resulting from the exploration of the New World based






38. The movement to form labor organizations that represent every worker in a single industry - regardless of his or her level of skill.






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






40. Found in the 10th Amendment - it provides that any powers not specifically given to the central government or specifically denied to the state governments by the Constitution are powers that the states are granted. For example - the power to develop






41. 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






42. Illegal bars and saloons that operated during Prohibition.






43. A type of government characterized by a loose alliance of states leading to a weak central government and strong state governments. This was the type of government that existed under the Articles of Confederation.






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






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






46. A machine that separates seeds from the cotton. The short-staple cotton that grew inland in the South's Black Belt could be cleaned profitably only with the cotton gin. The invention of the cotton gin allowed cotton cultivation to spread - enabling s






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






48. The process of acquiring new territories






49. The movement to end slavery. There were many points of view on the subject. Immediate abolitionism advocated ending slavery everywhere and refusing to cooperate with the political process (William Lloyd Garrison). Political abolitionism advocated an






50. 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.