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. Laws enacted in many states based on religious bans of personal behavior deemed immoral; for example - law prohibiting the sale of alcohol on Sundays.






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






3. A prosecutor chosen by a panel of three judges (appointed by the attorney general) to investigate wrongdoing in the executive branch. Established after the Watergate Scandal - the role was designed to prevent conflict of interest within the executive






4. The promotion of products in various media. Modern advertising - employing psychology - expert testimony - and other innovations developed in the 1920s.






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






6. A system of government in which the religious leaders rule. A church-state - where the church is the government - is an example.






7. The process of acquiring new territories






8. A program providing health care for the needy (people who lived below the poverty level) who were not covered by Medicare.






9. 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.






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






11. Illegal bars and saloons that operated during Prohibition.






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






13. A type of colony that was settled by a group of investors and in which the governor of the colony was chosen by the proprietors.






14. 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.






15. Agreements employers forced potential employees to sign in which the employees agreed not to join unions or go on strike.






16. The political idea that the West should be free of slavery. In 1846 - David Wilmot wrote the proviso that there "shall be no slavery or involuntary servitude in any territory acquired from Mexico -" which galvanized the antislavery forces in Congress






17. Coins or gold and silver money - also called "hard money."






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






19. 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.






20. A type of colony controlled by the king. The crown chose the governor to run the colony.






21. 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






22. Middle-class reform movement of the first decades of the 20th century which sought to widen political participation - eradicate corruption - and apply scientific and technological expertise to social ills.






23. Political party organizations that run cities and are often associated with corruption and undemocratic practices. The most notorious example was New York's Tammary Hall Democratic club of the Gilded age.






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






25. 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.






26. A government controlled behind the scenes by another power. During the Vietnam War - South Vietnam's governments were installed and controlled by the US; Ngo Dinh Diem and General Thieu - leaders of South Vietnam were American puppets.






27. A type of economic system in which the state controls the production and distribution of certain products that it deems necessary for the good of the people.






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






29. Machine-made or standardized parts that could be put together to make a product. Eli Whitney demonstrated to President John Adams in 1801 how a box of guns could be disassembled and reassembled randomly. Each part must be precision-made so that it wi






30. A global pact initiated in 1997 and put into force in 2005 designed to reduce greenhouse emissions to levels that would avoid climate change. The United States is not one of the 187 nations who have ratified the pact.






31. The characteristic of a federal system of government in which power is distributed between central and local governments. This distribution of power usually is established through some outside source - often a constitution - as is the case in the Uni






32. Philosophical movement - with deep roots in the United States - which holds that truth emerges from experimentation and experience rather than from abstract theory. it is associated with William James and John Dewey.






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






34. Opposition to communism. Extreme anti-communism was manifested in the "Red Scare" of the 1920s and McCarthyism of the 1950s.






35. Bundles of subprime mortgages that are traded like stocks.






36. 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.






37. Labor in which the worker can leave whenever he or she wishes (as opposed to slave labor). Wage labor or work for pay is free labor.






38. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






44. Art and literature that seek to depict the commonplace in a plausible and direct manner.






45. A tax on imports (goods coming into a country). Tariffs were advocated by Alexander Hamilton in 1792 and favored by the supporters of the American System to pay for internal improvements and protect US industry. Tariffs were often a main issue in Jac






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






47. A policy in which one people or a group within a nation attempts to destroy people whose ethnic background differs from theirs.






48. Critical term for the owners of the big business of the Gilded Age who accumulated great wealth and power.






49. Derisive term for Northerners who went to the South during Reconstruction to promote reform or to profit from it.






50. 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