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






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






3. Progressive political reform in the early 1900s that enabled voters to introduce legislation.






4. 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






5. Techniques used in industry to produce large quantities of goods using interchangeable parts and moving assembly lines. Elements of mass production were developed in the 19th century; the process was perfected by Henry Ford in the 1910s.






6. 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.






7. The political belief that America's obvious future was to "o'er spread the continent -" in the words of John O'Sullivan in 1846. A corollary was that Americans would bring democracy to the "ignorant and inferior" peoples of the West. The Mexican War






8. Popular music genre - with roots in African American rhythm and blues and "doo-wop." It developed in the 1950s and was popularized by Elvis Presley.






9. The political position advocating sending free blacks to Liberia in Africa to reduce the number of them in the country-the more blacks that were freed - the fewer there would be in America. It was seen as a way of alleviating the danger of slave insu






10. An agricultural system in which farm workers supply their own tools - rent land - and have more control over their work than agrarian wage workers.






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






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






13. 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






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






15. Illegal bars and saloons that operated during Prohibition.






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






17. The condition when all adults in a democracy are granted the right to vote.






18. The series of violent reactions to police brutality - poor living conditions - assassinations - and high unemployment from 1964-1968. The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission) called them a reaction to the rising expecta






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






20. 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






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






22. Historiography is the study of how history is written. Historians in the 1950s-consensus historians-in general argued that America was the world's great democracy that only did good in the world and had no conflicts at home. Largely due to the effort






23. 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.






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






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






26. 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.






27. A list - circulated among potential employers - of alleged "troublemakers" not to be hired.






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






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






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






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






32. This clause - found in the last paragraph of Article I Section 8 of the US Constitution - allows Congress to make laws not specifically delegated to it by the Constitution but that may be "necessary and proper" to carry out its delegated powers. (Als






33. The principal that the Supreme Court has the power to review laws passed by Congress and actions taken by the president to determine whether or not they are consistent with the Constitution. The Supreme Court can declare a law or presidential action






34. A practice used in colonial America in which a person entered into a contract for a specified period of time with another in exchange for the payment of his or her passage to the New World. The indentured servant was sometimes promised some land afte






35. The political position advocated by Jerry Falwell - Pat Robertson - and other conservative Republicans emphasizing a life of religious observance along with no drugs - no divorce - no abortions - no homosexuality - no working mothers - and no sex bef






36. 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






37. A list of persons - often secretly circulated - who are disapproved of and are to be denied employment or other benefits.






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






39. The study of the environment.






40. Perfected by Samuel F. B. Morse in 1844 - the telegraph allowed for communications over long distances by tapping out coded messages to be carried over wires.






41. Lincoln's Civil War policy of treating runaway slaves as enemy war property. He accepted the slaves as a way to hurt the Southern cause. They were freed and employed as aides to the Union army until Lincoln started recruiting black troops after the E






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






43. 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.






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






45. 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






46. Also called "applied Christianity -" this reform movement - driven by Christian teachings - sought to relieve the suffering of the poor.






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






48. 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.






49. 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.






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