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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. 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.






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






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






4. 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






5. An economic system in which a colony exists for the good of the mother country. The colony's role is to provide raw materials for the mother country (especially products that the mother country cannot produce itself) and serve as a market for the goo






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






7. 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






8. 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






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






10. 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.






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






12. The organizations and events in the 20th century that collectively pressured federal - state - and local governments and businesses to grant equal rights to blacks and other minorities.






13. An invention of the 1870's - barbed wire enabled farmers to enclose land and prevent the long cattle drives that cowboys conducted.






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






15. Anti-communism crusade of the 1950s led by Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy. It was characterized by irresponsible accusations and smear campaigns.






16. 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.






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






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






19. 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






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






21. 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.






22. President Roosevelt's (FDR) attempt in 1936 to push a judicial reform bill through Congress that would allow him to appoint six new Supreme Court justices sympathetic to his New Deal.






23. A body of advisers to a head of state. The US president's cabinet consists of the heads of the various departments plus other advisers.






24. Derisive term for US foreign policy in the early 20th century designed to protect the investments of US corporations in Latin America.






25. A type of democracy in which the people vote on the actions of the government - rather than electing representatives.






26. Grangers - Populists - and agrarian activists of the late 19th century who advocated basing money o silver as well as gold. See Free Silverites.






27. The political act of leaving the Union. The Southern states formed their own country during 1860-1861 after they seceded from the United States.






28. A strong feeling of pride in and devotion to one's nation. For people under the control of a foreign power - nationalism is expressed as a desire that one's nation should become a free and independent country. For people who already live in an indepe






29. 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






30. The movement of mostly college-educated women to provide shelter - cultural activities - and services to the poor. The height of the movement occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.






31. 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






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






33. The generation of children born between the end of WWII and 1964.






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






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






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






37. The post-WWII US policy that sought to prevent the spread of communism.






38. The process of acquiring new territories






39. A term used to describe a person who believes that the Consitution must be interpreted word by word. Thomas Jefferson believed in strict construction of the Constitution.






40. 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






41. Technique of the labor movement in the 1930s that entailed stopping work but not leaving the factory floor - as owners were not able to hire replacement workers so long as the workers occupied the shop floor.






42. 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.






43. 1) The political theory that the people hold the fundamental power in a democracy 2) The proposal by Steven Douglas in the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act stating that the people of the territory of Kansas and Nebraska could decide though their representati






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






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






46. The study of the environment.






47. The political position that opposes abortion.






48. 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.






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






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