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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. Laws passed in the Southern states immediately after the Civil War to restrict the movements and limit the rights of African Americans.






2. 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






3. 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






4. 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






5. 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






6. 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.






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






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






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. Hit and run tactics combined with hiding and ambushing the enemy. The soldier would live off the land and population in an area so that he or she need not carry many supplies. The Americans learned this from the Indians in colonial times and used it






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






12. The practice of buying stock on credit. People pay a small percentage of the price of the stock - hoping that it will go up in value and that they can use money from the sale to pay the balance they owe. This practice contributed to the stock market






13. The British policy of the 17th century in which the British were lax in the enforcement of laws in the colonies - thereby allowing the colonies to develop without much interference from the British government. After the French and Indian War - this p






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






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






16. The killing of African Americans - usually by hanging - carried out by white mobs primarily in the Southern states.






17. A court order stopping a specific act - often used against unions to end a strike.






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






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






20. The building of canals - railroads - and turnpikes at state or federal expense. These were part of the American Plan - which became an important part of the Whig program of the 1830s. Internal improvements were also supported by the National Republic






21. The term denoting the ongoing military battle of the US and its allies against terrorism - first used by George W. Bush when addressing a joint session of Congress following the terrorist attacks on September 11 - 2001.






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






23. The study of the environment.






24. 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.






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






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






27. 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.






28. 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






29. The idea that machinery eliminates the need for human employment-that the development of new machine-based methods of work can lead to workers' losing their jobs.






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






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






32. The policy practiced by the European nations prior to WWII wherein they made concessions to aggressive nations-particularly - Hitler's Germany-in hopes of satisfying the demands of that nation and ending further aggression.






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






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






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






36. 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.






37. 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.






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






39. 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






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






41. 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.






42. 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.






43. A skilled worker who had learned a trade from a master as an apprentice. Shoemakers - bakers - blacksmiths. and carpenters were artisans.






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






45. The system built into the US Constitution in which the three branches of government (legislative - executive - and judicial) have separate and equal powers that are limited and dependent upon each other. It is also called checks and balances.






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






47. 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.






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. 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






50. The reaction of some whites to the Civil Rights Movement and the urban riots of the 1960s. The formerly solidly Democratic South started voting Republican following the gains of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s - and many whites sent their kids