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. Trade that takes place within the boundaries of a state. Under the US Constitution - the power to regulate intrastate commerce is delegated to the states.






2. 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.






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






4. The policy of supplying government support for corporations when they are in severe financial trouble. The Chrysler Corporation - for example - got a $1.5 billion bailout in 1980 - and the savings and loan banks received at least $159 billion during






5. 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.






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






7. A political system dominated by two parties. Voters reluctance to support third parties reinforces the two-party system. The first two-party system - dating back to the 1970s - included the Federalist and Republican Parties. The current two-party sys






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






9. 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.






10. The political position that favors abortion on demand.






11. The policy used by the British before the War of 1812 wherein the British stopped US vessels and removed sailors from them to be used on British naval vessels. it was also used to a limited extent by the French during this same period. It was one of






12. 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






13. 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.






14. 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.






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






16. A form of educational protest at universities. The practice began in 1965 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor - when professors and students analyzed US foreign policy and debated with each other and-only in the earlier days of the war-with go






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






18. 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






19. 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






20. An economic system in which the production and distribution of goods is determined by individual consumer preference. It is characterized by the free-enterprise system - competition - profit motive - and pricing based on the laws of supply and demand






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






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






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






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






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. The railroad route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that was completed in 1869.






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






29. 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






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






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






32. 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






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






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






35. 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






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






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






38. George W. Bush's belief in the propriety of using unilateral preemptive military strikes-essentially a preventive war- to fight terrorism.






39. Trade that takes place between states. Under the US Constitution - the power to regulate interstate commerce is delegated to the Congress.






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






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






42. 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






43. Large plantation-type farm established by the Dutch along the Hudson River in the 1600s.






44. 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.






45. 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






46. Provisions in the voting laws in Southern states following Reconstruction designed to allow whites who could not pass literacy tests to vote. The grandfather clause gave the right to vote to people whose grandfathers had been eligible to vote-a provi






47. 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.






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






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






50. 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.