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. Populists and "Silver Democrats" who in the 1890s argued in favor of an immense increase in silver coinage as a way of stimulating a faltering economy. See Bimetallists.






2. 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.






3. 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.






4. 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






5. 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.






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






7. 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.






8. Those who were pro-Vietnam war in the 1960s.






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. 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






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






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






13. Motion pictures with sound. The Jazz Singer (1927) was the first movie to use sound in a significant way.






14. Derogatory term used by the labor movement to describe workers who cross picket lines






15. An organization and discussion method employed by feminists in the late 1960s and early 1970s in which women would exchange experiences of discrimination - read radical analyses of oppression - and develop an understanding that the patriarchal or som






16. 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






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






18. The political position that favors abortion on demand.






19. A company that developed in the early 1600s in England wherein a group of investors pooled their money to finance exploration of the new World. The investor would receive a portion of the profits resulting from the exploration of the New World based






20. 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






21. 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






22. The belief that the United States should not be involved in world affairs.






23. 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






24. 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.






25. Teenagers - as an identifiable social group - emerged in the 1950s. Teenagers were seen both as a problematic - rebellious group - as well as a target for new products and cultural offerings.






26. 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






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






28. Organizations - such as the underground press - Students for a Democratic Society and its offshoots - and women's groups (like the Red Stockings) - that were interested in social change but uninterested in the debates over whether to support Russia a






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






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






31. 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






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






33. 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






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






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






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






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






38. 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.






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






40. The political position that opposes abortion.






41. Derisive term for white Southerners who cooperated with the Reconstruction governments.






42. 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.






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






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






45. 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.






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






47. A type of coal - noted for being hard and clean burning.






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






49. 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.






50. 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.