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






2. 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.






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






4. 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






5. 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






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






7. 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






8. 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.






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






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






11. 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






12. 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






13. 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.






14. Umbrella term for biological - chemical - and nuclear weapons designed to kill large numbers of people.






15. 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






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






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






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






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






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






21. An indictment or formal charge brought by the legislative body against a government official - especially the president - in an attempt to remove him or her from office. If the House of Representatives determines that a president has committed acts t






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






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






24. 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.






25. 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






26. 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.






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






28. 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.






29. 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






30. 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






31. Early 20th-century election reform that allowed citizens - rather than political machines - to choose candidates for public office.






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






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






34. 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.






35. A term used to describe the ability of people to move within the social framework of a society. If the social system provides opportunities for a person born into a lower social class to move to an upper one - or vice versa - a characteristic of the






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






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






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






39. 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.






40. 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.






41. 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






42. The process of acquiring new territories






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






44. 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






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






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






47. A global pact initiated in 1997 and put into force in 2005 designed to reduce greenhouse emissions to levels that would avoid climate change. The United States is not one of the 187 nations who have ratified the pact.






48. 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.






49. The formal or official approval for a constitution or amendment.






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