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






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






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






4. 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






5. An increase in number - volume - scope. In reference to the Vietnam War - it refers to the increase in the number of troops and the intensity of involvement by the United States.






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






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






8. 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






9. 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.






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






11. Those who were against the Vietnam War in the 1960s.






12. A grouping of nations where each one pledges mutual support to the others. This support is usually defensive in nature. The formation of alliances was a nunderlying cause of WWI.






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






14. 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






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






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






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






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






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






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






21. 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.






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






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






24. 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.






25. 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






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






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






28. Cotton that grew inland in the Black Belt of the South - an area characterized by its dark soil. Short-staple cotton could not be grown profitably until the cotton gin was invented.






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






30. An element of President Truman's 1947 Federal Employees Loyalty and Security Program - which was designed to weed out communists and other "subversives" from government employment.






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






32. 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.






33. 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






34. 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.






35. 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






36. 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.






37. This clause - found in the last paragraph of Article I Section 8 of the US Constitution - allows Congress to make laws not specifically delegated to it by the Constitution but that may be "necessary and proper" to carry out its delegated powers. (Als






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






40. 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.






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






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






43. 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






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






45. 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






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






47. A land policy developed in the 1600s in Virginia and Maryland designed to encourage settlement in the New World. It promised 50 acres to any person who paid his own passage to the New World. It also promised an additional 50 acres to any person who p






48. The characteristic of a federal system of government in which power is distributed between central and local governments. This distribution of power usually is established through some outside source - often a constitution - as is the case in the Uni






49. The idea that each member of the British Parliament represented all British subjects - regardless of location.






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