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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. 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






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






3. 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






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






5. 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.






6. 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.






7. Lincoln's Civil War policy of treating runaway slaves as enemy war property. He accepted the slaves as a way to hurt the Southern cause. They were freed and employed as aides to the Union army until Lincoln started recruiting black troops after the E






8. 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






9. The development of large military forces - not only for defense of the nation but for possible aggression into other nations. It was one of the causes of WWI.






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






11. The post-WWII US policy that sought to prevent the spread of communism.






12. The political advocacy of black-owned businesses and independent black political action. Stokely Carmichael first used the term in a position paper for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1965.






13. 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






14. The promotion of products in various media. Modern advertising - employing psychology - expert testimony - and other innovations developed in the 1920s.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






23. People who illegally manufactured - sold - or transported alcoholic beverages during the Prohibition period.






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






25. 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






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






27. 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.






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






29. Critical term for the owners of the big business of the Gilded Age who accumulated great wealth and power.






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






31. The movement of mostly college-educated women to provide shelter - cultural activities - and services to the poor. The height of the movement occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.






32. 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






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






34. Settlers who were granted plots in the West - usually of 160 acres - under the Homestead Act of 1862.






35. The traditions - language - and modes of behavior of the field hands who lived together in slave quarters. They practiced many forms of resistance to the wills of their masters - told each other African-derived tales - sand spirituals - and practiced






36. 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.






37. Techniques used in industry to produce large quantities of goods using interchangeable parts and moving assembly lines. Elements of mass production were developed in the 19th century; the process was perfected by Henry Ford in the 1910s.






38. 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.






39. The process of acquiring new territories






40. 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






41. 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






42. 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






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






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






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






46. The exodus of white - middle-class families from cities to suburbia following WWII - partially caused by the migration of African Americans to urban centers.






47. 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.






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






49. 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






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