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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 treaty in which the parties agree not to attack each other unless attacked first.






2. 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.






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






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






5. The political position that favors abortion on demand.






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






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






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






9. 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.






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






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






12. 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.






13. 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.






14. 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.






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






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






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






18. The practice of victorious candidates distributing government jobs to friends and supporters rather than to the most qualified people. Andre Jackson gave his supporters the spoils of victory - whereas John Quincy Adams by and large did not.






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






20. Worker organization formed to press for workplace demands - such as better wages and safer working conditions.






21. 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.






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






23. 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.






24. 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






25. The political position that opposes abortion.






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






27. Machine-made or standardized parts that could be put together to make a product. Eli Whitney demonstrated to President John Adams in 1801 how a box of guns could be disassembled and reassembled randomly. Each part must be precision-made so that it wi






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






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






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






31. 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






32. 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






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






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. 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.






36. 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






37. 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.






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






39. A policy of empire building in which a nation conquers other nations or territories with the goal of increasing its power and expanding the area it controls. This was a cause of WWI.






40. 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.






41. Tax paid by those wishing to vote in several Southern states after Reconstruction. It was designed to limit political participation by African Americans.






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






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






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






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






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






47. A government controlled behind the scenes by another power. During the Vietnam War - South Vietnam's governments were installed and controlled by the US; Ngo Dinh Diem and General Thieu - leaders of South Vietnam were American puppets.






48. 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.






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






50. 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