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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 legislature composed of two houses. The US Congress - composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives - is an example.






2. 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.






3. 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.






4. 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.






5. The series of laws designed to create separation between the races. These were by and large Southern state laws made constitutional by the Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896.






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






7. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s was called the "Second Reconstruction" because the first Reconstruction in the 1860s and 1870s had not brought equality for blacks.






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






9. 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






10. 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.






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






12. Derisive term for US foreign policy in the early 20th century designed to protect the investments of US corporations in Latin America.






13. 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






14. 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






15. 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.






16. A system of government in which the religious leaders rule. A church-state - where the church is the government - is an example.






17. 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






18. Labor in which the worker can leave whenever he or she wishes (as opposed to slave labor). Wage labor or work for pay is free labor.






19. Illegal bars and saloons that operated during Prohibition.






20. 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






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






22. 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






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






24. Progressive-era reform that created a mechanism for voters to approve or reject legislation placed on the ballot. It was designed to weaken the power of entrenched political machines.






25. An invention of the 1870's - barbed wire enabled farmers to enclose land and prevent the long cattle drives that cowboys conducted.






26. 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.






27. The series of laws designed to create separation between the races. These were by and large Southern state laws made constitutional by the Supreme Court decision Plessy. v Ferguson in 1896.






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






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






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






31. 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.






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






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






34. 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.






35. 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.






36. A type of colony that was settled by a group of investors and in which the governor of the colony was chosen by the proprietors.






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






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






39. 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.






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






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






42. 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.






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






44. 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.






45. 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






46. 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.






47. 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






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






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






50. 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