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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 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.






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






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






4. The political and social conviction that only white Protestant Americans deserved civil rights and employment. Nativists tried to prevent the Irish and the new immigrants of the 1880's-1920's from becoming citizens or entering the country. The Know-N






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






6. 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






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






8. Grangers - Populists - and agrarian activists of the late 19th century who advocated basing money o silver as well as gold. See Free Silverites.






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






10. 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






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






12. 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






13. The political position that claimed that we could have won the Vietnam War if we had declared war - put in more troops - had a more unified country - or given our generals free reign to fight. These positions are called revisionist because the consen






14. 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.






15. A policy developed by the Spanish in the 1500s in which the Spanish settlers in the New World were permitted to use Native American labor if the settlers promised to attempt to Christianize them. It led to the exploitation of the Native Americans






16. The process of acquiring new territories






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






18. 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.






19. 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.






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






21. A slogan used by President Lyndon B. Johnson to describe his goal of ending poverty in the United States.






22. 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.






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






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






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






26. The series of violent reactions to police brutality - poor living conditions - assassinations - and high unemployment from 1964-1968. The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission) called them a reaction to the rising expecta






27. A term used to describe a person who believes that the Consitution must be interpreted word by word. Thomas Jefferson believed in strict construction of the Constitution.






28. 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.






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






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






31. Popular music genre - with roots in African American rhythm and blues and "doo-wop." It developed in the 1950s and was popularized by Elvis Presley.






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






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






34. 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.






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






36. The study of the environment.






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






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






39. Teenagers - as an identifiable social group - emerged in the 1950s. Teenagers were seen both as a problematic - rebellious group - as well as a target for new products and cultural offerings.






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






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






42. A court order stopping a specific act - often used against unions to end a strike.






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






44. 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






45. 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.






46. Illegal bars and saloons that operated during Prohibition.






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






48. 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






49. A defiant act of the colonies against the British government and its tea trade agreement with East India - which was causing colonial tea merchants to go bankrupt. Protesters dumped an entire shipment of tea into the Boston Harbor.






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