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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. An economic system in which the state controls the production and distribution of certain products deemed necessary for the good of the people






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






3. The policy of supplying government support for corporations when they are in severe financial trouble. The Chrysler Corporation - for example - got a $1.5 billion bailout in 1980 - and the savings and loan banks received at least $159 billion during






4. The practice of paying for goods at regular intervals - usually with interest added to the balance - associated with consumption in the 1920s.






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






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






8. The political belief that America's obvious future was to "o'er spread the continent -" in the words of John O'Sullivan in 1846. A corollary was that Americans would bring democracy to the "ignorant and inferior" peoples of the West. The Mexican War






9. 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.






10. 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






11. A practice used in colonial America in which a person entered into a contract for a specified period of time with another in exchange for the payment of his or her passage to the New World. The indentured servant was sometimes promised some land afte






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






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






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






15. Art and literature that seek to depict the commonplace in a plausible and direct manner.






16. Middle-class reform movement of the first decades of the 20th century which sought to widen political participation - eradicate corruption - and apply scientific and technological expertise to social ills.






17. 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






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






19. 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.






20. 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.






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






22. 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.






23. 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 separation of powers.






24. A form of educational protest at universities. The practice began in 1965 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor - when professors and students analyzed US foreign policy and debated with each other and-only in the earlier days of the war-with go






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






26. 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






27. 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.






28. The mixed race of people that developed as a result of the intermarriage of the Spanish and Native American populations in the 16th and 17th centuries.






29. 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






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






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






32. A global pact initiated in 1997 and put into force in 2005 designed to reduce greenhouse emissions to levels that would avoid climate change. The United States is not one of the 187 nations who have ratified the pact.






33. Anti-communism crusade of the 1950s led by Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy. It was characterized by irresponsible accusations and smear campaigns.






34. Technique of the labor movement in the 1930s that entailed stopping work but not leaving the factory floor - as owners were not able to hire replacement workers so long as the workers occupied the shop floor.






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






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






37. 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






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






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






40. Agricultural labor system in the South following the era of slavery wherein a sharecropper could farm a piece of land in return for giving the landowner a share - usually half - of the crop.






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






42. A type of adjustable-rate mortgage - often requiring no down payment - offered to customers with risky credit ratings. The lending institution makes money by steadily increasing interest payments.






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






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






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






46. 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.






47. A legislature composed of only one house or chamber.






48. 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






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






50. 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