Varsity - Social Sciences Flashcards
Name the country that the ancient Romans referred to as Hibernia.
Ireland
What feminist is probably most famous for writing the “Declaration of Sentiments” that she presented to the first women’s rights conference in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848?
(Elizabeth Cady) Stanton
The Pacific island, Tahiti, is a territory of what nation?
France
Name the embroidered cloth nearly 230 feet long, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England and culminating in the Battle of Hastings?
Bayeux (Bie-you) Tapestry
What country did the United States consider as a protectorate under the Platt Amendment, which was passed by Congress in 1901?
Cuba
Name the Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology whose work focuses on people’s efforts to compensate for their self-perceived inferiority to others.
(Alfred) Adler
Name the permanent committee of the House of Representatives which makes recommendations to the House on all bills for raising revenue.
(House) Ways and Means (Committee)
Name the social and political movement that developed in America between 1870-1920 as a reaction to rapid industrialization.
Progressivism or Progressive (Movement)
Give the FULL economic term for the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period.
Gross Domestic Product
Name the 18th century European was fought between Great Britain and Prussia on one side and France, Austria, and Russia on the other, of which the American French and Indian War was a part.
Seven Years’ (War)
What political party, split from the Whigs in 1845, nominated Millard Fillmore as the party’s presidential candidate in 1856, and had the goals of limiting the power of Irish Catholics and other immigrants?
American (Party) (or Know-Nothings)
Identify the city that is the world’s second-largest metropolitan area with over 25.6 million people. It has been considered a leading global city since an economic boom called the ‘Miracle on the Hand River’ (pronounced Hawn)
Seol, (South Korea)
Fought in 1823, what battle was the first clear defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte’s army, leading to Napoleon’s exile the following year?
(Battle of) Leipzig (Lie-pt-szig)
The Republican Party was formed, in part, to protest what act allowed residents of two territories to decide by popular vote whether they wanted slavery or not?
Kansas-Nebraska (Act)
Dams built along what Russian river have interrupted the migration of sturgeon which provide the eggs used for caviar?
Volga (River)
Name the American general who in 1952 said, “It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win,” in reference to the U.S. military policy in Korea.
(Douglas) MacArthur
What 1733 invention doubled the amount of cloth weavers could make, and is considered to mark the beginning of the Industrial Revolution?
flying shuttle
Which religious denomination was the first to embrace abolition before the Civil War?
the Quakers (the Society of Friends)
At what 1814 meeting did European leaders restore pre-revolutionary governments to Europe?
Congress of Vienna
What President was responsible for opening up diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and the US?
(President Richard) Nixon
What legislation outlawed closed union shops in 1947?
Taft-Hartley Act
Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill are famous as proponents of what ethical theory?
Utilitarianism
Name the two Italian-born anarchists whose controversial murder trial in the 1920’s led to a worldwide outcry over
their conviction and eventual executions.
(Nikola) Sacco and (Bartolomeo) Vanzetti
What is the term for a rare dissociative disorder in which two or more personalities with distinct memories and
behavior patterns apparently exist in one individual?
Multiple Personality Disorder (also accept Dissociative Identity Disorder) DO NOT ACCEPT
SCHIZOPHRENIA OR SPLIT PERSONALITY
The prime minister of what country resigned in 2014, paving the way for 39-year-old Matteo Renzi to become the country’s youngest prime minister in history.
Italy
Name the three sitting presidents who received the Nobel Peace prize while in office.
Theodore Roosevelt, (Woodrow) Wilson, and (Barack) Obama
What term describes the process by which an individual is made a U.S. citizen by law, rather than by birth?
Naturalization
Who became the first prime minister of Israel in 1948?
(David) Ben-Gurion
What name is given to the riots that occurred in southern California during WW2, attributed to prejudice against
young Hispanic men who wore baggy, pleated pants and jackets with wide lapels?
Zoot Suit (riots)
Name the landlocked microstate in Southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees Mountains and bordered by
Spain and France, that is the sixth smallest nation in Europe and whose capital is the highest capital city in Europe.
Andorra
Give the name of Pol Pot’s oppressive regime that ruled Cambodia in the late 1970’s.
Khmer Rouge
U.S. troops in the Philippines at the beginning of WWII surrendered and were forced to march across what peninsula
by their Japanese captors?
Bataan
Under the U.S. Constitution, before a person may be charged for a serious crime in Federal Court, a group of between
16 and 23 people must hear evidence to determine if that person should stand trial. What is this body of people
called?
Grand Jury (must give both terms)
What explosive phrase is used to describe the Balkan area of Europe in the early 20th century before World War I?
Powder Keg (of Europe) or Balkan Powder Keg
What two U. S. states were created entirely out of other states?
Maine (from Massachusetts) and West Virginia (split off from Virginia to join the Union side during the Civil War)
Name the Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his studies with children, who declared in
1934 that “only education is capable of saving our societies from possible collapse, whether violent, or gradual.”
(Jean) Piaget (pronounced Pee- ah- zhay)
In an imperial monarchy, what is the full title of the eldest son who is first in line to inherit the throne?
Crown Prince
Name the American journalist, muckraker, and author of the book “The History of the Standard Oil Company”,
whose work led to the breakup of the Standard Oil monopoly.
(Ida) Tarbell
In economics, what term describes the purchase of a good or asset, not intended for final consumption, but rather in
the expectation of future sale at some higher price?
Speculation
Name the world leader who is currently the head of state of the largest number of independent nations?
(Queen) Elizabeth II (Windsor)
Which Alabama governor is credited with saying on January 14, 1963, “I draw the line in the dust and toss the
gauntlet before the feet of tyranny? And I say, Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!”
(George) Wallace
What is the term for the type of land created in the Netherlands where the Dutch built dikes along the shoreline to
reclaim land from the sea?
Polders
Name the city in which a rebellion against British rule by Irish Republicans began on Easter Sunday, 1916.
Dublin
What judicial term names the process during which a person accused of a crime appears in a courtroom to enter a plea
of guilty or not guilty?
Arraignment
What French monarch laid the basis for a unified French state when he went to war with King John of England in
1202?
Philip Augustus/ Philippe Auguste or Philip II/Philippe II (do NOT accept just Philippe/Philip)
What term describes the action of a government allowing a foreigner into the country to provide a safe haven from
persecution in his own country?
(Political) asylum
Who was the Mexican guerrilla leader who led raids into the United States prior to World War I?
(Pancho) Villa
Name the Greek mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist who invented the discipline of
geography, including the terminology used in the discipline today but is, perhaps, best known for being the first
person to calculate the circumference of the Earth.
Eratosthenes (of Cyrene)
Name the pioneer settlement social worker who is recognized as the founder of the social work profession in the
United States and in 1931 became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
(Jane) Addams
Name the term, coined by US economist Thorstein Veblen in his work, The Theory of the Leisure Class, which
describes buying unnecessary and expensive products and services to show off wealth.
Conspicuous Consumption
Identify England’s first Tudor king whose forces defeated Richard III at Bosworth Field and healed the breach between
the rival house by marrying the Yorkist heiress, Elizabeth, daughter of King Edward IV.
Henry VII (Tudor)
What violent uprising in Western Massachusetts in 1786 helped convince many Americans that the Articles of
Confederation needed to be revised?
Shays’ Rebellion
Currently in its 11th Edition, what “Newly Revised” book is known as the “authority” on running effective and
efficient meetings for organized societies?
Robert’s Rules (of Order)
Which DEPARTMENT of the executive branch of the U.S. government oversees such programs as the National
School Lunch Program; Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program; and Crop and Livestock Insurance Programs?
(Department of) Agriculture (accept USDA)
President Theodore Roosevelt is credited with negotiating what treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese War?
(Treaty of) Portsmouth
Name the first female Latina Supreme Court Justice, appointed in 2009 by President Barack Obama.
(Sonia) Sotomayer
By the year 500, what Germanic tribe had effectively taken control of the Italian peninsula, ending the Western
Roman Empire?
Ostrogoths
What American reform movement of the late 1800’s advocated service to the poor?
Social Gospel (Movement)
Name the noted American psychologist who suggested that humans are motivated by five basic needs: physical safety
and security, love, acceptance, esteem, and self-actualization.
(Abraham) Maslow
The Janissaries were a class of civil servant-slaves who also fought as soldiers in the 1400s, but continued to be seen
in the imperial capital of Constantinople well into the 1700s. What empire did the Janissaries serve?
(The) Ottoman (Empire)
The Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song “Ohio” is a protest song written in reaction to the 1970 shooting of
unarmed students by the Ohio National Guard at what university?
Kent State (University)
Name the cartographer, philosopher and mathematician who was the first to use the term “atlas” for a collection of
Maps. He is best known for his world map of 1569, based on a new projection which represented sailing courses of
constant bearing as straight lines.
(Gerardus) Mercator
What city in Spain was the center of art and scholarship under the Muslim Umayyads?
Cordoba (also accept Cordova)
During which presidential administration did the Elk Hills and Teapot Dome scandals occur?
(Warren Gamaliel) Harding
Identify the country from which the Japanese army retreated eastward during World War II because of guerrilla tactics
used by the British-led Chindits.
Burma (Do not accept Myanmar; need to give the name during the specific time period)
What name is given to a vote of a legislative body that is used to end debate, countering a filibuster?
Cloture
Name the pre-Civil War legislation that abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, established a strong fugitive
slave law, and admitted California to the Union as a free state.
Compromise of 1850
Name the separate peace treaty signed in March of 1918 between the Russian Empire and the Central Powers.
(The Treaty of) Brest-Litovsk
Name Japan’s second-largest and northernmost island, home to the Ainu (EYE-new) people.
Hokkaido (hoe-KY-do)
What president, when addressing Congress, made his Fourteen Points as essential to a consideration of world peace
in January of 1918?
(President Woodrow) Wilson
How many people have to die for the infant Prince George of Cambridge to become the King of England?
Three (Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, and Prince William)
Identify the Sea in Europe bordered by Russia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to the east, and by Scandinavia to the
north and west.
Baltic (Sea)
In 1984, who became the first woman to be nominated by a major party for the vice-presidency of the United States?
(Geraldine) Ferraro
According to Muslim teachings, which angel appeared to Muhammad in a dream instructing him to submit to God’s
will?
Gabriel (accept also Jibreel)
What volcano, in present-day Indonesia, erupted in 1883 causing an explosion that was heard 3,000 miles away and
caused at least 36,417 deaths?
Krakatoa
Literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and poll taxes were all developed after the Reconstruction to prevent former slaves
from doing what?
voting
Who was the leader of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1980?
(Marshal Josip/Joseph Broz) Tito
What river is said to flow from the toe of Vishnu?
(The) Ganges
Who were the two competing attorneys in the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial?
(Clarence) Darrow and (William Jennings) Bryan
Which British Colony was returned to Chinese rule in 1997?
Hong Kong
What form of business organization does NOT focus on financial gain for its investors?
a non-profit (organization)
Name the pre-Civil War policy in which the settlers of a territory would determine by vote whether or not slavery
was permitted.
popular sovereignty
What sporting event was revived by Baron Pierre de Coubertin in 1896 in its ancient city of origin?
The Olympics (in Athens)
What are the three types of Delegated powers the Constitution gives to the Federal Government?
Expressed, Implied, Inherent (any order)
The Roosevelt Corollary was an extension of what previously expressed policy of the United States?
Monroe Doctrine
In 1967, Yasser Arafat brought his al-Fatah political party into the PLO, becoming its leader. What does PLO stand
for?
Palestine Liberation Organization
What was the first federal law to regulate railroads and other forms of transportation?
Interstate Commerce Act
Name the Louisiana politician who decided that FDR’s New Deal was insufficiently radical, opted to run for the
presidency to make “Every man a king” through his Share Our Wealth platform, and was assassinated in 1935.
(Huey Pierce) Long
Give the first and last name of the Scottish economist who stressed the importance of the “invisible hand,” the way in
which self-interest pursued in free markets leads to the most efficient possible use of economic resources?
Adam Smith (must have both names)
Which member of Rome’s First Triumvirate was tasked with destroying Spartacus’s Slave Rebellion?
Crassus
The Republican Party underwent a split when which high tariff was passed by Congress with the grudging support of
President Taft?
Payne-Aldrich (Tariff)
Name the international postgraduate award for selected foreign students to study at the University of Oxford that was
established in 1902 and is widely considered the “world’s most prestigious scholarship.”
Rhodes (Scholarship)
Which French philosophe (fil-uh-ZAWFF) published his ideas in “The Spirit of the Laws” in 1748, and argued that
the government functioned through a separation of powers controlled by checks and balances?
(Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de) Montesquieu
What American Indian entity was comprised originally of the Five Nations of the Mohawk, Onondaga (OH-nun-
DAH-guh), Oneida (oh-NYE-duh), Cayuga, and Seneca?
The Iroquois League (also accept Iroquois Confederacy or Confederation)
Name the 20th-century Egyptian leader who after commanding the Egyptian air force during the Yom Kippur War,
was named vice president in 1975 and became president after Anwar Sadat’s death.
(Hosni) Mubarak
The highest parliamentary body in the United States is the Supreme Court. What is the name of the highest court of
appeals in Great Britain?
The House of Lords
In what town did John Brown capture the U.S. arsenal in 1859 in his plan to help free slaves?
Harpers Ferry (Virginia)
What type of experimental design, used in psychology and other sciences, mandates that neither the subjects nor the
experimenters shall know which is the experimental group and which is the control?
Double-blind (study)
What Russian foreign minister negotiated with both Hitler and Stalin in World War II, but is immortalized in his
namesake “cocktail,” a mixture of kerosene and gasoline with a rag fuse stuffed in a glass bottle?
(Vyacheslav) Molotov
Name the 1890 law which began federal efforts to curb monopolies.
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
To visit the ruins of Persepolis, an ancient ceremonial capital of Persia, you would have to travel to what present-day
country?
Iran
Before the unification of Italy into a single kingdom in the 19th century, the country consisted of various city-states.
By what title was the leader of the city-state of Venice known?
The Doge (of Venice) (pronounce dozh)
The Nobel Prize, an international award, is given in six categories. Name any three.
physics, chemistry, physiology, medicine, literature, peace
The “Open Door” notes of John Hay requested European nations and Japan not interfere with U. S. trading rights in
what country?
China
According to the Psychodynamic perspective of psychology, what defense mechanism is used to force memories of
painful experiences into the unconscious mind?
Repression
Which German princess became Empress of Russia in 1762 and enlarged Russia’s territory at the expense of Poland
and Turkey?
Catherine the Great or Catherine the Second (Do NOT accept just Catherine)
Where were U.S. ships allegedly attacked in August, 1964, resulting in an escalation of U.S. forces in Vietnam?
Gulf of Tonkin or Tonkin Gulf
Give the complete name for the abbreviation A.M., meaning before noon.
Ante meridiem
In 1901, the colonies of Victoria and Queensland became states of what new commonwealth?
Australia
Name the husband and wife executed in 1953 at Sing Sing Prison for conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet
Union.
Julius & Ethel Rosenburg or the Rosenbergs
What sociological term can be defined as an unreasonable fear, distrust, or hatred of strangers, foreigners, or anything
perceived as foreign or different?
Xenophobia
What series of laws were passed by the British Parliament in the late 17th century in an attempt to regulate trade
with the American colonies?
Navigation Acts
What law gave the President the authority to give western lands to the Native Americans in exchange for lands they
were living on that the American citizens wanted?
Indian Removal Act (of 1830)
What is the largest Arabic-speaking country in terms of population?
Egypt
What former African head of state was convicted of war crimes by an international court in April of 2012?
(Former Liberian President) (Charles) Taylor
To what achievement was Teddy Roosevelt referring when he called it “the greatest task of its own kind that has ever
been performed in the world at all!”
(The) Panama Canal
What is the term for a vast, flat grassland in southeastern Europe or Siberia?
steppe
What international organization was founded in 1919 as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended World War
I and was intended to promote international cooperation and to achieve international peace and security?
League of Nations
Which U.S. President asked Congress to declare war on Mexico in 1846?
(James K.) Polk
Name the Federal Act of 1938 that established a minimum wage and a maximum workweek of 40 hours. This act
also forbade the employment of children under 16.
Fair Labor Standards (Act)
This siege by the German Army lasted from September 1941 to January 1944. Name the Russian city that withstood
this onslaught.
Leningrad
What President, who brought about an end to Reconstruction, was elected through the help of the Compromise of
1877?
(Rutherford B.) Hayes
What is the correct term for a depository institution that is a non-profit and owned by the account holders, all of
whom are required to be members?
Credit Union
This siege by the German Army lasted from September 1941 to January 1944. Name the Russian city that withstood
this onslaught.
Leningrad
What President, who brought about an end to Reconstruction, was elected through the help of the Compromise of
1877?
(Rutherford B.) Hayes
What is the correct term for a depository institution that is a non-profit and owned by the account holders, all of
whom are required to be members?
Credit Union
What is the name of the widespread transfer of plants, animals, humans, diseases, technology, and ideas between the
Americas and Afro-Eurasia in the 15th and 16th centuries?
Columbian Exchange
What is the name of the 1955 protest which started because Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus?
Montgomery Bus Boycott
What “robber baron” industrialist penned the article, “Wealth”, in 1889, in which he asserted that the wealthy should
give away their fortunes for the betterment of society during their lifetimes rather than leaving it either to their heirs or
to be distributed after their deaths.
(Andrew) Carnegie
What attempt to destroy British Parliament in 1605 was prevented by the capture of Guy Fawkes?
(The) Gunpowder Plot or Gunpowder Treason
Written by Upton Sinclair in 1906, what book helped expose the meat packing industry’s poor health standards and
led the way for reform.
The Jungle
The author of Utopian works including Walden II, which psychologist is famous for his work in operant
conditioning and behavioral modification?
(B.F.) Skinner
What British naval officer defeated the combined French and Spanish armadas in the Battle of Trafalgar?
(Admiral Horatio) Nelson
What unit of all-black airmen trained in Alabama and were sent to Europe, where they won a Distinguished Service
Citation for their work in providing air cover for the Allied invasion of Sicily?
Tuskegee Airmen
What legal term refers to the situation when a lawyer or doctor fails to provide the quality of care that would be
reasonably expected by a customer?
malpractice
This leader’s body was hung upside down in the Square of the 15 Martyrs in Milan in 1945. Name this fascist
dictator who led Italy during World War II.
(Benito) Mussolini
What Barber County, Kansas native was a leader in the Temperance Movement and Prohibition in Kansas and the
nation?
Carrie Nation
What term is given to the long-standing disagreement over whether heredity or environment is more important in the
development of living things, especially humans.
nature-nurture or nature vs. nurture (controversy)
Name the first President of France’s Fifth Republic, who was also the leader of the Free French forces during World
War Two.
(Charles) (Andre Joseph Marie) De Gaulle
What crisis brought the Soviet Union and the United States to the brink of nuclear war in 1962?
The installation of missiles in Cuba or Cuban Missile Crisis
What is the term for an amphitheater-like basin of glacial origin, typically found in mountain valleys?
cirque (pronounced sirk)
Give the full name of the woman from whom Henry VIII (Henry the eighth) sought an annulment in the 1520s; an
event that would eventually lead to England’s schism from the Roman Catholic Church.
Catherine of Aragon (do NOT accept just Catherine)
Who was the Secretary of State who most historians consider to be the actual author of the Monroe Doctrine?
John Quincy Adams (MUST give middle name)
What act did Congress approve in 1935 to help workers, retired workers, and their families achieve a level of
economic protection?
Social Security (Act)
Name the treaty brokered by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 that, among other things, returned the Sinai Peninsula
to Egypt and guaranteed Israeli access to the Red Sea and Suez Canal.
(The) Camp David Accords
Name the Civil War battle in which Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was accidentally shot and died 8 days later of
pneumonia.
(Battle of) Chancellorsville
If the President of the Senate is absent, what is the title of the person who presides over the Senate?
President Pro Tempore or President Pro Tem
Name the term for a general pardon granted by governments for political reasons.
amnesty
Name the eighth president of the United States who was defeated by the Whigs for re-election in 1840.
(Martin) Van Buren
Which article of the Constitution states that “the Constitution,” “the Laws of the United States,” and “all Treaties
made, shall be the supreme law of the land?”
(Article) VI (6)
In 1931, the Japanese army marched into which province in Northern China, taking control of rich coal, oil, and iron
ore deposits?
Manchuria
What was the largest public works project during Eisenhower’s presidency?
Interstate Highway (system)
Name the first woman to be elected party leader in either house of Congress.
(Nancy) Pelosi
During the cold war, what did the acronym M A D (say each letter separately) stand for?
Mutual Assured Destruction or Mutually Assured Destruction
What new political party, with considerable strength in Western farm states, won several electoral votes in the 1892
election.
(The) Populists, or People’s Party
What Semitic language was considered the common tongue of the Middle East when the Middle East was the
crossroads of the world in the first and second centuries?
Aramaic
Give the name of the unicameral national legislature of Israel.
Knesset (pronounced Kuh-ness-et)
Members of what Native American tribe assisted U. S. intelligence efforts during World War II to transmit secret
messages in their native language?
Navajo
