HiSET Social Studies flashcards
HiSET Social Studies · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Marbury v. Madison
- 1803 Supreme Court case establishing judicial review, the power of courts to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional. It made the judiciary a coequal branch.
- Opportunity cost
- The value of the next-best alternative given up when a choice is made. It reflects scarcity and underlies all economic decision-making.
- Emancipation Proclamation
- 1863 executive order by Lincoln declaring enslaved people in Confederate-held territory free. It reframed the Civil War as a struggle against slavery.
- Latitude and longitude
- Latitude measures distance north or south of the equator in degrees; longitude measures east or west of the prime meridian. Together they pinpoint absolute location.
- Primary source
- A document, artifact, or record created during the period being studied, such as a diary, photograph, or treaty. It offers direct evidence.
- Industrial Revolution
- Period beginning in Britain around 1750 when mechanized production, steam power, and factories transformed economies and urbanized societies.
- Checks and balances
- Constitutional design letting each branch limit the others, such as a presidential veto or a Senate refusal to confirm an appointment.
- Supply and demand
- Supply rises with price while demand falls; equilibrium occurs where quantity supplied equals quantity demanded, setting market price.
- Reconstruction amendments
- The 13th abolished slavery, the 14th guaranteed citizenship and equal protection, and the 15th protected voting rights regardless of race.
- Push and pull factors
- Push factors like war or famine drive people to leave a place; pull factors like jobs or safety attract them to a new one.
- Correlation versus causation
- Correlation means two variables change together; causation means one produces the other. Confounding variables can create misleading correlations.
- Silk Roads
- Overland trade networks linking China, Central Asia, and Europe that carried goods, religions, technologies, and disease, including the Black Death.
- Electoral College
- Body of 538 electors chosen by states who formally elect the president; 270 votes are needed to win.
- Gross domestic product
- The total market value of final goods and services produced within a country in a given period, used to measure economic output.
- Brown v. Board of Education
- 1954 Supreme Court ruling that racial segregation in public schools violated the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause, overturning Plessy.
- Demographic transition model
- A model showing population change as countries develop: high birth and death rates shift to low rates, with rapid growth in between.
- Fact versus opinion
- Facts are verifiable statements; opinions express judgments or beliefs, often signaled by evaluative words such as best, should, or unfair.
- Neolithic Revolution
- The shift from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture around 10,000 BCE, enabling cities, surplus food, and social hierarchy.
- Federalism
- A system dividing power between a national government and state governments, with the 10th Amendment reserving unspecified powers to the states.
- Inflation
- A sustained rise in the general price level that reduces purchasing power; measured by the Consumer Price Index and countered by higher interest rates.
- New Deal
- 1930s programs under Franklin Roosevelt that expanded federal regulation and created Social Security to address the Great Depression.
- Mercator projection
- A map projection preserving compass direction but distorting area, making landmasses near the poles appear far larger than they are.
- Secondary source
- A work that interprets or summarizes primary evidence, such as a textbook, biography, or documentary made after the events.
- Decolonization
- The postwar process by which colonies in Asia and Africa gained independence, including India in 1947 and Ghana in 1957.
- Bill of Rights
- The first ten amendments to the Constitution, protecting freedoms like speech, religion, and due process from federal overreach.
- Comparative advantage
- The ability to produce a good at lower opportunity cost than another party, the basis for mutually beneficial specialization and trade.
- Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Federal law banning discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in public accommodations and employment.
- Urbanization
- The growing share of a population living in cities, driven by rural-to-urban migration and industrial job growth.
- Bias in sources
- A source's slant shaped by its author, audience, and purpose. Detect it by checking who wrote it, when, and why.
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- 1948 United Nations document setting out basic rights and freedoms, adopted in response to atrocities of the Holocaust and World War II.
- Judicial review
- The power of courts to strike down laws or actions that conflict with the Constitution, established in Marbury v. Madison.
- Business cycle
- The recurring pattern of economic expansion, peak, contraction or recession, and trough, measured largely by changes in GDP and employment.