Download AP Syllabus for US History

AP U.S. History Syllabus
Course Description
The Advanced Placement United States History class is designed to provide you with the analytic
skills and the factual knowledge to deal critically with the problems and materials in United States
history. You will discover there are many themes that run throughout United States History. In this
class we will explore several of those themes such as religion, American culture, economic changes,
reform, and war. The program prepares you for intermediate and advanced college courses by
making demands upon you equivalent to those made by full-year introductory college courses. You
will learn to assess historical materials for their relevance, their reliability, and their importance, and
to weigh the evidence and interpretations presented in history. AP US History prepares you to pass
the AP Examination in May. To achieve this goal, students should be prepared to spend a significant
amount of time outside of class on homework and research.
Unit 1: The Creation of American Society 1450 – 1763 (3 weeks)
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Text: America’s History – Chapter1, “World’s Collide, Europe, Africa, and
America 1450 - 1620
Text: America’s History – Chapter 2, The Invasion and Settlement of North
America 1550 – 1700
Text: America’s History – Chapter 3, The British Empire in America 1660 –
1750
Text America’s History – Chapter 4, Growth and Crisis in Colonial Society
1720 - 1765
Key Discussion Topics: First European contacts with Native Americans,
English, settlement of New England, the Middle Atlantic Region, the Southern
Colonies, Religious Diversity in the American Colonies, Colonial Economics
and Societies
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Required Reading: Opposing Viewpoints in American History,
2A – “Virginia Is an Abundant New Paradise (1613)”
2B – “Virginia is Not a New Paradise (1624)”
Primary Source Documents – The Mayflower Compact
John Winthrop’s “City Upon A Hill” (1630)
Maryland Toleration Act
Unit 2: The New Republic 1763 – 1820 (2 weeks)
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Text: America’s History – Chapter 5 Towards Independence Years of
Decision 1763 - 1776
Text: America’s History – Chapter 6 Making War and Republican
Governments 1776 - 1789
Key Discussion Topics: The French and Indian War, conflicts with British
rule, The Revolutionary War, Articles of Confederation, The Constitution
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Required Reading: Opposing Viewpoints in American History,
11A – “Parliament is Abusing the Rights of Americans”
11B – “Parliament is Not Abusing the Rights of Americans”
Documents:
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
The Olive Branch Petition
The Declaration of Independence
The Constitution of the United States of America
Federalist Ten
Political Cartoons
“The Bloody Massacre:
“Join or Die”
“The Bostonians in Distress”
“Tarring and Feathering”
“The Repeal”
Unit 2 part 2 - (2 weeks)
 Text: America’s History – Chapter 7, Politics and Society in the New Republic
1787 - 1820
 Text: America’s History – Chapter 8, Creating a Republican Culture 1790 1820
Key Discussion Topics: National economic policy and its consequences,
the United States on the world stage, battling for the nation’s soul, the
election of 1800, the Age of Jefferson, Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and
Clark Expedition, the Quids, Impressment, The Embargo Act, the election
of 1808, problems with Native Americans, the War of 1812, the Hartford
Convention, John Marshall and the Supreme Court, the Missouri
Compromise, the Monroe Doctrine
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Required Reading: Opposing Viewpoints in American History
18A – “A New National Bank Would Be Unconstitutional”
18B – “A New National Bank Would Not Be Unconstitutional”
Founding Brothers – Chapters 1 and 2
Documents: Bill of Rights
Washington’s Farewell Address
Alien and Sedition Acts
Virginia and Kentucky Resolves
12th Amendment
The Embargo Act
British Orders in Council
Missouri Compromise
Monroe Doctrine
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Supreme Court Case: Marbury vs. Madison
Unit 3: Economic Revolution and Sectional Strife (3 weeks)
• Text: America’s History – Chapter 9, Economic Transformation 1820 1860
 Text: America’s History – Chapter 10, A Democratic Revolution 1820 – 1844
 Text: America’s History – Chapter 11, Religion and Reform 1820 – 1860
 Text: America’s History – Chapter 12, The South Expands Slavery and
Society 1820 – 1860
 Text: America’s History – Chapter 13, The Crisis of the Union
Key Discussion Topics: the expansion of democracy, the election of 1824,
John Quincy Adams as President, the rise of Andrew Jackson, nullification,
Jackson vs. Calhoun, the bank veto, the Panic of 1837, second party system,
the second Great Awakening, the Age of Reform, technology and economic
growth, King Cotton, social relations in the White South, honor and violence
in the Old South, the plantation system, the emergence of African-American
culture, newcomers and natives, anti-Catholicism, nativism,
labor protests, the Far West, American settlement of Texas, Texas
Revolution, politics of expansion, Manifest Destiny, the Mexican War,
intensifying sectional divisions, Wilmot Proviso, the California gold rush,
Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Know-Nothings, the origins
of the Republican Party, Bleeding Kansas, the Dred Scott Case, the legacy
of Harper’s Ferry, the election of 1860, Civil War, political leadership in war
time, the Emancipation Proclamation, the war’s economic impact, 13th
Amendment, Reconstruction policies, 14th Amendment, the impeachment
crisis, 15th Amendment, sharecropping, redeeming the South, the election of
1876
Required Reading: Opposing Viewpoints In American History,
23A – “The Bank of the United States Should Be Abolished”
23B – “The Bank of the United States Should Not Be Abolished”
25A – “Indians Should Be Removed to the West”
25B – “Indians Should Be Allowed to Remain in Their Homeland”
Teacher Reading – “The Dawning of Democratic America”
Primary Source Documents – Supreme Court Case “McCulloch vs. Maryland”
Supreme Court Case “Gibbons vs. Ogden”
“Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia”
Jackson’s Veto of Maysville Road Bill
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Jackson’s Veto of the Bank Bill
Jackson’s Message on Removal of Indians
South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification
Force Bill
Political Cartoons
“King Andrew the First”
“Set To Between Old Hickory and Bully Nick”
Unit 3 Part 2 (3 weeks)
 Text: America’s History Chapter 14 – Two Societies At War 1861 – 1865
 Text America’s History Chapter 15 – Reconstruction 1865 – 1877
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Required Reading: Opposing Viewpoints in American History,
26A – “Immigrants Endanger America”
27B – “Immigrants Do Not Endanger America.”
28A – “Slavery Is Not Oppressive”
28B – “Slavery Is Oppressive”
34A – “Secession Is Justified”
34B – “Secession is Not Justified”
Teacher Reading – “Antebellum Culture and Reform”
Teacher Reading – “Manifest Destiny”
Documents: Compromise of 1850
Wilmot Proviso
Crittenden Peace Resolutions
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Emancipation Proclamation
Gettysburg Address
13th Amendment
14th Amendment
Political Cartoons: “Shoving Slavery Down the Throat of a Free Soiler”
“The Era of Manifest Destiny”
Supreme Court Case: The Dred Scott case
Unit 4: A Maturing Industrial Society (4 weeks)
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Text: America’s History – Chapter 16, The American West
Text: America’s History – Chapter 17, Capital and Labor in the Age of
Enterprise 1877 - 1900
Text: America’s History – Chapter 18 The Industrial City Building It,
Text: America’s History – Chapter 19, Politics in the Age of Enterprise 1877 1896
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Key Discussion Topics: Railroad innovations, the triumph of technology, mass
production, mass marketing, industrialization: costs and benefits, the New South,
labor unions, Homestead Strike, Haymarket Strike, urban expansion, revolution of
transportation, slums and ghettos, the settlement house movement, The stakes of
politics, regulating the money supply, civil service reform, big business the Granger
movement, Populists, panic of 1893, the watershed election of 1896, Pacific
expansion, Spanish-American War, Panama canal
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Required Reading: Opposing Viewpoints in American History,
7A – “Concentrations of Wealth Harm America”
7B – “Concentrations of Wealth Help America”
Teacher Reading: “The Birth of American Imperialism: American Foreign Policy
1890 – 1908”
Documents: Interstate Commerce Act
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Pendleton Act
Populist Party Platform
Bryan’s Cross of Gold Speech
Sixteenth Amendment
Seventeenth Amendment
Eighteenth Amendment
Open Door in China
Platt Amendment
Unit 4 Part 2 (3 weeks)
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Text: America’s History Chapter 20: The Progressive Era – 1900 – 1914
Text America’s History Chapter 21: An Emerging World Power 1877 – 1914
Key Discussion Topics: Immigrant masses, new urban middle class, progressivism,
blacks and women organize, Jim Crow laws, NAACP, Theodore Roosevelt,
Roosevelt Corollary, labor disputes, Conservation movement, William Taft, the
election of 1912, Woodrow Wilson, WWI, problems of neutrality, election of 1916,
U.S. enters the war, Washington Naval Conference, Kellogg-Briand Pact, Dawes
Plan
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Required Reading: Opposing Viewpoints in American History,
13A “America Should Retain the Philippines”
13B “America Should Not Rule the Philippines”
Documents: Platt Amendment
Roosevelt Corollary
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Dollar Diplomacy
Political Cartoons:
“Champion Rough Rider of the World”
“All That You Need is Backbone”
“Are We So Soon Forgotten”
“I hardly Know Which to Take First”
“Measuring Uncle Sam For A New Suit”
“The Big Stick in the Caribbean Sea”
Unit 5: The Modern State and Society – (5 weeks)
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Text: America’s History Chapter 22, War and the American State 1914- 1920
Text: America’s History – Chapter 23, Modern Times 1920 - 1932
Text: America’s History – Chapter 24,Redefining Liberalism The New Deal
1933 – 1939
Text: America’s History - Chapter 25, The World At War
Required Reading: Opposing Viewpoints in American History,
16A “Immigrants Harm American Society”
16B “Immigrants Do Not Harm American Society”
18A “America Should Enter World War I”
18B “America Should Not Enter World War I”
Teacher Reading: “The Progressives 1900 – 1914”
Teacher Reading: “America and the Great War”
Documents:
The Zimmerman Telegram
Woodrow Wilson’s War Message
The Fourteen Points
Political Cartoons:
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“Progressive Fallacies”
“Dead on the Wire”
“The Zimmerman Note”
Key Discussion Topics: stock market crash of 1929, human toll of the
depression, Herbert Hoover, election of 1932, New Deal, Second New Deal,
FDR, packing the court, plight of the people, radio and movies, Good
Neighbor Policy, rise of Fascism in Europe and Asia, from isolation to
intervention, a war economy, women and the family, Japanese interment ,
Allied drive in Europe, War in the Pacific, Yalta Conference, atomic bombs,
United Nations
Required Reading: Opposing Viewpoints in American History,
25A “America Needs a New Deal”
25B “Roosevelt’s New Deal Would Destroy America”
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29A “The Interment of Japanese-Americans was Justified”
29B “The Internment of Japanese Americans was Not Justified”
30A “The United States Should Not Drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan”
30B “The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan Was Justified”
Teacher Reading: “What Goes Up Must Come Down: The Stock Market
Crash of 1929”
Teacher Reading: “Home Front U.S.A”
Documents: National Labor Relations Act
Social Security Acts
Reform of the National Judiciary
Tennessee Valley Act
Twentieth Amendment
Twenty First Amendment
Stimson Doctrine
Roosevelt’s Four Freedom’s Speech
The Lend Lease Act
The Atlantic Charter
Yalta Conference
Japanese Relocation Order
Political Cartoons:
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“The Dilemma”
“A Hard Nag To Ride”
“The End of the Depression”
“World War II Ended the Great Depression”
“Crack of Doom”
“The End of the Nap”
“Don’t Let Them Carve Those Faces on our Mountains”
“Hitler’s Plan”
Unit 6: Age of Cold War Liberalism 1945 - 1980 (3 weeks)
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Text: America’s History – Chapter 26, Cold War America – 1945 - 1960
Text: America’s History – Chapter 27, “The Age of Affluence – 1945 - 1960
Text: America’s History – Chapter 28, The Liberal Consensus Flaming Out
1960 – 1968
Text: America’s History - Chapter 29 The 1970s Toward a Conservative
America
Key Discussion Topics: Reconverting the economy from war time to peace time,
polarization, Cold War, European Crisis, containment, Korean War, civil rights, the
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Fair Deal, Eisenhower Presidency, Joseph McCarthy, Warren Court, the CIA,
suburbs, affluent society, baby boom, the fifties, poverty, Sputnik, youth rebellion,
Vietnam War, New Frontier, election of 1960, Civil Rights, Bay of Pigs, Cuban
Missile Crisis, John Kennedy, Voting Rights act of 1965, Freedom Summer, “Black
Power”, Great Society, Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
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Required Reading: Opposing Viewpoints in American History,
32A “Communist Subversives Threaten America”
32B “McCarthyism Threatens America”
33A “Racial Segregation in Public Schools is Unconstitutional”
33B “The Supreme Court Should Not Interfere in Southern Racial Practices”
36A “U.S. Actions in Vietnam are Justified”
36B. “U.S. Actions in Vietnam are Not Justified”
Documents: The Berlin Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Warren Report
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Twenty-Third Amendment
Twenty-Fourth Amendment
Twenty- Fifth Amendment
Nixon’s statement on the Invasion of China
Twenty-Sixth Amendment
Supreme Court Cases: Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka
Miranda vs. Arizona
Gideon vs. Wainwright
Roe vs. Wade
United States vs. Richard M. Nixon
Unit 7: Entering a New Era, Conservatism, Globalism Terrorism 1980 - 2006 (4
weeks)
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Text: America’s History – Chapter 30, “The Regan Revolution and the end of
the Cold War 1980 – 2001
Text: America’s History – Chapter 31 A Dynamic Economy, A Divided
People 1980 - 2000
Text: America’s History – Chapter 32 “Into the Twenty First Century
Key Discussion Topics: the Youth movement, Tet Offensive in Vietnam,
Vietnamization, Détente, Richard Nixon, Election of 1972, Watergate, Women’s
movement, new patterns of immigration, AIDS, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Middle
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East Peace Accords, Reagan Revolution, “ military buildup, “Reaganomics” Cold
War ends, George Bush Sr., Operation Desert Storm, welfare reform, Bill Clinton,
campaign finance reform, impeachment, a New World Order
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Required Reading: Opposing Viewpoints in American History,
39A “A Defense of the Nixon Presidency”
39B “Richard Nixon Should Be Impeached”
Political Cartoons: Reasons for being in Indochina
Wiretapping
Happy Birthday Dr. King
I am not a Crook
Bill Clinton’s Christmas Present from the House
Main Text Book: America’s History by Henrietta
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