AP United States History
Syllabus
AP U.S. History is a course that can earn students college credit. It is a three trimester survey of American history. The course is designed to cover from the age of exploration and discovery to the present. Emphasis is placed on analysis of documents and primary sources, the use of critical and evaluative thinking skills, essay writing and mastering a body of factual information. This is a college level class, and will be taught as such.
Assessments: The length and type of assignments will vary. The class assessments will typically be made up of the following types:
1. History Journal: Reactions to political cartoons, maps, tables, or artwork. Students will be given one of the preceding sources and will write a few sentences in response. This will be daily bell-ringer activity.
2. Reading Check and Chapter Quizzes
3. DBQ’s(Taken from old AP Tests)
4. FRQ’s(Taken from old AP Tests)
5. Essays
6. Unit Tests
7. Research Papers(2nd Tri. And 3rd Tri)
8. Group and Individual Projects
9. End of Trimester Exams
Explanations, expectations, and guidelines will be given out with each assignment and will be posted on the class website.
Class Expectations:
The following are guidelines that students need to follow to be successful.
1. Students must have assignments completed before coming to class.
2. Students should regularly participate.
3. Students need to be a student of history.
4. Students are expected to spend 30-60 minutes nightly at a minimum studying and completing assignments.
5. Students are expected to maintain an organized binder.
6. Students are expected to respect each other in class.
7. Students are encouraged to take advantage of the Old AP tests that I have and take them as practice throughout the semester. We will take at least two tests together.
Textbooks and Readings
John Mack Faragher, Mari Jo Buhle, Daniel Czitrom, Susan H. Armitage. Out of Many: A History of the American People (Fifth Edition, Prentice Hall 2007).
-Used for all chapters
United States History, Volume 1: Taking Sides - Clashing Views in United States History, Volume 1: The Colonial Period to Reconstruction Mc Graw Hill 2008
Larry Madaras, James M SoRelle Taking Sides - Clashing Views in United States History, Volume 2: Reconstruction to the Present: McGraw Hill: 2008
David Emory Shi and George Brown Tindall. America a Narrative History. W.W. Norton Company 2007
David M. Kennedy and Thomas A. Bailey The American Spirit Volume I Eleventh Edition to 1877 Houghton Mifflin 2006
David M. Kennedy and Thomas A. Bailey The American Spirit Volume II Eleventh Edition Since 1865 Houghton Mifflin 2006
Upton Sinclair. The Jungle
Class Overview
This is a tentative class schedule that will be adjusted as needed. Assignments that are listed might be modified. There will be additional assignments that might replace or augment the current ones. Some of the chapters overlap the different themes and will be addressed at various times throughout the course. For exact days and specifics about the assignments or projects, check the class webpage. Readings that are listed are to be done outside of class for homework. Extra reading resources will be given during class and used for discussion or projects. The Course is divided into periods of time with a focus on the following themes:
American Identity
Views of the American national character and ideas about American exceptionalism. Recognizing regional
differences within the context of what it means to be an American.
Culture
Diverse individual and collective expressions through literature, art, philosophy, music, theater, and film
throughout U.S. history. Popular culture and the dimensions of cultural conflict within American society.
Demographic Changes
Changes in birth, marriage, and death rates; life expectancy and family patterns; population size and
density. The economic, social, and political effects of immigration, internal migration, and migration
networks.
Economic Transformations
Changes in trade, commerce, and technology across time. The effects of capitalist development, labor and
unions, and consumerism.
Environment
Ideas about the consumption and conservation of natural resources. The impact of population growth,
industrialization, pollution, and urban and suburban expansion.
Globalization
Engagement with the rest of the world from the fifteenth century to the present: colonialism, mercantilism,
global hegemony, development of markets, imperialism, and cultural exchange.
Politics and Citizenship
Colonial and revolutionary legacies, American political traditions, growth of democracy, and the
development of the modern state. Defining citizenship; struggles for civil rights.
Reform
Diverse movements focusing on a broad range of issues, including antislavery, education, labor, temperance,
women’s rights, civil rights, gay rights, war, public health, and government.
Religion
The variety of religious beliefs and practices in America from prehistory to the twenty-first century;
influence of religion on politics, economics, and society.
Slavery and Its Legacies in North America
Systems of slave labor and other forms of unfree labor (e.g., indentured servitude, contract labor) in Native
American societies, the Atlantic World, and the American South and West. The economics of slavery and
its racial dimensions. Patterns of resistance and the long-term economic, political, and social effects of
slavery.
War and Diplomacy
Armed conflict from the precolonial period to the twenty-first century; impact of war on American foreign
policy and on politics, economy, and society.
Trimester Two
Civil War: 1 ½ Weeks
Themes Addressed:
War and Diplomacy
Globalization
Chapter Focus Questions:
· What social and political changes were created by the unprecedented nature and scale of the Civil War?
· What were the major military campaigns of the war?
· How important was the end of slavery to the war efforts of North and South?
Overview
This chapter covers the deadliest challenge to community and identity— a civil war. Both sides began the war underestimating its seriousness, scope, and duration. Northern generals such as Grant and Sherman recognized the arrival of a more modern style of warfare and fought accordingly. The entire American community went to war, except ironically the southern planter elite who had the largest stake in the outcome. As American men and women served in the military, helped out in many community support organizations, or fled to the Union lines, their lives changed dramatically. The North’s advantage in population and industry finally proved too much for the South to withstand, although victory hung in the balance until nearly the very end of the conflict. Lincoln prepared a generous reconstruction plan that he hoped would rebuild a sense of unity and loyalty. Lee’s surrender in April of 1865 was marred by the assassination of Lincoln later that same month.
Chapter 16 Learning Goals:
Describe how each community, North and South, connected to its soldiers at war, including a comparison of the two communities.
Outline the immediate outbreak of the war from Fort Sumter to Bull Run, including initial strategies and the relative strengths of both sides.
Summarize the actions of Lincoln and the Republicans in conducting and financing the war.
Summarize the actions of Jefferson Davis and various Confederate leaders in conducting the war, including the problems associated with southern nationalism and state’s rights.
Discuss the major strategies, battles, and outcomes from 1862 to 1865.
Explain what the war and various Union legislative acts and reconstruction plans meant to African Americans, particularly slaves and former slaves.
Describe the difficulties the South had combining the “states’ rights” doctrine, the Southern social structure, and antagonism toward the North into a coherent and workable southern nationalism. (Review chapters 11 and 15.)
Readings: Out of Many: Chapter 16
American Spirit: Chapter 21 The Furnace of Civil War 1861-1865
Civil War Soldier’s Life Article
Medical Care Article
Prison Camps Article
Lincoln Assassination Article
Chapter 16 Notes
Chapter 16 Study Guide
Chapter 16 Vocab/People Quiz
Civil War Presentation Project: Person/Battle/Technology/Event of the Civil War
Reconstruction: 1/2 week
Themes Addressed:
Politics and Citizenship
Reform
Chapter Focus Questions:
· What were the competing political plans for reconstructing the defeated Confederacy?
· How difficult was the transition from slavery to freedom for African Americans?
· What was the political and social legacy of Reconstruction in the southern states?
· What were the post-Civil War transformations in the economic and political life of the North?
Readings: Out of Many: Chapter 17
Chapter 17 Notes
American Spirit: Chapter 22 The Ordeal of Reconstruction, 1865-1877
Chapter 16/17 Quiz
1996 Reconstruction DBQ
Overview
This chapter treats the Reconstruction Era as a conflict in three dimensions. The first dimension involved who was to conduct it, the executive or the legislative branch. This led to political battles between Johnson and the Radical Republicans. The second dimension was between Radical Republicans and a South still dominated by a planter elite that refused to be reconstructed. The third dimension of conflict was between black and white identified people of all social backgrounds, with the whites trying to diminish any gains of the former slaves by enacting Black Codes and condoning violence by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Eventually Reconstruction would fail because the Radical Republicans lacked the political power and the will to carry on the struggle, and because the Republican Party became closely identified with northern business interests that cared little for the needs of African Americans, finding it materially profitable to ally themselves with the old planter elite. A disputed election in 1877 ended in a convoluted political compromise that allowed Republican Rutherford Hayes to become president by promising to withdraw federal troops from the South.
Chapter 17 Learning Goals:
Describe the problems of community in Hale County, Alabama as typical of the struggle in the South after the Civil War.
Compare the reconstruction plans of Lincoln and Johnson to the one put forward by the Radical Republicans, and explain how the feuding led to the impeachment of President Johnson. Discuss the issues of freedom for African Americans after the Civil War.
Summarize the problems in reconstructing the seceded states.
Trace the changes in the North and in the federal government that caused it to abandon Reconstruction efforts, including the Compromise of 1876–77.
Discuss the problems of restructuring southern society after the Civil War and the ending of slavery, in light of the historical development of the South up to that time. (Review Chapters 4, 11, and 15)
The Politics of Reconstruction
The end of the Civil War answered some questions about the nation’s future, but raised serious issues about dealing with the South and the 4 million ex-slaves. Disagreement arose between the plans of presidents Lincoln and Johnson versus those of Congress. The Radical Republicans succeeded in implementing their program, including constitutional amendments to guarantee the rights of African Americans.
Development of the West in the Late Nineteenth Century: 1 Week
Themes Addressed:
War and Diplomacy
Demographic Changes
Economic Transformations
Chapter Focus Questions:
· What was the impact of western expansion on Indian societies?
· How did new technologies and new industries help the development of the West as an “internal empire”?
· How were new communities created and old communities displaced?
· What was the myth and legend of the West?
Reading: Out of Many Chapter 18
Taking Sides:
Issue #2 Was the Wild West More Violent than the Rest of the United States?
Reaction Paper to Issue #2: Which side is more convincing, and why?
Chapter 18 Notes
Chapter 18 Quiz
Project:
West Research Poster Project: Students are to put together a poster board on an individual or some aspect about life in the West. Topics will vary.
Overview
This chapter covers the changes in transportation and technology that enabled white settlers to move into the trans-Mississippi West, an area previously labeled the “Great American Desert” and was occupied almost exclusively by Indians and Mexicans. Mining, commercial farming, and ranching brought in more settlers as homestead laws and railroad land advertising promoted the settlement of the Great Plains. Indian communities were under siege and the Indians were generally pushed onto reservations. As the primitive West disappeared, parts of it were preserved in national parks, paintings, written works, and photography, as well as in a stereotyped “Wild West.” Indian cultures were seriously affected by federal legislation such as the Dawes Severalty Act, but many tribes managed to endure and even rejuvenate themselves.
Chapter 18 Learning Goals:
Explain how the Oklahoma Land Rush illustrated the effects of settlement on old and new communities in the trans-Mississippi West.
Describe the impact on and transformation of the Indian communities in the trans-Mississippi West.
Discuss the West as an internal empire, including the role of the federal government in its acquisition.
Summarize the impact of settlement on existing communities as well as the creation of new ones.
Outline various agricultural changes in the region, from the plains cattle industry to California truck farming, including effects on regions east of the Mississippi River.
Summarize the efforts to create images of the “primitive West” in writings, paintings, photography, natural parks, and in stereotyped images of the Wild West.
Industrial America in the Late Nineteenth Century: 1 Week
Themes Addressed:
Economic Transformation
Reform
Demographic Changes
Chapter Focus Questions:
· What led to the rise of big business and the formation of the national labor movement?
· How was southern society transformed?
· What caused the growth of cities?
· What was the Gilded Age?
· How did education change?
· How did commercial amusements and organized sports develop?
Reading: Out of Many Chapter 19
The Jungle: Reading Packet and Test
Taking Sides:
Issue #3: Were American Workers in the Gilded Age Conservative Capitalists?
Reaction Class Discussion to Issue #3: Which side is more convincing, and why?
Chapter 19 Notes
Overview
This chapter covers the industrialization of America from 1865 to 1900. This transformation was based on railroad expansion, which in turn encouraged other industries as well as the development of large-scale corporations. Labor unions organized on a national level for the first time to counter the size and power of the employers, but with only mixed success. America also continued to urbanize, with rapid unplanned growth of the cities that, among other things, produced residential patterns reflecting social class divisions. The South tried to participate in the growth under the motto of the “New South,” but the results generally reinforced old social and economic patterns. The “Gospel of Wealth,” conceived by industrial giant Andrew Carnegie, and similar ideas reinforced differences between the rising middle class and the factory workers, but leisure-time activities such as sports added to national unity and a distinctive American identity.