AP U.S. History Summer Assignment
Contact Info: rollinsbr@anderson1.k12.sc.us
Welcome to AP U.S. History. I look forward to working with each of you this year. In this class you are
going to be accepting the responsibility and the workload of a college freshman. In this class you will be expected to
read, analyze, and write. The whole emphasis of this class is to prepare you for the AP test, which will gain you
college credit. In the process of preparing for the test, you will also learn how to become a college student. You will
learn the importance of taking notes on what you read, you will learn how to identify important information, you
will learn how to analyze events to determine the important role that they played in our history, and you will learn
how to write a college essay. In essence you will learn how to think on a higher level.
In order to get a jump on our journey through American history you will need to do some summer work.
Below are 3 assignments. Each is worth 100 points and will count as a test grade
American History assignments
Assignment 1:
Watch ten hours of historical programming or movies with historical
content and write a brief description of the American history that you found. Be
sure to indicate what you learned about history from the video. BE MINDFUL OF THE RATINGS OF THE
MOVIES. Some may not be appropriate for you personally.
Example: Gone With The Wind Time: (you may not use this one)
This movie was set in the South during the Civil War and the period of
Reconstruction that followed. It traces the trials of a wealthy family in the South
during these time periods. I was not aware that most wealthy Southerners lost
everything because of the war. I also was not aware that the Union army virtually
destroyed all of Atlanta during the war. I was amazed to find out that some of the
slaves kept working loyally for their masters even after they were freed by the
Union army.
Additional Movie Titles and Topics
Film Title
Red River (1948)
The Godfather
(1972)
American History Topics
The American Frontier
Integration of the West into the
Capitalist System
American Expansion
American Exceptionalism
Alternate Films
Fort Apache
Dances With Wolves
High Noon
Shane
Stagecoach (1939)
Unforgiven
Undefeated
The Immigrant Experience
The Rise of Organized Crime
America, America
Avalon
Gangs of New York
The Great Depression
Dehumanization of Labor
Hester Street
Public Enemy
All the King's Men (1949
version)
City Lights
The Grapes of Wrath
Ironweed
Casablanca
(1942)
American Neutrality
Vichy France
World War II
From Here to Eternity
The House on 92nd. Street
Passage to Marseilles
Watch on the Rhine
Tora, Tora, Tora
(1970)
World War II
D-Day
To Hell and Back
Battleground
Patton
Fat Man & Little Boy
Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes
Truman
Good Night and
Good Luck
(2005)
The McCarthy Era
Blacklisting
Hollywood and the Cold War
The Front
Guilty by Suspicion
Dr. Strangelove
(1964)
The Nuclear Age
The Cold War
Advise and Consent
Fail Safe
The Manchurian Candidate
Thirteen Days
(2000)
Cuban Missile Crisis
Cold War
The Kennedy Administration
Seven Days in May
The Missiles of October
Apocalypse Now
(1979)
Vietnam War
Born on the Fourth of July
The Deer Hunter
Modern Times
(1936)
Fog of War
Full Metal Jacket
Green Berets
Heart of Darkness
Path to War
Platoon
Malcolm X
(1992)
Civil Rights Movement
Historical Biography
The Ghosts of Mississippi
King
Mississippi Burning
The Rosa Parks Story
All the President's
Men
(1976)
Watergate Scandal
The Nixon Administration
Investigative Journalism
Nixon
Norma Rae
(1979)
Late 20c Union Movement
Erin Brockovich
Silkwood
Assignment 2:
Read one of the following books
Develop a topic sentence, make an outline and write a 3 page essay on the subject.
a. 1776 by David McCullough
b. John Adams by David McCullough
c. Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished
Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt
by David McCullough
d. Truman by David McCullough
e. American Courage by Herbert Warden III
Assignment 3:
Complete a note card for the terms on this page.
Terms: On note cards write a definition of the following terms. This must be done in
your own handwriting. No cut and paste computer stuff. Be sure to have the term and the
explanation on the same side of the card. Your definition should give the important
information. Who was the person, group, or thing? What did they do? When did they do
it? Why was the action important?
English Navigation Acts
Headright System
Mercantilism
Triangular Trade
Indentured Servants
Middle Passage
Half-way Covenant
Joint-stock company
Puritan
Loyalists
Committees of Correspondence
Checks and Balances
Marbury v. Madison
Era of Good Feelings
Monroe Doctrine
Spoils Systems
Separation of Powers
Antifederalists
Tariffs
Corrupt Bargain
Pet Banks
McCulloch v. Maryland
Kitchen Cabinet
Nullification
War Hawks
Missouri Compromise
Whig Party
Abolition
Popular Sovereignty
“Fifty-four forty or fight”
Compromise of 1877
Sharecropping
Gilded Age
Dollar Diplomacy
Kansas-Nebraska Act
“Free Soil”
Carpetbaggers
Ironclads
Freeport Doctrine
Bleeding Kansas
Border States
Copperheads
“Ten-Percent Plan”
Jim Crow Laws
Poll tax
New Freedom
Yellow Journalism
Dawes Act
Trusts
Muckrakers
The Big Four
Great Migration
Final Solution
Rosie the Riveter
Containment
Vietnamization
New Deal
Presidential Impeachment
Bonus Army
Lost Generation
Deficit Spending
Roaring Twenties
Internment
Second Front
Détente
Dixiecrats
Great Society
Gulf War
Isolationism
100 days
Hoovervilles
blitzkrieg
Kamikaze
Brinksmanship
Truman Doctrine
Fair Deal
Warren Court
Manhattan Project