Advanced Placement United States History
Terry Bray, Instructor
terry.bray@franklin.kyschools.us
Western Hills High School
Frankfort, Ky
Introduction
Each class meets for 50 minutes each day for the full length of the school year (two semesters). 2 nd
semester events will include review sessions, practice writing workshops, and test taking strategies.
While the emphasis of the course instruction leans towards the chronological, there will be central
themes which the course will be examining that carry over and beyond any particular set of years. These
themes can be political, social, ideological, cultural, diplomatic, or economic in nature. More specific
explanation of course themes may be found below.
Course Materials
This course’s foundational text is Out of Many and its accompanying documents workbook. A variety
of other works, both primary and secondary, have been embedded within the course to produce
supplementary readings, DBQ’s and other appropriate student assignments. These supplementary
resources are listed below and can be found, in an abbreviated form, throughout the syllabus.
Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Anv ed. New York: Mariner Books, 2002. Print.
Cronon, William. Natures Metropolis Chicago and the Great West. New York/London: W W
Norton &Co. Inc, 1992. Print.
Cronon, William. Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature. New Ed ed. New
York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. Print.
Davis, Kenneth C.. Don't Know Much About History - Updated and Revised Edition. Unabridged ed.
New York: Random House Audio, 2005. Print.
Greene, Bob. Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen. Brattleboro: Harper
Paperbacks, 2003. Print.
Hollinshead, Byron. I Wish I'd Been There: Twenty Historians Bring to Life the Dramatic Events
That Changed America (Vintage). New York: Anchor, 2007. Print.
Hollitz, John. Thinking Through the Past, Volume II. 4 ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing,
2009. Print.
Loewen, James W.. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got
Wrong. New York: Touchstone, 2007. Print.
Muller, Gilbert. The Mcgraw-hill Reader: Issues Across the Disciplines. 11 ed. Boston: Mcgraw-Hill
College, 2010. Print.
Riis, Jacob A.. How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York (The John
Harvard Library). Cambridge: Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2010. Print.
Rydell, Robert. The Reason Why Colored American Is Not in World's Columbian Exposition: The
Afro-American's Contribution to Columbian Literature. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999.
Print.
Terkel, Studs. The Good War: An Oral History of World War II. New York: New Press, 2002. Print.
Unger, Irwin/, Irwin (Edt)/ Unger, and Debi (Edt) Unge. The Times Were a Changin'. New York:
Random House Inc, 1998. Print.
Williams, Eric. Capitalism and Slavery. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
Print.
Worster, Donald. Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s. 25th Anniversary Edition ed. New
York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2004. Print.
Major Themes of the Course
The following themes are critical to gain a deep understanding of the intricacies of American history
and have been woven within the units, lessons, and assessments of this course.
• American Diversity
• American Identity
• Culture
• Economic Transformations
• Politics and Citizenship
• Religion
• War and Diplomacy
This is not a complete list, nor should a theme's exclusion from this list been seen as a disparagement or
a sign that it will not be covered during the course.
Curricular Calendar
Unit 1: Pre-Revolutionary History (Three Weeks)
Primary Text:
Out of Many: Chapter 1, Native American settling of North America (migration from Asia),
Cultural regions of North America on the eve of colonization.
Out of Many: Chapter 2, Spanish colonization of North America, Northern exploration and
encounters.
Out of Many: Chapter 3, Jamestown and the Powhatan Confederacy, New England colonies
(Puritan beliefs and society, Plymouth colony and Mayflower compact), expansion of tobacco in the
Chesapeake and growth of indentured servitude, and the proprietary colonies.
Out of Many: Chapter 4, Beginnings of African slavery, political and economic effects of the
slave trade, development of North American slave societies, evolution of African to African American,
and policy of mercantilism.
Out of Many: Chapter 5, The cultures of colonial North America, development and identity of
North American regions (Indian America, Spanish Borderlands, New England, the Middle Colonies, the
South, and the Frontier Heritage), and the Great Awakening.
Supplementary Text:
Hollinshead, “A Day in Cahokia-AD 1030”, pages 1-16.
Williams, “The Origin of Negro Slavery”, pages 3-29.
Davis, What was the Great Awakening?”, pages 57-58.
Major Primary Documents (Out of Many Document Workbook):
John Winthrop Defines the Puritan Ideal of Community (1630)
Roger Williams Argues for Freedom of Conscience in 1644
AP Test Preparation: 1993 DBQ, New England v. Chesapeake.
Unit 2: Revolutionary Period and the New Nation (Two Weeks)
Primary Text:
Out of Many: Chapter 6, The Seven Years War, the emergence of American nationalism, British
colonial acts, colonial resistance to British authority, Conflicts at Lexington and Concord, the Second
Continental Congress and the Declaration of Independence.
Out of Many: Chapter 7, The American Revolution, Compare and contrast patriots and loyalists,
the war in the North and South, the French alliance, creation and implementation of the Articles of
Confederation, status of African Americans during the Revolutionary War, and the involvement/impact
of Native American tribes with respect to the American Revolution.
Out of Many: Chapter 8, The crisis of the 1780’s, the Constitutional Convention, ratification of
the Constitution (including the Bill of Rights), Washington’s administration (Hamilton’s fiscal program,
Jay and Pinckney Treaties, and Washington’s farewell address), conflict between Federalists and
Jeffersonian Republicans (Alien and Sedition Acts, Adam’s presidency, the Revolution of 1800, evolution
of the democratic political culture).
Supplementary Text:
Davis, “How did the Colonies win the War?”, and “What did America Win?” pages 103-105.
Major Primary Documents (Out of Many Document Workbook):
The Proclamation of 1763
Patrick Henry’s Speech to the Second Virginia Convention
Land Ordinance of 1785
The Northwest Ordinance
First-Hand Accounts of the Shays’ Rebellion
The Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury Battle about the Constitution
Petition from those who protested during the Whiskey Rebellion
AP Test Preparation: 1984 full examination. 1997 DBQ American nationalism on the eve of revolution.
Unit 3: Solidifying the New Nation (Two Weeks)
Primary Text:
Out of Many: Chapter 9, European controlled North America after the Revolutionary War (Haiti,
Spanish colonies, and Russian America), cotton and the economy of the young Republic, Jefferson’s
presidency (Republican agrarianism, the independent judiciary, the Louisiana Purchase, Texas and
Mexican independence), conflict with England (problems with neutral rights, the embargo act,
Madison’s Indian policy, the War of 1812, Missouri Compromise, the Hartford Convention, and the
Treaty of Ghent),
Out of Many: Chapter 10, Southern expansion of cotton and slavery, internal slave trade,
differentiated experiences of slaves, the evolution and preservation of African American culture and
identity, resistance and revolt of slaves, and proslavery arguments.
Supplementary Text:
Davis, “What was Impressment? And What was the War of 1812 about?”, pages 153-156.
Major Primary Documents (Out of Many Document Workbook):
Supreme Court Opinion on McCulloch v. Maryland
Missouri Enabling Act (Missouri Compromise)
1823 State of the Union Address (Monroe Doctrine)
A Slave Tells of His Sale at Auction
A Slave Girl Tells of Her Life
AP Test Preparation: 1998 DBQ, Hamiltonian Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans.
Unit 4: Growth of Democracy and Jacksonian Era (Two Weeks)
Out of Many: Chapter 11, The election of 1824, the early push for suffrage and its limitations, the
new popular democratic culture, the nullification crisis, Indian removal, the bank war under Jackson, the
Panic of 1837, internal improvements in infrastructure and their impact on the evolution of the
American identity.
Supplementary Text:
Hollinshead, “The Corrupt Bargain”, pages 81-95.
Davis,” Who were the Whigs? And What were Jacksonian Democracy and the Spoils System?”, pages
165-176.
Major Primary Documents (Out of Many Document Workbook):
Daniel Webster’s Speech opposing Nullification
South Carolina Refuses the Tariff
AP Test Preparation: FRQ over Andrew Jackson’s administration under testing conditions.
Unit 5: A Rapidly Changing America (Two Weeks)
Primary Text:
Out of Many: Chapter 12, The industrializing North, preindustrial ways of working,
transportation revolution, the market revolution, and the creation of a new social order
Out of Many: Chapter 13, Immigration and ethnicity, patterns of immigration, Irish v. German
immigration, growth of ethnic neighborhoods, growth of cities, class structure and living patterns in
cities, big city machines, early social reform movements (temperance, moral reform, asylums, prisons,
and Mormonism), antislavery and abolitionism, and the early women’s rights movement.
Supplementary Text:
Davis, chapter introduction to the era of manifest destiny, pages 185-188.
Davis, “What did America gain from the Mexican War?”, pages 192-193.
Major Primary Documents (Out of Many Document Workbook):
The Carpenters of Boston go on Strike in 1825
A New England Factory Issues Regulations for Workers
A Young Woman Writes on the Evils of Factory Life in 1845
Seneca Falls Declaration of 1848
Southern Belle Denounces Slavery in 1838
A Black Feminists address to the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention
AP Test Preparation: FRQs over immigration and early social movements under testing conditions.
Unit 6: Territorial Expansion and Sectionalism (Two Weeks)
Primary Text:
Out of Many: Chapter 14, Exploring the West, manifest destiny and the overland trails, creation
of Oregon and Texas (election of 1844), the Mexican-American War, California and the gold rush, politics
of expansion (Wilmot Proviso, Free-Soil Movement, and election of 1848).
Out of Many: Chapter 15, The Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act, the election of 1852,
Kansas-Nebraska Act, “Bleeding Kansas”, the Republican Party and the election of 1856, the Dred Scot
decision, the Lecompton Constitution, Panic of 1857, John Brown’s Raid, the election of 1860, the South
leaves the Union, establishment of the Confederacy, and Lincoln’s inauguration.
Supplementary Text:
Hollinshead, “James K. Polk and the 1844 election”, pages 112-131.
Davis, “What was the compromise of 1850?” pages 199-201.
Davis, “What was the difference between a man named Dred Scott and a Mule?”, pages 208-210.
Major Primary Documents (Out of Many Document Workbook):
John O’Sullivan declares the “Manifest Destiny” of the United States
An abolitionist is given the Death Sentence in 1859
Northern States Defy the Fugitive Slave Act
AP Test Preparation: 1988 Examination, 2005 DBQ Failure of Compromise.
Unit 7: Civil War and Reconstruction (Three Weeks)
Primary Text:
Out of Many: Chapter 16, Fort Sumter, the border states, the Battle of Bull Run, comparing the
North and South at the beginning of the Civil War, Lincoln expands the power of the Federal
government, Jefferson Davis’ attempts to unify the South, the war in Northern Virginia, Shiloh and the
war for the Mississippi, the African American response and involvement in the Civil War, the politics of
the Emancipation Proclamation, the life of the common soldier, economic and social issues of the North,
New York City draft riots, the turning point of 1863, comparing Grant and Sherman, the election of 1864,
the end of the war at Appomattox, the cause and impact of the Lincoln’s assassination.
Out of Many: Chapter 17, Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan, Andrew Johnson and Presidential
Reconstruction, Congressional Reconstruction and the impeachment crisis, the election of 1868, the
African American reconstruction experience (evolution of the African American family, African American
churches and schools, land and labor after slavery, and the origins of African American politics), overall
impact of reconstruction in the South, white resistance to reconstruction, white yeoman as a result of
reconstruction, liberal Republicans and the election of 1872, the depression of 1873, and the electoral
crisis of 1876.
Supplementary Text:
Davis, “the 1860 Census” and “What was the difference between the Confederate and U.S.
Constitutions?”, pages 219-222.
Davis, “What was Reconstruction?”, “Why was President Johnson Impeached?”, and “Who were the
Carpetbaggers?”, pages 244-251.
Selected readings from “We Shall Overcome”.
Major Primary Documents (Out of Many Document Workbook):
An African American Soldier writes to the President Appealing for Equality in 1863
Black Code of Mississippi in 1865
Frederick Douglas Speech to the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1865
A Sharecrop Contract
AP Test Preparation: FRQ about Reconstruction under testing conditions.
Unit 8: Healing the Wounds of War through National Growth (Three Weeks)
Primary Text:
Out of Many: Chapter 18, The Indian Wars, reservation and the slaughter of the buffalo, the
growth of mining towns, Mormon settlements, farming communities on the plains, the Homestead Act,
new production technologies in America’s breadbasket, evolution of California’s agribusiness,
environmental impact of farming in America’s West, life in the “Wild West”, and the transformation of
Indian society.
Out of Many: Chapter 19, The rise of industry through revolutions in technology and
transportation, the expansion of the American economy and expanding the market for goods, the
evolution of the wage labor system, goals and characteristics of the Knights of Labor and American
Federation of Labor, “the New South” as an internal colony and the transformation of Piedmont
Communities, the growth and impact of industrial cities (the urban landscape, populating the city, and
environmental impact), and the rise of a consumerism society.
Out of Many: Chapter 20, The rise of political machines, the spoil system and civil service
reform, the Farmers’ Alliance, populism and the People’s Party, the Depression of 1893, Homestead and
Pullman Strikes, the Social Gospel, the election of 1896, the implementation of segregation through
nativism, Jim Crow Laws, and lynchings, American imperialism and the building of an American Empire,
“the White Man’s Burden”, and the Spanish American War.
Supplementary Text:
Hollinshead, “Chief Joseph Surrenders”, pages 186-203.
Davis, “Who were the Robber Barons?”, “Of what was William Tweed Boss?”, “What Happened at
Haymarket Square?”, and “Who was Jim Crow?”, pages 264-283.
Riis, “The 1880’s a Decisive Decade”, pages 17-31 along with other selected passages.
Rydell, “Editor’s Introduction”, pages xi-xx along with other selected passages from the primary text.
Major Primary Documents (Out of Many Document Workbook):
Bill Haywood, Miners and Cowboys
D.W.C. Duncan, How Allotment Impoverishes the Indian
Charles and Nelly Wooster, Letters from the Frontier
Lee Chew, Experiences of a Chinese Immigrant
Populist Party Platform, 1892
AP Test Preparation: 2000 DBQ the Evolution of Organized Labor
Unit 9: Urban Boom and Progressive Reform (Two Weeks)
Primary Text:
Out of Many: Chapter 21, Characteristics of the Progressive Era, political progressives and their
impact on urban reform, muckrakers and their impact on progressive goals, the prohibition movement,
standardizing education, progressive era immigration and its impact on urban life, the rise of company
towns, the women’s movement (identity of the ‘new woman’, birth control, and Black women’s
activism), Teddy Roosevelt and presidential activism, trustbusting and regulation of business,
conservation and preservation of the environment, the split of the Republican Party, the election of
1912, and Woodrow Wilson’s first term.
Supplementary Text:
Davis, “What was the ‘Big Stick’?” pages 294-296,
Cronon,” Reinventing Common Nature: Yosemite and Mount Rushmore-A Meandering tale of a Double
Nature”, pages 379-408 (abridged).
Selected readings from “We Shall Overcome”.
Major Primary Documents (Out of Many Document Workbook):
Upton Sinclair, excerpts from The Jungle
The Niagara Movement, Declaration of Principles
Unit 10: World War I (One Week)
Primary Text:
Out of Many: Chapter 22, Becoming a world power through Roosevelt’s foreign policy, Taft’s
dollar diplomacy, and Wilson’s moralism and realism in Mexico, American neutrality in World War I,
American preparedness in peacetime, selling World War I to the American public, domestic opposition
to the war, racism in the military, Americans in battle, organizing the economy for wartime production,
labor changes during the war, woman suffrage, prohibition, the Espionage and Sedition Acts, the Great
Migration and racial tensions, Wilson’s Fourteen Points, America’s response to the Russian Revolution,
the Red Scare, and the election of 1920.
Supplementary Text:
Hollinshead, “La Follette Speaks Against the War-1917”, pages 204-221.
Davis, “How did a Dead Duke in Sarajevo start a World War?”, and “Who sank the Lusitania, and what
difference did it make?” pages 303-307.
Major Primary Documents (Out of Many Document Workbook):
Eugene V. Debs, Statement to the Court
Letters on the Great Migration
AP Test Preparation: FRQ about the American homefront during World War I under testing conditions.
Unit 11: Roaring 20’s through Depression (Two Weeks)
Primary Text:
Out of Many: Chapter 23, the second Industrial Revolution, welfare capitalism, the auto age,
social changes in cities and suburbs, the new mass culture (movies, radio broadcasting, advertising
modernity, sports/celebrity, and the phonograph), resistance to modernity, prohibition, immigration
restriction, the Ku Klux Klan, religious fundamentalism, Harding and Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and the
“Associative State”, war debts and reparations. The “New Negro”, feminism in transition, and Mexican
immigration.
Out of Many: Chapter 24, the bull market leading up to the crash, underlying weaknesses of the
American economic system, the stock market crash, mass unemployment resulting from the crash,
Hoover’s failure of dealing with the economic crisis, protest and the election of 1932, FDR restores
confidence in the government and economic system, the first hundred days, critics of the New Deal, the
second hundred days, the surge of labor: rise of the CIO, the Dust Bowl, rural electrification and public
works, a New Deal for Native Americans, a New Deal for the arts, film and radio in the 1930’s,
Roosevelt’s attempt to pack the court, and the Roosevelt Recession.
Supplementary Text:
Davis, “What happened in Tulsa and Rosewood?” and “Why did investors panic in 1929, leading to the
Great Crash?” pages 323-344.
Worster, Pages 3-8 and other selected passages about the Great Depression.
Selected readings from “We Shall Overcome”.
Major Primary Documents (Out of Many Document Workbook):
Robert and Helen Lynd, The Automobile Comes to Middletown, 1924
Paul Morand, Speakeasies in New York, 1929
Meridel Le Seur, Women on the Breadlines, 1932
Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, 1933
Huey Long, Share our Wealth, 1935
Carey McWilliams, Okies in California, 1939
AP Test Preparation: 2004 DBQ American Foreign Policy between 1921 and 1940
Unit 12: Out of Isolationism: World War II (Two Weeks)
Primary Text:
Out of Many: Chapter 25, the rise of fascism, American policy of isolationism, Roosevelt
mobilizes/prepares America for war, the events and consequences of Pearl Harbor, organizing the
economy for world war, new workers during wartime production, families in wartime, the internment of
Japanese Americans, Double V campaign, Zoot-Suit Riots, selling the war: popular culture and “the Good
War”, women and minorities in the armed forces, prisoners of war, war in Europe through Stalingrad, DDay and the drive to topple fascism, the cost of victories in Europe and the Pacific, island hopping and
key battles in the Pacific, Potsdam and Yalta Conferences, the Holocaust, dropping the atomic bombs,
and Nuremburg Trials.
Supplementary Text:
Davis, “Who were the Fascists?”, and “What did FDR know about a Japanese Attach, and when did he
know it?” pages 359-368.
Terkel, various primary accounts of World War Two.
Greene,” Once Upon a Town” in its entirety.
Major Primary Documents (Out of Many Document Workbook):
Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Four Freedoms, 1941
Virginia Snow Wilkinson, From Housewife to Shipfitter, 1943
Korematsu v. United States, 1944
AP Test Preparation: 1996 Examination.
Unit 13: The Cold War (One Week)
Primary Text:
Out of Many: Chapter 26, the division of Europe after World War II, the United Nations and
hope for collective security, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Crisis and formation of
NATO, atomic diplomacy, Cold War liberalism, the 1948 election, the National Security Act of 1947, the
Loyalty-Security Program, the Red Scare in Hollywood, spy cases, McCarthyism, military-industrial
communities in the West, the “loss” of China, the Korean War, the price of national security, “I like Ike”:
the election of 1952.
Supplementary Text:
Davis, “What was McCarthyism?”, pages 408-410.
Major Primary Documents (Out of Many Document Workbook):
Clark Clifford, Memorandum to President Truman, 1946
Henry Wallace, Letter to President Truman, 1946
The Truman Doctrine, 1947
Joseph McCarthy, Speech at Wheeling, West Virginia, 1950
AP Test Preparation: FRQs related to foreign relations and the war on Communism in test like
conditions.
Unit 14: The Dichotomy of Post-War Society (Two Weeks)
Primary Text:
Out of Many: Chapter 27, the Eisenhower presidency, subsidizing prosperity, suburban life,
organized labor and the AFL-CIO, the expansion of higher education, the youth market, boom and
impact of rock ‘n’ roll, deviance and delinquency of the youth culture, the spread of television and its
impact on American culture, television and politics, critics of Cold War culture, covert military action and
intervening around the world, Ike’s warning about the military-industrial complex, John F. Kennedy and
the New Frontier, the election of 1960, Kennedy and the Cold War, the Cuban Revolution and the Bay of
Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Out of Many: Chapter 28, Origins of the Civil Rights Movement, Civil Rights after World War II,
the segregated South, Brown v. Board of Education, crisis in Little Rock, Martin Luther King Jr. and the
SCLC, sit-ins of Greensboro, Nashville, and Atlanta, SNCC and the “Beloved Community”, the impact of
Civil Rights on the 1960 election, Freedom Riders, the Albany Movement, the events of Birmingham, JFK
and the March on Washington, LBJ and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Mississippi freedom summer,
Malcolm X and Black consciousness, Selma and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Mexican Americans and
immigrants fight for civil rights, Native American fight for civil rights, the Immigration and Nationality Act
of 1965.
Supplementary Text:
Hollinshead, “JFK and RFK meet about Vietnam”, pages 287-300.
Davis, “Why did the arrest of a woman named Rosa Parks change American Life?”, “Why did President
Eisenhower send the army into Little Rock, Arkansas?”, and “What happened at the Bay of Pigs?”, pages
426-448.
Unger, selected primary documents regarding social, economic, and political issues throughout the
1960’s.
Major Primary Documents (Out of Many Document Workbook):
Life Magazine Identifies the New Teenage Market, 1959
Betty Friedan, The Problem that has no Name, 1963
Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, The Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955
Southern Manifesto on Integration, 1956
Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 1963
AP Test Preparation: DBQ on the Civil Rights movement.
Unit 15: War at Home and Abroad (Two Weeks)
Primary Text:
Out of Many: Chapter 29, Vietnam as America’s longest war, escalation of the Vietnam War and
deepening the quagmire, campus protests of the Vietnam War, Johnson’s Great Society, urban uprisings,
the Tet Offensive, assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the Democratic Convention of 1968, the Black
Power movement, gay liberation of the 1960’s, the Chicano movement, Nixon’s Southern strategy for
president, Nixon’s policy of Vietnamization, Nixon restores relations with China, Nixon’s domestic policy
and the silent majority, the Watergate Scandal, Nixon’s resignation from office.
Supplementary Text:
Unger, selected primary documents regarding student protests and American foreign policy with regards
to Vietnam.
Major Primary Documents (Out of Many Document Workbook):
Lyndon B. Johnson, Why we are in Vietnam, 1965
Stokely Carmichael, Black Power, 1966
John Kerry, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, 1971
AP Test Preparation: 2008 DBQ, Impact of the Vietnam War on American Institutions.
Unit 16: The Rise of Conservatism and Path Towards the Future (Two Weeks)
Out of Many: Chapter 30, the presidencies of Ford and Carter, the new urban politics, the
environmental movement, the New Conservatism, Anti-ERA and anti-abortion coalitions, foreign policy
driven by moral principles, the Iran Hostage Crisis, the 1980 election, Reaganomics, “the Reagan
Revolution”, the election of 1984, the Reagan Doctrine and Central America, the Iran-Contra scandal,
the collapse of Communism.
Out of Many: Chapter 31, the election of 1988 and the presidency of George H.W. Bush, the
Persian Gulf War, the economy and election of 1992, Clinton’s policy of internationalism, the growth of
Silicon Valley and economic growth, the new wave of immigration during the 1990’s, the election of
2000, the crisis of global warming, 9/11 and global terrorism, the Bush Doctrine and reshaping American
foreign policy, invasion of Iraq, and the election of 2004.
Supplementary Text:
Davis, “How did OPEC cripple America during the 1970’s?”, “Why was Ronald Reagan called the ‘Teflon
President’?”, pages 506-523.
Selected readings from “We Shall Overcome”.
Major Primary Documents (Out of Many Document Workbook):
Gloria Steinem, In support of the Equal Rights Amendment
Myra K. Wolfgang, In Opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment
Ronald Reagan, The Evil Empire, 1983
Unit 17: AP Review (One Week)
AP Test Preparation: 2001 Examination
Additional Requirements
The students will be required to complete several activities that are aimed at developing techniques to
discuss and critically analyze historical interpretation. Activities will be scaffolded within the course to
foster each student’s ability to analyze primary sources to derive meaning and make connections across
place and time. Students will learn the process of writing throughout the course with the end goal of
being able to create effective college-level essays that are founded upon a student-derived thesis and
supported with content mastered from the course. All of these goals aim to nurture lifelong learners,
more effective citizens, and a respect for history.
To meet the above goals, each student is required to post weekly on the course blog. This blog will be
focused on analyzing primary documents, crafting thesis statements, and making connection between
course content and modern day events. Students are also expected to keep a course binder of notes,
self-reflections, reading assignments, and essential questions.
Course Evaluation
Students will be graded on a variety of factors that revolve around course mastery and ability to perform
on the AP US History assessment. As such, a student’s grade will be formulated according to the
following arrangement:
a. Daily assignments
20%
-This includes but is not limited to homework, reading notes, vocabulary assignments, blog
entries, essays, and document activities.
b. Quizzes
30%
-These assessments will cover reading assignments, vocabulary, and primary documents.
There will be at least three quizzes each week and will not be announced.
c. Unit tests and AP-like assessments
50%
-These assessments include DBQs, FRQs, summative unit assessments, and any project that is
assigned throughout the course of the year. All DBQs and FRQs will be graded based on mastery of
content, thesis development, and the guidelines set forth by the College Board.
Late work and final grades will be governed by the Western Hills High School or Franklin County Public
Schools handbook.