Advanced Placement Syllabus
U.S. History
2011-2012.
School Profile
Name: Danny Mayorga
School Location and Environment: 247 East 47th St.; population 215,000; 92% of the
population speaks Spanish as their first language.
Grades: 9-12
Type: Public High School
Total Enrollment: 2, 952; 994 11th graders
Percentage of Minorities: approximately 96% Hispanic; remainder divided among
African-American students, Haitian American, and Anglo American
College Record; can be described as a highly insular community. It is a warm and
welcoming community for those who have recently immigrated to the United States.
Families, until recently, were reluctant to send their children away to college. That has
changed as more and more of our students have been wooed by Ivy League schools and
elite state universities. Presently, the highest percentage of our students attends the local
colleges.
Teacher Profile: My Bachelors degree was earned at Florida International University.
Minor in Political Science. Experience in Teaching 8 years; 2 years experience teaching
A.P. United States History.
Course Objectives
Students will:
 Study U.S. History from its beginnings to the present
 Increase their vocabulary and proper usage of historical terms
 Demonstrate an understanding of historical chronology
 Demonstrate their ability to write logically using supporting evidence
 Use historical data to support an argument or a position
 Interpret information from primary sources, cartoons, maps, etc
 Demonstrate their analytical skills in comparing and contrasting, cause
and effect, and evaluating the significance of historical events and actions.
 Oratorical presentations to improve their logic, articulation, and stage
presence
Course Materials
Text*
David M. Kennedy, Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey. The American Pageant: A
History of the Republic (Boston: McDougal Littell/Houghton Mifflin, 2002).
Robert A. Divine, et al. America: Past and Present (New York: Longman, 2006).
*the recent Florida state adopted text for AP U.S. is American: Past and Present.
However, I am still in a transition period between the two books. Students have been
issued both books; they may choose to read either one. Once my students were issued the
Pageant several years ago, the test scores on the AP exam improved dramatically.
Additional materials
Joseph J. Ellis. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation (New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 2000).
John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr. From Slavery to Freedom Volume 2 8th
edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000).
Carol Hymowitz and Michaele Weissman. A History of Women in America (New York:
Bantam Books, 1978).
Raymond M. Hyser and J. Chris Arndt. Voices of the American Past Documents in U.S.
History Volume I and II (United States: Wadsworth/Thomson
.
Course Outline-1st Semester
Summer Syllabus
The Summer Syllabus was designed to prepare students for Colonial Study by learning
thirteen colonies, their founders, purposes, significant contributions. The reading
assignment is Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis. This experience helps all students
arrive in class on roughly the “same page.”
Unit 1-Exploration and Colonial
Readings: Pageant Chapters 1-4 or Past and Present Chapters 2,3,4. American Spirit
Chpt. 2,3, Women’s History Chpt. 1-2
Themes: Differences in settlement models between Spain, France, and England; changes
over time in process of English colonization; the beginnings of cultural and political
separation from “mother “ country, impact of the Great Awakening on American culture
and politics,
Content: Discovery and settlement of New World 1492-1650, 16th century Europe,
settlement models of Spanish, English, and French, Jamestown and Plymouth, Native
Americans at time of settlement, impact of European exploration and settlement,
American and British Empire 1650-1754, Chesapeake, New England, and Restoration
colonies, mercantilism, origins of slavery, colonial society and culture, the Great
Awakening, American mind, Deism, Road to Revolution, French and Indian War and its
impact on Britain and America, taxation programs of Grenville and Townshend,
Enlightenment and political philosophy of Locke, Voltaire, Hobbes, and Harrington.
DBQ and writing: Emphasis is on writing structure, analysis of documents, 1st DBQ is
group effort “English Colonies, North and South.” This first DBQ is done in class and in
groups with support from teacher.
Review Packet and Quizatory Challenge: Review Packet: Each student will create a
review notebook to be used prior to the A.P. Exam. Each unit studied is organized as a
packet which will be included in a comprehensive review notebook. Many of my students
take part in state wide evaluations and are often missing when I am doing the final
review. This review notebook is designed to be portable and functional. Quizatory
Challenge: Each class is divided into three “houses” the Yankees, the Go-Heat, and the
T-Bred Ladies. House names are derived from the first three sires of Thoroughbreds (our
mascot) in U.S. . Members of each team compete throughout the year in challenges that
review unit information. Winning House gets a free pre-test breakfast and honor of being
the winning house.
Unit Test
Unit 2-Revolutionary Period and Federalist Era
Readings: Pageant Chapters 5-10 or Past and Present Chapters 4,5,6,7. American Spirit
Chpt. Selections 5-8, Women’s History Chpt. 3, Founding Brothers (summer reading)
Themes: Restructuring the British Empire and American resistance, independence
and early foundations of government
Content: American Revolution, 2nd Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence,
major battles, strategy, weaknesses and strengths of Americans and British, wars effect
on society, war economy, French alliance, major leaders, Articles of Confederation,
Northwest Ordinance, Treaty of Paris, Massachusetts state constitution, social reform,
winners and losers, roles of women and African Americans in Revolution. Critical
period, factors leading to the call of the Constitutional convention, the Philadelphia
convention, ratification of the U.S. Constitution, Federalists and Anti-federalists, Bill of
Rights, Washington and Adams presidencies, foreign and domestic policies, beginnings
of political parties, the Hamilton-Jefferson viewpoints, Virginia and Kentucky
resolutions.
DBQ and writing: DBQ Alien and Sedition Acts; Role of Women in the American
Revolution; Advantages and Disadvantages of the Americans and the British
Revolutionary and Federalist Era Review Packet and Quizatory Challenge
Unit Test
Unit 3-National Period 1800-1850
Readings: Pageant Chapters 11-15 or Past and Present Chapters 8-14. American Spirit
Chpt. Selections 11-15, Women’s History Chpt. 4-8
Themes: Political change in America, Achieving goals of democracy through reform
movements, growth of the republic and stresses on country
Content: Election of 1800, Jefferson as president, Louisiana Purchase, John Marshall
court cases, Burr conspiracy, neutral shipping rights, impressment, Embargo of 1807,
James Madison and War of 1812, causes of war, Hartford convention, Treaty of Ghent,
Battle of New Orleans, nationalism and economic expansion, James Monroe, era of good
feelings, Panic of 1819, westward settlement, Missouri Compromise, Monroe Doctrine,
Election of 1824, Corrupt Bargain, railroads and canals, turnpikes, Lowell mills, Lowell
women, Samuel Slater and Eli Whitney, cotton revolution in south, sectionalism,
southern and northern society differences, labor and industry in the North, immigration,
movement of native Americans, Age of Andrew Jackson, spoils system, “common man”,
expansion of white male suffrage, 2nd party system, platforms of Whig and Democratic
parties, internal improvements, American system, states’ rights, nullification crisis, John
C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, and Henry Clay, tariffs, BUS and Nicholas Biddle, bank
war, pet banks, Panic of 1837, Specie Circular, party conventions, Martin Van Buren,
manifest destiny, annexation of Texas, Oregon and California, James K. Polk, Mexican
War, Wilmot Proviso, cultural nationalism, reform movements (education, mental health,
abolition, temperance), utopian communities, transcendentalism, national literature, 2nd
Great Awakening, revivals, burned-over district, Mormons, Mormon migration.
DBQ and writing: Andrew Jackson and Indian Removal (1980) DBQ; Essay: Are
You a Hamiltonian or a Jeffersonian?
National Period Review Packet and Quizatory Challenge
Unit Test
Unit 4-Sectionalism, Civil War and Reconstruction, 1850-1877
Readings: Pageant Chapters 18-22 or Past and Present Chapters 14-16, American Spirit
Chpt. Selections 21-22, Women’s History Chpt. 9-10
Themes: Secession and states rights, Lincoln’s leadership, changing focus of war aims,
reunification of the country. Abandonment of the freedmen and women in a hostile
South.
Content: Compromise of 1850, Fugitive Slave Law and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, KansasNebraska Act, emergence of 3rd Party system, foundation of Republican Party, Dred Scott
decision, Lecompton crisis, “bleeding Kansas,” Brooks and Sumner beating, LincolnDouglas debates, House Divided speech, Freeport Doctrine, John Brown’s raid, election
of Abraham Lincoln, secession crisis, mobilization, Confederacy and constitution,
foreign affairs and diplomacy, military strategies, major battles, strengths and
weaknesses of each side, Emancipation Proclamation and its impact, recruitment of
African American soldiers, women’s participation in war, Gettysburg Address, social,
economic, and political impact of the war, Presidential and Congressional reconstruction
plans, assassination of Lincoln and impact on country, legacies of Civil War, Freedman’s
Bureau, Andrew Johnson and his impeachment, Frederick Douglass, Booker T.
Washington, and W.E.B. Du Bois, status of African Americans during Reconstruction,
Compromise of 1877, 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments, Redeemer governments, New south,
Black Codes and Jim Crow, sharecropping, crop-lien system, tenant farming.
DBQ and writing- Compromise of 1850 (1987) DBQ; essays: Lincoln and the
Constitution, Could the Civil War Have Been Avoided? Advantages and Disadvantages
of North and South. , Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois DBQ.
Sectionalism, Civil War, and Reconstruction Review Packet and Quizatory
Challenge
Unit Test
Course Outline -2nd Semester
Unit 5-Gilded Age 1877-1900
Readings: Pageant text Chapter 26-27 or Past and Present Chapters 17-20; Women’s
History pgs. 156-218; American Spirit Chapter pgs. 65-76, 81-106, 110-119, 120-130.
From Slavery to Freedom Chapter 14.
Themes: Major theme is the Change over Time in Social, Economic, and Political Life
from 1865-1900. The frontier and the Turner thesis
Political organization and corruption; changing role of government in business
regulation; social, political, and economic impact of industrialization, population goes
from rural to urban, railroad and its impact on American society, new forms of business.
Racial relations and Native American relations during Gilded Age.
Content: Final settlement of the west, farmer’s revolt, Comstock lode and silver, laissez
faire, status, civil service reform, industrial growth, immigration, labor movements,
industrial organization, industrial leaders, growth of the city, new forms of business,
impact of the railroad, social Darwinism and the Social Gospel, Gospel of Wealth,
Whiskey ring, “waving the bloody shirt” KKK, Solid South, Pendleton Civil Service Act,
machine politician, stalwarts and half-breeds, high tariffs, “Rum, Romanism, and
Rebellion”, McKinley tariff, Election of 1892 and 1896, Billion Dollar Congress, Czar
Reed, “robber barons” Union Pacific and Central Pacific, leading inventors, technology,
regulations applied to business, labor unions and leaders, labor strikes (Pullman,
Homestead, and Haymarket Square), Tammany Hall, Jane Adams and settlement house
movement, Chinese Exclusion law, art and literary movements, social and intellectual
leaders .Famous court cases; Slaughterhouse cases, Munn v. Illinois, Plessy v. Ferguson..
DBQ and writing: Federal Government and Laissez-Faire, The Populists, Compare and
contrast immigration of the 1840’s and 1850’s with the immigration from 1865-1900.
Essay: Captains of Industry or “Robber Barons.”
Gilded Age Review Packet and Quizatory Challenge
Unit Test
Unit 6- Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressives, and World War I
Readings: Pageant 28, 29, 30, 31or Past and Present Chapter 22 and 24; From Slavery
to Freedom Chapter 15 and 16; Women’s History Chapter 13 and 14
Themes: Reforming society through the political process. Progressive successes and
failures, Election of 1896 and the end of Populism and the beginning of Progressives;
American imperialism and world power status.
Content: Imperialism, Spanish American War, “yellow journalism”, Capt. Alfred
Thayer Mahan, de Lome letter, “Remember the Maine”, annexation of Hawaii, Rough
Riders and San Juan Hill, teller and Platt Amendments, Insular Cases, crisis in
Philippines, imperialism, Open Door policy, Roosevelt Corollary, Gentleman’s
Agreement, Great White Fleet, muckrakers, Triangle Shirtwaist fire, Social Gospel,
Jacob Riis, Ida Tarbell, John Dewey, Margaret Sanger, Progressive voting reforms,
municipal and state government reforms, Progressive amendments, socialism, Urban
migration, trustbuster, Upton Sinclair The Jungle, consumerism, “dollar diplomacy”,
Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom, TR’s New Nationalism, Triple entente, Triple
alliance, Lusitania, Sussex pledge, “freedom of the seas”, neutral shipping rights,
Zimmerman note, Creel committee, “make the world safe for democracy”, Fourteen
Points, Versailles Conference, League of Nations, reparations, Article 10,
“irreconcilables”, and reservationists, Palmer raids and Red Scare.
DBQ and writings: Expansionism Old and New, Fight over the Treat of Versailles.
Roosevelt, Progressives, and World War I Review Packet and Quizatory Challenge
Unit Test
Unit 7- Roaring 20’s: the Jazz Age, the New Woman, the Harlem Renaissance, and
Prohibition
Readings: Pageant chapter 32, 33 or Past and Present Chapter 25; Freedom to Slavery
Chapter 18, Women’s History 15 and 16
Themes: social upheaval, revolt of youth, automobiles and changing American values,
emergence of Modern Woman
Content: Republican governments, business creed, Warren G. Harding return to
“normalcy” and scandals. Teapot Dome, prosperity and wealth, unequal distribution of
wealth, farm and labor problems, consumerism, radio, movies, final events in women’s
suffrage movement, modern religion, “lost generation” literary figures, jazz age, Harlem
renaissance, NAACP and W.E.B. DuBois, prohibition, bootlegging, rise of modern KKK,
religious fundamentalists versus modernists, Scopes Monkey trial, rejection of League of
Nations, isolationism, business and diplomacy, Al Capone and rise of crime, failure of
prohibition. 18th Amendment (Volstead Act), Federal Bureau of Investigation, J.E.
Hoover,
DBQ and writing: The 1920’s (1986 DBQ)
Roaring 20’s, etc, Review Packet and Quizatory Challenge
Unit Test
Unit 8-The Roosevelt Years: Depression and World War II
Readings: Pageant Chapter 34, 35, 36 or Past and Present Chapter 26 and 27; From
Slavery to Freedom Chapter 19, 20, 21
Themes: redefining liberalism, limitations on civil rights during wartime, presidential
power and 4 term presidency, American productivity, Keynesian economics and New
Deal.
Content: The Great Depression and Hoover’s policy; election of FDR, philosophy of
New Deal, repeal Prohibition, 1st Hundred Days, “alphabet agencies,” 2nd New Deal,
critics of New Deal, rise of CIO and labor strikes, Wagner Act, Court packing plan, the
Depression and its effect on women, minorities, Indian Reorganization Act, Mexican
American deportation, racial issues, Good Neighbor Policy, London Economic
Conference, neutrality legislation, fascism in Europe, Japanese aggression in China and
Indochina, appeasement, blitzkrieg, Adolf Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito, Lend-Lease,
Atlantic Charter, Pearl Harbor, 2nd World War, mobilization, propaganda, Japanese
internment, War in Europe, D-Day, War in Pacific, Manhattan Project, Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, war aims, wartime conferences at Teheran, Yalta, and Potsdam, Nuremburg
trials. United Nations.
DBQ and writing: The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb (1988 DBQ); essay: How
did FDR redefine liberalism?
Roosevelt Years, Depression, WWII Review Packet and Quizatory Challenge
Unit Test
Unit 9-The Cold War 1945-1990
Readings: Pageant Chapter 37, 38, 40, 41 or Past and Present Chapter 28, selected parts
of 30, 31, 32; Freedom to Slavery Chapter 22.
Themes: Responsibilities of world leadership and economic dominance, meeting the
threat of communist ideology, shrinking of the world due to globalization and internet.
Content: Postwar America, Taft-Hartley Act, Civil Rights and Election of 1948, Fair
Deal, containment in Europe, Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Berlin Crisis, NATO,
SEATO. Revolution in China, Korean War, Douglas MacArthur, “I like Ike” and modern
Republicanism, McCarthyism, , domino theory, crisis in Southeast Asia, the Middle East,
Latin America, Khrushchev and Berlin, homogenized society, the organization man,
prosperity, consumer culture, consensus of values, space race, John Kennedy, New
Frontier, Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, war on poverty, affirmative action, tax cuts,
emergence of Republican Party in the South, Dixiecrats, Cold war continues with Cuban
missile crisis, Bay of Pigs, Vietnam quagmire, Election of 1968, Richard M. Nixon,
Henry Kissinger, escalation and pullout in Vietnam, restoring relations with China,
détente with USSR, new Federalism, Watergate, RMN’s resignation, Gerald Ford,
Nixon’s pardon, deep throat, New Right and conservative social agenda, Jimmy Carter,
Camp David accords, Iranian hostage crisis, Ronald Reagan, supply side economics,
“trickle down” theory, collapse of Soviet Union, perestroika, glasnost, Star Wars (SDI),
foreign crisis in Persian Gulf and Central America, George Bush, German Reunification,
Persian Gulf War, Kuwait , globalization, global warming..
DBQ and writing: Essay: Did the United States overreact to the threat of Communist
Expansion; Was Eisenhower Correct when he warned U.S. citizens against the influence
of the War and Industrial Complex? Was Eisenhower deserving of the label of a “do
nothing” president? What role did television have on major events of the Cold War, like
Vietnam, Cuban Missile Crisis, Berlin Wall, and Space Race? (Student choice of Essay
topic)
Cold War Review Packet and Quizatory Challenge
Unit Test
Unit 10-The American Culture Wars 1945-1990
Readings: Pageant Chapter 39, 42 or Past and Present Chapter 29, 30; Freedom to
Slavery Chapter 23, Women’s History 18 and 19.
Themes: The demand for inclusion: civil rights by marginalized groups such as African
Americans, women, minorities, and gays
Content: , 2nd Reconstruction/Modern Civil Rights movement, Warren Court, Brown v.
Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, Montgomery bus boycott, Rosa Parks, Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King, Greensboro sit in nonviolence, new feminism, The Feminine
Mystique by Betty Freidan, the New Left and Counter Culture, Roe v. Wade, LSD, acid,
drug culture, “Black is Beautiful”, Assassination of Kennedy, Kennedy, and King, social
impact, Black Power, Black Panthers, opposition to Vietnam, American Indian
Movement, Cesar Chavez, Gay Rights.
DBQ and writing: None, review books prepared and submitted prior to Spring
Break.
American Culture Wars Review Packet and Quizatory Challenge
Unit Test