AP U.S. History Summer Assignment: Brothers, Fitzgerald, Pogatchnik
Welcome to AP U.S. History. By enrolling in this course you are accepting the responsibility
and the workload of a college freshman. In this class you will be expected to read a college level
textbook, analyze primary documents, and write effectively and cogently.
The major emphasis of this class is to prepare you for the APUSH exam in May 2014, which
gives you an opportunity to earn college credit as well as show universities the level of academic
rigor you opted for as a tenth grader. You will learn the importance of taking notes over what
you read, you will learn how to identify critical information, you will learn how to analyze
events to determine their significance in U.S. history, and you will learn how to write a college
essay. In essence, you will learn how to think, write, and breathe at an intellectually stimulating,
challenging, and rewarding level.
Bring the required responses and notecards to the first day of school. These will be your first
homework assignments.
Words to the wise: Developing academic discipline -especially as it comes to time
management-will serve you well in APUSH. Last minute efforts reflect a lack of planning,
discipline, and resolve. Do yourself a favor; break this assignment into chunks, schedule specific
work times and completion deadlines. You will be proud of your effort and make a great first
impression on your APUSH teacher.
1) Watch two movies with historical content and write a brief description of the American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.
Respond to the following questions. Your response should be typed, 1.5 spaces, font size 10, no
more than two pages. Write in a concise yet substantively, detailed manner.
a. Describe 3 key scenes that best represent the essence of the movie.
b. How did the movie confirm or challenge your perspective about significant issues
presented in the film?
c. Connect present issues and events to the time period, historical events or
topics portrayed in the film.
Film Title
1. Red River (1948)
American History Topic(s)
The American Frontier
Integration of the West into
the Capitalist System
American Expansion
American Exceptionalism
Alternate Films
Dances with Wolves
Fort Apache
High Noon
Shane
Stagecoach (1939)
Unforgiven
Undefeated
2. The Godfather (1972)
The Immigrant Experience
The Rise of Organized Crime
America, America
Avalon
Gangs of New York
Hester Street
Public Enemy
3, Modern Times (1936)
The Great Depression
Dehumanization of Labor
All the King’s Men (1949)
City Lights
The Grapes of Wrath
4. Casablanca (1942)
American Neutrality
Vichy France
World War II
From Here to Eternity
The House of 92nd Street
Passage to Marseilles
Watch on the Rhine
5. Tora, Tora, Tora (1970)
World War II
Battleground
D-Day
Fat Man & Little Boy
Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes
Patton
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler’s List
To Hell and Back
6. Good Night and Good
Luck (2005)
The McCarthy Era
Truman
Blacklisting
The Front
Hollywood and the Cold War Guilty by Suspicion
7. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
The Nuclear Age
The Cold War
8. Thirteen Days (2000)
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Missiles of October
Cold War
October Sky
The Kennedy Administration
9. Apocalypse Now (1979) Vietnam War
Advise and Consent
Fail Safe
The Manchurian Candidate
Seven Days in May
Born on the Fourth of July
The Deer Hunter
Fog of War
Full Metal Jacket
Green Berets
Heart of Darkness
Path to War
Platoon
10. Malcolm X (1992)
Civil Rights
Historical Biography
11. All the President’s
Men (1976)
Watergate Scandal
The Nixon Administration
Investigative Journalism
Nixon
12. Norma Rae (1979)
Late 20th Century Union
Movement
Erin Brockovich
Silkwood
13.
Recent political issues
The Ghosts of Mississippi
The Help
Mississippi Burning
The Rosa Parks Story
Flight ‘93
North Country
Pat Tillman Story
‘W”
Who Killed the Electric
Car?
2) Read one of the following books.
a. 1776 by David McCullough
b. Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis
c. April 1865 by Jay Winik
d. Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
e. She was one of us: Eleanor Roosevelt and the American Worker by
Brigid O’Farrell
f. Eyes on the Prize by Juan Williams
g. I May Not Get There With You: the true Martin Luther King by
Michael Eric Dyson
h. 102 Minutes by Jim Dwyer
APUSH Book Review Requirements
No more than 2 pages typed. Write in a concise yet substantively detailed
manner.
a. Examine the author’s perspective.
1. What does the author want the readers to think, feel, or respond to?
b. Your recommendation of the book.
1. What worked in the book?
2. Key characters, issues or events that you found admirable or
unforgettable. What makes them admirable or unforgettable?
c. How did the book challenge or confirm your perspective on the historical
events or themes presented in the book?
3) Complete a note card for each of the terms listed below. This must be done in
your own handwriting. No cut and paste computer junk allowed. 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 term significant short term
and or long term? (BTW-writing that the term continues to influence or impact
America is not a thoughtful response. Be bigger thinkers!)
English Navigation Acts
Great Migration
Half-way Covenant
Headright System
Indentured Servants
Joint-stock company
Mercantilism
Middle Passage
Puritan
Triangular Trade
Committees of Correspondence Loyalists
Antifederalists
Checks and Balances
Separation of Powers
Tariffs
Marbury v. Madison
McCulloch v. Maryland
Corrupt Bargain
Era of Good Feelings
Kitchen Cabinet
Missouri Compromise
Monroe Doctrine
Nullification
Pet Banks
Spoils Systems
War Hawks
Whig Party
Abolition
Freeport Doctrine
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Popular Sovereignty
Bleeding Kansas
“Free Soil”
“Fifty-four forty or fight”
Border States
Carpetbaggers
Compromise of 1877
Copperheads
Ironclads
Sharecropping
“Ten-Percent Plan”
Dawes Act
Gilded Age
Jim Crow Laws
Trusts
Dollar Diplomacy
Isolationism
Muckrakers
New Freedom
Poll Tax
The Big Four
Yellow Journalism
100 days
Bonus Army
Deficit Spending
Hoover-villes
Lost Generation
Roaring Twenties
Blitzkrieg
Final Solution
Internment
Kamikaze
Rosie the Riveter
Second Front
Brinksmanship
Containment
Vietnam-ization
New Deal
Feminine Mystique
Presidential Impeachment
Détente
Dixie-crats
Great Society
Silent Majority
Gulf War
Truman Doctrine
Fair Deal
Warren Court
Attica
Manhattan Project
Reading and Viewing Caution: The titles on this list include images and or content
that could be considered for mature audiences only. Check with your parents if
you’re concerned as to whether the movie or book fits within their mature content
parameters.
sbrothers@edenpr.org
sfitzgerald@edenpr.org
jpogatchnik@edenpr.org