Study Guide for AP Spring Review
If you are not taking the exam this May, you do not need the Barron’s review book. Instead you will
complete the following to help you prepare for an assignment that you will do the day of the AP
exam. These reviews will HELP your grade!! There will be overlap with current material being
covered so budget your time well.
You may use your book, old notes, an old AP study book, internet, etc. When you have an essay
prompt, give a thesis and brainstorm list of 4-5 concrete details you would use to support your thesis.
You may substitute up to three things each day as long as it corresponds to the other items, but you
may not substitute an essay prompt.
WORK MUST BE HAND WRITTEN. I will NOT accept late work!
March 7
1. Reasons nation states explored the new world (France, Spain and Great Britain)
2. Main Characteristics of the 13 colonies
3. Life in the colonies (divide it into regions: Chesapeake, Southern, Middle, and New England)
4. Mercantilism
5. Navigation Acts
6. The Half Way Covenant
7. King Philip’s War
8. The Dominion of New England
9. Essay Prompt: In the 17th century, New England Puritans tried to create a model society. What
were their aspirations, and to what extent were they fulfilled? (Thesis and brainstorm 6-7 CDs)
10. Essay Prompt: How did the following collide in the 17th/18th centuries: Europeans, Native
Americans, and Africans? (Thesis and brainstorm 4-5 CDs)
March 8
1. The Enlightenment
2. The First Great Awakening
3. The French and Indian War
4. Writs of Assistance
5. Grenville and the Stamp Act
6. The Townsend Acts
7. The Tea Act
8. The Intolerable Acts
9. Lexington and Concord
10. Essay prompt: In the two decades before the outbreak of the American Revolution, a profound
shift occurred in the way many Americans thought and felt about the British government…to
what extent is this statement valid? (Thesis and brainstorm 4-5 CDs)
March 9
1. The First and Second Continental Congress
2. Treaty of Paris 1783
3. Articles of Confederation
4. Northwest Ordinance
5. Shay’s Rebellion
6. Constitutional Convention and Struggle for Ratification
7. Judiciary Act of 1789
8. Essay prompt: Examine the compromises made at the Constitutional Convention, the ratification
debate that emerged, and the impact the Constitution had on early American history. (Thesis
and brainstorm 4-5 CDs)
March 11
1. Hamilton’s Program (Bank of the U.S., etc.) and the Federalists
2. Strict Construction v. Loose Construction
3. Jay’s Treaty with Britain 1794
4. Whiskey Rebellion
5. Adam’s Administration: XYZ Affair, Alien and Sedition Acts, Kentucky/Virginia Resolutions
6. Jeffersonian Era
7. Marbury v. Madison
8. The Louisiana Purchase
9. Examine the Federalist Era: Consider Washington’s and Adams’s presidencies. (Thesis and
brainstorm 4-5 CDs)
March 17
1. Lewis and Clark
2. Chesapeake-Leopard Affair
3. 1807 Embargo
4. Madison’s Administration: The War of 1812
5. Battle of New Orleans and Andrew Jackson
6. The Treaty of Ghent
7. The Hartford Convention
8. Essay prompt: To what extent was the War of 1812 a Second American Revolution? (Thesis and
brainstorm 4-5 CDs)
March 18
1. First Protective Tariff (1816)
2. Adams-Onis Treaty 1819
3. The Monroe Doctrine
4. Missouri Compromise 1820/Henry Clay
5. Jackson’s presidency
6. Trail of Tears
7. Essay prompt: The Era of Good Feelings (1816-1824) marked the appearance of issues that
transformed American politics for the next 20 years. To what extent is that statement true?
(Thesis and brainstorm 4-5 CDs)
March 21
1. McCulloch v. Maryland
2. Building of roads, canals, turnpikes (The American System)
3. Reforms: temperance, education (Horace Mann), abolition, etc.
4. Lowell System
5. Eli Whitney
6. The Second Great Awakening
7. Dorothea Dix
8. spoils system under Jackson
9. Examine the causes and impact of the economic revolution during the antebellum era. (Thesis
and brainstorm 4-5 CDs)
March 22
1. Tariff of Abominations and Compromise Tariff 1833
2. Compromise of 1850
3. Texas annexation and why it took so long
4. Mexican American War (reasons/results and Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo)
5. Oregon Territory (settlement of dispute between G. Britain and U. S. )…remember 49 th parallel
6. Manifest Destiny
7.
8.
9.
Slave Rebellions (Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey)
Rise of the Whig Party (remember it was around Jackson’s administration)
Essay prompt: How and why did the two party system (Whigs and Democrats) re-emerge?
(Thesis and brainstorm 4-5 CDs)
March 23
1. Election of 1848
2. Wilmot Proviso
3. Election of 1852
4. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
5. Kansas-Nebraska Act
6. Bleeding Kansas
7. New Fugitive Slave Law (northern reaction)
8. Rise of the Republican Party
9. Essay prompt: How did the Mexican War and expansion of slavery create a divided America?
(Thesis and brainstorm 4-5 CDs)
April 5
1. The Dred Scott Case
2. The Panic of 1857
3. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
4. John Brown’s Raid
5. Hinton Rowan Helper’s Book
6. The Election of 1860
7. The Secession Crisis
8. Fort Sumter and the start of the Civil War
9. Advantages/Disadvantages of north and south during Civil War
10. Essay prompt: Abraham Lincoln was the great emancipator. Evaluate the validity of that
statement. (Thesis and brainstorm 4-5 CDs)
April 6
1. McClellan
2. Grant
3. Robert E. Lee
4. Emancipation Proclamation
5. Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan
6. Copperheads
7. Radical Republicans and Their Plan for Reconstruction
8. Johnson’s plan for reconstruction
9. 13/14/15 amendments
10. Essay prompt: How do you account for the failure of Reconstruction (1865-1877) to bring social
and economic equality of opportunity to former slaves? (Thesis and brainstorm 4-5 CDs)
April 7
1. life in the south during Reconstruction (slave codes, KKK, etc.)
2. Social Gospel
3. Social Darwinism
4. Gospel of Wealth
5. Knights of Labor
6. Haymarket Riot
7. Homestead Strike
8. The Interstate Commerce Act
9. American Federation of Labor (AFL)
10. Essay prompt: Analyze the social, economic, and political conditions of the Gilded Age. (Thesis
and brainstorm 4-5 CDs)
April 8
1. Seward’s Folly
2. Sherman Antitrust Act
3. Billion Dollar Congress
4. Rise of the Populists
5. Depression of 1893
6. New Immigration
7. Progressive Movement (include muckrakers)
8. Essay prompt: Examine the Second Industrial Revolution and its impact on social classes in
America. Consider in your response some of the technological advances that changed people’s
lives. (Thesis and brainstorm 4-5 CDs)
April 11
1. yellow journalism
2. DeLome Letter and Sinking of the Maine
3. Results of Spanish-American War
4. Question over the Philippines
5. Platt Amendment/Teller Amendment
6. Insular Cases (1901-1903)
7. T. Roosevelt as president (include legislation passed)
8. Building of the Panama Canal
9. Open Door Policy
10. Essay prompt: Examine the changes in America’s urban landscape (late 1800s to the early
1900s). (Thesis and brainstorm 4-5 CDs)
April 12
1. The Wisconsin Idea
2. NAACP
3. Gentlemen’s Agreement
4. 16th and 17th amendments
5. Taft’s presidency (include how he angered the progressives)
6. Ballinger-Pinchot Dispute
7. Wilson as president (include key pieces of legislation)
8. Dollar Diplomacy v. Big Stick Theory v. Moral Diplomacy
9. Roosevelt Corollary
10. Essay prompt: To what extent was Teddy Roosevelt “progressive”? (Thesis and brainstorm 4-5
CDs)
April 13
1. Election of 1912
2. New Nationalism v. New Freedom
3. Underwood Tariff
4. Birth of a Nation
5. Federal Reserve Act
6. Federal Trade Commission
7. Clayton Anti-Trust Act
8. Adamson Act
9. Both Jones’ Acts
10. Lusitania/Arabic/Sussex and Sussex Pledge
11. NO ESSAY TODAY
April 15
1. Henry Cabot Lodge
2. George Creel
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Self-determination
Collective security
Zimmerman Note
14 Points
Espionage and Sedition Acts
Industrial Workers of the World
Eighteenth Amendment/Nineteenth Amendment
Essay prompt: Compare and contrast the WWI with WWII. Consider causes and impact on
American society (political, social, and economic). (Thesis and brainstorm 4-5 CDs)
April 18
1. Big Four
2. Treaty of Versailles
3. A. Mitchell Palmer
4. John T. Scopes
5. Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan
6. Andrew Mellon
7. Frederick Taylor
8. Charles Lindbergh
9. Margaret Sanger
10. NO ESSAY TODAY
April 19
1. H.L. Mencken
2. F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Ernest Hemingway
4. Lost Generation
5. flappers
6. Harlem Renaissance
7. NO ESSAY TODAY
April 20
1. Fordney-McCumber Tariff
2. Kellogg Briand Pact
3. Teapot Dome Scandal
4. Essay prompt: The 1920s era was truly one of the most advanced in American history. To what
extent is that statement true? Consider both economic and social aspects in your response.
(Thesis and brainstorm 4-5 CDs)
April 21
1. Characteristics of Harding’s Administration
2. Characteristics of Hoover’s Administration
3. Dawes Plan
4. Hawley Smoot Tariff
5. Muscle Shoals Bill
6. Bonus Army Reconstruction Finance Corporation
7. Hoover-Stimson doctrine
8. NO ESSAY TODAY
April 22
1. Stock market crash
2. Election of 1932
3. Roosevelt’s New Deal
4.
5.
6.
7.
Glass-Steagall Act
AAA
Social Security
NO ESSAY…ALMOST DONE
April 25
1. Critics of the New Deal
2. Four Freedoms Speech
3. Cash and Carry
4. Lend Lease
5. Bombing of Pearl Harbor
6. NO ESSAY…ONE MORE DAY
April 26
1. mobilizing for WWII (rationing, funding sources)
2. Rosie the Riveter
3. Korematsu v U.S.
4. decision to use the atomic bomb
5. role of African Americans
6. key battles and strategy
7. Potsdam Conference
8. Yalta Conference
9. NO ESSAY…DONE!
April 27
Make up ten questions—multiple choice (must have five choices “a-e”) for all the material you have
covered. Circle the correct answer.
April 28
Same as above