Teacher:
Room:
Contact phone:
Contact e-mail:
Kyle Hickman
S132
(630) 784-7200 ext. 8658
kyle.hickman@cusd200.org
WWSHS 2013-2014
First Semester
AP United States History
Advanced Placement United States History is a year-long course designed to develop analytical and critical thinking
skills as students deal with the problems and events in United States History. Students should learn to assess
historical materials or information and make valid interpretations. The course is designed to develop skills
necessary to arrive at conclusions based on informed judgments. Students will be taught that in forming conclusions
all evidence will have to be presented in a clear and persuasive manner. The information may be presented in either
oral or written exercises. The course will involve extensive reading and in-depth written assignments. It will cover
United States History beginning with the pre-Columbian period and concluding with recent history. Students will be
provided with the opportunity to take the Advanced Placement exam in May.
Bring your textbook and other readings for the day with you to each class meeting. We will refer to the textbook
and readings during our lectures and discussions and you will need to have them on hand for class discussion as
indicated in the weekly calendar. It is extremely important that students prepare the assigned homework on time.
Study and homework outside the classroom each day should be expected. Students are expected to read the text
before class. All activities and assignments for the upcoming week will be listed on a weekly calendar to be posted
in the classroom and online. Be sure to check the weekly calendar regularly because the assignments may not
always be specifically referred to in class. I expect homework to be turned in on the due date. The late policy for
homework assignments is as follows: 1 day late = 50% reduction of grade, 2 days late = no credit.
Grades are based on demonstrated ability to do the work of the course as measured by tests (40%), papers and
projects (30%), participation and attendance (10%), and a final exam (20%). Extra credit will NOT be offered. The
grading scale is as follows:
A = 100% - 90%
B = 89% - 80%
C = 79% - 70%
D = 69% - 60%
F = 59% or below
Test dates may be rearranged, but such changes will be announced well in advance. Each unit utilizes discussions of
and writing about related historiography: how interpretations of events have changed over time, how the issues of
one time period have had an impact on the experiences and decisions of subsequent generations, and how such
reevaluations of the past continue to shape the way historians see the world today.
Since good attendance is important for success in this class, it is expected that students will be present for all class
sessions except during illness and unavoidable emergencies. Excessive absences and/or tardiness will have a
negative impact on your participation grade. Students will get one day to make-up work for each day absent. This
rule also applies in the event that an absence occurs on the day of a test. If you miss receiving or handing in an
assignment because of an unexcused absence, you may still complete the assignment, but you will only receive halfcredit. Do not expect me to continually remind you to make up your test or turn in homework assignments. If, for
some reason, you fall behind in your reading, catch up quickly. If you miss class, get the notes from a friend and
check with me if you are unsure of something. You and you alone are responsible for any lecture material as well
as assignments if you miss class. If a student is having difficulty in class, it is in his or her best interest to meet
with me before or after class to arrange a help session.
Academic dishonesty violations normally result in a grade of zero for the test or assignment and in some cases a
mandatory conference with the parent(s) or guardian(s). Plagiarism is defined as the use of another person’s words,
ideas, or writing without giving proper credit. Engaging in plagiarism will result in a “0” on the assignment. A “0”
on a test, paper, or project will do serious damage to your grade.
Textbook
Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas Bailey. The American Pageant. 12th ed. Boston, Mass.:
Houghton Mifflin Co., 2002.
Additional Readings
Cobbs-Hoffman, Elizabeth, Jon Gjerde, and Edward J. Blum, eds. Major Problems in American History. Volumes I
& II. 3rd ed. Boston, Mass.: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2012.
Major Problems in American History is a collection of various documents organized around critical
questions or problems in the American past. Each chapter also includes essays by two historians, each
offering conflicting or differing interpretations of the problem, to give us a sense of what "the culture of
argument" within the historical profession looks like in practice.
There will also be various articles and handouts from time to time provided by the teacher.
Suggested Readings - Early America to 1877
Bailyn, Bernard, Faces of Revolution: Personalities and Themes in the Struggle for American Independence
Beard, Charles A., An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of The United States
Beeman, Richard, Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution
Berlin, Ira, Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America
Calloway, Colin G., New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America
Cronon, William, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England
Crosby, Alfred, The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492
Eisenhower, John, So Far from God: The U.S. War with Mexico 1846-1848
Ellis, Joseph J., Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation
Ellis, Richard, The Union at Risk: Jacksonian Democracy, States’ Rights and the Nullification Crisis
Foner, Eric, Short History of Reconstruction: 1863-1877
Freeman, Joanne B., Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic
Greene, Jack P., Pursuits of Happiness: The Social Development of Early Modern British Colonies and the
Formation of American Culture
Howe, David Walker, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848
Kerber, Linda, Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America
Litwack, Leon, North of Slavery; The Negro in the Free States, 1790-1860
Maier, Pauline, Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788
McDonald, Forrest, Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origin of the Constitution
McPherson, James, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
Morgan, Edmund and Helen Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis, Prologue to Revolution
Norton, Mary Beth, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692
Oakes, James, The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of
Antislavery
Philbrick, Nathaniel, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
Richter, Daniel, The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The People of the Iroquois League in the Era of European
Colonization
Ronda, James P., Lewis and Clark among the Indians
Sellers, Charles, The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815-1846
White, Richard, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815
Wood, Gordon S., The Radicalism of the American Revolution
Wood, Peter H., Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion
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Course Overview
Early America to 1877 (First Semester)
Unit 1: Early America to the Eve of Revolution (3 weeks)
Unit 2: The American Revolutionary Era (3 weeks)
Unit 3: The Early Republic (2 weeks)
Unit 4: The Jacksonian Era and Transformation of Antebellum America (2 weeks)
Unit 5: Sectionalism and Westward Expansion (2 weeks)
Unit 6: The Civil War and Reconstruction (3 weeks)
Final Exams (Jan. 13-16)
Week of August 19 - 23
Monday 8/19, Summer Break - No School
Tuesday 8/20, Institute Day - No School
American Pageant: Chapter 1, New World Beginnings
Topics: Pre-Columbian societies before and after European contact, the Columbian Exchange, Spanish
and French claims in the New World, the introduction of slavery, mercantilism and colonies
Major Problems: Christopher Columbus Recounts His First Encounters with Native People, 1493
James H. Merrell, “The Indians' New World” & Neal Salisbury, “The Indians' Old World”
Additional Reading: Reading Like a Historian
Week of August 26 - 30
American Pageant: Chapter 2, The Planting of English America
Topics: The Chesapeake and southern English colonies, early contact and settlement wars with Native
Americans, ties with Caribbean economies
American Pageant: Chapter 3, Settling the Northern Colonies
Topics: New England and the Puritans, religious dissent, colonial politics and conflict with British
authority, the middle colonies
Additional Readings: Bartolomé de Las Casas, “On the Destruction of the Indies” (1540s)
The First Charter of Virginia (1606)
Travels and Works of Captain John Smith
The Mayflower Compact (1620)
Film: The New World
Week of September 2 - 6
Monday 9/2, Labor Day - No School
Book Selection Form: Early America to 1877 (See Suggested Readings, p. 2) (Due Sept. 3)
American Pageant: Chapter 4, American Life in the Seventeenth Century
Topics: The Chesapeake tobacco region, indentured servants and Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia, AfricanAmerican culture, colonial family life, dissent in New England and the Salem witchcraft trials
American Pageant: Chapter 5, Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution
Topics: Immigration and demographic change, the Atlantic economy, the Enlightenment and the Great
Awakening, colonial governments and imperial policy in British North America, education and culture
Major Problems: Proprietor William Penn Promotes His Colony, 1681
Nathaniel Bacon, Leader of a Rebellion, Recounts the Misdeeds of the Virginia Governor,
1676
African Olaudah Equiano Recounts the Horrors of Enslavement, 1757
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Additional Reading: Mercantilism and Colonies
Video: In Search of History: Salem Witch Trials
Week of September 9 - 13
DBQ Essay: Chesapeake and New England Colonies (Due Sept. 9)
American Pageant: Chapter 6, The Duel for North America
Topics: Colonial involvement in British imperial wars, consequences of the French and Indian War and
the Proclamation of 1763
TEST: Early America to the Eve of Revolution, Chapters 1-6 (Sept. 10)
American Pageant: Chapter 7, The Road To Revolution
Topics: An end to “salutary neglect,” the Imperial Crisis and resistance to Britain, gathering clouds of war
Major Problems: The Stamp Act Congress Condemns the Stamp Act, 1765
Additional Readings: The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757
The Impact of British Taxes
J. Hector St. John Crèvecoeur, “What Is an American?” (1782)
Film: The Last of the Mohicans
Week of September 16 - 20
American Pageant: Chapter 8, America Secedes from the Empire
Topics: American “republicanism,” the War for Independence
American Pageant: Chapter 9, The Confederation and the Constitution
Topics: Changing political sentiments, state constitutions and the Articles of Confederation, the federal
Constitution
Major Problems: Pamphleteer Thomas Paine Advocates the “Common Sense” of Independence, 1776
Gordon S. Wood, “Radical Possibilities of the American Revolution” & Gary B. Nash, “The
Radical Revolution from the ‘Bottom Up’”
The Articles of Confederation Stress the Rights of States, 1781
Daniel Shays and Followers Declare Their Intent to Protect Themselves Against “Tyranny,”
1787
Additional Reading: Declaration of Independence (and “Original Rough Draft”)
Video: Liberty!: The American Revolution
Week of September 23 - 27
Major Problems: The Federalist Papers Illustrate the Advantages of Ratification of the Constitution, 17871788
Patrick Henry Condemns the Centralization of Government If the Constitution Is Ratified,
1788
Video: Liberty!: The American Revolution
TEST: The American Revolutionary Era, Chapters 7-9 (Sept. 25)
Thursday 9/26, Fall Testing
Friday 9/27, Institute Day - No School
Week of September 30 - October 4
American Pageant: Chapter 10, Launching the New Ship of State
Topics: Washington, Hamilton, and shaping of the national government, emergence of political parties:
Federalists and Republicans, diplomacy during the French Revolution
American Pageant: Chapter 11, The Triumphs and Travails of the Jeffersonian Republic
Topics: The “Revolution of 1800,” the Marshall Court, diplomacy of Jefferson and Madison, the Embargo
Act, acceleration of expansion west
Major Problems: Republican Thomas Jefferson Celebrates the Virtue of the Yeoman Farmer, 1785
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Federalist Alexander Hamilton Envisions a Developed American Economy, 1791
Linda K. Kerber, “The Fears of the Federalists” & Drew R. McCoy, “The Fears of the
Jeffersonian Republicans”
President George Washington Warns Against “Entangling Alliances,” 1796
Thomas Jefferson Advances the Power of the States, 1798
Additional Reading: A Letter to Meriwether Lewis, 1803
Map Activity: The Louisiana Purchase
Video: Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
Week of October 7 - 11
American Pageant: Chapter 12, The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of Nationalism
Topics: The War of 1812, “The American System,” the Era of Good Feelings, the diplomacy of
expansion, forging a new national identity
Additional Readings: The Star-Spangled Banner (1814)
Dolley Madison’s Letter to Her Sister (1814)
Primary & Secondary Sources Activity: The War of 1812
Video: First Invasion: The War of 1812
Week of October 14 - 18
Monday 10/14, Columbus Day - No School
Video: First Invasion: The War of 1812
Major Problems: President Monroe Declares That European Powers May Not Interfere in the Americas, 1823
DBQ Essay: Era of Good Feelings (Due Oct. 15)
TEST: The Early Republic, Chapters 10-12 (Oct. 17)
American Pageant: Chapter 13, The Rise of a Mass Democracy
Topics: Jacksonian democracy and the Whigs, federal authority and its opponents, national policy toward
American Indians, the era of the “common man,” expansion with the Texas revolution
Major Problems: European Visitor Alexis de Tocqueville Considers the Influence of Democracy on the
Family, 1831
Week of October 21 - 25
American Pageant: Chapter 14, Forging the National Economy
Topics: The rise of the market economy, immigration and the increase in nativism, women in the
workplace, the factory system, the transportation and communication revolution, expansion west
American Pageant: Chapter 15, The Ferment of Reform and Culture
Topics: The Second Great Awakening and the growth of reform, evangelical Protestant revivalism,
women’s roles in reform movements, creation of a national culture, advances in education and sciences
Major Problems: Nancy F. Cott, “The Market Revolution and the Changes in Women’s Work” & Daniel
Walker Howe, “The Changes Wrought by Cotton, Transportation, and
Communication”
White Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison Calls for Immediate Abolition, 1831
The Seneca Falls Convention Declares Women’s Rights, 1848
Video: Freedom: A History of US - Episode 3: Liberty For All? & Episode 4: Wake Up, America
Week of October 28 - November 1
Essay: The Second Great Awakening (Due Oct. 30)
TEST: The Jacksonian Era and Transformation of Antebellum America, Chapters 13-15 (Oct. 31)
Friday 11/1, Institute Day - No School
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Week of November 4 - 8
American Pageant: Chapter 16, The South and the Slavery Controversy
Topics: The plantation system, the human face of the “peculiar institution,” abolition and the Northern
conscience, the white Southern response
American Pageant: Chapter 17, Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy
Topics: The annexation of Texas, James K. Polk and the War with Mexico, 1846-1848
Major Problems: Walter Johnson, “Slaves and the ‘Commerce’ of the Slave Trade” & Anthony E. Kaye, “The
Neighborhoods and Intimate Lives of Slaves”
Frederick Douglass Asks How a Slave Can Celebrate the Fourth of July, 1852
Northerner Frederick Law Olmsted Depicts the Economic Costs of Slavery, 1861
Additional Reading: Harriet Tubman, On Slavery (1850s)
Propaganda Images
The Economics of Slavery
Week of November 11 - 15
American Pageant: Chapter 18, Renewing the Sectional Struggle
Topics: “Popular sovereignty,” California statehood and the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska
Act, 1854
American Pageant: Chapter 19, Drifting Toward Disunion
Topics: The contest for Kansas, the Dred Scott case, the financial panic of 1857, the Lincoln-Douglas
debates, John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, Lincoln and Republican victory, 1860
Major Problems: Senator John C. Calhoun Proposes Ways to Preserve the Union, 1850
Senator Charles Sumner Addresses the “Crime Against Kansas,” 1856
Senate Candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Debate Their Positions on
Slavery, 1858
Additional Reading: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)
Abraham Lincoln, “A House Divided” (1858)
Map Activity: Mexico Cedes Land to the United States
Film: Amistad
Week of November 18 - 22
Film: Amistad
Major Problems: Republican William Seward Warns of an Irrepressible Conflict, 1858
TEST: Chapters 16-19 (Nov. 22)
Week of November 25 - 29
No School – Thanksgiving Recess
Week of December 2 - 6
Book Review: Early America to 1877 (See Suggested Readings, p. 2) (Due Dec. 2)
American Pageant: Chapter 20, Girding for War: The North and the South
Topics: Wartime diplomacy, economic changes in the North and South, women and the war, issues of civil
liberties in wartime
American Pageant: Chapter 21, The Furnace of Civil War
Topics: The Peninsula Campaign, the “Anaconda,” the war in the West, Sherman’s March, Appomattox,
the Emancipation Proclamation, the legacy of war in both the North and South
Major Problems: Senator Robert Toombs Compares Secession with the American Revolution, 1860
Frederick Douglass Calls for the Abolition of Slavery, 1862
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James M. McPherson, “The Role of Abraham Lincoln in the Abolition of Slavery” & Ira
Berlin, et. al., “The Role of African Americans in the Abolition of Slavery”
Additional Readings: Resources of the North and South
Recruiting Poster
The Emancipation Proclamation
The Gettysburg Address
Video: Freedom: A History of US - Episode 5: A Fatal Contradiction & Episode 6: A War to End Slavery
Week of December 9 - 13
Essay: The Civil War (Due Dec. 11)
Additional Reading: “The ‘Glory’ Story,” by James McPherson
Film: Glory
Week of December 16 - 20
American Pageant: Chapter 22, The Ordeal of Reconstruction
Topics: Presidential and Radical Reconstruction, “Black Reconstruction” and the Ku Klux Klan, the
legacy of Reconstruction
Major Problems: Abraham Lincoln Calls for Peace and Justice in His Second Inaugural Address, 1865
William Howard Day, an African American Minister, Salutes the Nation and a Monument to
Abraham Lincoln, 1865
Louisiana Black Codes Reinstate Provisions of the Slave Era, 1865
Lucy McMillan, a Former Slave in South Carolina, Testifies About White Violence, 1871
Additional Reading: The Economic Effects of the Civil War
Video: Freedom: A History of US - Episode 7: What Is Freedom? & Episode 8: Whose Land Is This?
Weeks of December 23 - January 3
No School - Winter Break
Week of January 6 - 10
Major Problems: Steven Hahn, “Continuing the War: White and Black Violence During Reconstruction” &
David W. Blight, “Ending the War: The Push for National Reconciliation”
Congressman Thaddeus Stevens Demands a Radical Reconstruction, 1867
Video: Reconstruction: The Second Civil War
DBQ Essay: Reconstruction (In-Class, Jan. 9)
Week of January 13 - 16
Final Exam: Early America to 1877 (Chapters 1-22)
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