Advanced Placement
U.S. History (APUSH)
Welcome to APUSH!
Introduction
The AP program at ______ ______ is designed to provide students with the opportunity
to hone their analytical skills and increase their factual knowledge of United States
history. The class is designed to be at an introductory college level course work;
therefore the students will be challenged as they have never been before. The
coursework, reading, and effort required to succeed on the AP exam and in the class is
difficult and requires a tremendous commitment by the student to succeed. Students are
expected to become advocates for their own success and are responsible for their own
learning. I hope to provide an opportunity for students where I can facilitate their growth
of knowledge and provide them with the necessary tools to excel on the test and in
college. I may be contacted by email at anytime if you have any questions, and I will do
my best to respond within 24 hours.
Social Studies
Vertical Team Leader
Course Objectives
This course will detail the entirety of United States history, from the earliest American
civilizations to the beginnings of our republic to present day issues. The class is
organized chronologically, but consistent themes will direct our discussions,
investigations and applications of our knowledge. The focus of the course will center
upon the political, economic, social, cultural and diplomatic history of the United States,
while using primary and secondary sources to understand the issues of the time.
Therefore the students will need to become "historical investigators," using the
information presented to them to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate documents, while also
using factual support for their opinions. Students in this course must be able to complete
a high volume of out-of-class reading in order to participate fully in class discussion and
succeed on assessments.
APUSH
1
Themes
The themes in this course will include discussions of American diversity, the evolution of
an American identity, a review of the influence of culture and its shaping of society,
demographic changes American history, the economic transformations of fledgling
colonies to a global super-power, the development of the environment and its shaping of
American policy, the trend towards globalization and its impact on the United States, the
role of politics and citizenship, the causes and effects of reform movements, the role of
religion in the home and in government, slavery’s legacy in the United States and finally,
war and our country’s diplomatic relationships. Themes will be addressed throughout the
year and will create a bridge beyond chronology into the change over time in the United
States.
Grading
The class is primarily based on participation in classroom assignments and discussion and
formal assessments. Students will be responsible for participating in class to further their
understanding of a topic, taking notes on lecture, actively working in groups and pairs, as
well as analyzing primary and secondary sources. My hope is that students will take an
active role naturally, so that the grade in the class comes secondary to the score on the AP
examination. However, the grades in class will be broken down by participation, daily
assignments, reading and homework quizzes, and most predominately chapter quizzes
and tests. The class assessments will focus on multiple choice as well as DocumentBased Questions (DBQs) and Free-Response Questions (FRQs) which are similar to
essay questions. Students will also be required to take semester exams as well as the AP
exam in May.
APUSH
2
The Test
There is a vast amount of information on the AP exam on the College Board website but I
will include the basic information below.
The exam is 3 hours and 15 minutes in length and consists of two sections: a 55minute multiple-choice sections and a 130-minute free-response section. The
free-response section begins with a mandatory 15-minute reading period.
Students are advised to spend most of the 15 minutes analyzing the documents
and planning their response to the document-based essay question (DBQ) in Part
A. Suggested writing time for the DBQ is 45 minutes.
Parts B and C include two standard essay questions that, with the DBQ, cover the
period from the first European explorations of the Americas to the present.
Students are required to answer one essay in each part in a total of 70 minutes.
For each of the essay questions students choose to answer in Parts B and C, it is
suggested they spend 5 minutes planning and 30 minutes writing.
Both the multiple-choice section and the free-response sections cover the period
from the first European explorations of the Americas to the present, although a
majority of the questions are on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Textbooks and Supplemental Materials
Kennedy, D.M., Cohen, L. and Bailey, T.A., The American Pageant, 14th edition,
(2010). (Pageant)
Brinkley, Alan, The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American
People, Volume I and II, 4th edition, (2004). (U.N.)
Dollar, Charles M. and Reichard, Gary W., American Issues: A Document
Reader, (1994). (A.I.)
Borland, Bruce, America Through the Eyes of Its People, 2nd edition, (1997).
(P.S.)
collegeboard.edu/ap
APUSH
3
Class Schedule
Fall Term- First Semester
Week 1 (August 19-23)
American Pageant: Chapter 1 New World Beginnings
Pre-Columbian peoples, Europeans and Africans, Columbus and the early explorers,
Mexico and Spanish Empire,
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 1
America Through the People: Christopher Columbus, Letter to Luis de Sant’ Angel
(1483)
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, “Indians of the Rio Grande” (1528-1536)
Bartolome de Las Casas, “Of the Island of Hispaniola” (1542)
Introduction into primary document analysis worksheets APPARTS
Week 2 (August 26- 30)
American Pageant: Chapter 2, The Planting of English America
English and the Natives, Establishing Virginia and Maryland, development of the
Carolinas and Georgia
Chapter 3, Settling the Northern Colonies
Puritan faith, the New England Colonies, Puritans and Indians, colonial politics, religious
dissent
Chapter 4, American Life in the Seventeenth Century
Life and Labor, indentured servitude, daily life, Economies of tobacco and rice, spread of
slavery
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 2
American Issues Document Reader: Advice to Prospective Settlers in Jamestown,
Virginia, 1622
Mercantilism, Gerald N. Grob and George A. Billias
America Through the People: John Smith “The Starving Time” (1624)
APUSH
4
William Penn from “Model of Government” (1681)
DBQ on The Transformation of Colonial Virginia
Week 3 (September 3-6) No School September 3rd Labor Day
American Pageant: Chapter 5, Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution
Immigration and demographic changes, the Great Awakening, colonial politics
Chapter 6, The Duel for North America
The Seven Years’ War, Indian relationships with French and British, Pontiac’s rebellion
Unfinished Nation: Chapters 3-4
American Issues Document Reader: Colonial Stirrings: “Join or Die” (visual source)
America Through the People: Jonathan Edwards, from “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God” (1741)
Week 4 (September 9-13)
American Pageant: Chapter 7, The Road to Revolution, Roots of revolution, the role of
mercantilism, failure of diplomacy, Lexington, Concord, and the gathering clouds of war,
1775, The rebel army
Chapter 8, America Secedes from the Empire, Early skirmishes, the fighting fronts,
wartime diplomacy, The French alliance, 1778, The Peace of Paris, 1783
Unfinished Nation: Chapters 4-5
American Issues Document Reader: The Boston Massacre (visual source)
Justifying Rebellion, 1775
A Loyalist Viewpoint, 1776, Charles Inglis
A Call for Patriotic Resolve, 1776, Thomas Paine
America Through the People: Benjamin Franklin, Testimony Against the Stamp Act
(1766)
Patrick Henry, “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” (1775)
DBQ on The American Revolution
APUSH
5
Week 5 (September 16-20)
American Pageant: Chapter 7, The Road to Revolution, Roots of revolution, the role of
mercantilism, failure of diplomacy, Lexington, Concord, and the gathering clouds
of war, 1775, The rebel army
Chapter 8, America Secedes from the Empire, Early skirmishes, the fighting fronts,
wartime diplomacy, The French alliance, 1778, The Peace of Paris, 1783
Unfinished Nation: Chapters 4-5
American Issues Document Reader: The Boston Massacre (visual source)
Justifying Rebellion, 1775
A Loyalist Viewpoint, 1776, Charles Inglis
A Call for Patriotic Resolve, 1776, Thomas Paine
America Through the People: Benjamin Franklin, Testimony Against the Stamp Act
(1766)
Patrick Henry, “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” (1775)
UNIT 1 EXAM- Multiple choice with FRQ take-home
Week 6 (September 23-27)
American Pageant: Chapter 9, The Confederation and the Constitution, The Articles of
Confederation and the Constitution, economic troubles, slavery and religion in the
political process
Unfinished Nation: Chapters 5-6
American Issues Document Reader: Washington: Hero of the Republic, John Trumbull
(visual source)
Controlling Factions in the Republic, James Madison
Justifying Slavery in the Republic, David Brion Davis
America Through the People: George Washington: The Newburg Address (1783)
Week 7 (September 30- October 4)
American Pageant: Chapter 10, Launching the New Ship of State, Problems of the
young republic, early national politics and economics, the emergence of political parties,
the making of the office of the presidency
APUSH
6
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 6
American Issues Document Reader: A Warning Against “Party Spirit,” 1796, George
Washington
Sectionalism and Party Competition (map)
America Through the People: George Washington, Farewell Address (1796)
Marbury v. Madison (1803)
The Monroe Doctrine and a reaction (1823)
Week 8 (October 7-11)
American Pageant: Chapter 11, The Triumphs and Travails of the Jeffersonian Republic,
The “Revolution of 1800”, diplomacy of Jefferson and Madison, acceleration of
expansion west
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 7
America Through the People: The Louisiana Purchase: A National Achievement (visual
source)
Extending American Dominion to Louisiana, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
Week 9 (October 15-18) No School Oct. 14th Columbus Day
American Pageant: Chapter 12, The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of
Nationalism, The War of 1812, a new national identity, The Missouri Compromise, The
Monroe Doctrine, 1823
Unfinished Nation: Chapters 7-8
America Through the People: McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Week 10 (October 21-24) Parent Teacher Conferences
American Pageant: Chapter 13, The Rise of Mass Democracy, Jacksonian Democracy
and the Whigs, the removal of Indians from the Southeast, the ear of the “common man”,
expansion with the Texas revolution, slavery and sectionalism
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 9
American Issues Document Reader: Jacksonian Nationalism and Its Limits: The Bank
Veto, Andrew Jackson
APUSH
7
“King Andrew”: A Whig View (visual source)
America Through the People: Andrew Jackson, First Annual Message to Congress
(1829)
“Memorial of the Cherokee Nation” (1830)
Week 11 (October 28- November 1)
American Pageant: Chapter 14, Forging the National Economy, The westward
movement, European immigration, women, factories and the economy, the transportation
revolution
Chapter 15, The Ferment of Reform and Culture, religious revivals, women’s roles and
women’s rights, creation of a national culture
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 10
UNIT 2 EXAM-Multiple choice with FRQ take-home
Week 12 (November 4-8)
American Pageant: Chapter 17, Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy, Annexation of Texas,
Manifest Destiny, war with Mexico
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 13
American Issues Document Reader: “Manifest Destiny,” John Gast (visual source)
Indian Removal, Alexis de Tocqueville
Week 13 (November 12-15) No School November 11th Veterans’ Day
American Pageant: Chapter 16, The South and the Slavery Controversy, cotton culture,
Southern social structure and the impact of the plantation system, Abolition and the
Northern conscience
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 11
American Issues Document Reader: Defense of Slavery As a Benefit to Society, John C.
Calhoun
Cruelties of Slavery: The Plight of Slave Women, Jacqueline Jones
America Through the People: William Lloyd Garrison, from The Liberator (1831)
APUSH
8
George Fitzhugh, “The Blessings of Slavery” (1857)
Week 14 (November 18-22)
American Pageant: Chapter 18, Renewing the Sectional Struggle, popular sovereignty,
the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave law, Kansas-Nebraska Act
Chapter 19, Drifting Toward Disunion, Abolition in the 1850s, The Dred Scott case 1857,
The Lincoln-Douglas debates, the coming of the Civil War and secession
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 13
American Issues Document Reader: Justifying Secession
Robert E. Lee and Secession, Robert E. Lee
President Lincoln’s Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861
America Through the People: John C. Calhoun, Proposal to Preserve the Union (1850)
Harriet Beecher Stowe, from Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
Abraham Lincoln, “A House Divided” (1858)
DBQ on Slavery and Sectional Attitudes due upon return from Fall Break
FALL BREAK
Week 15 (November 25-26)
American Pageant: Chapter 18, Renewing the Sectional Struggle, popular sovereignty,
the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave law, Kansas-Nebraska Act
Chapter 19, Drifting Toward Disunion, Abolition in the 1850s, The Dred Scott case 1857,
The Lincoln-Douglas debates, the coming of the Civil War and secession
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 13
American Issues Document Reader: Justifying Secession
Robert E. Lee and Secession, Robert E. Lee
President Lincoln’s Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861
America Through the People: John C. Calhoun, Proposal to Preserve the Union (1850)
Harriet Beecher Stowe, from Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
APUSH
9
Abraham Lincoln, “A House Divided” (1858)
Week 16 (December 2-6)
American Pageant: Chapter 20, Girding for War: The North and the South, the
importance of diplomacy, Lincoln and civil liberties, financing the war
Chapter 21, The Furnace of the Civil War, The peninsular campaign, the “anaconda”,
Sherman marches through Georgia, the Emancipation Proclamation, the assassination of
Lincoln, Appomattox, 1865, legacy of the war
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 14
American Issues Document Reader: The Emancipation Proclamation, A.A. Lamb (visual
source)
Sherman and Total War, William Tecumseh Sherman
Images of Death and Destruction (visual source)
America Through the People: Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (1863)
DBQ on Abraham Lincoln and the Struggle for Union and Emancipation, 1861-1865
Week 17 (December 9-13)
American Pageant: Chapter 22, The Ordeal of Reconstruction, The politics and
economics of Reconstruction, The Black Codes, Freedmen, impeachment, the legacy of
Reconstruction
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 15
American Issues Document Reader: President Johnson and Reconstruction, Andrew
Johnson
Mississippi Black Code, 1865
The Freedmen’s Bureau (visual source)
The End of Reconstruction and the Election of 1876 (map)
America Through the People: Mississippi Black Codes (1865)
The Fourteenth Amendment (1868)
UNIT 3 EXAM- Multiple choice with FRQ take-home
APUSH
10
Week 18 (December 16-20)
American Pageant: Chapter 26, The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution, The
mining and cattle frontiers, the fading frontier, The People’s Party and populism, Farmers
protest, the Agricultural Revolution
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 16
American Issues Document Reader: Bound for the West: Image and Reality, F.O.C.
Darley, and unknown photographer (visual sources)
Sharecropping As a Way of Life, Fred A. Shannon
Separate but Equal: Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
DBQ on Reconstruction as part of Midterm
Midterm and Midterm Review
Spring Term- Second Semester
Week 1 (January 7-10)
American Pageant: Chapter 24, Industry Comes of Age, The Rise of Mass Production,
Lords of Industry, lives of the working class and the growth of unions, Reigning in the
Trusts, the gospel of wealth
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 17
American Issues Document Reader: Sources of Immigration, (1880-1919)
America Through the People: Andrew Carnegie, from “The Gospel of Wealth” (1889)
Week 2 (January 13-17)
American Pageant: Chapter 25, America Moves to the City, Urbanization, “New
Immigrants”, social workers, cultural life in urban America, the “new Woman”, African
Americans and the push for civil rights
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 18
American Issues Document Reader: “Practical Politics” for Urban Immigrants, William L.
Riordan
America Through the People: George Waring, Sanitary Conditions in New York (1897)
APUSH
11
Lincoln Stefens, from The Shame of the Cities (1904)
DBQ on The Role of Capitalists, 1875-1900
Week 3 (January 21-24) No School January 20th MLK Day
American Pageant: Chapter 23, Political Paralysis of the Gilded Age, The Compromise
of 1877 and the end of Reconstruction, the rise of big business and the role of big
business, class and ethnic conflict, the birth of Jim Crow
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 19
American Issues Document Reader: The Changing Economic Order: Shifts in the Work
Force (table)
Week 4 (January 27- 31)
American Pageant: Chapter 27, Empire and Expansion, American Imperialism, the
Spanish-American War, American expansion overseas, the Open Door in China,
Roosevelt Corollary
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 20
American Issues Document Reader: Strategic reasons for American Expansion, Alfred
Thayer Mahan
The White Man’s Burden, David Healy
Theodore Roosevelt as World Policeman, Louis Dalrymple (visual source)
America Through the People: Mark Twain, “Incident in the Philippines” (1924)
William McKinley, “Decision on the Philippines” (1900)
UNIT 4 EXAM- Multiple choice with FRQ take-home
Week 5 (February 3-7)
American Pageant: Chapter 28, Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt,
Progressive reform, muckrakers, women’s reform and saloons, “Dollar Diplomacy”,
Roosevelt breaks from Taft
Chapter 29, Wilsonian Progressivism at Home and Abroad, The election of 1912,
Wilson’s diplomacy in Latin America, diplomacy of neutrality
APUSH
12
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 21 and 22
American Issues Document Reader: Varieties of Progressivism: T.R. and Wilson, John
Milton Cooper
America Through the People: Theodore Roosevelt, from The New Nationalism (1910)
Woodrow Wilson, from The New Freedom (1913)
Jane Addams, “Ballot Necessary for Women” (1906)
DBQ on Progressive Reform, 1900-1920
Week 6 (February 10-14)
American Pageant: Chapter 30, The War to End War, America goes to war, 1917,
Wilson and the Fourteen Points, propaganda and civil liberties, workers, blacks and
women on the home front, The League of Nations, the Senate and the Treaty of
Versailles
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 23
American Issues Document Reader: American Intervention in World War I, Ross
Gregory
America Through the People: Eugene Kennedy, A “Doughboy” Describe the Fighting
Front (1918)
Woodrow Wilson, The Fourteen Points (1918)
DBQ on The United States as World Power, 1895-1920
Week 7 (February 18-21) No School February 17th President’s Day
American Pageant: Chapter 31, American Life in the “Roaring Twenties”, The “Red
Scare”, rise of the KKK, Prohibition and gangsterism, Jazz age culture, music and
literature
Chapter 32, The Politics of Boom and Bust, Isolationism of the 1920s, foreign debt and
diplomacy, Hoover and the Great Depression
Unfinished Nation:
American Issues Document Reader: The Impact of Prohibition, David Kyvig
America Through the People: Dorothy Dunbar Bromley, from “Feminist: New Style”
(1927)
APUSH
13
Week 8 (February 24- 28)
American Pageant: Chapter 33, The Great Depression and the New Deal, FDR as
president, Relief, recovery, and reform, the dust bowl and the TVA, the Supreme Court
fight, 1937, the New Deal assessed
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 26
American Issues Document Reader: Launching the New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt
The Depression and the New Deal: Measures of Recovery (graphs)
America Through the People: Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address (1932)
Week 9 (March 4-7) No School March 3rd Casmir Pulaski Day
American Pageant: Chapter 34, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War, Attempts
at neutrality and isolation, German, Japanese and Italian aggression, Appeasement,
diplomacy and economics of the prewar years, the Holocaust, the move to war following
Pearl harbor
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 27
American Issues Document Reader: German and Japanese Aggression, 1935-1941
(maps)
America and the Holocaust, David S. Wyman
America Through the People: Albert Einstein, Letter to President Roosevelt (1939)
DBQ on Foreign Policy, 1930-1941
Week 10 (March 10-14)
American Pageant: Chapter 35, America in World War II, The war in Europe and the
Far East, the home front, women and African Americans in wartime, the decision to use
the atomic bomb and its impact
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 28
American Issues Document Reader: Truman’s Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb, Harry
S. Truman
The Returning Hero: Contrasting Images, Norman Rockwell (visual source)
America Through the People: Ben Yorita, Memories of the Internment Camp (1981)
UNIT 5 EXAM- Multiple choice with FRQ take-home
APUSH
14
Week 11 (March 17-21)
American Pageant: Chapter 36, The Cold War Begins, Postwar prosperity, baby boom,
origins of the Cold War, Communism and containment, The Truman Doctrine and the
Marshall Plan, Anti-communism at home
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 29
American Issues Document Reader: American Commitment to Cold War, Department of
State
America Through the People: George Marshall, The Marshall Plan (1947)
Joseph R. McCarthy, from Speech Delivered to the Women’s Club of Wheeling, West
Virginia (1950)
Week 12 (March 24-27) Parent Teacher Conferences
American Pageant: Chapter 37, The Eisenhower Era, consumerism in the 1950s, civil
rights revolution, Cold War expansion, the space race, postwar culture
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 30
American Issues Document Reader: Eisenhower and the Postwar Political Balance,
Alonzo L. Hamby
DBQ on The Cold War, 1941-1953 due upon return from Spring Break
SPRING BREAK
Week 13 (April 7-11)
American Pageant: Chapter 38, The Stormy Sixties, Kennedy and the Cold War, Bay of
Pigs Invasion and the Cuban missile crisis, struggle for civil rights, Johnson and the Great
Society, Vietnam disaster
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 31
American Issues Document Reader: A Strategy for the Civil Rights Revolution, Martin
Luther King Jr.
America Through the People: Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address (1961)
APUSH
15
Week 14 (April 14-18)- AP Review Exam I
American Pageant: Chapter 39, The Stalemated Seventies, Nixon and the Vietnam War,
China and the Soviet union, the Watergate Scandal, desegregation and affirmative action,
feminism and the women’s movement, economic stagnation, foreign policy and the issue
of oil
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 32
American Issues Document Reader: : A Soldier’s Experience in Vietnam, Specialist 5
Harold “Light Bulb” Bryant
The War Powers Act: A President’s View, Richard M. Nixon
America through the People: The Tonkin Gulf Incident (1964)
Bill Clinton, Letter to Colonel Holmes (1969)
DBQ on Conformity and Turbulence, 1950-1970
Week 15 (April 21-25)- AP Review Exam II
American Pageant: Chapter 40, The Resurgence of Conservatism, Regan and the “New
Right”, the end of the Cold War, Reaganomics, the Iran-Contra affair, politics and the
Supreme Court, globalization, war and diplomacy in the Middle East
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 33
American Issues Document Reader: The End of Watergate: Pardoning Nixon, Gerald R.
Ford
America through the People: Ronald Reagan, Speech to the House of Commons (1982)
Week 16 (April 28- May 2)- AP Review Exam III
American Pageant: Chapter 41, America Confronts the Post-Cold War Era, The Clinton
Era, post-Cold War politics and foreign policy, the election of 2000, the attack on the
World Trade Center and America post9/11
Unfinished Nation: Chapter 34
American Issues Document Reader: The Cold War in the 1980s, Michael Mandelbaum
and Strobe Talbott
APUSH
16
Week 17 (May 5-9)- AP TEST WEEK
Week 18 (May 12-16)- Student research project- Hollywood vs. Reality
Week 19 (May 19-23)- Final Exams and Finals Review
APUSH
17