Advanced Placement United States History
Howard W. Cohen
2014-2015 Course
Voice Mail: (508) 259-2130 X 215
Requirements Teacher:
hcohen@mursd.org
E-Mail:
Textbooks:
American History, A Survey
Alan Brinkley McGraw Hill 2003,
th
12 Edition
People’s History of America, Abridged
Teaching Edition
Howard Zinn The New Press, 2003
Taking Sides
Clashing Views on Controversial Issues
the
in 20 Century History
st
Larry Madara McGraw Hill 2006, 1
Edition
American Realities Volume One and
Two, Historical Episodes
J. William T. Youngs, Harper Collins
rd
1993, 3 Edition
The Social Fabric –American Life
from 1607-1887
United States History
Preparing for the AP Examination
John J. Newman, John M. Schmalbach
Amsco School Publications, 2006
Revised
Notes on Textbooks
The Brinkley American History is our text and is provided for you. Zinn’s, People’s History will
need to be purchased. Zinn’s writing are also avail online @
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html This text will be used for your summer
assignment as well as throughout the school year. American Realities and Taking Sides will be
available for in class use. Numerous primary sources material will be provided as handouts for the
students. The Amsco book will be used to help students to review and prepare for exams. It is not
intended as a substitute for our main texts.
Course Description
Advanced Placement Unites States History (APUSH) is a yearlong survey of American History from
Columbus to the present day. APUSH is a challenging course that is meant to be the equivalent of a
freshmen college course and can earn students college credit. Extensive reading writing and study
skills useful in college will be emphasized. The class concludes with a college level exam, prepared
by the College Board. The exam will given in May; there is a fee for this exam. The course is
designed to provide a comprehensive overview of U.S History and to provide students with analytical
skills and factual knowledge to deal critical with the problems and materials in United States history.
Students who succeed in this class will need solid reading and writing skills and factual knowledge to
deal critically with the materials presented in the course. Emphasis is placed on critical and evaluate
thinking skills Essay writing, their relevance to a given interpretive problem, their reliability and
their importance and to weigh the evidence and interpretations presented in historical scholarship.
Learning Objectives
• Master an extremely broad body of knowledge
• Demonstrate an understanding of historical chronology
• Use historical data to support an argument or position
• Differentiate between different schools of historical thought
• Interpret and apply data for original documents, including cartoons, graphs. Letter and dairies
• Effectively apply analytical skills and evaluations cause and effect, compare and contrast and
major trends over time.
• Understand the influence of geographic characteristics, including climate, physical features and
natural resources, on North America’s major society and cultures
• Explore critical eras in the historical development of the world in the following spheres of
human activity: social, political, scientific, military, technological, economic, and cultural
(philosophical, religious, and aesthetic)
Themes
Beginning in fall 2014, AP United States History will feature a redesigned curriculum. The
redesigned course is structured around seven themes and their corresponding conceptual
questions.
1. Work, Exchange, and Technology (WXT): How have changes in markets, transportation, and
technology affected American society?
2. Identity (ID): How has the American national identity changed over time?
3. Ideas, Beliefs, and Culture (CUL):
values affected U.S. history?
How have changes in moral, philosophical, and cultural
4. America in the World (WOR): How has U.S. involvement in global conflicts set the stage for
domestic social change?
5. Environment and Geography (ENV): How did the institutions and values between the
environment and Americas shape various groups in North America?
6. Politics and Power (POL): How have various groups sought to change the federal
government’s role American political, social, and economic life?
7. Peopling (PEO): How have changes in migration and population patterns affected American life?
Historical Period
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1491-1607
1607-1754
1754-1800
1800-1848
1844-1877
1865-1898
1890-1945
1945-1980
1980-Present
5%
45%
45%
5%
of questions pertain to this period
Homework
This course will be demanding on student’s time. I do not give homework for the sake of giving
homework; however, because of the demands of the course there will be frequent assignments.
These will include, DBQs, (Document Based Questions), essays, and exams on every unit. In class
assignment will include, but not be limited to, supplementary readings, oral presentation and group
discussions. Most quizzes will be announced in advanced. The majority of your time will spent on
reading and responses to your reading. Just because you do not have an assignment due for the
next class, does not mean you do not have reading to do.
Participation
Class participation comprises 10% on your entire grade. If you are constantly unprepared for class
this will be obvious to you, me, and the entire class. You will receive participation points for the
quality as well as quantity of your participation.
Films
All of us have different learning styles. Many of us learn better when we not only hear and write
about topics but when we also see a picture of the event. To that end we will frequently watch
clips of historical events. Sometimes these are actual clips and sometimes they are Hollywood
recreations. My room is well equipped with surround sound and an Apple TV to make history
come alive. We will almost never watch a film in its entirety which at times is frustrating for
students. Frequently when watching videos we will use the Film Analysis Chart to critique the
film.
Cell Phones
Please don’t
Quizzes and Tests
There is too much material to cover by the teacher alone. Literally thousands of cultural literacy
terms need to be learned. The best way to motivate students to keep up to date with these terms and
concepts is by weekly quizzes. Tests are given approximately every four weeks. Tests questions will
be generated from lectures, readings, films, and returned quizzes. This year for the first time,
students will have both a mid-term exam and a final.
Grading Final
Mid-Term
Tests
Quizzes
Homework
DBQs
Projects
Essays
Participation
200 points
200 points
100 points
25-50 points
10-30 points
50 points
50-100 points
50 points
10% of total grade
Period 1:
1491-1607
Content:
Geography and environment, Native America diversity in the Americas, Spain and
the Americas conflict and exchange, English, French, and Dutch settlements, and the Atlantic
economy.

Reading Assignment: Brinkley Chapter I pgs. 3-31 The Meeting of Cultures

Primary Source Analysis Class Activity: Document Analysis Workshop – Introduction of
APPARTS* ( Chart included in syllabus)
o Primary Sources: Juan Gines de Sepulveda, Belittles the Indians (1547)
o Bartolome de Las Casas, Disparages the Treatment of the Indians (1542)
o Bartolome de Las Casas, In Defense of the Indians (1550)
o Don Juan de Onate, Colonizer of New Mexico (1599)

Comparing and Contrasting Excerpts from Howard Zinn’s, Peoples History of America
and Patriot’s History of America by Larry Schweikart and Dave Dougherty

Creating a Chart:
Students will compare England, France, and Spain during the period
of explorations. Once the chart is completed students will write an essay on the following:
Analyze the cultural and economic history of two of the following groups to the Indians of
North America before 1785
A) British
B). French
C) Spanish


Audio Visual Students will watch an episode from the Ten Days That Changed American,
The Massacre at Mystic, and answer a series of reflective questions
Period 2
1607-1754
Content:
Growing trade, unfair labor practices, differences across the colonies, conflict with
Native Americans, immigration, role of women, education, religion and culture, and growing
tensions with the British
Reading Assignment
Brinkley Chapter 2 and 3 Pgs. 32-98
Reading Assignment
Students will read articles from Opposing Viewpoints, discuss the
articles in small groups focusing on sourcing and contextualization. “A Defense of the Salem Witch
Trials (1692) Cotton Mather and An Attack on the Salem Witch Trials (1692).
Class Reading Activity
American Realities, Divided Loyalties
and answer the questions provided
pg. 75-95 Students will read
Class Reading Activity
Opposing Viewpoints in American History
Indian and Colonists Should live in Peace by Powhatan (1609)
Indians Should be Conquered and Exterminated by the Virginia Company of London-Edward
Waterhouse (1622)
Center for Learning Lesson-Compare the Great Awakening, Puritans, and Enlightenment and the
influence of each colonial ideology and development
Free Response Question
Although many Northerns and Southern came to later to think of
themselves as having separate civilizations, the Northern and Southern colonies in the seventeenth
centuries were in fact more similar than different. Access the validity of this statement. (1975
APSUH Exam)
Period 3
1754-1800
Content:
Colonial Society before the war for independence, colonial rivalries, the Seven Years
War, pirates and other democrats, role of women before and after 1776, Articles and a Constitution,
and early political rights and exclusions.
Reading Assignment
Brinkley Chapters 4, 5, 6 pgs.100-179
Center for Learning Lesson British Colonial Policy-A Tradition of Neglect pg. 33
Introduction of DBQ the 1780s A Critical Period (1985 DBQ)
Working in groups students will dissect the DBQ, and develop a Thesis
Six Degrees of Separation
Drawing on secondary sources, students will indicate to which extent
there is both continuing and change of basic civil rights for the Independence to the Voting Right
Acts of 1965
Meeting of the Minds Students will research an individual from an assigned era in preparation for
an in class role playing exercise. The discussion will be guided by questions which relate to the both
and the themes of AP U.S. History. (adopted from AP syllabus 3)
Class Trip-Students will be involved in an experiential trip to the battle grounds of Lexington and
Concord. Tours will be conducted by National Park Interpreters;
Students will hand in a
reflection upon their return.
Where Historians Disagree The Background of the Construction pgs. Brinkley pgs. 164-165
Period 4
1800-1848
Content:
Politics in the early republic, parties and votes, reforms and social movements culture
and religion, market capitalism and slavery, growth of immigration and cities, women and Seneca
Falls, and Territorial expansion and the Mexican War

Reading Assignment Brinkley Chapters 7-11 pgs. 179-313

Comic Strip Students will develop a comic strip based on their assigned Supreme Court
case of the Marshal Court. After the information has been presented students will determine
case is the most important in the development of the U.S.

Primary Source Analysis
Students will read and analyze Trail of Tears by Dale Van
Every in Social Fabrics pgs. 145-160

Cause and Effect
Answering a series of questions students will determine the primary
causes and the effects of the Mexican War

DBQ
Northern and Middle Class Women 1776-1876 (1981)
Period 5
1844-1877
Content
Tensions over slavery, reform movements, politics and the economy, cultural trends,
Transcendentalism and Utopianism, the Civil War, rights of freedman and women, Reconstruction
and Freedmen’s Bureau, the KKK. Focus on white supremacy before and after the Civil War

Reading Assignment

Students will read the Spectator article “White Southern Defense of Slavery” and reflect on
the following questions: What were the moral. political and economic arguments for slavery.
http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/teaching/vclassroom/proslavewsht2.html

Essay Utilizing information form presentations, articles, and textbooks, students will write
an essay addressing the questions: Assess the moral argument of and political actions of those
opposed to the expansion of slavery in the context of TWO of the following:
Missouri Compromise
Mexican War
Compromise of 1850
Kanas-Nebraska Act




Brinkley Chapters 12-15 pgs.
314-431

Center for Learning Activity-The role of individual in Effecting Change
small group activity where students read and discuss the role of reformers of the 19th Century

Reading Assignment -American Realities Volume One-Abolitionist and the Early Republic,
William Lloyd Garrison and the Broad Cloth Mob Students will read and discuss the
arguments for against slavery from a northern perception.

Primary Source Analysis:
Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas
http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/douglass/douglass.html

Six Degrees of Separation

Primary Source Analysis
Students will gain an appreciation of the evolution of the Civil
War by analyzing the articles of the Harper’s Weekly
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/the-civil-war.htm


From the Liberator to the Compromise of 1877
Audio Visual The students will watch sections of the Civil War by Ken Burns and analyze
the selected documents used in the making of the video
Period 6 1865-1898
Content:
The rights of freedmen and women, Reconstruction, the 1877 railroad strike, rise of
labor unions, and the populist’s party, general themes of industrialism, urbanization, and imperialism,
and Indian wars, the Spanish America War, and conquests in the Pacific

Reading Assignment Brinkley Chapters 16-19 pgs. 432-539

DBQ Settlement of the West (1992 released Exam)

Six Degrees of Separation

Taking Sides Were Nineteenth –Century Entrepreneurs Robber Barons? Pgs.24-49

Creative Writing
Students will research through the Library of Congress site, Voices
from the Days of Slavery, Songs and memories, the life of a freed slave and write a
historical accurate fictional account of the life of a freed slave.
http://www.loc.gov/podcasts/slavenarratives/

Writing Assignment (FRQ)
From the Homestead Act to the Battle of Wounded Knee
Students will explain the origins of TWO of the following
third parties and evaluate their impact on United States politics and national policies.
The People’s Party (Populists), 1892
The Progressive Party (Bull Moose Party), 1912
The States’ Rights Party (Dixiecrats), 1948
The American Independent Party, 1968

You be the Judge
Students will analyze disparate primary sources documents on the same
topic. Students then compare and contrast the viewpoint express in the documents and
supported by the evidence presented, and in the context the historical period, determine which
author made the better case. Using this format, students will examine the following documents:
Plessy v Ferguson from Dissent on Plessey v Ferguson, Grady from The New South v Booker T.
Washington from the Race Problem, Turner from the Significance of the Frontier vs. MacDonald
from Rugged Individualism.

Period 7 1890-1945
Content:
WWI and Wilson are 14 Points, propaganda and the CPI. The formation of the
Industrial Workers of the World and the AFL, industrialization and technology, mass production
and mass consumerism and radio and the movies, Harlem Renaissance, Native America culture
and boarding schools, political parties and the transition for classical liberalism to New Deal
liberalism with the capitalist crisis of the 1930s, and WWII, demographic shifts, the role of
women and nonwhites, and battles for economic rights

Reading Assignment

Divergent Point of View
Students will debate whether the New Deal was an effective
answer to the Great Depression

Primary analysis
Students will read excerpts from Studs Terkel’s, An Oral History of
the Great Depression hicagohistory.org/static_media/pdf/historylab/chm-historylabftfl1.pdf

Primary Source Analysis
Jungle
Brinkley Chapters 20-28 pgs. 540-735
Students will read analyze sections of Upton’s Sinclair, The

Primary Source Analysis
Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Four freedoms sand Norman
Rockwell painting of the same name

Essay Compare and contrast the democratic eras of Jacksonian Democracy with the
Progressive Era of TR and Woodrow Wilson. Which of the two men was most democratic
and responsive to middle-class Americans?

Learning Center Assignment Analyzing the World War II Conferences. Using the
description of WWII conferences to help analyze Allied Cooperation

Primary Source Analysis
Students, working in groups will read and analyze Woodrow
Wilson 14 Points http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/wilson14.asp

Document Analysis Teapot Dome Scandal
analyze a political cartoon on the scandal
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1377.html
Using a chart format stunts will
Period 8 1945-1980
Content
The Atomic Age, the affluent society and Levittown and the suburbs, discrimination,
the Other America, the Black Civil Rights movements, Vietnam and U.S. imperial policies in Latin
America and Africa, the Beats and the countercultures, antiwar sentiments, women’s Chicano
American Indian, and gay and lesbian movements, summer riots and the occupation of Alcatraz,
LBJ’s Great Society and the rise of the New right, Ronald Reagan and the rise of poverty and the
Cold War and U.S. role in the world.

Reading Assignment Brinkley Chapters 29-32 pgs. 735- 882

Writing
students will compare and contrast public criticism of the Vietnam War with
criticism of war efforts in World War I and World War II and the War of Terror r drawing on
Young Americas for Freedom, SDS folk music, and NY Times editorial, write an essay that
argues which of the sources best represents U.S. values

Divergent Point of View
Students will write an essay debating the role of popular
music in affecting public attitudes toward the Vietnam War
Period 9 1980 to the Present
Content:
Summary of Reagan’s domestic and foreign policies, Bush Sir, and the end of
the Cold War, Clinton as a new Democrat, technology and economic bubbles and recession,
race relations, and the role of women, changing demographics and the return if poverty, rise
of prison industrial complex and war on drugs, 9/11 and the domestic and foreign policies
that followed, and Obama change or continuity.

Reading Assignment Brinkley Chapters 33-35 pgs. . 883- 939

Primary Source Activity Students will use a graphic organizer to compare and contrast the
causes and goals of each act described in excerpts from the 1924, 1965, and 1990
Immigration Acts.

The Final Four
Students will be assigned the task of deciding who the best presidents
in history were. Borrowing a lesson plan from MR. Weiser students will be involved in
researching and selecting their final four as they compete in a tournament similar to college
basketball’s Final Four.
http://perrylocal.org/meiserc/apush/bracketology/



Primary Source Activity
President Clinton’s First Inaugural Address 1983. Students
will read and analyze the president’s address using the APPARTS Chart.
http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/speech-3434


Compare and Contrast
Federal Power: Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan
http://billofrightsinstitute.org/resources/educator-resources/lessonsplans/presidents/johnson-and-reagan/

Six Degrees of Separation
From Containment to “Tear Down This Wall” using notes and
primary sources, students will construct a timeline of the Cold War policy of the United
States
Film Analysis Questions











What is the filmmaker’s purpose?
What is the argument/thesis of the film? What assertions/claims are made?
To what extent does the argument have validity? Are there fallacies?
What is the attitude or viewpoint of the filmmaker? Tone?
What cinematic techniques does the filmmaker use to make his/her point?
(Think about the diction and syntax of the film).
How does the structure of the film help achieve its purpose?
Why is this film important to the understanding of American History?
Did this film change any misconceptions or stereotypes you had about the
subject? If so what were they?
In your opinion, how accurate is this film, in showing or explaining an
historical events or character figure, or time period. Explain at least two
specific part of the film that supports your opinion.
What questions would you like to ask the director or producer of this film?