AP US History Course Syllabus

Course Description

Advanced Placement U.S. History is a full-year college course which covers the period from the first European explorations of the Americas to the present.  It provides students with a learning experience equivalent to that obtained in most two-semester college introductory U.S. History courses.  It is designed to help students acquire the analytical skills and factual knowledge needed to deal critically with a wide range of historical problems.  Students will also learn to assess historical materials – their relevance to a given issue, their reliability and their importance – and to weight the evidence and interpretations presented in historical scholarship.  The course will help the student to develop the skills necessary to arrive at conclusions on the basis of informed judgment and to present reasons and evidence clearly and persuasively in essay form.  At the conclusion of the course, students will have the opportunity to take the A.P. Exam in U.S. History for possible college credit.

Textbooks / Supplemental Readings

Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas Bailey. The American Pageant: A History of the Republic. 12^th ed. Boston, Mass. : Houghton Mifflin Co. 2002.

Grading

A student’s grade will consist of two aspects.  Assessments will count as 70%.  Each exam will come at the end of a unit.  They will consist of identifications and an essay.   A list of twenty to thirty names, events, documents, and terms will be provided to the student one week before an exam.  The identifications on the exam, usually ten to twenty terms, will come from that list.  A proper identification will contain information about whom or what the identification is about and why it is historically significant.  Essays will be either free response or a document based question.  The topic of the essay will be included with the list of identifications.

Reading assessments will also fall into this catagory. Each reading assessment will cover outside reading and will be administered in AP style multiple choice questions.

All other assignments will count as 30% of a student’s grade.  Document analysis, timelines, research, and projects that are to be completed by the student independently will fall into this category.  Class participation, consisting of discussion, debates, and questioning will also be counted as daily work.

Course Objectives

Listed below are the units which will be covered in the school year.  Students will be required to complete the assigned readings in the time period allotted to them.  Quizzes and tests will be posted at least one week before the event occurs.  Arrangements will be made so that all A.P. History classes will test on the same day.  If a change in dates should need to be made, the teacher reserves the right to make that change but with advanced notice to the students.

Each unit will consist of class discussion, outside reading, writings, and assessments.  In each unit we will be exploring the events and people who have made the United States what it is today.  Our focus will be on people and events that have been interpreted to change America over time.  How have these people and events influenced the way future generations act and react to certain situations?  Such discussions will be held every class day unless an exam, quiz, or other activity is scheduled.

Unit I - The American Colonial Era

Broad Themes – American diversity, Environment, Politics and citizenship, Slavery & its legacy in North America, War & diplomacy

Assigned Readings / Text - American Pageant:

Chapter 2, The Planting of English America ,

Chapter 3, Settling the Northern Colonies,

Chapter 4, American Life in the 17^th Century,

Chapter 5, Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution

Unit Description – Early settlements, Settlers and Native Americans, Life in the tobacco region, Role of religion, Unsatisfied colonists, Introduction of slavery and indentured servants, Social structure

Unit II - The Revolutionary Era

Broad Themes – American diversity, Environment, Politics and citizenship, Slavery & its legacy in North America, War & diplomacy

Assigned Readings / Text - American Pageant:

Chapter 6, The Duel for North America,

Chapter 7, The Road to Revolution,

Chapter 8, America Secedes from the Empire

Unit Description – Anglo-French rivalries, Native American uprisings, British Acts and colonial response, Colonial political organizations, Declaration of Independence, Revolutionary battles, The French alliance, “Peace at last”

Unit III - Building a New Nation

Broad Themes – American diversity, Economic transformations, Politics & citizenship, War & diplomacy

Assigned Readings / Text - American Pageant:

Chapter 9, The Confederation and the Constitution,

Chapter 10, Launching the New Ship of State,

Chapter 11, The Triumphs and Travails of the Jeffersonian Republic ,

Chapter 12, The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of Nationalism

Unit Description – Economic woos, The Articles of Confederation and its problems, The Constitution, The emergence of political parties, Judicial review, The Louisiana Purchase, “The American System”, Early international policies

Unit IV - The Jacksonian Era

Broad Themes – American diversity, Culture, Politics & citizenship, Reform, Religion

Assigned Readings / Text - American Pageant:

Chapter 13, The Rise of Mass Democracy,

Chapter 14, Forging the National Economy,

Chapter 15, The Ferment of Reform and Culture

Unit Description – The “Corrupt Bargain”, Spoils system, Native American domestic policy, The Bank War, Western expansion, Immigration, Women’s role, The Second Great Awakening, Temperance, Emergence of American art, architecture, and literature

Unit V - Crisis and Sectionalism in America

Broad Themes – Demographic change, Globalization, Politics & citizenship, Slavery & its legacy in North America, War & diplomacy

Assigned Readings / Text - American Pageant:

Chapter 16, The South and the Slavery Controversy,

Chapter 17, Manifest Destiny and its Legacy,

Chapter 18, Renewing the Sectional Struggle,

Chapter 19, Drifting Toward Disunion

Unit Description - “King Cotton”, Abolitionists, The Mexican War, Popular Sovereignty, Slavery’s affect on American life, Republican Party platform, Lincoln ’s victory and its affects

Unit VI - The Civil War and Reconstruction

Broad Themes – Demographic change, Globalization, Politics & citizenship, Slavery & its legacy in North America, War & diplomacy

Assigned Readings / Text - American Pageant:

Chapter 20, Girding for War: The North and the South,

Chapter 21, The Furnace of Civil War,

Chapter 22, The Ordeal of Reconstruction,

Unit Description – Civil War battles, Financing the war, Lincoln and civil liberties, Legacy of the war, Freedmen’s Bureau, Radical Republicans, The Ku Klux Klan, the legacy of Reconstruction

Unit VII – The Gilded Age

Broad Themes – American diversity, American identity, Demographic changes, Environment, Economic transformations, Religion, Reform

Assigned Readings / Text –American Pageant:

Chapter 23, Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age,

Chapter 24, Industry Comes of Age,

Chapter 25, America Moves to the City,

Chapter 26, The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution,

Unit Description – Corruption in the post-Civil War era, Civil Service reform, Populists, Speculation, Labor movement, Urbanization, Women in the workforce, Nativism, Indian Wars, The People’s Party

Unit VIII – Imperialist America

Broad Themes – American diversity, Globalization, Politics & citizenship, War & diplomacy

Assigned Readings / Text – American Pageant:

Chapter 27, The Path of Empire,

Chapter 28, America on the World Stage,

Unit Description – Dispute over Venezuela, American expansion, The U.S.S. Maine, The Spanish-American War and its outcome, Filipino insurrection, The Open Door notes, Theodore Roosevelt, Panama Canal, Roosevelt Corollary, Roosevelt and the Far East

Unit IX – The Progressive Era

Broad Themes – American diversity, Politics & citizenship, Reform

Assigned Readings / Text – American Pageant:

Chapter 29, Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt,

Chapter 30, Wilsonian Progressivism at Home and Abroad,

Unit Description – Muckrakers, Politics of progressivism, Women’s suffrage, Temperance, Roosevelt’s “square deal”, “Big stick diplomacy”, Progressive reform, Labor, Trusts, Consumer protection, Conservation, Taft’s presidency, “Dollar Diplomacy”, Wilson’s presidency, Wilson and Mexico, Progressive Amendments, War in Europe and American neutrality

Free response essay on the objectives of the Progressive Movement

Unit X – World War I

Broad Themes – American diversity, American Identity, Globalization, Politics & citizenship, War & diplomacy

Assigned Readings / Text – American Pageant:

Chapter 31, The War to End War,

Unit Description – German submarines, Zimmerman telegraph, Propaganda, The home front, The War Industries Board, The draft, American Expeditionary Force, John J. Pershing, Peace talks in Paris, Wilson’s Fourteen Points, League of Nations, The Senate’s rejection of the Treaty of Versailles

Unit XI – The Roaring Twenties

Broad Themes – American diversity, American Identity, Demographic changes, Economic transformation,

Assigned Readings / Text – American Pageant:

Chapter 32, American Life in the Roaring Twenties,

Chapter 33, The Politics of Boom and Bust,

Unit Description – The Red Scare, Immigration restrictions, Organized crime, Consumerism, Scopes Trial, The Automobile, Harlem Renaissance, Changing role of women, Religion fundamentalism, Latin American relations, Failing economic practices

Unit XII – The Great Depression and the New Deal

Broad Themes – Demographic changes, Economic transformation, Reform

Assigned Readings / Text – American Pageant:

Chapter 34, The Great Depression and the New Deal

Unit Description –Causes of the Depression, Bonus Army, Soup kitchens and bread lines, Shantytowns, The Hundred Days Congress, New Deal programs, Organized labor, Critics of the New Deal, The Second New Deal, The Supreme Court examines the New Deal

Unit XIII – America and WWII

Broad Themes – Globalization, War & diplomacy

Assigned Readings / Text – American Pageant:

Chapter 35, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War,

Chapter 36, America in World War II,

Unit Description – German and Japanese aggression, Holocaust, American Neutrality, Pearl Harbor, Japanese-American Internment, Women and the war, Socio-economic impact of the war, WWII battles, The atomic bomb

Unit XIV – The Cold War

Broad Themes – American Identity, Culture, Globalization, Politics & citizenship,

Assigned Readings / Text – American Pageant:

Chapter 37, The Cold War Begins,

Unit Description – Postwar prosperity, Suburbs, Baby boom, Truman’s presidency, Yalta Conference, Origins of the Cold War, Iron Curtain, World Bank, United Nations, Containment, Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, NATO, Anti-communism, Alger Hiss, McCarthyism, Korean War

Unit XV – The 1950’s

Broad Themes – American diversity, Culture, Economic changes, Globalization

Assigned Readings / Text – American Pageant:

Chapter 38, The Eisenhower Era,

Unit Description – Eisenhower’s presidency, Race relations, Explosion of science and technology, Consumerism, Changing economic roles for men and women, Television, Rock-n-Roll, Teenage mentality

Unit XVI – The Turbulent Sixties

Broad Themes –American diversity, Environment, Economic transformation, Globalization, Politics & citizenship, Reform, War & diplomacy

Assigned Readings / Text – American Pageant:

Chapter 39, The Stormy Sixties,

Unit Description – Kennedy’s presidency, Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, Civil Rights Movement, Kennedy’s assassination, John’s “Great Society”, Vietnam, The home front, Nixon’s presidency, The counterculture, Music, Women’s Rights Movement, Andy Warhol

Unit XVII – The 1970’s

Broad Themes – American diversity, Environment, Economic transformation, Globalization, Politics & citizenship, Reform, War & diplomacy

Assigned Readings / Text – American Pageant:

Chapter 40, The Stalemated Seventies,

Unit Description – End of postwar economic boom, Nixon and Vietnam, China, Nixon’s domestic policies, Watergate Scandal, Oil, Nixon resigns, Ford’s presidency, Carter’s presidency, Panama, The Middle East, Energy crisis, Inflation, Iranian hostage crisis, Religious revivalism, The New Right, Environmental concerns

Unit XVIII – The Conservative Age

Broad Themes - American diversity, Environment, Economic transformation, Globalization, Politics & citizenship, Reform, War & diplomacy

Assigned Readings / Text –American Pageant:

Chapter 41, The Resurgence of Conservatism,

Chapter 42, The American People Face a New Century,

Unit Description – Tax cuts, Budget battles, Mikhail Gorbachev, Iran-Contra scandal, Reaganomics, Education, Intercity concerns, health care, Bush’s presidency, The end of the Cold War, The Persian Gulf War, Clinton’s presidency, Clinton’s impeachment, The election of 2000, George W. Bush’s presidency, Science and technology, The perils of globalization