COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course covers all of the material outlined by the College Board as necessary to prepare you to pass the AP US History exam.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

After completing the course, students will be able to:

• Demonstrate comprehension of a broad body of historical knowledge
• Express ideas clearly in writing
• Work with classmates to research a historical issue
• Interpret and apply data from original documents
• Identify underrepresented historical viewpoints
• Write to persuade with evidence
• Compare and contrast alternate interpretations of a historical figure, event, or trend
• Explain how a historical event connects to or causes a larger trend or theme
• Develop essay responses that include a clear, defensible thesis statement and supporting evidence
• Effectively argue a position on a historical issue
• Critique and respond to arguments made by others. Raise and explore questions about policies, institutions, beliefs, and actions in a historical context
• Evaluate primary materials, such as historical documents, political cartoons, and first-person narratives
• Evaluate secondary materials, such as scholarly works or statistical analyses
• Assess the historical significance and cultural impact of key literary works (e.g. Common Sense, Uncle Tom’s Cabin)

PREREQUISITES:

None

COURSE LENGTH:

Two semesters

REQUIRED TEXT:

The American Pageant, ISBN #061810349X

COURSE OUTLINE:

Semester 1

• Exploration and Colonial America
• Colonial Society
• The Shot Heard Round the World
• The New Nation Forms
• America’s Growing Pains
• The Concurrent Rise of Nationalism and Sectionalism
• The Era of Andrew Jackson
• Emergence of America’s Literary, Philosophic, and Religious Movements
• The Coming of the Civil Way
• The Only Recourse: War
• Picking up the Pieces

Semester 2

• The New South and the New West
• Industrial Ascendancy
• Urbanization: A Changing America
• Agrarian Discontent and Progressivism
• Isolationist to World Power
• Wilson and the World
• Boom to Bust
• The U.S. at War
• The Cold War
• Turbulent Decades
• Toward a New Century