AP
2006 – 2007
Course Description
The following
information comes from the College Board’s® Course
Description for AP U.S. History
Themes addressed in
AP U.S. History
American Diversity – The diversity of the American people and the relationships
among different groups. The roles of race, class,
ethnicity, and gender in the history of the
American Identity – Views of the American
national character and ideas about American exceptionalism. Recognizing regional differences within
the context of what it means to be an American.
Culture – Diverse individual and
collective expressions through literature, art, philosophy, music, theater, and
film throughout
Demographic Changes – Changes in birth,
marriage, and death rates; life expectancy and family patterns; population size
and density. The
economic, social, and political effects of immigration, internal migration, and
migration networks.
Economic
Transformations
– Changes in trade, commerce, and technology across time. The effects of
capitalist development, labor and unions, and consumerism.
Environment – Ideas about the consumption
and conservation of natural resources.
The impact of population growth, industrialization,
pollution, and urban and suburban expansion.
Globalization – Engagement with the rest
of the world from the fifteenth century to the present: colonialism,
mercantilism, global hegemony, development of markets, imperialism, cultural
exchange.
Politics and
Citizenship
– Colonial and revolutionary legacies, American political traditions,
growth of democracy, and the development of the modern state. Defining citizenship; struggles for
civil rights.
Reform – Diverse movements focusing
on a broad range of issues, including anti-slavery, education, labor,
temperance, women’s rights, civil rights, gay rights, war, public health,
and government.
Religion – The variety of religious
beliefs and practices in
Slavery and Its
Legacies in North America – Systems of slave labor and other forms of unfree
labor (e.g. indentured servitude, contract labor) in Native American societies,
the Atlantic World, and the American South and West. The economics of
slavery and its racial dimensions.
Patterns of resistance and the long-term economic,
political, and social effects of slavery.
War and Diplomacy – Armed conflict from the
pre-colonial period to the twenty-first century; impact of war on American
foreign policy and on politics, economy, and society.
Topic Outline Revised for 2006-2007 by the College Board
Each of the following topics will be addressed in this
course. At the beginning of each
unit, students will receive a timeline schedule of when we will discuss/cover
each topic below along with the readings from Kennedy’s American Pageant and the AMSCO Review
book. However, it is important to
note that as a class, we will cover the
topics below in a different order than what is presented here.
1. Pre-Columbian Societies
Early inhabitants of the
American Indian empires in Mesoamerica, the Southwest, and
the
American Indian cultures of
AMSCO: Chapter
1
2. Transatlantic
Encounters and Colonial Beginnings, 1492-1690
First European contact with Native Americans
French colonization of
English settlement of
From servitude to slavery in the
Religious diversity in the American colonies
Resistance to colonial authority:
Bacon’s Rebellion, the Glorious Revolution, and the Pueblo Revolt
AMSCO: Chapter
2
3. Colonial
Population growth and immigration
Transatlantic trade and the growth
of seaports
The eighteenth-century back country
Growth of plantation economies and
slave societies
The Enlightenment and the Great
Awakening
Colonial governments and imperial
policy in
AMSCO: Chapter
3 (parts of Ch. 2)
4. The American Revolutionary Era, 1754-1789
The French and Indian War
The Imperial Crisis and resistance
to
The War for
State constitutions and the
Articles of Confederation
The federal Constitution
AMSCO: Chapters
4, 5, 6
5. The Early Republic, 1789-1815
Emergence of political parties:
Federalists and Republicans
Republican Motherhood and education
for women
Beginnings of the Second Great
Awakening
Significance of
Expansion into the
trans-Appalachian West; American Indian resistance
Growth of slavery and free Black
communities
The War of 1812 and its
consequences
AMSCO: Chapters
6, 7
6. Transformation of the Economy and Society in Antebellum
The transportation revolution and
creation of a national market economy
Beginnings of industrialization and
changes in social and class structures
Immigration and nativist
reaction
Planters, yeoman farmers, and
slaves in the cotton South
AMSCO: Chapter
8
7. The Transformation of Politics in Antebellum
Emergence of the second party
system
Federal authority and its
opponents: judicial federalism, the Bank War, tariff controversy, and
states’ rights debates
Jacksonian democracy and its successes and
limitations
AMSCO: Chapters
9, 10
8. Religion, Reform, and Renaissance in Antebellum
Evangelical Protestant revivalism
Social reforms
Ideas of domesticity
Transcendentalism and utopian
communities
American Renaissance: literary and
artistic expressions
AMSCO: Chapter
11
9. Territorial Expansion and Manifest Destiny
Forced removal of American Indians
to the trans-Mississippi West
Western migration and cultural
interactions
Territorial acquisitions
Early
AMSCO: Chapter
12
10. The Crisis of the
Pro- and antislavery arguments and
conflicts
Compromise of 1850 and popular
sovereignty
The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the
emergence of the Republican Party
Abraham Lincoln, the election of
1860, and secession
AMSCO: Chapter
13
11. Civil War
Two societies at war: mobilization,
resources, and internal dissent
Military strategies and foreign
diplomacy
Emancipation and the role of
African Americans in the war
Social, political, and economic
effects of the war in the North, South, and West
AMSCO: Chapter
14
12. Reconstruction
Presidential and Radical
Reconstruction
Southern state governments:
aspirations, achievements, failures
Role of African Americans in
politics, education, and the economy
Compromise of 1877
Impact of Reconstruction
AMSCO: Chapter
15
13. The Origins of the New South
Reconfiguring of southern
agriculture: sharecropping and crop lien system
Expansion of manufacturing and
industrialization
The politics of segregation: Jim
Crow and disfranchisement
AMSCO: Chapter
16 (section of)
14. Development of the West in the Late Nineteenth Century
Expansion and development of
western railroads
Competitors for the West: minors,
ranchers, homesteaders, and American Indians
Government policy toward American
Indians
Gender, race, and ethnicity in the
far West
Environmental impact of western
settlement
AMSCO: Chapter
16 (section of)
15. Industrial
Corporate consolidation of industry
Effects of technological
development on the worker and the workplace
Labor and unions
National politics and influence of
corporate power
Migration and immigration: the
changing face of the nation
Proponents and opponents of the new
order, e.g., Social Darwinism and Social Gospel
AMSCO: Chapter
17 (parts of 19)
16. Urban Society in the Late Nineteenth Century
Urbanization and the lure of the
city
City problems and machine politics
Intellectual and cultural movements
and popular entertainment
AMSCO: Chapter
18
17. Populism and Progressivism
Agrarian discontent and political
issues of the late nineteenth century
Origins of Progressive reform:
municipal, state, and national
Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson as
Progressive presidents
Women’s roles: family,
workplace, education, politics, and reform
Black
AMSCO: Chapter
21 (parts of 19)
18. The Emergence of
American imperialism: political and
economic expansion
War in
The First World War at home and
abroad
Treaty of
Society and economy in the postwar years
AMSCO: Chapters
20, 22
19. The New Era: 1920s
The business of
Republican politics: Harding,
Coolidge,
The culture of Modernism: science,
the arts, and entertainment
Responses to Modernism: religious
fundamentalism, nativism, and Prohibition
The ongoing struggle for equality:
African Americans and women
AMSCO: Chapter
23
20. The Great Depression and the New Deal
Causes of the Great Depression
The
Labor and union recognition
The New Deal coalition and its
critics from the Right and the Left
Surviving hard times: American society
during the Great Depression
AMSCO: Chapter
24
21. The Second World War
The rise of fascism and militarism
in
Prelude to war: policy of
neutrality
The attack on Pearl Harbor and
Fighting a multi-front war
Diplomacy, war aims, and wartime
conferences
The United States as a global power
in the Atomic Age
AMSCO: Chapter
25
22. The Home Front During the War
Wartime mobilization of the economy
Urban migration and demographic
changes
Women, work, and family during the
war
Civil liberties and civil rights
during wartime
War and regional development
Expansion of government power
AMSCO: Chapter
25
23. The
Origins of the Cold War
Truman and containment
The Cold War in Asia:
Diplomatic strategies and policies
of the Eisenhower and Kennedy administration
The Red Scare and McCarthyism
Impact of the Cold War on American
society
AMSCO: Chapter
26 (parts of 27)
24. The 1950s
Emergence of the modern civil
rights movement
The affluent society and “the
other
Consensus and conformity: suburbia
and middle-class
Social critics, nonconformists, and
cultural rebels
Impact of changes in science,
technology, and medicine
AMSCO: Chapter
27
25. The Turbulent 1960s
From the New Frontier to the Great
Society
Expanding movements for civil
rights
Cold War confrontations: Asia,
Latin America, and
Beginning of Détente
The antiwar movement and the
counterculture
AMSCO: Chapter
28
26. Politics and Economics at the End of the Twentieth Century
The election of 1968 and the
“Silent Majority”
Nixon’s challenges:
Changes in the American economy:
the energy crisis, deindustrialization, and the service economy
The New Right and the Reagan
revolution
End of the Cold War
AMSCO: Chapter
29
27. Society and Culture at the End of the Twentieth Century
Demographic changes: surge of
immigration after 1965, Sunbelt migration, and the graying of
Revolutions in biotechnology, mass
communication, and computers
Politics in a multicultural society
AMSCO: Chapters
29 & 30
28. The
Globalization and the American
economy
Unilateralism vs. multilateralism
in foreign policy
Domestic and foreign terrorism
Environmental issues in a global
context
AMSCO: Chapter
30