AP U.S. History Syllabus
Welcome back to school! I am very excited to be your teacher this year. This course is designed to provide a college-level experience and preparation for the AP Exam on May 7, 2010. An emphasis is placed on interpreting documents, mastering a significant body of factual information, and writing critical essays. The course will emphasize a series of key themes throughout the year.
The themes will include:
- discussions of the development of a unique American identity
- demographic changes over the course of America’s history
- economic trends and transformations
- environmental issues
- the development of political institutions
- social reform movements
- the role of religion in the making of the United States and its impact in a multicultural society
- the history of slavery and its legacies in this hemisphere
- war and diplomacy
- the place of the United States in an increasingly global arena
AP U.S. History is a challenging course that requires a great deal of work on both your and my parts. Students will be expected to learn and retain information that is not discussed in class, but is a part of their daily readings. Please feel free to contact me either through e-mail or by phone with questions or concerns throughout the year.
Textbook
Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas Bailey. The American Pageant. 13th ed. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006.
You will also receive numerous handouts of primary and secondary sources. It would behoove you to have a three ring notebook in which to place these resources.
Grading
Each Quarter grade will be determined as follows:
· tests and projects 45%
· quizzes 25%
· homework 15%
· class work /participation—15%.
Ø There will be at least two test grades per quarter
Ø There will be weekly quizzes on the last week’s reading
Ø Once a week I will check notes from the previous week’s chapters. This will largely make up your homework grade
Ø CHEATING AND PLAGERISM WILL NOT BE TOLERATED AND WILL RESULT IN AN AUTOMATIC ZERO along with a date with the honor committee. Resubmitted work will not be able to get a higher grade than a 60%
Ø Document-Based Question essays (DBQs) and Essays must be typed (double-spaced) or written in black or blue ink.
· Essays will vary in length depending on the topic and are graded on content, use of documentary and outside supporting evidence, grammar, spelling, and evidence of critical thinking.
· An Essay or DBQ can be counted as test, quiz or homework grade.
Ø Work turned in late will be marked down one grade for every day that it is late.
(As an aside a grade of “B” in the class is often commensurate with an “A” in a non-AP course. Last year students who earned a “B” in this course earned a 4 on the AP exam. This course is graded like a college level course.)
THERE ARE NINE UNITS IN THIS COURSE
UNIT 1- BEGINNINGS THROUGH REVOLUTION
Before Columbus, Spanish, French and British Colonization, Push-Pull factors, Colonial Sections, Cultural Differences, Mercantilism, Awakenings, Patterns of Society, Post-1763 British Policy.
UNIT 2-REVOLUTIONARIES TO RULERS
Loosening Ties, The Colonies United, The War for Independence, War and Society, Creation of State Governments, The Articles of Confederation, The Constitution, Federalists and Republicans, Hamilton vs. Jefferson.
UNIT 3-FROM JEFFERSON TO JACKSON
The Revolution of 1800, The War of 1812, The Marshall Court, Cultural Nationalism, Expansion, Era of Good Feelings, Sectionalism, Mass Politics, Indian Removal, The Bank War, Jacksonian Democracy, Manifest Destiny.
UNIT 4-AN AMERICAN CULTURE AND SECTIONALISM
The Politics and Culture of Slavery, The Changing Population, Transportation, Commerce and Industry, Sectional Differences, Remaking Society, Abolition, Temperance, Women’s Rights.
UNIT 5-THE CIVIL WAR
The Crises of the 1850s, the Secession Crisis, Mobilization, Strategy and Diplomacy, Compromises, Dred Scott, Terrorism and Conflict.
UNIT 6-RECONSTRUCTION AND RELOCATION
Types of Reconstruction Plans, Radical Reconstruction, Impeachment, Governmental Corruption, Abandoning Reconstruction, The New South, Societies of the West, Dispersal of the Tribes, Urbanization, Agricultural Revolution, Leisure, The Rise of Unionism, Agrarian Revolt, DuBois vs. Washington, Consolidation.
UNIT 7-IMPERIALISM AND PROGRESSIVISM
Progressivism, Women and Reform, TR and the Modern Presidency, the Big Stick, Muckrakers, Immigration, Imperialism in Cuba and the Pacific, Diplomacy, America and the World.
UNIT 8-WORLD WAR I, BOOM AND BUST
The Road to War, War and Society, New World Order, New Cultures and Conflict, Wilsonian Idealism, KKK, Immigration Issues, Anarchists, Jazz Age, Boom Times, Depression. New Deal, Court Reactions, Extremist Alternatives, Society and Hard Times, Decline of the New Deal.
UNIT 9-WORLD WAR II AND POST-WAR
Isolationism and Internationalism, Neutrality, Intervention, War on Two Fronts, Alliances, Origins of the Cold War, Korea, Containment, Science and Technology, Rise of the Civil Rights Movement, Flexible Response, Red Scare.
UNIT 10-MY GENERATION AND YOURS
Expanding the Liberal State, Vietnam, 1968, The Youth Culture, The New Feminism, Mobilization of Minorities, Environmentalism, Turbulent Society, Watergate, the Reagan Revolution, End of the Cold War, Globalization, the New Partisanship, the War on Terror.
AMERICAN PAEGANT READING OUTLINE
EVERY MONDAY or TUESDAY THERE WILL BE A QUIZ ON THE PREVIOUS WEEK’S READING
WEEK DATE READINGS
1 Aug. 24-28 UNIT 1- BEGINNINGS THROUGH REVOLUTION
Chapter 1
New World Beginnings, 33,000 B.C.-A.D. 1769
2 Aug. 31-Sept. 4 Chapters 2, 3
The Planting of English America, 1500-1733
Settling the Northern Colonies, 1619-1700
3 Sept. 8-11 Chapter 4
American Life in the Seventeenth Century, 1607-1692
4 Sept. 14-18 Chapters 5, 6
Colonial Society on the Eve of the Revolution, 1700-1775
The Duel for North America
5 Sept. 21-25 UNIT 2-REVOLUTIONARIES TO RULERS
Chapter 7
The Road to Revolution, 1763-1775
6 Sept. 28-Oct.2 Chapters 8, 9
America Secedes from Empire, 1775-1783
The Confederation and the Constitution, 1776-1790
7 Oct.5-9 Chapter 10
Launching the New Ship of State, 1789-1800
8 Oct.12-16 UNIT 3-FROM JEFFERSON TO JACKSON Chapter 11
The Triumph and Travails of Jeffersonian Democracy,
1800-1809
9 Oct.19-23 Chapter 12
The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of
Nationalism, 1809-1815
10 Oct.26-29 Chapter 13
The Rise of a Mass Democracy, 1824-1840
11 Nov. 2-6 Chapter 14
Forging the National Economy, 1790-1860
12 Nov. 9-13 UNIT 4- AN AMERICAN CULTURE AND SECTIONALISM Chapter 15
The Ferment of Culture and Reform, 1790-1860
13 Nov. 16-20 Chapter 16
The South and the Slavery Controversy, 1793-1860
14 Nov.23-24 Chapter 17
Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy, 1841-1848
THANKSGIVING BREAK (Nov.25-30)
15 Dec. 1-4 Chapter 18
Renewing the Sectional Struggle, 1848-1854
16 Dec. 7-11 UNIT 5-THE CIVIL WAR Chapter 19
Drifting Toward Disunion, 1854-1861
17 Dec.14-16 REVIEW
Dec. 17-18 EXAMS
18 Dec. 21-22 EXAMS
19 Dec. 23-Jan. 3 CHRISTMAS BREAK
20 Jan.4-8 Chapters 20, 21
Girding for War: The North and the South, 1861-1865
The Furnace of Civil War, 1861-1865
21 Jan. 11-15 UNIT 6-RECONSTRUCTION AND RELOCATION Chapter 22
The Ordeal of Reconstruction, 1865-1877
22 Jan. 19-21 Chapter 23
Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age, 1869-1896
Martin Luther King, Jr. Observance (Jan. 18)
March For Life (Jan. 22)
23 Jan.25-29 Chapter 24
Industry Comes of Age, 1865-1900
24 Feb. 1-5 Chapters 25, 26
America Moves to the City, 1865-1900
The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution, 1865-1900
25 Feb. 8-12 UNIT 7-IMPERIALISM AND PROGRESSIVISM Chapters 27, 28
The Path of Empire, 1890-1899
America of the World stage, 1899-1909
26 Feb. 16-19 Chapter 29
Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt, 1901-1912
President’s Day (Feb. 15)
27 Feb.22-26 Chapter 30
Wilsonian Progressivism at Home and Abroad, 1912-1916
28 Mar. 1-5 UNIT 8-WORLD WAR I, BOOM AND BUST Chapters 31, 32
The War to End War, 1917-1918
American Life in the Roaring Twenties, 1919-1929
29 Mar. 8-12 Chapter 33
The Politics of Boom and Bust, 1920-1932
30 Mar. 15-19 Chapters 34, 35
The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1933-1939
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War, 1933-1941
31 Mar. 22-26 UNIT 9-WORLD WAR II AND POST-WAR Chapter 36
America in World War II, 1941-1945
32 Mar. 29-30 Chapters 37
The Cold War Begins, 1945-1952
Easter Vacation (March 31-April 9) - Must read Chapter 38 The Eisenhower Era, 1952-1960
33 Apr. 12-16 UNIT 10-MY GENERATION AND YOURS Chapters 39
The Eisenhower Era, 1952-1960
The Stormy Sixties, 1960-1968
34 Apr.19-23 Chapters 40, 41
The Stalemated Seventies, 1968-1970
The Resurgence of Conservatism, 1980-2000
36 Apr.26-30 REVIEW
37 May3-7 REVIEW & EXAM on Friday May 7th