AP US History

AP United States History is an intensive, full-year course divided into two semesters. The course focuses on exploring and analyzing American historical events, individuals, and cultural trends. Students will be prepared with the analytic skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problems and materials in United States History. This first semester course covers the time frame of 1492 to 1877, and the second semester course covers the time frame 1878 to present.
This course is designed to prepare students for the Advanced Placement Exam in United States History that is administered by the College Board Educational Testing Center. The class satisfies the United States History requirement for graduation.

Semester A

• Master a broad body of historical knowledge from the founding of the first colonies to the present.
• Demonstrate an understanding of our historical chronology.
• Use and interpret historical documents including graphs, maps, charts, letters, and other primary resources to support an argument or point of view.
• Use critical thinking and analysis in discussions and assignments that demonstrate their understanding of major developments, events, and people in our history.
• Create an awareness of the role the United States plays in world economic, political and cultural influence.
• Prepare for the AP exam.

Semester B

• How economic depression dominated the era and reshaped political alignments and attitudes as the nation became less an isolationist and more a foreign diplomat as tragedy embroiled the United States more deeply in the European crisis, and despite Wilson’s commitment to peace and neutrality, America went to war in 1917.
• How economic boom of the Post World War I era turned a society from prosperity to depression and reshaped society as the transition of the United States to the modern era begins. Despite the prosperity and progress of the era, the foundation was unstable and America went to war again 1942.
• How the United Stated grew from an isolationist nation to a nation of world power as Soviet-American tensions escalate due to the war.
• How the power of the American influence created an opportunity for the United States to emerge though the turbulence of the 1960s and crisis of confidence of the 1970s to a nation that ends the Cold War with increased prosperity in the 1980s with a growing economy in the 1990s.

Course Syllabus

The American Pageant, by David M. Kennedy, Lizabeth Cohen, 17th Edition, ©2020, eText 
ISBN-13: 9780357504765

Princeton Review AP U.S. History Premium Prep, 2024
ISBN-10: 0593517296
ISBN-13: 978-0593517291