INCLUDES
Course framework
Instructional
section
Sample exam
questions
AP
®
U.S.
History
COURSE AND EXAM DESCRIPTION
Effective
Fall 2019
About College Board
College Board is a mission-driven not-for-prot organization that connects
students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, College Board
was created to expand access to higher education. Today, the membership
association is made up of over 6,000 of the world’s leading educational institutions
and is dedicated to promoting excellence and equity in education. Each year,
CollegeBoard helps more than seven million students prepare for a successful
transition to college through programs and services in college readiness and
college success—including the SAT® and the Advanced Placement® Program.
Theorganization also serves the education community through research and
advocacy on behalf of students, educators, and schools.
For further information, visit collegeboard.org.
AP Equity and Access Policy
College Board strongly encourages educators to make equitable access a guiding
principle for their AP programs by giving all willing and academically prepared
students the opportunity to participate in AP. We encourage the elimination
of barriers that restrict access to AP for students from ethnic, racial, and
socioeconomic groups that have been traditionally underrepresented. Schools
should make every eort to ensure their AP classes reect the diversity of their
student population. College Board also believes that all students should have
access to academically challenging coursework before they enroll in AP classes,
which can prepare them for AP success. It is only through a commitment to
equitable preparation and access that true equity and excellence can be achieved.
Designers: Sonny Mui and Bill Tully
© 2019 College Board. College Board, Advanced Placement, AP, AP Central, and the acorn logo are
registered trademarks of College Board. All other products and services may be trademarks of their
respective owners.
Visit College Board on the web: collegeboard.org.
Contents
v Acknowledgments
1 About AP
4 AP Resources and Supports
6 Instructional Model
7 About the AP U.S. History Course
7 College Course Equivalent
7 Prerequisites
COURSE FRAMEWORK
11 Introduction
11 The Founding Documents
13 Course Framework Components
15 Historical Thinking Skills and Reasoning Processes
19 Course Content
24 Course at a Glance
29 Unit Guides
31 Using the Unit Guides
33 UNIT 1 – Period 1: 1491–1607
47 UNIT 2 – Period 2: 1607–1754
65 UNIT 3 – Period 3: 1754–1800
89 UNIT 4 – Period 4: 1800–1848
111 UNIT 5 – Period 5: 1844–1877
131 UNIT 6 – Period 6: 1865–1898
153 UNIT 7 – Period 7: 1890–1945
177 UNIT 8 – Period 8: 1945–1980
203 UNIT 9 – Period 9: 1980–Present
INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACHES
219 Selecting and Using Course Materials
221 Instructional Strategies
226 Developing Historical Thinking Skills
236 Developing the Reasoning Processes
EXAM INFORMATION
241 Exam Overview
247 Sample Exam Questions
261 AP History Rubrics
APPENDIX
267 AP U.S. History Concept Outline
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Acknowledgments
College Board would like to acknowledge the following individuals for their
assistance with and contributions to the development of this course over the
years. All individuals’ aliations were current at the time of contribution.
Fred Anderson, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO
Juliana Barr, Duke University, Durham, NC
Julie Bell, James Madison School, Houston, TX
Kevin Byrne, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN
Christopher Capozzola, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Billie Jean Clemens, Swain County High School, Bryson City, NC
Ted Dickson, Providence Day School, Charlotte, NC
Rosemary Ennis, Sycamore High School, Cincinnati, OH
Jason George, The Bryn Mawr School, Baltimore, MD
Geri Hastings, Catonsville High School, Baltimore, MD
Christine Heyrman, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
John P. Irish, Carroll Senior High School, Southlake, TX
Kathleen Kean, Nicolet High School, Glendale, WI
David Kennedy, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Elizabeth Kessel, Anne Arundel Community College, Arnold, MD
Stuart Lade, Brainerd High School, Brainerd, MN
Emma Lapsansky, Haverford College, Haverford, PA
Mary Lopez, Schaumburg High School, Schaumburg, IL
Maria Montoya, New York University, New York, NY
Cassandra Osborne, Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge, TN
E. Anthony Rotundo, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
James Sabathne, Hononegah Community High School, Rockton, IL
Daryl Michael Scott, Howard University, Washington, DC
Suzanne Sinke, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
Timothy Thurber, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
College Board Sta
John C. Baran Jr., Director, AP Instructional Design and
PD Resource Development
Cheryl Harmon, Senior Director, AP Instructional Design and
PD Resource Development
Chad Hoge, Director, AP U.S. History Content Development
Daniel McDonough, Senior Director, AP Content Integration
Allison Milverton, Director, AP Curricular Publications
Allison Thurber, Executive Director, AP Curriculum and Assessment
SPECIAL THANKS
Christopher Budano, Lawrence Charap, and John R. Williamson
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vAP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
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About AP
College Board’s Advanced Placement® Program (AP®)
enables willing and academically prepared students
to pursue college-level studies—with the opportunity
to earn college credit, advanced placement, or
both—while still in high school. Through AP courses
in 38 subjects, each culminating in a challenging
exam, students learn to think critically, construct solid
arguments, and see many sides of an issue—skills
that prepare them for college and beyond. Taking
AP courses demonstrates to college admission ocers
that students have sought the most challenging
curriculum available to them, and research indicates
that students who score a 3 or higher on an AP Exam
typically experience greater academic success in
college and are more likely to earn a college degree
than non-AP students. Each AP teacher’s syllabus
is evaluated and approved by faculty from some of
the nation’s leading colleges and universities, and
AP Exams are developed and scored by college faculty
and experienced AP teachers. Most four-year colleges
and universities in the United States grant credit,
advanced placement, or both on the basis of successful
AP Exam scores; more than 3,300 institutions worldwide
annually receive AP scores.
AP Course Development
In an ongoing eort to maintain alignment with best
practices in college-level learning, AP courses and
exams emphasize challenging, research-based
curricula aligned with higher education expectations.
Individual teachers are responsible for designing
their own curriculum for AP courses and selecting
appropriate college-level readings, assignments,
and resources. This course and exam description
presents the content and skills that are the focus of
the corresponding college course and that appear on
the AP Exam. It also organizes the content and skills
into a series of units that represent a sequence found
in widely adopted college textbooks and that many
AP teachers have told us they follow in order to focus
their instruction. The intention of this publication is to
respect teachers’ time and expertise by providing a
roadmap that they can modify and adapt to their local
priorities and preferences. Moreover, by organizing the
AP course content and skills into units, the AP Program
is able to provide teachers and students with formative
assessments—Personal Progress Checks—that
teachers can assign throughout the year to measure
students’ progress as they acquire content knowledge
and develop skills.
Enrolling Students:
Equity and Access
College Board strongly encourages educators to
make equitable access a guiding principle for their
AP programs by giving all willing and academically
prepared students the opportunity to participate
in AP. We encourage the elimination of barriers
that restrict access to AP for students from ethnic,
racial, and socioeconomic groups that have been
traditionally underserved. College Board also believes
that all students should have access to academically
challenging coursework before they enroll in AP classes,
which can prepare them for AP success. It is only
through a commitment to equitable preparation and
access that true equity and excellence can be achieved.
Oering AP Courses:
The AP Course Audit
The AP Program unequivocally supports the principle
that each school implements its own curriculum that will
enable students to develop the content understandings
and skills described in the course framework.
While the unit sequence represented in this publication
is optional, the AP Program does have a short list of
curricular and resource requirements that must be
fullled before a school can label a course “Advanced
Placement” or “AP.” Schools wishing to oer APcourses
must participate in the AP Course Audit, a process
through which AP teachers’ course materials are
reviewed by college faculty. The AP Course Audit
was created to provide teachers and administrators
with clear guidelines on curricular and resource
requirements for AP courses and to help colleges and
universities validate courses marked “AP” on students’
transcripts. This process ensures that AP teachers’
courses meet or exceed the curricular and resource
expectations that college and secondary school faculty
have established for college-level courses.
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1AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
The AP Course Audit form is submitted by the
APteacher and the school principal (or designated
administrator) to conrm awareness and understanding
of the curricular and resource requirements. A syllabus
or course outline, detailing how course requirements
are met, is submitted by the AP teacher for review by
college faculty.
Please visit collegeboard.org/apcourseaudit for more
information to support the preparation and submission
of materials for the AP Course Audit.
How the AP Program
Is Developed
The scope of content for an AP course and exam is
derived from an analysis of hundreds of syllabi and
course oerings of colleges and universities. Using
this research and data, a committee of college faculty
and expert AP teachers work within the scope of
the corresponding college course to articulate what
students should know and be able to do upon the
completion of the AP course. The resulting course
framework is the heart of this course and exam
description and serves as a blueprint of the content and
skills that can appear on an AP Exam.
The AP Test Development Committees are responsible
for developing each AP Exam, ensuring the exam
questions are aligned to the course framework. The
AP Exam development process is a multiyear endeavor;
all AP Exams undergo extensive review, revision,
piloting, and analysis to ensure that questions are
accurate, fair, and valid, and that there is an appropriate
spread of diculty across the questions.
Committee members are selected to represent a variety
of perspectives and institutions (public and private,
small and large schools and colleges), and a range of
gender, racial/ethnic, and regional groups. A list of each
subject’s current AP Test Development Committee
members is available on apcentral.collegeboard.org.
Throughout AP course and exam development,
College Board gathers feedback from various
stakeholders in both secondary schools and higher
education institutions. This feedback is carefully
considered to ensure that AP courses and exams are
able to provide students with a college-level learning
experience and the opportunity to demonstrate their
qualications for advanced placement or college credit.
How AP Exams Are Scored
The exam scoring process, like the course and exam
development process, relies on the expertise of both
AP teachers and college faculty. While multiple-choice
questions are scored by machine, the free-response
questions and through-course performance
assessments, as applicable, are scored by thousands
of college faculty and expert AP teachers. Most are
scored at the annual AP Reading, while a small portion
is scored online. All AP Readers are thoroughly trained,
and their work is monitored throughout the Reading
for fairness and consistency. In each subject, a highly
respected college faculty member serves as Chief
Faculty Consultant and, with the help of AP Readers
in leadership positions, maintains the accuracy of
the scoring standards. Scores on the free-response
questions and performance assessments are weighted
and combined with the results of the computer-scored
multiple-choice questions, and this raw score is
converted into a composite AP score on a 1–5 scale.
AP Exams are not norm-referenced or graded on a curve.
Instead, they are criterion-referenced, which means that
every student who meets the criteria for an AP score of
2, 3, 4, or 5 will receive that score, no matter how many
students that is. The criteria for the number of points
students must earn on the AP Exam to receive scores
of 3, 4, or 5—the scores that research consistently
validates for credit and placement purposes—include:
§ The number of points successful college students
earn when their professors administer AP Exam
questions to them.
§ The number of points researchers have found
to be predictive that an AP student will succeed
when placed into a subsequent, higher-level
college course.
§ Achievement-level descriptions formulated by
college faculty who review each AP Exam question.
Using and Interpreting AP Scores
The extensive work done by college faculty and
AP teachers in the development of the course and
exam and throughout the scoring process ensures
that AP Exam scores accurately represent students’
achievement in the equivalent college course. Frequent
and regular research studies establish the validity of
AP scores as follows:
AP Score
Credit
Recommendation
College Grade
Equivalent
5
Extremely well qualied A
4
Well qualied A-, B+, B
3
Qualied B-, C+, C
2
Possibly qualied n/a
1
No recommendation n/a
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2AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
While colleges and universities are responsible for
setting their own credit and placement policies, most
private colleges and universities award credit and/
or advanced placement for AP scores of 3 or higher.
Additionally, most states in the U.S. have adopted
statewide credit policies that ensure college credit
for scores of 3 or higher at public colleges and
universities. To conrm a specic college’s AP credit/
placement policy, a search engine is available at
apstudent.org/creditpolicies
BECOMING AN AP READER
Each June, thousands of AP teachers and college
faculty members from around the world gather for
seven days in multiple locations to evaluate and
score the free-response sections of the AP Exams.
Ninety-eight percent of surveyed educators who took
part in the AP Reading say it was a positive experience.
There are many reasons to consider becoming an
AP Reader, including opportunities to:
§ Bring positive changes to the classroom:
Surveys show that the vast majority of returning
AP Readers—both high school and college
educators—make improvements to the way they
teach or score because of their experience at the
AP Reading.
§ Gain in-depth understanding of AP Exam and
AP scoring standards: AP Readers gain exposure
to the quality and depth of the responses from the
entire pool of AP Exam takers, and thus are better
able to assess their students’ work in the classroom.
§ Receive compensation: AP Readers are
compensated for their work during the Reading.
Expenses, lodging, and meals are covered for
Readers who travel.
§ Score from home: AP Readers have online
distributed scoring opportunities for certain subjects.
Check collegeboard.org/apreading for details.
§ Earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs):
AP Readers earn professional development hours
and CEUs that can be applied to PD requirements
by states, districts, and schools.
How to Apply
Visit collegeboard.org/apreading for eligibility
requirements and to start the application process.
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3AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
AP Resources
and Supports
By completing a simple activation process at the start of the school year, teachers and
students receive access to a robust set of classroom resources.
AP Classroom
AP Classroom is a dedicated online platform designed to support teachers and students
throughout their AP experience. The platform provides a variety of powerful resources and
tools to provide yearlong support to teachers and enable students to receive meaningful
feedback on their progress.
UNIT GUIDES
Appearing in this publication and on AP Classroom, these planning guides outline all required
course content and skills, organized into commonly taught units. Each unit guide suggests
a sequence and pacing of content, scaolds skill instruction across units, and organizes
content into topics.
PERSONAL PROGRESS CHECKS
Formative AP questions for every unit provide feedback to students on the areas where they
need to focus. Available online, Personal Progress Checks measure knowledge and skills
through multiple-choice questions with rationales to explain correct and incorrect answers,
and free-response questions with scoring information. Because the Personal Progress
Checks are formative, the results of these assessments cannot be used to evaluate teacher
eectiveness or assign letter grades to students, and any such misuses are grounds for losing
school authorization to oer AP courses.*
PROGRESS DASHBOARD
This dashboard allows teachers to review class and individual student progress throughout
the year. Teachers can view class trends and see where students struggle with content and
skills that will be assessed on the AP Exam. Students can view their own progress over time to
improve their performance before the AP Exam.
AP QUESTION BANK
This online library of real AP Exam questions provides teachers with secure questions to use
in their classrooms. Teachers can nd questions indexed by course topics and skills, create
customized tests, and assign them online or on paper. These tests enable students to practice
and get feedback on each question.
*To report misuses, please call, 877-274-6474 (International: +1-212-632-1781).
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4AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Digital Activation
In order to teach an AP class and make sure students are registered to take the AP Exam,
teachers must rst complete the digital activation process. Digital activation gives students
and teachers access to resources and gathers students’ exam registration information online,
eliminating most of the answer sheet bubbling that has added to testing time and fatigue.
AP teachers and students begin by signing in to My AP and completing a simple activation
process at the start of the school year, which provides access to all AP resources, including
AP Classroom.
To complete digital activation:
§ Teachers and students sign in to, or create, their College Board accounts.
§ Teachers conrm that they have added the course they teach to their AP Course Audit
account and have had it approved by their school’s administrator.
§ Teachers or AP Coordinators, depending on who the school has decided is responsible,
set up class sections so students can access AP resources and have exams ordered on
their behalf.
§ Students join class sections with a join code provided by their teacher or AP Coordinator.
§ Students will be asked for additional registration information upon joining their rst class
section, which eliminates the need for extensive answer sheet bubbling on exam day.
While the digital activation process takes a short time for teachers, students, and
AP Coordinators to complete, overall it helps save time and provides the following
additional benets:
§ Access to AP resources and supports: Teachers have access to resources specically
designed to support instruction and provide feedback to students throughout the school
year as soon as activation is complete.
§ Streamlined exam ordering: AP Coordinators can create exam orders from the same
online class rosters that enable students to access resources. The coordinator reviews,
updates, and submits this information as the school’s exam order in the fall.
§ Student registration labels: For each student included in an exam order, schools will
receive a set of personalized AP ID registration labels, which replaces the AP student
pack. The AP ID connects a student’s exam materials with the registration information they
provided during digital activation, eliminating the need for pre-administration sessions and
reducing time spent bubbling on exam day.
§ Targeted Instructional Planning Reports: AP teachers will get Instructional Planning
Reports (IPRs) that include data on each of their class sections automatically rather than
relying on special codes optionally bubbled in on exam day.
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5AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Instructional
Model
Integrating AP resources throughout the course can help students develop the historical
thinking skills and conceptual understandings. The instructional model outlined below shows
possible ways to incorporate AP resources into the classroom.
Plan
Teachers may consider the following approaches as they plan their instruction before
teaching each unit.
§ Use the Unit at a Glance table to identify related topics that build toward a common
understanding, and then plan appropriate pacing for students.
§ Identify useful strategies in the Instructional Approaches section to help teach the
concepts and skills.
Teach
When teaching, supporting resources could be used to build students’ conceptual
understanding and their mastery of skills.
§ Use the topic pages in the unit guides to identify the required content.
§ Integrate the content with a skill, considering any appropriate scaolding.
§ Employ any of the instructional strategies previously identied.
§ Use the available resources on the topic pages to bring a variety of assets into
the classroom.
Assess
Teachers can measure student understanding of the content and skills covered in the unit and
provide actionable feedback to students.
§ At the end of each unit, use AP Classroom to assign students the online Personal
Progress Checks, as homework or as an in-class task.
§ Provide question-level feedback to students through answer rationales; provide unit- and
skill-level feedback using the progress dashboard.
§ Create additional practice opportunities using the AP Question Bank and assign them
through AP Classroom.
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6AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
About the
AP U.S. History Course
In AP U.S. History, students investigate signicant events, individuals, developments, and
processes in nine historical periods from approximately 1491 to the present. Students
develop and use the same skills and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary
and secondary sources; developing historical arguments; making historical connections;
and utilizing reasoning about comparison, causation, and continuity and change. The course
also provides eight themes that students explore throughout the course in order to make
connections among historical developments in dierent times and places: American and
national identity; work, exchange, and technology; geography and the environment; migration
and settlement; politics and power; America in the world; American and regional culture; and
social structures.
College Course Equivalent
AP U.S. History is equivalent to a two-semester introductory college course in U.S. history.
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for AP U.S. History. Students should be able to read a college-level
textbook and write grammatically correct, complete sentences.
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AP U.S. HISTORY
Course
Framework
Introduction
The AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
denes what representative colleges and universities
typically expect students to know and be able to
do in order to earn college credit or placement.
Students practice the thinking skills used by
historians by studying primary and secondary
source evidence, analyzing a wide array of historical
evidence and perspectives, and expressing historical
arguments in writing.
Although the course framework is designed to provide
a clear and detailed description of the course content
and skills, it is not a curriculum. Teachers create their
own curricula to meet the needs of their students and
any state or local requirements.
The Inclusion of Names and
Specic Historical Examples
As has been the case for all prior versions of the
AP U.S. History course, this AP U.S. History course
framework includes a minimal number of individual
names: the founders, several presidents and party
leaders, and other individuals who are almost
universally taught in college-level U.S. history courses.
As history teachers know well, the material in this
framework cannot be taught without careful attention
to the individuals, events, and documents of American
history; however, to ensure teachers have exibility
to teach specic content that is valued locally and
individually, the course avoids prescribing details
that would require all teachers to teach the same
historical examples. Each teacher is responsible for
selecting specic individuals, events, and documents
for student investigation of the material in the
course framework.
The Founding Documents
In the context of American history, the in-depth
examination of the ideas and debates in the founding
documents (e.g., the Declaration of Independence, the
Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers)
helps students better understand pivotal moments in
America’s history. Through close reading and careful
analysis of these documents, students gain insights
into the remarkable people, ideas, and events that
shaped the nation. Ultimately, students with command
of the founding documents and a capacity to trace their
inuence will nd opportunities throughout the course
to draw on and apply this knowledge.
Throughout the course, students closely read and
analyze foundational documents and other primary
and secondary sources in order to gain historical
understanding. Teachers may use these documents
to help students trace ideas and themes throughout
American history. On the AP U.S. History Exam, students
will be expected to read and analyze primary and
secondary sources, draw upon evidence from them, and
connect them to the students’ own historical knowledge
and understanding. For these reasons, teachers may
elect to teach the founding documents and the ideas
they express in depth during the course.
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Course Framework
Components
Overview
This course framework provides a description of what students should know and be
able to do to qualify for college credit or placement.
The course framework includes
two essential components:
1
HISTORICAL THINKING SKILLS AND
REASONING PROCESSES
The historical thinking skills and reasoning processes are central to the
study and practice of U.S. history. Students should practice and develop
these skills and processes on a regular basis over the span of the course.
2
COURSE CONTENT
The course content is organized into commonly taught units of study that
provide a suggested sequence for the course. These units comprise the
content and conceptual understandings that colleges and universities
typically expect students to master to qualify for college credit and/or
placement. This content is grounded in themes, which are cross-cutting
concepts that build conceptual understanding and spiral throughout
the course.
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15AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
AP U.S. HISTORY
Historical
Thinking Skills
and Reasoning
Processes
This section presents the historical thinking skills and reasoning processes that
students should develop during the AP history courses and that form the basis of
the tasks on the AP history exams.
Historical Thinking Skills
The AP historical thinking skills describe what students should be able to do while
exploring course concepts. The table that follows presents these skills, which
students should develop during the AP U.S. History course.
The unit guides later in this publication embed and spiral these skills throughout
the course, providing teachers with one way to integrate the skills into the course
content with sucient repetition to prepare students to transfer those skills when
taking the AP Exam.
More detailed information about teaching the historical thinking skills can be found
in the Instructional Approaches section of this publication.
AP Historical Thinking Skills
Skill 1 Skill 2 Skill 3 Skill 4 Skill 5 Skill 6
Developments and
Processes
1
Sourcing and
Situation
2
Claims and Evidence
in Sources
3
Contextualization
4
Making
Connections
5
Argumentation
6
Identify and explain historical
developments and processes.
Analyze sourcing and situation of
primary and secondary sources.
Analyze arguments in primary and
secondary sources.
Analyze the context of historical
events, developments, or processes.
Using historical reasoning processes
(comparison, causation, continuity
and change), analyze patterns and
connections between and among
historical developments and processes.
Develop an argument.
SKILLS
1.A
Identify a historical
concept, development,
or process.
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
2.A
Identify a source’s point
of view, purpose, historical
situation, and/or audience.
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation, and/
or audience of a source.
2.C
Explain the signicance
of a source’s point of view,
purpose, historical situation, and/
or audience, including how these
might limit the use(s) of a source.
3.A
Identify and describe a
claim and/or argument in a text-
based or non-text-based source.
3.B
Identify the evidence
used in a source to support
an argument.
3.C
Compare the arguments or
main ideas of two sources.
3.D
Explain how claims or
evidence support, modify, or
refute a source’s argument.
4.A
Identify and describe
a historical context for a
specic historical development
or process.
4.B
Explain how a specic
historical development or
process is situated within a
broader historical context.
5.A
Identify patterns among or
connections between historical
developments and processes.
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process
relates to another historical
development or process.
6.A
Make a historically
defensible claim.
6.B
Support an argument using
specic and relevant evidence.
§ Describe specic examples of
historically relevant evidence.
§ Explain how specic examples
of historically relevant evidence
support an argument.
6.C
Use historical reasoning
to explain relationships among
pieces of historical evidence.
6.D
Corroborate, qualify, or
modify an argument using diverse
and alternative evidence in order
to develop a complex argument.
This argument might:
§ Explain nuance of an issue by
analyzing multiple variables.
§ Explain relevant and
insightful connections
within and across periods.
§ Explain the relative historical
signicance of a source’s
credibility and limitations.
§ Explain how or why a historical
claim or argument is or is not
eective.
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16AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
AP HISTORY
Reasoning Processes
Reasoning processes describe the cognitive operations that students will be required to apply when engaging with the
historical thinking skills on the AP Exam. The reasoning processes ultimately represent the way practitioners think in the
discipline. Specic aspects of the cognitive process are dened under each reasoning process.
Reasoning Process 1 Reasoning Process 2 Reasoning Process 3
Comparison Causation Continuity and Change
§ 1.i: Describe similarities and/or
dierences between dierent
historical developments or
processes.
§ 1.ii: Explain relevant similarities and/
or dierences between specic
historical developments and
processes.
§ 1.iii: Explain the relative historical
signicance of similarities and/
or dierences between dierent
historical developments or
processes.
§ 2.i: Describe causes and/or eects of
a specic historical development or
process.
§ 2.ii: Explain the relationship between
causes and eects of a specic
historical development or process.
§ 2.iii: Explain the dierence between
primary and secondary causes
and between short- and long-term
eects.
§ 2.iv: Explain how a relevant context
inuenced a specic historical
development or process.
§ 2.v: Explain the relative historical
signicance of dierent causes and/
or eects.
§ 3.i: Describe patterns of continuity
and/or change over time.
§ 3.ii: Explain patterns of continuity
and/or change over time.
§ 3.iii: Explain the relative historical
signicance of specic historical
developments in relation to a larger
pattern of continuity and/or change.
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17AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
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19AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
AP U.S. HISTORY
Course
Content
Inuenced by the Understanding by Design® (Wiggins and McTighe) model,
this course framework provides a description of the course requirements
necessary for student success.
The course content is organized into commonly taught units. The units have
been arranged in a logical sequence frequently found in many college courses
and textbooks.
The nine units in AP U.S. History, and their approximate weighting on the AP Exam,
are listed on the following page.
Pacing recommendations at the unit level and in the Course at a Glance provide
suggestions for how to teach the required course content and administer the
Personal Progress Checks. The suggested class periods are based on a schedule
in which the class meets ve days a week for 45 minutes each day. While these
recommendations have been made to aid planning, teachers should of course
adjust the pacing based on the needs of their students, alternate schedules (e.g.,
block scheduling), or their school’s academic calendar.
A NOTE ABOUT PERIODIZATION
Following the example of many subelds within U.S. history, as well as the
approach adopted by most U.S. history textbooks, the course framework reects
an acknowledgment that historians dier in how they apply boundaries between
distinct historical eras. Several of the periods show some degree of overlap,
depending on the thematic focus of the topics in that period. For example, Period 4,
which begins in 1800, emphasizes antebellum reform and social change (with 1848
as an ending point because of the Seneca Falls Convention). Period 5 focuses on
how expansion led to debates over slavery, thus beginning with Manifest Destiny
and the election of James K. Polk in 1844; it spans the Civil War and Reconstruction
and ends with the Compromise of 1877. The emphasis in Period 6 on economic
development logically begins with the end of the Civil War in 1865 and ends on the
eve of the Spanish–American War in 1898. Period 7 uses 1890 as the appropriate
starting date for America’s rise to global power—a major conceptual focus of
the period.
TOPICS
Each unit is broken down into teachable segments
called topics. The topic pages (starting on page 37)
contain all required content for each topic. Although
most topics can be taught in one or two class periods,
teachers are again encouraged to pace the course to
suit the needs of their students and school.
In order for students to develop an understanding of
these topics, teachers select specic historical gures,
groups, and events—and the primary and secondary
source documents through which they can be
examined—that enable students to investigate them. In
this way, AP teachers create their own local curricula
for AP U.S. History.
Units Exam Weighting
Unit 1: Period 1: 1491–1607
4–6%
Unit 2: Period 2: 1607–1754
6–8%
Unit 3: Period 3: 1754–1800
10–17%
Unit 4: Period 4: 1800–1848
10–17%
Unit 5: Period 5: 1844–1877
10–17%
Unit 6: Period 6: 1865–1898
10–17%
Unit 7: Period 7: 1890–1945
10–17%
Unit 8: Period 8: 1945–1980
10–17%
Unit 9: Period 9: 1980–Present
4–6%
NOTE: Events, processes, and developments are not constrained by the given dates and may begin before, or continue after, the
approximate dates assigned to each unit and topic.
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Course Framework V.1
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20AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Themes
The themes serve as the connective tissue of the course and enable students to
create meaningful connections across units. They are often broader ideas that
become threads that run throughout the course. Revisiting them and applying
them in a variety of contexts helps students to develop deeper conceptual
understanding. Below are the themes of the course and a brief description of each.
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21AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THEME 1: AMERICAN AND NATIONAL IDENTITY (NAT)
This theme focuses on how and why denitions of American and national
identity and values have developed among the diverse and changing
population of North America as well as on related topics, such as citizenship,
constitutionalism, foreign policy, assimilation, and American exceptionalism.
THEME 2: WORK, EXCHANGE, AND TECHNOLOGY (WXT)
This theme focuses on the factors behind the development of systems of
economic exchange, particularly the role of technology, economic markets,
and government.
THEME 3: GEOGRAPHY AND THE ENVIRONMENT (GEO)
This theme focuses on the role of geography and both the natural and
human-made environments in the social and political developments in what
would become the United States.
THEME 4: MIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT (MIG)
This theme focuses on why and how the various people who moved to and
within the United States both adapted to and transformed their new social
and physical environments.
THEME 5: POLITICS AND POWER (PCE)
This theme focuses on how dierent social and political groups have
inuenced society and government in the United States as well as how
political beliefs and institutions have changed over time.
THEME 6: AMERICA IN THE WORLD (WOR)
This theme focuses on the interactions between nations that aected
North American history in the colonial period and on the inuence of the
United States on world aairs.
THEME 7: AMERICAN AND REGIONAL CULTURE (ARC)
This theme focuses on the how and why national, regional, and group
cultures developed and changed as well as how culture has shaped
government policy and the economy.
THEME 8: SOCIAL STRUCTURES (SOC)
This theme focuses on how and why systems of social organization
develop and change as well as the impact that these systems have on the
broader society.
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he Themesaling tSpir
oss units.al acrw the themes spirws howing table shoolloThe f
Theme
Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3 Unit 4 Unit 5 Unit 6 Unit 7 Unit 8 Unit 9
Period 1:
1491–1607
Period 2:
1607–1754
Period 3:
1754–1800
Period 4:
1800–1848
Period 5:
1844–1877
Period 6:
1865–1898
Period 7:
1890–1945
Period 8:
1945–1980 esent
Period 9:
1980–Pr
yitional Identican and NatAmer
ATN
echnology, Exchange, and TkorW
XTW
onmentvirhe Eny and taphGeogr
GEO
lemention and SettatMigr
IGM
erwics and PoolitP
PCE
ldorhe Wica in tAmer
RWO
egional Cultureican and RAmer
RCA
Social Structures
CSO
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Course Framework V.1
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23AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Course at
a Glance
Plan
The Course at a Glance provides
a useful visual organization of
the AP U.S. History curricular
components, including:
§ Sequence of units, along
with approximate weighting
and suggested pacing.
Please note: Pacing is based
on 45-minute class periods,
meeting ve days each week
for a full academic year.
§ Progression of topics within
each unit.
§ Spiraling of the themes
and historical thinking skills
across units.
Teach
HISTORICAL THINKING SKILLS
Historical thinking skills spiral across units.
1
Developments
and Processes
2
Sourcing and
Situation
3
Claims and
Evidence in
Sources
4
Contextualization
5
Making
Connections
6
Argumentation
THEMES
Themes spiral across units.
N AT
American and
National Identity
WXT
Work, Exchange,
and Technology
GEO
Geography and
the Environment
MIG
Migration and
Settlement
PCE
Politics and Power
WOR
America in the
World
ARC
American and
Regional Culture
SOC
Social Structures
Assess
Assign the Personal Progress
Checks—either as homework
or in class—for each unit.
Each Personal Progress Check
contains formative multiple-
choice and free-response
questions. The feedback from
the Personal Progress Checks
shows students the areas where
they need to focus.
UNI
1
T
Period 1:
1491–1607
~8
Class
Periods
4–6
%
AP Exam
Weighting
4
1.1 Contextualizing
Period 1
GEO
1
1.2 Native American
Societies Before
European Contact
WOR
1
1.3 European Exploration
in the Americas
GEO
3
1.4 Columbian Exchange,
Spanish Exploration,
and Conquest
SOC
5
1.5 Labor, Slavery, and
Caste in the Spanish
Colonial System
WOR
3
1.6 Cultural Interactions
Between Europeans,
Native Americans,
and Africans
6
1.7 Causation in Period 1
UNI
2
T
Period 2:
1607–1754
~14
Class
Periods
6–8
%
AP Exam
Weighting
4
2.1 Contextualizing
Period 2
MIG
1
2.2 European Colonization
GEO
3
2.3 The Regions of
British Colonies
WXT
5
2.4 Transatlantic Trade
WOR
2
2.5 Interactions Between
American Indians
and Europeans
WXT
SOC
5
2.6 Slavery in the
British Colonies
ARC
NAT
1
2.7 Colonial Society
and Culture
6
2.8 Comparison in Period 2
Personal Progress Check Unit 1
Multiple-choice: ~15 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ Primary source (partial)
§ Primary source (partial)
Free-response: 1 question
§ Long essay (partial)
Personal Progress Check Unit 2
Multiple-choice: ~20 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ Primary source
§ Primary source
Free-response: 1 question
§ Long essay (partial)
NOTE: Partial versions of the free-response questions are provided to prepare students for more
complex, full questions that they will encount
er on the AP Exam.
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24
UNI
3
T
Period 3:
1754–1800
~17
Class
Periods
10–17
%
AP Exam
Weighting
4
3.1 Contextualizing
Period 3
WOR
1
3.2 The Seven Years’ War
(The French and
Indian War)
WOR
2
3.3 Taxation Without
Representation
NAT
2
3.4 Philosophical
Foundations of the
American Revolution
WOR
6
3.5 The American
Revolution
SOC
WOR
3
3.6 The Inuence of
Revolutionary Ideals
PCE
3
3.7 The Articles of
Confederation
PCE
3
3.8 The Constitutional
Convention and Debates
over Ratication
PCE
5
3.9 The Constitution
WOR
PCE
2
3.10 Shaping a
New Republic
ARC
1
3.11 Developing an
American Identity
MIG
SOC
5
3.12 Movement in the
Early Republic
6
3.13 Continuity and Change
in Period 3
UNI
4
T
Period 4:
1800–1848
~17
Class
Periods
10–17
%
AP Exam
Weighting
4
4.1 Contextualizing
Period 4
PCE
2
4.2 The Rise of Political
Parties and the Era
of Jeerson
PCE
2
4.3 Politics and
Regional Interests
WOR
2
4.4 America on the
World Stage
WXT
6
4.5 Market Revolution:
Industrialization
SOC
5
4.6 Market Revolution:
Society and Culture
PCE
1
4.7 Expanding Democracy
PCE
3
4.8 Jackson and
Federal Power
ARC
4
4.9 The Development of an
American Culture
ARC
5
4.10 The Second Great
Awakening
ARC
3
4.11 An Age of Reform
SOC
3
4.12 African Americans in
the Early Republic
GEO
1
4.13 The Society of
the South in the
Early Republic
6
4.14 Causation in Period 4
UNI
5
T
Period 5:
1844–1877
~17
Class
Periods 10–17
%
AP Exam
Weighting
4
5.1 Contextualizing
Period 5
GEO
1
5.2 Manifest Destiny
WOR
3
5.3 The Mexican–American
War
NAT
4
5.4 The Compromise of
1850
ARC
SOC
2
5.5 Sectional Conict:
Regional Dierences
PCE
5
5.6 Failure of Compromise
PCE
4
5.7 Election of 1860
and Secession
WOR
5
5.8 Military Conict in
the Civil War
NAT
2
5.9 Government Policies
During the Civil War
PCE
3
5.10 Reconstruction
NAT
3
5.11 Failure of
Reconstruction
6
5.12 Comparison in Period 5
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25
© 2019 College Board
Personal Progress Check Unit 3
Multiple-choice: ~30 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ Primary source
§ Primary source
Free-response: 1 question
§ Long essay (partial)
Personal Progress Check Unit 4
Multiple-choice: ~35 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ Primary source
§ Secondary source
Free-response: 1 question
§ Long essay (partial)
Personal Progress Check Unit 5
Multiple-choice: ~30 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ Secondary source (2 sources)
§ No stimulus
Free-response: 2 questions
§ Long essay (partial)
§ Document-based (partial)
UNI
6
T
Period 6:
1865–1898
~18
Class
Periods
10–17
%
AP Exam
Weighting
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26
4
6.1 Contextualizing
Period 6
MIG
1
6.2 Westward Expansion:
Economic Development
MIG
3
6.3 Westward Expansion:
Social and Cultural
Development
NAT
2
6.4 The “New South”
WXT
5
6.5 Technological
Innovation
WXT
4
6.6 The Rise of
Industrial Capitalism
WXT
6
6.7 Labor in the
Gilded Age
MIG
3
6.8 Immigration and
Migration in the
Gilded Age
MIG
5
6.9 Responses to
Immigration in the
Gilded Age
SOC
4
6.10 Development of the
Middle Class
SOC
2
6.11 Reform in the
Gilded Age
PCE
4
6.12 Controversies over the
Role of Government in
the Gilded Age
PCE
3
6.13 Politics in the
Gilded Age
6
6.14 Continuity and Change
in Period 6
UNI
7
T
Period 7:
1890–1945
~21
Class
Periods
10–17
%
AP Exam
Weighting
4
7.1 Contextualizing
Period 7
WOR
2
7.2 Imperialism:
Debates
WOR
2
7.3 The Spanish–American
War
PCE
GEO
2
7.4 The Progressives
WOR
2
7.5 World War I:
Military and Diplomacy
MIG
3
7.6 World War I:
Home Front
WXT
5
7.7 1920s: Innovations
in Communication
and Technology
MIG
ARC
4
7.8 1920s: Cultural and
Political Controversies
WXT
5
7.9 The Great Depression
PCE
5
7.10 The New Deal
WOR
1
7.11 Interwar Foreign Policy
SOC
1
7.12 World War II:
Mobilization
WOR
6
7.13 World War II: Military
WOR
2
7.14 Postwar Diplomacy
6
7.15 Comparison in Period 7
UNI
8
T
Period 8:
1945–1980
~20
Class
Periods
10–17
%
AP Exam
Weighting
4
8.1 Contextualizing
Period 8
WOR
2
8.2 The Cold War from
1945 to 1980
NAT
2
8.3 The Red Scare
WXT
MIG
2
8.4 Economy after 1945
ARC
4
8.5 Culture after 1945
SOC
5
8.6 Early Steps in the
Civil Rights Movement
(1940s and 1950s)
WOR
3
8.7 America as a
World Power
WOR
1
8.8 The Vietnam War
PCE
MIG
5
8.9 The Great Society
SOC
PCE
5
8.10 The African American
Civil Rights Movement
(1960s)
SOC
5
8.11 The Civil Rights
Movement Expands
ARC
5
8.12 Youth Culture of
the 1960s
GEO
5
8.13 The Environment and
Natural Resources from
1968 to 1980
PCE
ARC
4
8.14 Society in Transition
6
8.15 Continuity and Change
in Period 8
Personal Progress Check Unit 6
Multiple-choice: ~35 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ No stimulus
§ Primary source
Free-response: 1 question
§ Document-based (partial)
Personal Progress Check Unit 7
Multiple-choice: ~40 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ Secondary source
§ No stimulus
Free-response: 1 question
§ Document-based
Personal Progress Check Unit 8
Multiple-choice: ~40 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ No stimulus
§ Primary source
Free-response: 1 question
§ Long essay
UNI
9
T
Period 9:
1980–Present
~8
Class
Periods
4–6
%
AP Exam
Weighting
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27
© 2019 College Board
4
9.1 Contextualizing Period 9
PCE
3
9.2 Reagan and
Conservatism
WOR
1
9.3 The End of the
Cold War
WXT
1
9.4 A Changing Economy
MIG
2
9.5 Migration and
Immigration in the
1990s and 2000s
WOR
2
9.6 Challenges of the
21st Century
6
9.7 Causation in Period 9
Personal Progress Check Unit 9
Multiple-choice: ~20 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ Secondary source
§ No stimulus
Free-response: 1 question
§ Document-based
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AP U.S. HISTORY
Unit
Guides
Introduction
The structure of the unit guides respects new AP teachers’ time by
providing one possible sequence they can adopt or modify rather than
having to build from scratch. An additional benet is that these units
enable the AP Program to provide interested teachers with formative
assessments—the Personal Progress Checks—that they can assign their
students at the end of each unit to gauge progress toward success on the
AP Exam. However, experienced AP teachers who are satised with their
current course organization and exam results should feel no pressure to
adopt these units, which comprise an optional sequence for this course.
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29AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
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Using the Unit Guides
The Unit at a Glance table shows the topics, related thematic
focus, suggested skills, and reasoning processes for each topic.
The Class Periods column has been left blank so that teachers
can customize the time they spend on each topic.
The suggested skill for each topic shows one way teachers
can link the content in that topic to a specic AP historical
thinking skill. The individual skill has been thoughtfully chosen
in a way that helps spiral those skills throughout the course. The
questions on the Personal Progress Checks are based on this
pairing. However, AP Exam questions may pair the content with
any of the skills.
The Sample Instructional Activities page includes optional
activities that can help teachers tie together the content and
skill of a particular topic. Additionally, this page oers space for
teachers to make notes on their approach to the individual topics
and the unit as a whole.
Period 1: 1491–1607
UNIT
1
Activity Topic Sample Activity
1
1.2 Shared Inquiry
Provide students with a selection of primary and secondary sources that highlight various
aspects of Native American societies before European contact. In groups, ask students to
formulate responses to Unit 1: Learning Objective B, Explain how and why various native
populations in the period before European contact interacted with the natural environment
in North America, and present their ideas to the class. Then lead a whole-group discussion
to develop understanding of the complexity of the societies that were in place prior to
European contact.
2
1.4 Guided Discussion
Ask students to brainstorm the causes of the Columbian Exchange and its eect on Europe
and the Americas in the time period after 1492. Through small- and whole-group discussion,
ask students to identify the positive and negative eects of the Columbian Exchange.
3
1.6 Quickwrite
As preparation for the free-response questions on the AP Exam, have students write claims in
response to Unit 1: Learning Objective F, Explain how and why European and Native American
perspectives of others developed and changed in the period. Ask a few students to volunteer
to share their claims. Debrief by discussing the strengths and areas for improvement for each
claim with the class.
SAMPLE INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES
The sample activities on this page are optional and are oered to provide possible ways
to incorporate instructional approaches into the classroom. Teachers do not need to use
these activities and are free to alter or edit them. The examples below were developed in
partnership with teachers from the AP community to share ways that they approach teaching
some of the topics in this unit. Please refer to the Instructional Approaches section beginning
on p. 217 for more examples of activities and strategies.
Unit Planning Notes
Use the space below to plan your approach to the unit. Consider how you want to pace the unit; which
specific historical figures, groups, or events you will use to illustrate the concepts noted in the historical
development statements; where you will incorporate writing assignments; and which primary and
secondary sources you will use.
36
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Course Framework V.1 AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Thematic
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~8 CLASS PERIODS
1.1 Contextualizing Period 1
Continuity and
Change
4.A
Identify and describe a historical
context for a specic historical
development or process.
GEO
1.2 Native American
Societies Before
European Contact
Comparison
1.A
Identify a historical concept,
development, or process.
WOR
1.3 European Exploration in
the Americas
Causation
1.A
Identify a historical concept,
development, or process.
GEO
1.4 Columbian Exchange,
Spanish Exploration,
and Conquest
Causation
3.A
Identify and describe a claim
and/or argument in a text-based or
non-text-based source.
SOC
1.5 Labor, Slavery, and
Caste in the Spanish
Colonial System
Causation
5.A
Identify patterns among or
connections between historical
developments and processes.
WOR
1.6 Cultural Interactions
Between Europeans,
Native Americans, and
Africans
Comparison
3.B
Identify the evidence used in a
source to support an argument.
1.7 Causation in Period 1
Causation
6.A
Make a historically defensible
claim.
Go to AP Classroom to assign the Personal Progress Check for Unit 1.
Review the results in class to identify and address any student misunderstandings.
UNIT AT A GLANCE
Period 1: 1491–1607
4–6
%
AP EX AM WEIGHTING ~8 CLASS PERIODS
UNIT
1
Course Framework V.1
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35AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
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© 2019 College Board
Course Framework V.1
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31AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Using the Unit Guides
FIRST AND FINAL TOPIC PAGES IN EACH UNIT
Each unit’s rst and nal topics include key concepts, which
summarize the historical developments in the unit.
These topics encourage the use of the key concepts
and learning objectives in the unit to develop the skills of
contextualization and argumentation.
TOPIC PAGES
The suggested skill oers a possible skill to pair with the topic.
The thematic focus of the topic is the long-term takeaway that
leaves a lasting impression on students.
Where possible, available resources are listed that might
help teachers address a particular topic in their classroom.
Learning objectives dene what a student should be able
to do with content knowledge in order to progress toward an
enduring understanding.
Historical development statements comprise the knowledge
required to demonstrate mastery of the learning objective.
Period 1: 1491–1607
UNIT
1
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Geography and the Environment
GEO
Geographic and environmental factors, including competition over and debates
about natural resources, shape the development of America and foster regional
diversity. The development of America impacts the environment and reshapes
geography, which leads to debates about environmental and geographic issues.
TOPIC 1.2
Native American
Societies Before
European Contact
SUGGESTED SKILL
Developments
and Processes
1.A
Identify a historical
concept, development,
or process.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 1: 1491–1607,
Focus on Research
“Native North America:
A Place of History”
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 1: Learning Objective B
Explain how and why various
native populations in the
period before European
contact interacted with
the natural environment in
NorthAmerica.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
KC-1.1.I.A
The spread of maize cultivation from present-
day Mexico northward into the present-day
American Southwest and beyond supported
economic development, settlement,
advanced irrigation, and social diversication
amongsocieties.
KC-1.1.I.B
Societies responded to the aridity of the Great
Basin and the grasslands of the western Great
Plains by developing largely mobile lifestyles.
KC-1.1.I.C
In the Northeast, the Mississippi River Valley,
and along the Atlantic seaboard, some
societies developed mixed agricultural and
hunter-gatherer economies that favored the
development of permanent villages.
KC-1.1.I.D
Societies in the Northwest and present-day
California supported themselves by hunting
and gathering, and in some areas developed
settled communities supported by the vast
resources of the ocean.
Course Framework V.1
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39AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 1: 1491–1607
UNIT
1
TOPIC 1.1
Contextualizing
Period 1
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.A
Identify and describe
a historical context for
a specific historical
development or process.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 1: Learning Objective A
Explain the context for
European encounters in the
Americas from 1491 to 1607.
PREVIEW: UNIT 1 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-1.1
As native populations migrated and settled
across the vast expanse of North America over
time, they developed distinct and increasingly
complex societies by adapting to and
transforming their diverse environments.
KC-1.1.I
Dierent native societies adapted to and
transformed their environments through
innovations in agriculture, resource use,
and social structure.
Spend a class period helping students understand some contexts for this unit. Considering
this unit’s key concepts (previewed below), select one or two for which your students will
most need context.
To understand context, your students could examine:
§ Change from and/or continuity with preceding historical developments.
§ Similarities and/or dierences with contemporaneous historical developments in dierent
regions or geographical areas.
Whenever possible, draw upon students’ relevant prior knowledge, and anchor this
contextualization lesson in historical source material of varying formats such as visuals,
data, or written texts, or conduct an activity that engages students in exploring context.
Required Course Content
continued on next page
Course Framework V.1
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37AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
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32AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Remember to go to AP Classroom
to assign students the online
Personal Progress Check for
this unit.
Whether assigned as homework or
completed in class, the Personal
Progress Check provides each
student with immediate feedback
related to this unit’s topics and skills.
Personal Progress Check 1
Multiple-choice: ~15 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ Primary source (partial)
§ Primary source (partial)
Free-response: 1 question
§ Long essay (partial)
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34AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
UNI
1
T
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35AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
4–6
%
AP EXAM WEIGHTING ~8 CLASS PERIODS
Period 1: 1491–1607
UNIT AT A GLANCE
c tiamThe
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~8 CLASS PERIODS
1.1 Contextualizing Period 1
Continuity and
Change
4.A
Identify and describe a historical
context for a specic historical
development or process.
GEO
1.2 Native American
Societies Before
European Contact
Comparison
1.A
Identify a historical concept,
development, or process.
RWO
1.3 European Exploration in
the Americas
Causation
1.A
Identify a historical concept,
development, or process.
GEO
1.4 Columbian Exchange,
Spanish Exploration,
and Conquest
Causation
3.A
Identify and describe a claim
and/or argument in a text-based or
non-text-based source.
CSO
1.5 Labor, Slavery, and
Caste in the Spanish
Colonial System
Causation
5.A
Identify patterns among or
connections between historical
developments and processes.
RWO
1.6 Cultural Interactions
Between Europeans,
Native Americans, and
Africans
Comparison
3.B
Identify the evidence used in a
source to support an argument.
1.7 Causation in Period 1
Causation
6.A
Make a historically defensible
claim.
Go to AP Classroom to assign the Personal Progress Check for Unit 1.
Review the results in class to identify and address any student misunderstandings.
Period 1: 1491–1607
UNIT
1
SAMPLE INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES
The sample activities on this page are optional and are oered to provide possible ways
to incorporate instructional approaches into the classroom. Teachers do not need to use
these activities and are free to alter or edit them. The examples below were developed in
partnership with teachers from the AP community to share ways that they approach teaching
some of the topics in this unit. Please refer to the Instructional Approaches section beginning
on p. 217 for more examples of activities and strategies.
Activity Topic Sample Activity
1
1.2 Shared Inquiry
Provide students with a selection of primary and secondary sources that highlight various
aspects of Native American societies before European contact. In groups, ask students to
formulate responses to Unit 1: Learning Objective B, Explain how and why various native
populations in the period before European contact interacted with the natural environment
in North America, and present their ideas to the class. Then lead a whole-group discussion
to develop understanding of the complexity of the societies that were in place prior to
European contact.
2
1.4 Guided Discussion
Ask students to brainstorm the causes of the Columbian Exchange and its eect on Europe
and the Americas in the time period after 1492. Through small- and whole-group discussion,
ask students to identify the positive and negative eects of the Columbian Exchange.
3
1.6 Quickwrite
As preparation for the free-response questions on the AP Exam, have students write claims in
response to Unit 1: Learning Objective F, Explain how and why European and Native American
perspectives of others developed and changed in the period. Ask a few students to volunteer
to share their claims. Debrief by discussing the strengths and areas for improvement for each
claim with the class.
Unit Planning Notes
Use the space below to plan your approach to the unit. Consider how you want to pace the unit; which
specific historical figures, groups, or events you will use to illustrate the concepts noted in the historical
development statements; where you will incorporate writing assignments; and which primary and
secondary sources you will use.
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36AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 1: 1491–1607
UNIT
1
TOPIC 1.1
Contextualizing
Period 1
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.A
Identify and describe
a historical context for
a specific historical
development or process.
Spend a class period helping students understand some contexts for this unit. Considering
this unit’s key concepts (previewed below), select one or two for which your students will
most need context.
To understand context, your students could examine:
§ Change from and/or continuity with preceding historical developments.
§ Similarities and/or dierences with contemporaneous historical developments in dierent
regions or geographical areas.
Whenever possible, draw upon students’ relevant prior knowledge, and anchor this
contextualization lesson in historical source material of varying formats such as visuals,
data, or written texts, or conduct an activity that engages students in exploring context.
Required Course Content
continued on next page
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37AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
LEARNING OBJECTIVE PREVIEW: UNIT 1 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 1: Learning Objective A
Explain the context for
European encounters in the
Americas from 1491 to 1607.
KC-1.1
As native populations migrated and settled
across the vast expanse of North America over
time, they developed distinct and increasingly
complex societies by adapting to and
transforming their diverse environments.
KC-1.1.I
Dierent native societies adapted to and
transformed their environments through
innovations in agriculture, resource use,
and social structure.
Period 1: 1491–1607
UNIT
1
PREVIEW: UNIT 1 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-1.2
Contact among Europeans, Native Americans,
and Africans resulted in the Columbian
Exchange and signicant social, cultural,
and political changes on both sides of the
Atlantic Ocean.
KC-1.2.I
European expansion into the Western
Hemisphere generated intense social,
religious, political, and economic competition
and changes within European societies.
KC-1.2.II
The Columbian Exchange and development
of the Spanish Empire in the Western
Hemisphere resulted in extensive
demographic, economic, and social changes.
KC-1.2.III
In their interactions, Europeans and Native
Americans asserted divergent worldviews
regarding issues such as religion, gender
roles, family, land use, and power.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 1: Learning Objective A
Explain the context for
European encounters in the
Americas from 1491 to 1607.
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38AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 1: 1491–1607
UNIT
1
TOPIC 1.2
Native American
Societies Before
European Contact
Required Course Content
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39AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THEMATIC FOCUS
Geography and the Environment
GEO
Geographic and environmental factors, including competition over and debates
about natural resources, shape the development of America and foster regional
diversity. The development of America impacts the environment and reshapes
geography, which leads to debates about environmental and geographic issues.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 1: Learning Objective B
Explain how and why various
native populations in the
period before European
contact interacted with
the natural environment in
NorthAmerica.
KC-1.1.I.A
The spread of maize cultivation from present-
day Mexico northward into the present-day
American Southwest and beyond supported
economic development, settlement,
advanced irrigation, and social diversication
amongsocieties.
KC-1.1.I.B
Societies responded to the aridity of the Great
Basin and the grasslands of the western Great
Plains by developing largely mobile lifestyles.
KC-1.1.I.C
In the Northeast, the Mississippi River Valley,
and along the Atlantic seaboard, some
societies developed mixed agricultural and
hunter-gatherer economies that favored the
development of permanent villages.
KC-1.1.I.D
Societies in the Northwest and present-day
California supported themselves by hunting
and gathering, and in some areas developed
settled communities supported by the vast
resources of the ocean.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Developments
and Processes
1.A
Identify a historical
concept, development,
or process.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 1: 1491–1607,
Focus on Research
“Native North America:
A Place of History”
Period 1: 1491–1607
UNIT
1
TOPIC 1.3
European Exploration
in the Americas
Required Course Content
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40AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 1: Learning Objective C
Explain the causes of
exploration and conquest
of the New World by various
European nations.
KC-1.2.I.A
European nations’ eorts to explore and
conquer the New World stemmed from a
search for new sources of wealth, economic
and military competition, and a desire to
spreadChristianity.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Developments
and Processes
1.A
Identify a historical
concept, development,
or process.
Period 1: 1491–1607
UNIT
1
TOPIC 1.4
Columbian Exchange,
Spanish Exploration,
and Conquest
Required Course Content
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41AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THEMATIC FOCUS
Geography and the Environment
GEO
Geographic and environmental factors, including competition over and debates
about natural resources, shape the development of America and foster regional
diversity. The development of America impacts the environment and reshapes
geography, which leads to debates about environmental and geographic issues.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 1: Learning Objective D
Explain causes of the
Columbian Exchange and
its eect on Europe and the
Americas during the period
after 1492.
KC-1.2.I.B
The Columbian Exchange brought new crops
to Europe from the Americas, stimulating
European population growth, and new sources
of mineral wealth, which facilitated the
European shift from feudalism to capitalism.
KC-1.2.I.C
Improvements in maritime technology and
more organized methods for conducting
international trade, such as joint-stock
companies, helped drive changes to
economies in Europe and the Americas.
KC-1.2.II.A
Spanish exploration and conquest of the
Americas were accompanied and furthered by
widespread deadly epidemics that devastated
native populations and by the introduction of
crops and animals not found in the Americas.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.A
Identify and describe
a claim and/or argument
in a text-based or
non-text-based source.
Period 1: 1491–1607
UNIT
1
TOPIC 1.5
Labor, Slavery, and
Caste in the Spanish
Colonial System
Required Course Content
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42AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THEMATIC FOCUS
Social Structures
SOC
Social categories, roles, and practices are created, maintained, challenged, and
transformed throughout American history, shaping government policy, economic
systems, culture, and the lives of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 1: Learning Objective E
Explain how the growth
of the Spanish Empire in
North America shaped
the development of social
and economic structures
overtime.
KC-1.2.II.B
In the encomienda system, Spanish colonial
economies marshaled Native American labor
to support plantation-based agriculture and
extract precious metals and other resources.
KC-1.2.II.C
European traders partnered with some West
African groups who practiced slavery to
forcibly extract slave labor for the Americas.
The Spanish imported enslaved Africans to
labor in plantation agriculture and mining.
KC-1.2.II.D
The Spanish developed a caste system that
incorporated, and carefully dened the status
of, the diverse population of Europeans,
Africans, and Native Americans in their empire.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.A
Identify patterns among
or connections between
historical developments
and processes.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 1: 1491–1607,
Focus on Research
“Spanish Colonialism”
Period 1: 1491–1607
UNIT
1
TOPIC 1.6
Cultural Interactions
Between Europeans,
Native Americans,
and Africans
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 1: Learning Objective F
Explain how and why
European and Native
American perspectives
of others developed and
changed in the period.
KC-1.2.III
In their interactions, Europeans and Native
Americans asserted divergent worldviews
regarding issues such as religion, gender roles,
family, land use, and power.
KC-1.2.III.A
Mutual misunderstandings between Europeans
and Native Americans often dened the early
years of interaction and trade as each group
sought to make sense of the other. Over time,
Europeans and Native Americans adopted
some useful aspects of each other’s culture.
KC-1.2.III.B
As European encroachments on Native
Americans’ lands and demands on their labor
increased, native peoples sought to defend
and maintain their political sovereignty,
economic prosperity, religious beliefs,
and concepts of gender relations through
diplomatic negotiations and military resistance.
continued on next page
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43AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.B
Identify the evidence used
in a source to support
an argument.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES
§ Classroom Resources
> White–Native
American Contact in
Early American History
§ Classroom Resources
> Lesson Plans for
AP U.S. History:
English–Indian
Encounters
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 1: 1491–1607,
Focus on Research
“Encounters and
Contingency”
Period 1: 1491–1607
UNIT
1
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
KC-1.2.III.C
Extended contact with Native Americans and
Africans fostered a debate among European
religious and political leaders about how
non-Europeans should be treated, as well
as evolving religious, cultural, and racial
justications for the subjugation of Africans and
Native Americans.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 1: Learning Objective F
Explain how and why
European and Native
American perspectives
of others developed and
changed in the period.
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44AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 1: 1491–1607
UNIT
1
TOPIC 1.7
Causation in Period 1
The nal topic in this unit focuses on the skill of argumentation and so provides an
opportunity for your students to draw upon the key concepts and historical developments
they have studied in this unit. Using evidence relevant to this unit’s key concepts, students
should practice the suggested skill for this topic.
Required Course Content
continued on next page
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45AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
LEARNING OBJECTIVE REVIEW: UNIT 1 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 1: Learning Objective G
Explain the eects of the
development of transatlantic
voyages from 1491 to 1607.
KC-1.1
As native populations migrated and settled
across the vast expanse of North America over
time, they developed distinct and increasingly
complex societies by adapting to and
transforming their diverse environments.
KC-1.1.I
Dierent native societies adapted to and
transformed their environments through
innovations in agriculture, resource use,
and social structure.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Argumentation
6.A
Make a historically
defensible claim.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ External Resource
> Gilder Lehrman
Institute’s AP U.S.
History Study Guide
Period 1: 1491–1607
UNIT
1
REVIEW: UNIT 1 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-1.2
Contact among Europeans, Native Americans,
and Africans resulted in the Columbian
Exchange and signicant social, cultural,
and political changes on both sides of the
Atlantic Ocean.
KC-1.2.I
European expansion into the Western
Hemisphere generated intense social,
religious, political, and economic competition
and changes within European societies.
KC-1.2.II
The Columbian Exchange and development
of the Spanish Empire in the Western
Hemisphere resulted in extensive
demographic, economic, and social changes.
KC-1.2.III
In their interactions, Europeans and Native
Americans asserted divergent worldviews
regarding issues such as religion, gender
roles, family, land use, and power.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 1: Learning Objective G
Explain the eects of the
development of transatlantic
voyages from 1491 to 1607.
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46AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Remember to go to AP Classroom
to assign students the online
Personal Progress Check for
this unit.
Whether assigned as homework or
completed in class, the Personal
Progress Check provides each
student with immediate feedback
related to this unit’s topics and skills.
Personal Progress Check 2
Multiple-choice: ~20 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ Primary source
§ Primary source
Free-response: 1 question
§ Long essay (partial)
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48AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
UNI
2
T
continued on next page
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49AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
6–8
%
AP EXAM WEIGHTING ~14 CLASS PERIODS
Period 2: 1607–1754
UNIT AT A GLANCE
ctiamThe
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~14 CLASS PERIODS
2.1 Contextualizing Period 2
Continuity and
Change
4.A
Identify and describe a historical
context for a specic historical
development or process.
IGM
2.2 European Colonization
Comparison
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
GEO
2.3 The Regions of
British Colonies
Comparison
3.A
Identify and describe a claim
and/or argument in a text-based or
non-text-based source.
XTW
2.4 Transatlantic Trade
Causation
5.A
Identify patterns among or
connections between historical
developments and processes.
RWO
2.5 Interactions Between
American Indians and
Europeans
Comparison
2.A
Identify a source’s point of
view, purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience.
, XT
C
W
SO
2.6 Slavery in the
British Colonies
Causation
5.A
Identify patterns among or
connections between historical
developments and processes.
, C
AT
AR
N
2.7 Colonial Society
and Culture
Comparison
1.A
Identify a historical concept,
development, or process.
Period 2: 1607–1754
UNIT
2
Thematic
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~14 CLASS PERIODS
2.8 Comparison in Period 2
Comparison
6.B
Support an argument using
specic and relevant evidence.
§ Describe specic examples of
historically relevant evidence.
§ Explain how specic examples
of historically relevant evidence
support an argument.
Go to AP Classroom to assign the Personal Progress Check for Unit 2.
Review the results in class to identify and address any student misunderstandings.
UNIT AT A GLANCE
(cont’d)
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50AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 2: 1607–1754
UNIT
2
SAMPLE INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES
The sample activities on this page are optional and are oered to provide possible ways
to incorporate instructional approaches into the classroom. Teachers do not need to use
these activities and are free to alter or edit them. The examples below were developed in
partnership with teachers from the AP community to share ways that they approach teaching
some of the topics in this unit. Please refer to the Instructional Approaches section beginning
on p. 217 for more examples of activities and strategies.
Activity Topic Sample Activity
1
2.2 Graphic Organizer
Ask students to design a graphic organizer, such as a brain web or a comparison table, to
gather information about the causes for exploration and the eects of conquest by the
Dutch, English, French, and Spanish in North America. Then, in a whole-group discussion,
ask students to identify similarities and dierences among the European nations and draw
conclusions about exploration and colonization.
2
2.4 Create Representations
Give students a blank world map and several data sets, such as raw materials, manufactured
goods, and enslaved peoples, and have them create a map that identies the lanes of
transatlantic trade, the exchanges, and the size and scope of the British Empire. Ask them
to identify trends and patterns and draw conclusions about the Atlantic world.
3
2.6 Jigsaw
This strategy can be used to facilitate understanding of the various causes and eects of
slavery in the British colonial regions. Assign students to an “expert” group on a colonial
region and have them use their textbooks and primary sources to build a picture of slavery
there. Then, arrange students into groups where all region “experts” share their information
with other students. As a whole group, debrief similarities and dierences among the
regions with regard to slavery.
Unit Planning Notes
Use the space below to plan your approach to the unit. Consider how you want to pace the unit; which
specific historical figures, groups, or events you will use to illustrate the concepts noted in the historical
development statements; where you will incorporate writing assignments; and which primary and
secondary sources you will use.
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51AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 2: 1607–1754
UNIT
2
TOPIC 2.1
Contextualizing
Period 2
Spend a class period helping students understand some contexts for this unit. Considering
this unit’s key concepts (previewed below), select one or two for which your students will
most need context.
To understand context, your students could examine:
§ Change from and/or continuity with preceding historical developments.
§ Similarities and/or dierences with contemporaneous historical developments in dierent
regions or geographical areas.
Whenever possible, draw upon students’ relevant prior knowledge, and anchor this
contextualization lesson in historical source material of varying formats such as visuals,
data, or written texts, or conduct an activity that engages students in exploring context.
Required Course Content
continued on next page
LEARNING OBJECTIVE PREVIEW: UNIT 2 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 2: Learning Objective A
Explain the context for
the colonization of North
America from 1607 to 1754.
KC-2.1
Europeans developed a variety of colonization
and migration patterns, inuenced by dierent
imperial goals, cultures, and the varied North
American environments where they settled,
and they competed with each other and
American Indians for resources.
KC-2.1.I
Spanish, French, Dutch, and British
colonizers had dierent economic and
imperial goals involving land and labor
that shaped the social and political
development of their colonies as well as
their relationships with native populations.
KC-2.1.II
In the 17th century, early British colonies
developed along the Atlantic coast, with
regional dierences that reected various
environmental, economic, cultural, and
demographic factors.
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52AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.A
Identify and describe
a historical context for
a specific historical
development or process.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 2: 1607–1754,
Focus on Research
“Atlantic Empires
in Context”
Period 2: 1607–1754
UNIT
2
PREVIEW: UNIT 2 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-2.1.III
Competition over resources between
European rivals and American Indians
encouraged industry and trade and led to
conict in the Americas.
KC-2.2
The British colonies participated in political,
social, cultural, and economic exchanges
with Great Britain that encouraged both
stronger bonds with Britain and resistance to
Britain’s control.
KC-2.2.I
Transatlantic commercial, religious,
philosophical, and political exchanges led
residents of the British colonies to evolve
in their political and cultural attitudes as
they became increasingly tied to Britain and
one another.
KC-2.2.II
Like other European empires in the
Americas that participated in the Atlantic
slave trade, the English colonies developed a
system of slavery that reected the specic
economic, demographic, and geographic
characteristics of those colonies.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 2: Learning Objective A
Explain the context for
the colonization of North
America from 1607 to 1754.
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53AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 2: 1607–1754
UNIT
2
TOPIC 2.2
European Colonization
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Migration and Settlement
MIG
Push and pull factors shape immigration to and migration within America, and the
demographic change as a result of these moves shapes the migrants, society, and
the environment.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 2: Learning Objective B
Explain how and why
various European colonies
developed and expanded
from 1607 to 1754.
KC-2.1.I.A
Spanish eorts to extract wealth from the
land led them to develop institutions based
on subjugating native populations, converting
them to Christianity, and incorporating them,
along with enslaved and free Africans, into
Spanish colonial society.
KC-2.1.I.B
French and Dutch colonial eorts involved
relatively few Europeans and relied on trade
alliances and intermarriage with American
Indians to build economic and diplomatic
relationships and acquire furs and other
products for export to Europe.
KC-2.1.I.C
English colonization eorts attracted a
comparatively large number of male and female
British migrants, as well as other European
migrants, all of whom sought social mobility,
economic prosperity, religious freedom, and
improved living conditions. These colonists
focused on agriculture and settled on land
taken from Native Americans, from whom they
lived separately.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Developments
and Processes
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
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54AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 2: 1607–1754
UNIT
2
TOPIC 2.3
The Regions of
British Colonies
continued on next page
Required Course Content
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55AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THEMATIC FOCUS
Geography and the Environment
GEO
Geographic and environmental factors, including competition over and debates
about natural resources, shape the development of America and foster regional
diversity. The development of America impacts the environment and reshapes
geography, which leads to debates about environmental and geographic issues.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 2: Learning Objective C
Explain how and why
environmental and other
factors shaped the
development and expansion
of various British colonies
that developed and expanded
from 1607 to 1754.
KC-2.1.II.A
The Chesapeake and North Carolina colonies
grew prosperous exporting tobacco—a labor-
intensive product initially cultivated by white,
mostly male indentured servants and later by
enslaved Africans.
KC-2.1.II.B
The New England colonies, initially settled by
Puritans, developed around small towns with
family farms and achieved a thriving mixed
economy of agriculture and commerce.
KC-2.1.II.C
The middle colonies supported a ourishing
export economy based on cereal crops and
attracted a broad range of European migrants,
leading to societies with greater cultural,
ethnic, and religious diversity and tolerance.
KC-2.1.II.D
The colonies of the southern Atlantic coast
and the British West Indies used long growing
seasons to develop plantation economies
based on exporting staple crops. They
depended on the labor of enslaved Africans,
who often constituted the majority of the
population in these areas and developed their
own forms of cultural and religious autonomy.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.A
Identify and describe a
claim and/or argument
in a text-based or
non-text-based source.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 2: 1607–1754,
Focus on Research
“Colonial Diversity”
Period 2: 1607–1754
UNIT
2
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 2: Learning Objective C
Explain how and why
environmental and other
factors shaped the
development and expansion
of various British colonies
that developed and expanded
from 1607 to 1754.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
KC-2.1.II.E
Distance and Britain’s initially lax attention
led to the colonies creating self-governing
institutions that were unusually democratic
for the era. The New England colonies based
power in participatory town meetings, which
in turn elected members to their colonial
legislatures; in the southern colonies, elite
planters exercised local authority and also
dominated the elected assemblies.
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56AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 2: 1607–1754
UNIT
2
TOPIC 2.4
Transatlantic Trade
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Work, Exchange, and Technology
WXT
The interplay between markets, private enterprise, labor, technology, and
government policy shape the American economy. In turn, economic activity shapes
society and government policy and drives technological innovation.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 2: Learning Objective D
Explain causes and eects of
transatlantic trade over time.
KC-2.1.III.A
An Atlantic economy developed in which
goods, as well as enslaved Africans and
American Indians, were exchanged between
Europe, Africa, and the Americas through
extensive trade networks. European colonial
economies focused on acquiring, producing,
and exporting commodities that were valued in
Europe and gaining new sources of labor.
KC-2.1.III.B
Continuing trade with Europeans increased
the ow of goods in and out of American
Indian communities, stimulating cultural
and economic changes and spreading
epidemic diseases that caused radical
demographic shifts.
KC-2.2.I.C
The British government increasingly attempted
to incorporate its North American colonies
into a coherent, hierarchical, and imperial
structure in order to pursue mercantilist
economic aims, but conicts with colonists and
American Indians led to erratic enforcement of
imperial policies.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.A
Identify patterns among
or connections between
historical developments
and processes.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Classroom Resources
> Essay from the
American Organization
of Historians and AP
(“America, the Atlantic,
and Global Consumer
Demand, 1500–1800″)
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57AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 2: 1607–1754
UNIT
2
TOPIC 2.5
Interactions Between
American Indians
and Europeans
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 2: Learning Objective E
Explain how and why
interactions between various
European nations and
American Indians changed
over time.
KC-2.1.III.C
Interactions between European rivals and
American Indian populations fostered both
accommodation and conict. French, Dutch,
British, and Spanish colonies allied with and
armed American Indian groups, who frequently
sought alliances with Europeans against other
American Indian groups.
KC-2.1.III.E
British conicts with American Indians over
land, resources, and political boundaries led
to military confrontations, such as Metacom’s
War (King Philip’s War) in New England.
KC-2.1.III.F
American Indian resistance to Spanish
colonizing eorts in North America, particularly
after the Pueblo Revolt, led to Spanish
accommodation of some aspects of American
Indian culture in the Southwest.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.A
Identify a source’s point
of view, purpose, historical
situation, and/or audience.
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58AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 2: 1607–1754
UNIT
2
TOPIC 2.6
Slavery in the
British Colonies
Required Course Content
continued on next page
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59AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THEMATIC FOCUS
Work, Exchange, and Technology
WXT
The interplay between markets, private enterprise, labor, technology, and
government policy shape the American economy. In turn, economic activity shapes
society and government policy and drives technological innovation.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 2: Learning Objective F
Explain the causes and eects
of slavery in the various British
colonial regions.
KC-2.2.II.A
All the British colonies participated to
varying degrees in the Atlantic slave trade
due to the abundance of land and a growing
European demand for colonial goods, as
well as a shortage of indentured servants.
Small New England farms used relatively
few enslaved laborers, all port cities held
signicant minorities of enslaved people,
and the emerging plantation systems of the
Chesapeake and the southern Atlantic coast
had large numbers of enslaved workers, while
the great majority of enslaved Africans were
sent to the West Indies.
KC-2.2.II.B
As chattel slavery became the dominant labor
system in many southern colonies, new laws
created a strict racial system that prohibited
interracial relationships and dened the
descendants of African American mothers as
black and enslaved in perpetuity.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.A
Identify patterns among
or connections between
historical developments
and processes.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Classroom Resources
> Essay from the
American Organization
of Historians and
AP (“The Origins of
American Slavery”)
Period 2: 1607–1754
UNIT
2
THEMATIC FOCUS
Social Structures
SOC
Social categories, roles, and practices are created, maintained, challenged, and
transformed throughout American history, shaping government policy, economic
systems, culture, and the lives of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 2: Learning Objective G
Explain how enslaved people
responded to slavery.
KC-2.2.II.C
Africans developed both overt and covert
means to resist the dehumanizing nature of
slavery and maintain their family and gender
systems, culture, and religion.
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60AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 2: 1607–1754
UNIT
2
TOPIC 2.7
Colonial Society
and Culture
Required Course Content
continued on next page
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61AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and Regional Culture
ARC
Creative expression, demographic change, philosophy, religious beliefs, scientic
ideas, social mores, and technology shape national, regional, and group cultures in
America, and these varying cultures often play a role in shaping government policy
and developing economic systems.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 2: Learning Objective H
Explain how and why the
movement of a variety of
people and ideas across the
Atlantic contributed to the
development of American
culture over time.
KC-2.2.I.A
The presence of dierent European religious
and ethnic groups contributed to a signicant
degree of pluralism and intellectual exchange,
which were later enhanced by the rst Great
Awakening and the spread of European
Enlightenment ideas.
KC-2.2.I.B
The British colonies experienced a gradual
Anglicization over time, developing
autonomous political communities based
on English models with inuence from
intercolonial commercial ties, the emergence
of a transatlantic print culture, and the spread
of Protestant evangelicalism.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Developments
and Processes
1.A
Identify a historical
concept, development,
or process.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 2: 1607–1754,
Focus on Research
“Social Groups”
Period 2: 1607–1754
UNIT
2
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and National Identity
NAT
The development of and debates about democracy, freedom, citizenship, diversity,
and individualism shape American national identity, cultural values, and beliefs about
American exceptionalism, and in turn, these ideas shape political institutions and
society. Throughout American history, notions of national identity and culture have
coexisted with varying degrees of regional and group identities.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 2: Learning Objective I
Explain how and why the
dierent goals and interests
of European leaders and
colonists aected how they
viewed themselves and their
relationship with Britain.
KC-2.1.III.D
The goals and interests of European leaders
and colonists at times diverged, leading to a
growing mistrust on both sides of the Atlantic.
Colonists, especially in British North America,
expressed dissatisfaction over issues including
territorial settlements, frontier defense, self-
rule, and trade.
KC-2.2.I.D
Colonists’ resistance to imperial control drew on
local experiences of self-government, evolving
ideas of liberty, the political thought of the
Enlightenment, greater religious independence
and diversity, and an ideology critical of
perceived corruption in the imperial system.
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62AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 2: 1607–1754
UNIT
2
TOPIC 2.8
Comparison in
Period 2
The nal topic in this unit focuses on the skill of argumentation and so provides an
opportunity for your students to draw upon the key concepts and historical developments
they have studied in this unit. Using evidence relevant to this unit’s key concepts, students
should practice the suggested skill for this topic.
Required Course Content
LEARNING OBJECTIVE REVIEW: UNIT 2 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 2: Learning Objective J
Compare the eects of the
development of colonial
society in the various regions
of North America.
KC-2.1
Europeans developed a variety of colonization
and migration patterns, inuenced by dierent
imperial goals, cultures, and the varied North
American environments where they settled,
and they competed with each other and
American Indians for resources.
KC-2.1.I
Spanish, French, Dutch, and British
colonizers had dierent economic and
imperial goals involving land and labor
that shaped the social and political
development of their colonies as well as
their relationships with native populations.
KC-2.1.II
In the 17th century, early British colonies
developed along the Atlantic coast, with
regional dierences that reected various
environmental, economic, cultural, and
demographic factors.
KC-2.1.III
Competition over resources between
European rivals and American Indians
encouraged industry and trade and led to
conict in the Americas.
continued on next page
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63AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Argumentation
6.B
Support an argument
using specific and
relevant evidence.
§ Describe specic
examples of historically
relevant evidence.
§ Explain how specic
examples of historically
relevant evidence
support an argument.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ External Resource
> Gilder Lehrman
Institute’s AP U.S.
History Study Guide
Period 2: 1607–1754
UNIT
2
REVIEW: UNIT 2 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-2.2
The British colonies participated in political,
social, cultural, and economic exchanges
with Great Britain that encouraged both
stronger bonds with Britain and resistance to
Britain’s control.
KC-2.2.I
Transatlantic commercial, religious,
philosophical, and political exchanges led
residents of the British colonies to evolve
in their political and cultural attitudes as
they became increasingly tied to Britain and
one another.
KC-2.2.II
Like other European empires in the
Americas that participated in the Atlantic
slave trade, the English colonies developed a
system of slavery that reected the specic
economic, demographic, and geographic
characteristics of those colonies.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 2: Learning Objective J
Compare the eects of the
development of colonial
society in the various regions
of North America.
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64AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Remember to go to AP Classroom
to assign students the online
Personal Progress Check for
this unit.
Whether assigned as homework or
completed in class, the Personal
Progress Check provides each
student with immediate feedback
related to this unit’s topics and skills.
Personal Progress Check 3
Multiple-choice: ~30 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ Primary source
§ Primary source
Free-response: 1 question
§ Long essay (partial)
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66AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
continued on next page
UNI
3
T
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67AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
10–17
%
AP EXAM WEIGHTING ~17 CLASS PERIODS
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT AT A GLANCE
ctiamThe
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~17 CLASS PERIODS
3.1 Contextualizing Period 3
Continuity and
Change
4.A
Identify and describe a historical
context for a specic historical
development or process.
RWO
3.2 The Seven Years’ War
(The French and
Indian War)
Causation
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
3.3 Taxation Without
Representation
Causation
2.A
Identify a source’s point of
view, purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience.
ATN
3.4 Philosophical
Foundations of the
American Revolution
Continuity and
Change
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation, and/or
audience of a source.
RWO
3.5 The American
Revolution
Causation
6.B
Support an argument using
specic and relevant evidence.
§ Describe specic examples of
historically relevant evidence.
§ Explain how specic examples
of historically relevant evidence
support an argument.
, OC
R
S
WO
3.6 The Inuence of
Revolutionary Ideals
Comparison
3.A
Identify and describe a claim
and/or argument in a text-based or
non-text-based source.
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
Thematic
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~17 CLASS PERIODS
PCE
3.7 The Articles of
Confederation
Causation
3.B
Identify the evidence used in a
source to support an argument.
3.8 The Constitutional
Convention and Debates
over Ratication
Comparison
3.A
Identify and describe a claim
and/or argument in a text-based or
non-text-based source.
3.9 The Constitution
Continuity and
Change
5.A
Identify patterns among or
connections between historical
developments and processes.
,RWO
PCE
3.10 Shaping a
New Republic
Causation
2.A
Identify a source’s point of
view, purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience.
RCA
3.11 Developing an
American Identity
Continuity and
Change
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
,
C
GMI
SO
3.12 Movement in the
Early Republic
Continuity and
Change
5.A
Identify patterns among or
connections between historical
developments and processes.
3.13 Continuity and Change
in Period 3
Continuity and
Change
6.B
Support an argument using
specic and relevant evidence.
§ Describe specic examples of
historically relevant evidence.
§ Explain how specic examples
of historically relevant evidence
support an argument.
Go to AP Classroom to assign the Personal Progress Check for Unit 3.
Review the results in class to identify and address any student misunderstandings.
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT AT A GLANCE
(cont’d)
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68AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
SAMPLE INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES
The sample activities on this page are optional and are oered to provide possible ways
to incorporate instructional approaches into the classroom. Teachers do not need to use
these activities and are free to alter or edit them. The examples below were developed in
partnership with teachers from the AP community to share ways that they approach teaching
some of the topics in this unit. Please refer to the Instructional Approaches section beginning
on p. 217 for more examples of activities and strategies.
Activity Topic Sample Activity
1
3.3 Match Claims and Evidence
This time period is rife with opportunities for students to consider the British and colonial
perspectives on events and ideas. Ask small groups of students to write claims and
supporting evidence statements on two separate notecards based on the prompt: How did
British colonial policies regarding North America lead to the Revolutionary War? Have
groups trade claims and evidence and revise or modify the claims (if necessary), match the
claims and evidence, and write statements explaining why the evidence supports the claim.
2
3.4 Fishbowl
Have students discuss the arguments presented in American Revolution–era documents,
such as Thomas Paine’s Common Sense or the Declaration of Independence, and how
colonists responded to British actions and policies leading up to the American Revolution.
3
3.8 Close Reading
When students are reading foundational documents, such as the Constitution and the
Federalist Papers, have them highlight relevant words and passages that support the
author’s claim. Ask students to connect ideas outlined in the documents to colonial
experiences with British government in the revolutionary period.
4
3.10 Critique Reasoning
This topic lends itself to reading primary source documents. Have students identify
and critique Washington’s main points in his 1796 Farewell Address. Then, ask students
to examine Washington’s perspective, the historical situation, and the evidence and
reasoning he uses to support his position.
Unit Planning Notes
Use the space below to plan your approach to the unit. Consider how you want to pace the unit; which
specific historical figures, groups, or events you will use to illustrate the concepts noted in the historical
development statements; where you will incorporate writing assignments; and which primary and
secondary sources you will use.
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69AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
TOPIC 3.1
Contextualizing
Period 3
Spend a class period helping students understand some contexts for this unit. Considering
this unit’s key concepts (previewed below), select one or two for which your students will
most need context.
To understand context, your students could examine:
§ Change from and/or continuity with preceding historical developments.
§ Similarities and/or dierences with contemporaneous historical developments in dierent
regions or geographical areas.
Whenever possible, draw upon students’ relevant prior knowledge, and anchor this
contextualization lesson in historical source material of varying formats such as visuals,
data, or written texts, or conduct an activity that engages students in exploring context.
Required Course Content
LEARNING OBJECTIVE PREVIEW: UNIT 3 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 3: Learning Objective A
Explain the context in
which America gained
independence and developed
a sense of national identity.
KC-3.1
British attempts to assert tighter control over
its North American colonies and the colonial
resolve to pursue self-government led to a
colonial independence movement and the
Revolutionary War.
KC-3.1.I
The competition among the British, French,
and American Indians for economic and
political advantage in North America
culminated in the Seven Years’ War
(the French and Indian War), in which
Britain defeated France and allied
American Indians.
KC-3.1.II
The desire of many colonists to assert
ideals of self-government in the face of
renewed British imperial eorts led to a
colonial independence movement and war
with Britain.
continued on next page
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70AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.A
Identify and describe
a historical context for
a specific historical
development or process.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Classroom Resources
> Why Tea? The Global
Story of the American
Revolution
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
PREVIEW: UNIT 3 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-3.2
The American Revolution’s democratic and
republican ideals inspired new experiments
with dierent forms of government.
KC-3.2.I
The ideals that inspired the revolutionary
cause reected new beliefs about
politics, religion, and society that had
been developing over the course of the
18th century.
KC-3.2.II
After declaring independence, American
political leaders created new constitutions
and declarations of rights that articulated
the role of the state and federal
governments while protecting individual
liberties and limiting both centralized power
and excessive popular inuence.
KC-3.2.III.i
New forms of national culture and political
institutions developed in the United States
alongside continued regional variations and
dierences over economic, political, social,
and foreign policy issues.
KC-3.3
Migration within North America and
competition over resources, boundaries, and
trade intensied conicts among peoples
and nations.
KC-3.3.I
In the decades after American independence,
interactions among dierent groups resulted
in competition for resources, shifting
alliances, and cultural blending.
KC-3.3.II
The continued presence of European
powers in North America challenged the
United States to nd ways to safeguard its
borders, maintain neutral trading rights, and
promote its economic interests.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 3: Learning Objective A
Explain the context in
which America gained
independence and developed
a sense of national identity.
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71AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
TOPIC 3.2
The Seven Years’ War
(The French and
Indian War)
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 3: Learning Objective B
Explain the causes and
eects of the Seven
Years’ War (the French and
IndianWar).
KC-3.1.I.A
Colonial rivalry intensied between Britain and
France in the mid-18th century, as the growing
population of the British colonies expanded
into the interior of North America, threatening
French–Indian trade networks and American
Indian autonomy.
KC-3.1.I.B
Britain achieved a major expansion of its
territorial holdings by defeating the French,
but at tremendous expense, setting the stage
for imperial eorts to raise revenue and
consolidate control over the colonies.
KC-3.1.I.C
After the British victory, imperial ocials’
attempts to prevent colonists from moving
westward generated colonial opposition, while
native groups sought to both continue trading
with Europeans and resist the encroachments
of colonists on tribal lands.
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72AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Developments
and Processes
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
TOPIC 3.3
Taxation Without
Representation
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 3: Learning Objective C
Explain how British
colonial policies regarding
North America led to the
Revolutionary War.
KC-3.1.II.A
The imperial struggles of the mid-18th century,
as well as new British eorts to collect taxes
without direct colonial representation or
consent and to assert imperial authority in
the colonies, began to unite the colonists
against perceived and real constraints on their
economic activities and political rights.
KC-3.1.II.B
Colonial leaders based their calls for resistance
to Britain on arguments about the rights of
British subjects, the rights of the individual,
local traditions of self-rule, and the ideas of the
Enlightenment.
KC-3.1.II.C
The eort for American independence was
energized by colonial leaders such as Benjamin
Franklin, as well as by popular movements
that included the political activism of laborers,
artisans, and women.
KC-3.1.II.D
In the face of economic shortages and the
British military occupation of some regions,
men and women mobilized in large numbers to
provide nancial and material support to the
Patriot movement.
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73AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.A
Identify a source’s point
of view, purpose, historical
situation, and/or audience.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 3: 1754–1800,
Focus on Research
“Why the Revolution
Started”
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
TOPIC 3.4
Philosophical
Foundations of the
American Revolution
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and National Identity
NAT
The development of and debates about democracy, freedom, citizenship, diversity,
and individualism shape American national identity, cultural values, and beliefs about
American exceptionalism, and in turn, these ideas shape political institutions and
society. Throughout American history, notions of national identity and culture have
coexisted with varying degrees of regional and group identities.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 3: Learning Objective D
Explain how and why colonial
attitudes about government
and the individual changed
in the years leading up to the
American Revolution.
KC-3.2.I.A
Enlightenment ideas and philosophy inspired
many American political thinkers to emphasize
individual talent over hereditary privilege,
while religion strengthened Americans’ view of
themselves as a people blessed with liberty.
KC-3.2.I.B
The colonists’ belief in the superiority of
republican forms of government based on the
natural rights of the people found expression
in Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and the
Declaration of Independence. The ideas in
these documents resonated throughout
American history, shaping Americans’
understanding of the ideals on which the nation
was based.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience of a source.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Classroom Resources
> Essay from the
American Organization
of Historians and AP
(“The Declaration
of Independence in
World Context”)
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74AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
TOPIC 3.5
The American
Revolution
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 3: Learning Objective E
Explain how various factors
contributed to the American
victory in the Revolution.
KC-3.1.II.E
Despite considerable loyalist opposition, as
well as Great Britain’s apparently overwhelming
military and nancial advantages, the Patriot
cause succeeded because of the actions of
colonial militias and the Continental Army,
George Washington’s military leadership,
the colonists’ ideological commitment
and resilience, and assistance sent by
Europeanallies.
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75AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Argumentation
6.B
Support an argument
using specific and
relevant evidence.
§ Describe specic
examples of historically
relevant evidence.
§ Explain how specic
examples of historically
relevant evidence
support an argument.
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
TOPIC 3.6
The Inuence of
Revolutionary Ideals
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Social Structures
SOC
Social categories, roles, and practices are created, maintained, challenged, and
transformed throughout American history, shaping government policy, economic
systems, culture, and the lives of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 3: Learning Objective F
Explain the various ways
the American Revolution
aected society.
KC-3.2.I.C
During and after the American Revolution, an
increased awareness of inequalities in society
motivated some individuals and groups to
call for the abolition of slavery and greater
political democracy in the new state and
nationalgovernments.
KC-3.2.I.D
In response to women’s participation in the
American Revolution, Enlightenment ideas, and
women’s appeals for expanded roles, an ideal
of “republican motherhood” gained popularity.
It called on women to teach republican values
within the family and granted women a new
importance in American political culture.
continued on next page
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76AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.A
Identify and describe a
claim and/or argument in
a text-based or non-text-
based source.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES
§ Classroom Resources
> What Is Gender
History?
§ AP Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 3: 1754–1800,
Focus on Research
“The Revolution:
Winners and Losers”
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 3: Learning Objective G
Describe the global impact of
the American Revolution.
KC-3.2.I.E
The American Revolution and the ideals set
forth in the Declaration of Independence
reverberated in France, Haiti, and Latin America,
inspiring future independence movements.
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77AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
TOPIC 3.7
The Articles of
Confederation
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 3: Learning Objective H
Explain how dierent forms
of government developed
and changed as a result of
the Revolutionary Period.
KC-3.2.II.A
Many new state constitutions placed power
in the hands of the legislative branch and
maintained property qualications for voting
and citizenship.
KC-3.2.II.B
The Articles of Confederation unied the
newly independent states, creating a central
government with limited power. After the
Revolution, diculties over international
trade, nances, interstate commerce, foreign
relations, and internal unrest led to calls for a
stronger central government.
KC-3.3.I.C
As settlers moved westward during the 1780s,
Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance
for admitting new states; the ordinance
promoted public education, the protection of
private property, and a ban on slavery in the
Northwest Territory.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.B
Identify the evidence used
in a source to support
an argument.
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78AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
TOPIC 3.8
The Constitutional
Convention and Debates
over Ratication
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 3: Learning Objective I
Explain the diering
ideological positions on the
structure and function of the
federal government.
KC-3.2.II.C.i
Delegates from the states participated in
the Constitutional Convention and through
negotiation, collaboration, and compromise
proposed a constitution.
KC-3.2.II.D
The Constitutional Convention compromised
over the representation of slave states
in Congress and the role of the federal
government in regulating both slavery and
the slave trade, allowing the prohibition of the
international slave trade after 1808.
KC-3.2.II.E
In the debate over ratifying the Constitution,
Anti-Federalists opposing ratication battled
with Federalists, whose principles were
articulated in the Federalist Papers (primarily
written by Alexander Hamilton and James
Madison). Federalists ensured the ratication
of the Constitution by promising the addition
of a Bill of Rights that enumerated individual
rights and explicitly restricted the powers of
the federal government.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.A
Identify and describe a
claim and/or argument in
a text-based or non-text-
based source.
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79AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
TOPIC 3.9
The Constitution
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 3: Learning Objective J
Explain the continuities and
changes in the structure and
functions of the government
with the ratication of
the Constitution.
KC-3.2.II.C.ii
Delegates from the states participated in
the Constitutional Convention that created
a limited but dynamic central government
embodying federalism and providing
for a separation of powers between its
threebranches.
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80AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.A
Identify patterns among
or connections between
historical developments
and processes.
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
TOPIC 3.10
Shaping a
New Republic
Required Course Content
continued on next page
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81AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 3: Learning Objective K
Explain how and why
competition intensied
conicts among peoples and
nations from 1754 to 1800.
KC-3.3.II.A
The U.S. government forged diplomatic
initiatives aimed at dealing with the continued
British and Spanish presence in North
America, as U.S. settlers migrated beyond the
Appalachians and sought free navigation of the
Mississippi River.
KC-3.3.II.B
War between France and Britain resulting
from the French Revolution presented
challenges to the United States over issues
of free trade and foreign policy and fostered
political disagreement.
KC-3.3.I.E
The Spanish, supported by the bonded labor
of the local American Indians, expanded
their mission settlements into California;
these provided opportunities for social
mobility among soldiers and led to new
culturalblending.
KC-3.3.I.D
An ambiguous relationship between the
federal government and American Indian tribes
contributed to problems regarding treaties and
American Indian legal claims relating to the
seizure of their lands.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.A
Identify a source’s point
of view, purpose, historical
situation, and/or audience.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES
§ Classroom Resources
> Lesson Plans for AP
U.S. History: The Alien
and Sedition Acts
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 3: 1754–1800,
Focus on Research
“New Democratic
Institutions”
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 3: Learning Objective L
Explain how and why political
ideas, institutions, and party
systems developed and
changed in the new republic.
KC-3.2.III.A
During the presidential administrations of
George Washington and John Adams, political
leaders created institutions and precedents
that put the principles of the Constitution
intopractice.
KC-3.2.III.B
Political leaders in the 1790s took a variety of
positions on issues such as the relationship
between the national government and the
states, economic policy, foreign policy, and
the balance between liberty and order. This
led to the formation of political parties—
most signicantly the Federalists, led by
Alexander Hamilton, and the Democratic-
Republican Party, led by Thomas Jeerson and
JamesMadison.
KC-3.3.II.C
George Washington’s Farewell Address
encouraged national unity, as he cautioned
against political factions and warned about the
danger of permanent foreign alliances.
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82AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
TOPIC 3.11
Developing an
American Identity
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and Regional Culture
ARC
Creative expression, demographic change, philosophy, religious beliefs, scientic
ideas, social mores, and technology shape national, regional, and group cultures in
America, and these varying cultures often play a role in shaping government policy
and developing economic systems.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 3: Learning Objective M
Explain the continuities and
changes in American culture
from 1754 to 1800.
KC-3.2.III.ii
New forms of national culture developed
in the United States alongside continued
regional variations.
KC-3.2.III.D
Ideas about national identity increasingly
found expression in works of art, literature,
and architecture.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Developments
and Processes
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
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83AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
TOPIC 3.12
Movement in the
Early Republic
Required Course Content
continued on next page
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84AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THEMATIC FOCUS
Migration and Settlement
MIG
Push and pull factors shape immigration to and migration within America, and the
demographic change as a result of these moves shapes the migrants, society, and
the environment.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 3: Learning Objective N
Explain how and why
migration and immigration
to and within North America
caused competition and
conict over time.
KC-3.3.I.A
Various American Indian groups repeatedly
evaluated and adjusted their alliances with
Europeans, other tribes, and the United States,
seeking to limit migration of white settlers and
maintain control of tribal lands and natural
resources. British alliances with American
Indians contributed to tensions between the
United States and Britain.
KC-3.3.I.B
As increasing numbers of migrants from North
America and other parts of the world continued
to move westward, frontier cultures that had
emerged in the colonial period continued to
grow, fueling social, political, and ethnic tensions.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.A
Identify patterns among
or connections between
historical developments
and processes.
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
THEMATIC FOCUS
Social Structures
SOC
Social categories, roles, and practices are created, maintained, challenged, and
transformed throughout American history, shaping government policy, economic
systems, culture, and the lives of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 3: Learning Objective O
Explain the continuities and
changes in regional attitudes
about slavery as it expanded
from 1754 to 1800.
KC-3.2.III.C
The expansion of slavery in the deep South and
adjacent western lands and rising antislavery
sentiment began to create distinctive regional
attitudes toward slavery.
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85AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
TOPIC 3.13
Continuity and
Change in Period 3
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86AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
The nal topic in this unit focuses on the skill of argumentation and so provides an
opportunity for your students to draw upon the key concepts and historical developments
they have studied in this unit. Using evidence relevant to this unit’s key concepts, students
should practice the suggested skill for this topic.
Required Course Content
LEARNING OBJECTIVE REVIEW: UNIT 3 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 3: Learning Objective P
Explain how the American
independence movement
aected society from 1754
to 1800.
KC-3.1
British attempts to assert tighter control over
its North American colonies and the colonial
resolve to pursue self-government led to a
colonial independence movement and the
Revolutionary War.
KC-3.1.I
The competition among the British, French,
and American Indians for economic and
political advantage in North America
culminated in the Seven Years’ War
(the French and Indian War), in which
Britain defeated France and allied
American Indians.
KC-3.1.II
The desire of many colonists to assert
ideals of self-government in the face of
renewed British imperial eorts led to a
colonial independence movement and war
with Britain.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Argumentation
6.B
Support an argument
using specific and
relevant evidence.
§ Describe specic
examples of historically
relevant evidence.
§ Explain how specic
examples of historically
relevant evidence
support an argument.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ External Resource
> Gilder Lehrman
Institute’s AP U.S.
History Study Guide
Period 3: 1754–1800
UNIT
3
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 3: Learning Objective P
Explain how the American
independence movement
aected society from 1754
to 1800.
REVIEW: UNIT 3 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-3.2
The American Revolution’s democratic and
republican ideals inspired new experiments
with dierent forms of government.
KC-3.2.I
The ideals that inspired the revolutionary
cause reected new beliefs about
politics, religion, and society that had
been developing over the course of the
18th century.
KC-3.2.II
After declaring independence, American
political leaders created new constitutions
and declarations of rights that articulated
the role of the state and federal
governments while protecting individual
liberties and limiting both centralized power
and excessive popular inuence.
KC-3.2.III.i
New forms of national culture and political
institutions developed in the United States
alongside continued regional variations and
dierences over economic, political, social,
and foreign policy issues.
KC-3.3
Migration within North America and
competition over resources, boundaries, and
trade intensied conicts among peoples
and nations.
KC-3.3.I
In the decades after American independence,
interactions among dierent groups resulted
in competition for resources, shifting
alliances, and cultural blending.
KC-3.3.II
The continued presence of European
powers in North America challenged the
United States to nd ways to safeguard its
borders, maintain neutral trading rights, and
promote its economic interests.
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87AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
Remember to go to AP Classroom
to assign students the online
Personal Progress Check for
this unit.
Whether assigned as homework or
completed in class, the Personal
Progress Check provides each
student with immediate feedback
related to this unit’s topics and skills.
Personal Progress Check 4
Multiple-choice: ~35 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ Primary source
§ Secondary source
Free-response: 1 question
§ Long essay (partial)
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90AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
continued on next page
UNI
4
T
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91AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
10–17
%
AP EXAM WEIGHTING ~17 CLASS PERIODS
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT AT A GLANCE
c tiamThe
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~17 CLASS PERIODS
4.1 Contextualizing Period 4
Continuity and
Change
4.A
Identify and describe a historical
context for a specic historical
development or process.
PCE
4.2 The Rise of Political
Parties and the Era
of Jeerson
Causation
2.A
Identify a source’s point of view,
purpose, historical situation, and/or
audience.
4.3 Politics and
Regional Interests
Comparison
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation, and/or
audience of a source.
RWO
4.4 America on the
World Stage
Causation
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation, and/or
audience of a source.
XTW
4.5 Market Revolution:
Industrialization
Causation
6.B
Support an argument using
specic and relevant evidence.
§ Describe specic examples of
historically relevant evidence.
§ Explain how specic examples
of historically relevant evidence
support an argument.
CSO
4.6 Market Revolution:
Society and Culture
Comparison
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process relates
to another historical development
or process.
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
Thematic
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~17 CLASS PERIODS
PCE
4.7 Expanding Democracy
Causation
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
4.8 Jackson and
Federal Power
Continuity and
Change
3.D
Explain how claims or evidence
support, modify, or refute a source’s
argument.
RCA
4.9 The Development of an
American Culture
Causation
4.B
Explain how a specic historical
development or process is situated
within a broader historical context.
4.10 The Second Great
Awakening
Causation
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process relates
to another historical development
or process.
4.11 An Age of Reform
Comparison
3.B
Identify the evidence used in a
source to support an argument.
CSO
4.12 African Americans in
the Early Republic
Continuity and
Change
3.D
Explain how claims or evidence
support, modify, or refute a source’s
argument.
GEO
4.13 The Society of
the South in the
Early Republic
Causation
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
4.14 Causation in Period 4
Causation
6.C
Use historical reasoning to
explain relationships among pieces
of historical evidence.
Go to AP Classroom to assign the Personal Progress Check for Unit 4.
Review the results in class to identify and address any student misunderstandings.
UNIT AT A GLANCE
(cont’d)
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92AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
SAMPLE INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES
The sample activities on this page are optional and are oered to provide possible ways
to incorporate instructional approaches into the classroom. Teachers do not need to use
these activities and are free to alter or edit them. The examples below were developed in
partnership with teachers from the AP community to share ways that they approach teaching
some of the topics in this unit. Please refer to the Instructional Approaches section beginning
on p. 217 for more examples of activities and strategies.
Activity Topic Sample Activity
1
4.2 Debrieng
This topic contains several complex economic, political, and foreign policy issues—such
as the tari, interpretation of the Constitution, and the purchase of foreign land—that
teachers can lead students through a debrief on to ensure understanding of these issues,
individually and collectively, in relation to the time period.
2
4.5 Self/Peer Revision
Students have been practicing writing a historically defensible claim and supporting their
argument using specic and relevant evidence. This topic’s learning objective—Unit 4:
Learning Objective E: Explain the causes and eects of the innovations in technology,
agriculture, and commerce over time—can serve as a prompt for students to write thesis
statements and outline evidence to be used in support of the claim. Then ask students to
select a partner, review the claims and evidence, and provide feedback.
3
4.8 Questioning the Text
Assign students to read and analyze Andrew Jackson’s rst inaugural address and write
down any clarication and discussion questions that come to mind while reading the text.
Ask students to focus on the main points that Jackson hoped to address in his presidency
as outlined in the inaugural address. Form groups around similar questions and ask
students to research answers from a source, such as the textbook. Have groups present
their ndings and lead a discussion about the purpose of inaugural addresses as well as
the successes and failures of the Jackson administration.
4
4.9–4.11 Socratic Seminar
This activity combines Topics 4.9–4.11. Use the question What were the key ingredients in
the creation of an American culture? to initiate a discussion in which students can illustrate
their understanding of all the learning objectives and historical developments in these topics.
Unit Planning Notes
Use the space below to plan your approach to the unit. Consider how you want to pace the unit; which
specific historical figures, groups, or events you will use to illustrate the concepts noted in the historical
development statements; where you will incorporate writing assignments; and which primary and
secondary sources you will use.
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93AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
TOPIC 4.1
Contextualizing
Period 4
Spend a class period helping students understand some contexts for this unit. Considering
this unit’s key concepts (previewed below), select one or two for which your students will
most need context.
To understand context, your students could examine:
§ Change from and/or continuity with preceding historical developments.
§ Similarities and/or dierences with contemporaneous historical developments in dierent
regions or geographical areas.
Whenever possible, draw upon students’ relevant prior knowledge, and anchor this
contextualization lesson in historical source material of varying formats such as visuals,
data, or written texts, or conduct an activity that engages students in exploring context.
Required Course Content
LEARNING OBJECTIVE PREVIEW: UNIT 4 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 4: Learning Objective A
Explain the context in which
the republic developed from
1800 to 1848.
KC-4.1
The United States began to develop a modern
democracy and celebrated a new national
culture, while Americans sought to dene the
nation’s democratic ideals and change their
society and institutions to match them.
KC-4.1.I
The nation’s transition to a more participatory
democracy was achieved by expanding
surage from a system based on property
ownership to one based on voting by all adult
white men, and it was accompanied by the
growth of political parties.
KC-4.1.II
While Americans embraced a new national
culture, various groups developed
distinctive cultures of their own.
KC-4.1.III
Increasing numbers of Americans, many
inspired by new religious and intellectual
movements, worked primarily outside
of government institutions to advance
their ideals.
continued on next page
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94AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.A
Identify and describe
a historical context for
a specific historical
development or process.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 4: 1800–1848,
Focus on Research
“Introducing Period 4”
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
PREVIEW: UNIT 4 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-4.2
Innovations in technology, agriculture, and
commerce powerfully accelerated the
American economy, precipitating profound
changes to U.S. society and to national and
regional identities.
KC-4.2.I
New transportation systems and
technologies dramatically expanded
manufacturing and agricultural production.
KC-4.2.II
The changes caused by the market
revolution had signicant eects on U.S.
society, workers’ lives, and gender and
family relations.
KC-4.2.III
Economic development shaped settlement
and trade patterns, helping to unify the
nation while also encouraging the growth of
dierent regions.
KC-4.3
The U.S. interest in increasing foreign trade
and expanding its national borders shaped the
nation’s foreign policy and spurred government
and private initiatives.
KC-4.3.I
Struggling to create an independent global
presence, the United States sought to claim
territory throughout the North American
continent and promote foreign trade.
KC-4.3.II
The United States’ acquisition of lands in
the West gave rise to contests over the
extension of slavery into new territories.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 4: Learning Objective A
Explain the context in which
the republic developed from
1800 to 1848.
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95AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
TOPIC 4.2
The Rise of Political
Parties and the
Era of Jeerson
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 4: Learning Objective B
Explain the causes and
eects of policy debates in
the early republic.
KC-4.1.I.A
In the early 1800s, national political parties
continued to debate issues such as the
tari, powers of the federal government, and
relations with European powers.
KC-4.1.I.B
Supreme Court decisions established the
primacy of the judiciary in determining the
meaning of the Constitution and asserted that
federal laws took precedence over state laws.
KC-4.3.I.A.i
Following the Louisiana Purchase, the U.S.
government sought inuence and control over
North America through a variety of means,
including exploration and diplomatic eorts.
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96AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.A
Identify a source’s point
of view, purpose, historical
situation, and/or audience.
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
TOPIC 4.3
Politics and
Regional Interests
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97AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 4: Learning Objective C
Explain how dierent
regional interests aected
debates about the role of the
federal government in the
early republic.
KC-4.1.I.D
Regional interests often trumped national
concerns as the basis for many political leaders’
positions on slavery and economic policy.
KC-4.2.III.D
Plans to further unify the U.S. economy, such as
the American System, generated debates over
whether such policies would benet agriculture
or industry, potentially favoring dierent
sections of the country.
KC-4.3.II.C
Congressional attempts at political
compromise, such as the Missouri
Compromise, only temporarily stemmed
growing tensions between opponents and
defenders of slavery.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience of a source.
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
TOPIC 4.4
America on the
World Stage
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 4: Learning Objective D
Explain how and why
American foreign policy
developed and expanded
over time.
KC-4.3.I
Struggling to create an independent global
presence, the United States sought to claim
territory throughout the North American
continent and promote foreign trade.
KC-4.3.I.A.ii
The U.S. government sought inuence and
control over the Western Hemisphere through
a variety of means, including military actions,
American Indian removal, and diplomatic
eorts such as the Monroe Doctrine.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience of a source.
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98AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
TOPIC 4.5
Market Revolution:
Industrialization
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Work, Exchange, and Technology
WXT
The interplay between markets, private enterprise, labor, technology, and
government policy shape the American economy. In turn, economic activity shapes
society and government policy and drives technological innovation.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 4: Learning Objective E
Explain the causes and
eects of the innovations in
technology, agriculture, and
commerce over time.
KC-4.2.I.A
Entrepreneurs helped to create a market
revolution in production and commerce, in
which market relationships between producers
and consumers came to prevail as the
manufacture of goods became more organized.
KC-4.2.I.B
Innovations including textile machinery, steam
engines, interchangeable parts, the telegraph,
and agricultural inventions increased the
eciency of production methods.
KC-4.2.I.C
Legislation and judicial systems supported the
development of roads, canals, and railroads,
which extended and enlarged markets and
helped foster regional interdependence.
Transportation networks linked the North and
Midwest more closely than they linked regions
in the South.
KC-4.2.III.B
Increasing Southern cotton production and
the related growth of Northern manufacturing,
banking, and shipping industries promoted
the development of national and international
commercial ties.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Argumentation
6.B
Support an argument
using specific and
relevant evidence.
§ Describe specic
examples of historically
relevant evidence.
§ Explain how specic
examples of historically
relevant evidence
support an argument.
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99AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
TOPIC 4.6
Market Revolution:
Society and Culture
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Social Structures
SOC
Social categories, roles, and practices are created, maintained, challenged, and
transformed throughout American history, shaping government policy, economic
systems, culture, and the lives of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 4: Learning Objective F
Explain how and why
innovation in technology,
agriculture, and commerce
aected various segments of
American society over time.
KC-4.2.III.A
Large numbers of international migrants moved
to industrializing Northern cities, while many
Americans moved west of the Appalachians,
developing thriving new communities along the
Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
KC-4.2.II.B
The growth of manufacturing drove a
signicant increase in prosperity and standards
of living for some; this led to the emergence of
a larger middle class and a small but wealthy
business elite, but also to a large and growing
population of laboring poor.
KC-4.2.II.A
Increasing numbers of Americans, especially
women and men working in factories, no longer
relied on semi-subsistence agriculture; instead
they supported themselves producing goods
for distant markets.
KC-4.2.II.C
Gender and family roles changed in response
to the market revolution, particularly with
the growth of denitions of domestic ideals
that emphasized the separation of public and
private spheres.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process
relates to another historical
development or process.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES
§ Classroom Resources
> What Is Gender
History?
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 4: 1800–1848,
Focus on Research
“Focusing on
Social Groups”
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100AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
TOPIC 4.7
Expanding
Democracy
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 4: Learning Objective G
Explain the causes and
eects of the expansion of
participatory democracy
from 1800 to 1848.
KC-4.1.I
The nation’s transition to a more participatory
democracy was achieved by expanding
surage from a system based on property
ownership to one based on voting by all adult
white men, and it was accompanied by the
growth of political parties.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Developments
and Processes
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
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101AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
TOPIC 4.8
Jackson and
Federal Power
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 4: Learning Objective H
Explain the causes and
eects of continuing policy
debates about the role of
the federal government from
1800 to 1848.
KC-4.1.I.C
By the 1820s and 1830s, new political parties
arose—the Democrats, led by Andrew
Jackson, and the Whigs, led by Henry Clay—
that disagreed about the role and powers of
the federal government and issues such as
the national bank, taris, and federally funded
internal improvements.
KC-4.3.I.B
Frontier settlers tended to champion expansion
eorts, while American Indian resistance led to a
sequence of wars and federal eorts to control
and relocate American Indian populations.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.D
Explain how claims or
evidence support, modify, or
refute a source’s argument.
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102AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
TOPIC 4.9
The Development of
an American Culture
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and Regional Culture
ARC
Creative expression, demographic change, philosophy, religious beliefs, scientic
ideas, social mores, and technology shape national, regional, and group cultures in
America, and these varying cultures often play a role in shaping government policy
and developing economic systems.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 4: Learning Objective I
Explain how and why a new
national culture developed
from 1800 to 1848.
KC-4.1.II.B
A new national culture emerged that combined
American elements, European inuences, and
regional cultural sensibilities.
KC-4.1.II.C
Liberal social ideas from abroad and Romantic
beliefs in human perfectibility inuenced
literature, art, philosophy, and architecture.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.B
Explain how a specific
historical development or
process is situated within a
broader historical context.
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103AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
TOPIC 4.10
The Second Great
Awakening
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and Regional Culture
ARC
Creative expression, demographic change, philosophy, religious beliefs, scientic
ideas, social mores, and technology shape national, regional, and group cultures in
America, and these varying cultures often play a role in shaping government policy
and developing economic systems.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 4: Learning Objective J
Explain the causes of the
Second Great Awakening.
KC-4.1.II.A.i
The rise of democratic and individualistic
beliefs, a response to rationalism, and changes
to society caused by the market revolution,
along with greater social and geographical
mobility, contributed to a Second Great
Awakening among Protestants.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process
relates to another historical
development or process.
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104AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
TOPIC 4.11
An Age of Reform
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and Regional Culture
ARC
Creative expression, demographic change, philosophy, religious beliefs, scientic
ideas, social mores, and technology shape national, regional, and group cultures in
America, and these varying cultures often play a role in shaping government policy
and developing economic systems.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 4: Learning Objective K
Explain how and why
various reform movements
developed and expanded
from 1800 to 1848.
KC-4.1.II.A.ii
The rise of democratic and individualistic beliefs,
a response to rationalism, and changes to
society caused by the market revolution, along
with greater social and geographical mobility,
contributed to moral and social reforms and
inspired utopian and other religious movements.
KC-4.1.III.A
Americans formed new voluntary organizations
that aimed to change individual behaviors and
improve society through temperance and other
reform eorts.
KC-4.1.III.B.i
Abolitionist and antislavery movements gradually
achieved emancipation in the North, contributing
to the growth of the free African American
population, even as many state governments
restricted African Americans’ rights.
KC-4.3.II.B.i
Antislavery movements increased in the North.
KC-4.1.III.C
A women’s rights movement sought to
create greater equality and opportunities for
women, expressing its ideals at the Seneca
Falls Convention.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.B
Identify the evidence used
in a source to support
an argument.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Classroom Resources
> What Is Gender
History?
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105AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
TOPIC 4.12
African Americans in
the Early Republic
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Social Structures
SOC
Social categories, roles, and practices are created, maintained, challenged, and
transformed throughout American history, shaping government policy, economic
systems, culture, and the lives of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 4: Learning Objective L
Explain the continuities and
changes in the experience of
African Americans from 1800
to 1848.
KC-4.1.III.B.ii
Antislavery eorts in the South were largely
limited to unsuccessful slave rebellions.
KC-4.1.II.D
Enslaved blacks and free African Americans
created communities and strategies to protect
their dignity and family structures, and they
joined political eorts aimed at changing
theirstatus.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.D
Explain how claims or
evidence support, modify, or
refute a source’s argument.
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106AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
TOPIC 4.13
The Society of
the South in the
Early Republic
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Geography and the Environment
GEO
Geographic and environmental factors, including competition over and debates
about natural resources, shape the development of America and foster regional
diversity. The development of America impacts the environment and reshapes
geography, which leads to debates about environmental and geographic issues.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 4: Learning Objective M
Explain how geographic
and environmental factors
shaped the development of
the South from 1800 to 1848.
KC-4.3.II.B.ii
In the South, although the majority of
Southerners owned no slaves, most leaders
argued that slavery was part of the Southern
way of life.
KC-4.2.III.C
Southern business leaders continued to rely
on the production and export of traditional
agricultural staples, contributing to the growth
of a distinctive Southern regional identity.
KC-4.3.II.A
As overcultivation depleted arable land in the
Southeast, slaveholders began relocating their
plantations to more fertile lands west of the
Appalachians, where the institution of slavery
continued to grow.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Developments
and Processes
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
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107AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
TOPIC 4.14
Causation in Period 4
The nal topic in this unit focuses on the skill of argumentation and so provides an
opportunity for your students to draw upon the key concepts and historical developments
they have studied in this unit. Using evidence relevant to this unit’s key concepts, students
should practice the suggested skill for this topic.
Required Course Content
LEARNING OBJECTIVE REVIEW: UNIT 4 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 4: Learning Objective N
Explain the extent to which
politics, economics, and
foreign policy promoted the
development of American
identity from 1800 to 1848.
KC-4.1
The United States began to develop a modern
democracy and celebrated a new national
culture, while Americans sought to dene the
nation’s democratic ideals and change their
society and institutions to match them.
KC-4.1.I
The nation’s transition to a more participatory
democracy was achieved by expanding
surage from a system based on property
ownership to one based on voting by all adult
white men, and it was accompanied by the
growth of political parties.
KC-4.1.II
While Americans embraced a new national
culture, various groups developed
distinctive cultures of their own.
KC-4.1.III
Increasing numbers of Americans, many
inspired by new religious and intellectual
movements, worked primarily outside
of government institutions to advance
their ideals.
continued on next page
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108AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Argumentation
6.C
Use historical reasoning
to explain relationships
among pieces of
historical evidence.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES
§ External Resource
> Gilder Lehrman
Institute’s AP U.S.
History Study Guide
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 4: 1800–1848,
Focus on Research
“Making Historical
Connections”
Period 4: 1800–1848
UNIT
4
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 4: Learning Objective N
Explain the extent to which
politics, economics, and
foreign policy promoted the
development of American
identity from 1800 to 1848.
REVIEW: UNIT 4 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-4.2
Innovations in technology, agriculture, and
commerce powerfully accelerated the
American economy, precipitating profound
changes to U.S. society and to national and
regional identities.
KC-4.2.I
New transportation systems and
technologies dramatically expanded
manufacturing and agricultural production.
KC-4.2.II
The changes caused by the market
revolution had signicant eects on U.S.
society, workers’ lives, and gender and
family relations.
KC-4.2.III
Economic development shaped settlement
and trade patterns, helping to unify the
nation while also encouraging the growth of
dierent regions.
KC-4.3
The U.S. interest in increasing foreign trade
and expanding its national borders shaped the
nation’s foreign policy and spurred government
and private initiatives.
KC-4.3.I
Struggling to create an independent global
presence, the United States sought to claim
territory throughout the North American
continent and promote foreign trade.
KC-4.3.II
The United States’ acquisition of lands in
the West gave rise to contests over the
extension of slavery into new territories.
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109AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
Remember to go to AP Classroom
to assign students the online
Personal Progress Check for
this unit.
Whether assigned as homework or
completed in class, the Personal
Progress Check provides each
student with immediate feedback
related to this unit’s topics and skills.
Personal Progress Check 5
Multiple-choice: ~30 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ Secondary source (2 sources)
§ No stimulus
Free-response: 2 questions
§ Long essay (partial)
§ Document-based (partial)
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112AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
continued on next page
UNI
5
T
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113AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
10–17
%
AP EXAM WEIGHTING ~17 CLASS PERIODS
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT AT A GLANCE
c tiamThe
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~17 CLASS PERIODS
5.1 Contextualizing Period 5
Continuity and
Change
4.B
Explain how a specic historical
development or process is situated
within a broader historical context.
GEO
5.2 Manifest Destiny
Causation
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
RWO
5.3 The Mexican–American
War
Causation
3.C
Compare the arguments or main
ideas of two sources.
ATN
5.4 The Compromise of 1850
Comparison
4.B
Explain how a specic historical
development or process is situated
within a broader historical context.
, C
C
AR
SO
5.5 Sectional Conict:
Regional Dierences
Comparison
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation, and/or
audience of a source.
PCE
5.6 Failure of Compromise
Causation
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process relates
to another historical development
or process.
5.7 Election of 1860
and Secession
Causation
4.B
Explain how a specic historical
development or process is situated
within a broader historical context.
RWO
5.8 Military Conict
in the Civil War
Comparison
5.A
Identify patterns among or
connections between historical
developments and processes.
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
Thematic
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~17 CLASS PERIODS
ATN
5.9 Government Policies
During the Civil War
Continuity and
Change
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation, and/or
audience of a source.
PCE
5.10 Reconstruction
Causation
3.D
Explain how claims or evidence
support, modify, or refute a source’s
argument.
ATN
5.11 Failure of
Reconstruction
Continuity
and Change
3.C
Compare the arguments or main
ideas of two sources.
5.12 Comparison in Period 5
Comparison
6.C
Use historical reasoning to
explain relationships among pieces
of historical evidence.
Go to AP Classroom to assign the Personal Progress Check for Unit 5.
Review the results in class to identify and address any student misunderstandings.
UNIT AT A GLANCE
(cont’d)
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114AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
SAMPLE INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES
The sample activities on this page are optional and are oered to provide possible ways
to incorporate instructional approaches into the classroom. Teachers do not need to use
these activities and are free to alter or edit them. The examples below were developed in
partnership with teachers from the AP community to share ways that they approach teaching
some of the topics in this unit. Please refer to the Instructional Approaches section beginning
on p. 217 for more examples of activities and strategies.
Activity Topic Sample Activity
1
5.2 Making Connections
Write terms or concepts related to this topic’s thematic focus, GEO, on index cards, place
them in a box, and have students pick a card at random. Give students a few minutes to
gather and recall information about the term or concept and then pair students and ask
them to nd the connection between their terms or concepts. Finally, ask the pairs to write
a brief explanation of how the terms or concepts are related.
2
5.7 Debate
This topic takes students chronologically up to the breakdown of the Union in 1860–1861.
Thinking back over the previous units and topics in this unit, have students debate at what
point in time, or by which event, was the Civil War inevitable. Ask students to use evidence
and reasoning to support their claims.
3
5.8 Discussion Groups
Assign students to groups to discuss the learning objective for this topic, Explain the
various factors that contributed to the Union victory in the Civil War, with the view to help
them gain new understanding by hearing the views of their classmates. After discussion,
ask groups to present their conclusions on the factors and whether or not their groups
reached a consensus.
4
5.10,
5.11
Look for a Pattern
This activity bridges Topics 5.10 and 5.11. Present students with a series of data in various
forms relevant to these topics: population by state, registered voters by state, political
representation, land and type of ownership, and any other data relevant to Reconstruction.
Have students compare the data presented, identify trends, and draw conclusions about
how and why Reconstruction resulted in change and continuity regionally and nationally for
African Americans.
Unit Planning Notes
Use the space below to plan your approach to the unit. Consider how you want to pace the unit; which
specific historical figures, groups, or events you will use to illustrate the concepts noted in the historical
development statements; where you will incorporate writing assignments; and which primary and
secondary sources you will use.
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115AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
TOPIC 5.1
Contextualizing
Period 5
Spend a class period helping students understand some contexts for this unit. Considering
this unit’s key concepts (previewed below), select one or two for which your students will
most need context.
To understand context, your students could examine:
§ Change from and/or continuity with preceding historical developments.
§ Similarities and/or dierences with contemporaneous historical developments in dierent
regions or geographical areas.
Whenever possible, draw upon students’ relevant prior knowledge, and anchor this
contextualization lesson in historical source material of varying formats such as visuals,
data, or written texts, or conduct an activity that engages students in exploring context.
Required Course Content
LEARNING OBJECTIVE PREVIEW: UNIT 5 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 5: Learning Objective A
Explain the context in which
sectional conict emerged
from 1844 to 1877.
KC-5.1
The United States became more connected
with the world, pursued an expansionist
foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere, and
emerged as the destination for many migrants
from other countries.
KC-5.1.I
Popular enthusiasm for U.S. expansion,
bolstered by economic and security
interests, resulted in the acquisition of new
territories, substantial migration westward,
and new overseas initiatives.
KC-5.1.II
In the 1840s and 1850s, Americans
continued to debate questions about
rights and citizenship for various groups of
U.S. inhabitants.
continued on next page
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116AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.B
Explain how a specific
historical development or
process is situated within a
broader historical context.
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 5: Learning Objective A
Explain the context in which
sectional conict emerged
from 1844 to 1877.
PREVIEW: UNIT 5 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-5.2
Intensied by expansion and deepening
regional divisions, debates over slavery and
other economic, cultural, and political issues
led the nation into civil war.
KC-5.2.I
Ideological and economic dierences over
slavery produced an array of diverging
responses from Americans in the North and
the South.
KC-5.2.II
Debates over slavery came to dominate
political discussion in the 1850s,
culminating in the bitter election of 1860
and the secession of Southern states.
KC-5.3
The Union victory in the Civil War and the
contested reconstruction of the South settled
the issues of slavery and secession, but left
unresolved many questions about the power of
the federal government and citizenship rights.
KC-5.3.I
The North’s greater manpower and
industrial resources, the leadership of
Abraham Lincoln and others, and the
decision to emancipate slaves eventually
led to the Union military victory over the
Confederacy in the devastating Civil War.
KC-5.3.II.i
Reconstruction and the Civil War ended
slavery, altered relationships between
the states and the federal government,
and led to debates over new denitions
of citizenship, particularly regarding the
rights of African Americans, women, and
other minorities.
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117AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
TOPIC 5.2
Manifest Destiny
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Geography and the Environment
GEO
Geographic and environmental factors, including competition over and debates
about natural resources, shape the development of America and foster regional
diversity. The development of America impacts the environment and reshapes
geography, which leads to debates about environmental and geographic issues.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 5: Learning Objective B
Explain the causes and
eects of westward
expansion from 1844
to1877.
KC-5.1.I.A
The desire for access to natural and mineral
resources and the hope of many settlers for
economic opportunities or religious refuge led
to an increased migration to and settlement in
the West.
KC-5.1.I.B
Advocates of annexing western lands argued
that Manifest Destiny and the superiority of
American institutions compelled the United
States to expand its borders westward to the
Pacic Ocean.
KC-5.1.I.D
Westward migration was boosted during and
after the Civil War by the passage of new
legislation promoting western transportation
and economic development.
KC-5.1.I.E
U.S. interest in expanding trade led to
economic, diplomatic, and cultural initiatives to
create more ties with Asia.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Developments
and Processes
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
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118AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
TOPIC 5.3
The Mexican–American
War
Required Course Content
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119AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 5: Learning Objective C
Explain the causes and
eects of the Mexican–
American War.
KC-5.1.I.C
The United States added large territories
in the West through victory in the Mexican–
American War and diplomatic negotiations,
raising questions about the status of slavery,
American Indians, and Mexicans in the newly
acquired lands.
KC-5.1.II.C
U.S. government interaction and conict with
Mexican Americans and American Indians
increased in regions newly taken from
American Indians and Mexico, altering these
groups’ economic self-suciency and cultures.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.C
Compare the arguments or
main ideas of two sources.
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
TOPIC 5.4
The Compromise
of 1850
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and National Identity
NAT
The development of and debates about democracy, freedom, citizenship, diversity,
and individualism shape American national identity, cultural values, and beliefs about
American exceptionalism, and in turn, these ideas shape political institutions and
society. Throughout American history, notions of national identity and culture have
coexisted with varying degrees of regional and group identities.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 5: Learning Objective D
Explain the similarities and
dierences in how regional
attitudes aected federal
policy in the period after the
Mexican–American War.
KC-5.2.II.A
The Mexican Cession led to heated
controversies over whether to allow slavery in
the newly acquired territories.
KC-5.2.II.B.i
The courts and national leaders made a variety
of attempts to resolve the issue of slavery
in the territories, including the Compromise
of1850.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.B
Explain how a specific
historical development or
process is situated within a
broader historical context.
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120AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
TOPIC 5.5
Sectional Conict:
Regional Dierences
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and Regional Culture
ARC
Creative expression, demographic change, philosophy, religious beliefs, scientic
ideas, social mores, and technology shape national, regional, and group cultures in
America, and these varying cultures often play a role in shaping government policy
and developing economic systems.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 5: Learning Objective E
Explain the eects of
immigration from various
parts of the world on
American culture from 1844
to 1877.
KC-5.1.II.A
Substantial numbers of international migrants
continued to arrive in the United States from
Europe and Asia, mainly from Ireland and
Germany, often settling in ethnic communities
where they could preserve elements of their
languages and customs.
KC-5.1.II.B
A strongly anti-Catholic nativist movement
arose that was aimed at limiting new immigrants’
political power and cultural inuence.
continued on next page
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121AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience of a source.
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
THEMATIC FOCUS
Social Structures
SOC
Social categories, roles, and practices are created, maintained, challenged, and
transformed throughout American history, shaping government policy, economic
systems, culture, and the lives of citizens.
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122AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 5: Learning Objective F
Explain how regional
dierences related to slavery
caused tension in the years
leading up to the Civil War.
KC-5.2.I.A
The North’s expanding manufacturing economy
relied on free labor in contrast to the Southern
economy’s dependence on slave labor.
Some Northerners did not object to slavery
on principle but claimed that slavery would
undermine the free labor market. As a result,
a free-soil movement arose that portrayed
the expansion of slavery as incompatible with
freelabor.
KC-5.2.I.B
African American and white abolitionists,
although a minority in the North, mounted
a highly visible campaign against slavery,
presenting moral arguments against the
institution, assisting slaves’ escapes, and
sometimes expressing a willingness to use
violence to achieve their goals.
KC-5.2.I.C
Defenders of slavery based their arguments
on racial doctrines, the view that slavery was
a positive social good, and the belief that
slavery and states’ rights were protected by
the Constitution.
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
TOPIC 5.6
Failure of
Compromise
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 5: Learning Objective G
Explain the political causes of
the Civil War.
KC-5.2.II.B.ii
The courts and national leaders made a variety
of attempts to resolve the issue of slavery in
the territories, including the Kansas–Nebraska
Act, and the Dred Scott decision, but these
ultimately failed to reduce conict.
KC-5.2.II.C
The Second Party System ended when the
issues of slavery and anti-immigrant nativism
weakened loyalties to the two major parties
and fostered the emergence of sectional
parties, most notably the Republican Party in
the North.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process
relates to another historical
development or process.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ AP Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 5: 1844–1877,
Focus on Research
“The Coming of the
Civil War”
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123AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
TOPIC 5.7
Election of 1860
and Secession
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 5: Learning Objective H
Describe the eects of
Lincoln’s election.
KC-5.2.II.D
Abraham Lincoln’s victory on the Republicans’
free-soil platform in the presidential election of
1860 was accomplished without any Southern
electoral votes. After a series of contested
debates about secession, most slave states
voted to secede from the Union, precipitating
the Civil War.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.B
Explain how a specific
historical development or
process is situated within a
broader historical context.
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124AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
TOPIC 5.8
Military Conict
in the Civil War
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 5: Learning Objective I
Explain the various factors
that contributed to the Union
victory in the Civil War.
KC-5.3.I.A
Both the Union and the Confederacy mobilized
their economies and societies to wage the
war even while facing considerable home
front opposition.
KC-5.3.I.D
Although the Confederacy showed military
initiative and daring early in the war, the Union
ultimately succeeded due to improvements in
leadership and strategy, key victories, greater
resources, and the wartime destruction of the
South’s infrastructure.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.A
Identify patterns among
or connections between
historical developments
and processes.
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125AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
TOPIC 5.9
Government Policies
During the Civil War
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and National Identity
NAT
The development of and debates about democracy, freedom, citizenship, diversity,
and individualism shape American national identity, cultural values, and beliefs about
American exceptionalism, and in turn, these ideas shape political institutions and
society. Throughout American history, notions of national identity and culture have
coexisted with varying degrees of regional and group identities.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 5: Learning Objective J
Explain how Lincoln’s
leadership during the Civil
War impacted American
ideals over the course of
the war.
KC-5.3.I.B
Lincoln and most Union supporters began
the Civil War to preserve the Union, but
Lincoln’s decision to issue the Emancipation
Proclamation reframed the purpose of the
war and helped prevent the Confederacy from
gaining full diplomatic support from European
powers. Many African Americans ed southern
plantations and enlisted in the Union Army,
helping to undermine the Confederacy.
KC-5.3.I.C
Lincoln sought to reunify the country and
used speeches such as the Gettysburg
Address to portray the struggle against
slavery as the fulllment of America’s founding
democraticideals.
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126AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience of a source.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 5: 1844–1877,
Focus on Research
“Focus on
Emancipation”
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
TOPIC 5.10
Reconstruction
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 5: Learning Objective K
Explain the eects of
government policy during
Reconstruction on society
from 1865 to 1877.
KC-5.3.II.ii
Reconstruction altered relationships between
the states and the federal government and led
to debates over new denitions of citizenship,
particularly regarding the rights of African
Americans, women, and other minorities.
KC-5.3.II.A
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery,
while the 14th and 15th amendments granted
African Americans citizenship, equal protection
under the laws, and voting rights.
KC-5.3.II.B
The women’s rights movement was both
emboldened and divided over the 14th and
15th amendments to the Constitution.
KC-5.3.II.C
Eorts by radical and moderate Republicans to
change the balance of power between Congress
and the presidency and to reorder race relations
in the defeated South yielded some short-term
successes. Reconstruction opened up political
opportunities and other leadership roles to
former slaves, but it ultimately failed, due both to
determined Southern resistance and the North’s
waning resolve.
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127AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.D
Explain how claims or
evidence support, modify, or
refute a source’s argument.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES
§ Classroom Resources
> “Voting Rights
Since the Fifteenth
Amendment”
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 5: 1844–1877,
Focus on Research
“Interpretations of
Reconstruction”
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
TOPIC 5.11
Failure of
Reconstruction
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and National Identity
NAT
The development of and debates about democracy, freedom, citizenship, diversity,
and individualism shape American national identity, cultural values, and beliefs about
American exceptionalism, and in turn, these ideas shape political institutions and
society. Throughout American history, notions of national identity and culture have
coexisted with varying degrees of regional and group identities.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 5: Learning Objective L
Explain how and why
Reconstruction resulted
in continuity and change
in regional and national
understandings of what it
meant to be American.
KC-5.3.II.D
Southern plantation owners continued to
own the majority of the region’s land even
after Reconstruction. Former slaves sought
land ownership but generally fell short
of self-suciency, as an exploitative and
soil-intensive sharecropping system limited
blacks’ and poor whites’ access to land in
the South.
KC-5.3.II.E
Segregation, violence, Supreme Court
decisions, and local political tactics
progressively stripped away African American
rights, but the 14th and 15th amendments
eventually became the basis for court
decisions upholding civil rights in the
20th century.
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128AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.C
Compare the arguments or
main ideas of two sources.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Classroom Resources
> Essay from the
American Organization
of Historians and
AP (“The Civil War,
Emancipation, and
Reconstruction on the
World Stage”)
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
TOPIC 5.12
Comparison in
Period 5
The nal topic in this unit focuses on the skill of argumentation and so provides an
opportunity for your students to draw upon the key concepts and historical developments
they have studied in this unit. Using evidence relevant to this unit’s key concepts, students
should practice the suggested skill for this topic.
Required Course Content
LEARNING OBJECTIVE REVIEW: UNIT 5 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 5: Learning Objective M
Compare the relative
signicance of the
eects of the Civil War on
American values.
KC-5.1
The United States became more connected
with the world, pursued an expansionist
foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere, and
emerged as the destination for many migrants
from other countries.
KC-5.1.I
Popular enthusiasm for U.S. expansion,
bolstered by economic and security
interests, resulted in the acquisition of new
territories, substantial migration westward,
and new overseas initiatives.
KC-5.1.II
In the 1840s and 1850s, Americans
continued to debate questions about
rights and citizenship for various groups of
U.S. inhabitants.
continued on next page
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129AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Argumentation
6.C
Use historical reasoning
to explain relationships
among pieces of
historical evidence.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ External Resource
> Gilder Lehrman
Institute’s AP U.S.
History Study Guide
Period 5: 1844–1877
UNIT
5
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 5: Learning Objective M
Compare the relative
signicance of the
eects of the Civil War on
American values.
REVIEW: UNIT 5 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-5.2
Intensied by expansion and deepening
regional divisions, debates over slavery and
other economic, cultural, and political issues
led the nation into civil war.
KC-5.2.I
Ideological and economic dierences over
slavery produced an array of diverging
responses from Americans in the North and
the South.
KC-5.2.II
Debates over slavery came to dominate
political discussion in the 1850s,
culminating in the bitter election of 1860
and the secession of Southern states.
KC-5.3
The Union victory in the Civil War and the
contested reconstruction of the South settled
the issues of slavery and secession, but left
unresolved many questions about the power of
the federal government and citizenship rights.
KC-5.3.I
The North’s greater manpower and
industrial resources, the leadership of
Abraham Lincoln and others, and the
decision to emancipate slaves eventually
led to the Union military victory over the
Confederacy in the devastating Civil War.
KC-5.3.II.i
Reconstruction and the Civil War ended
slavery, altered relationships between
the states and the federal government,
and led to debates over new denitions
of citizenship, particularly regarding the
rights of African Americans, women, and
other minorities.
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130AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Remember to go to AP Classroom
to assign students the online
Personal Progress Check for
this unit.
Whether assigned as homework or
completed in class, the Personal
Progress Check provides each
student with immediate feedback
related to this unit’s topics and skills.
Personal Progress Check 6
Multiple-choice: ~35 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ No stimulus
§ Primary source
Free-response: 1 question
§ Document-based (partial)
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132AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
continued on next page
UNI
6
T
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133AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
10–17
%
AP EXAM WEIGHTING ~18 CLASS PERIODS
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT AT A GLANCE
c tiamThe
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~18 CLASS PERIODS
6.1 Contextualizing Period 6
Continuity and
Change
4.B
Explain how a specic historical
development or process is situated
within a broader historical context.
IGM
6.2 Westward Expansion:
Economic Development
Causation
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
6.3 Westward Expansion:
Social and Cultural
Development
Causation
3.C
Compare the arguments or main
ideas of two sources.
ATN
6.4 The “New South”
Continuity and
Change
2.C
Explain the signicance of a
source’s point of view, purpose,
historical situation, and/or audience,
including how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
XTW
6.5 Technological
Innovation
Causation
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process
relates to another historical
development or process.
6.6 The Rise of
Industrial Capitalism
Continuity and
Change
4.B
Explain how a specic historical
development or process is situated
within a broader historical context.
6.7 Labor in the Gilded Age
Continuity and
Change
6.C
Use historical reasoning to
explain relationships among pieces
of historical evidence.
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
Thematic
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~18 CLASS PERIODS
IGM
6.8 Immigration and
Migration in the
Gilded Age
Continuity and
Change
3.C
Compare the arguments or main
ideas of two sources.
6.9 Responses to
Immigration
in the Gilded Age
Comparison
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process relates
to another historical development
or process.
CSO
6.10 Development of the
Middle Class
Causation
4.B
Explain how a specic historical
development or process is situated
within a broader historical context.
6.11 Reform in the
Gilded Age
Causation
2.C
Explain the signicance of a
source’s point of view, purpose,
historical situation, and/or audience,
including how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
PCE
6.12 Controversies over the
Role of Government in
the Gilded Age
Continuity and
Change
4.B
Explain how a specic historical
development or process is situated
within a broader historical context.
6.13 Politics in the
Gilded Age
Comparison
3.D
Explain how claims or evidence
support, modify, or refute a
source’s argument.
6.14 Continuity and Change
in Period 6
Continuity and
Change
6.D
Corroborate, qualify, or modify
an argument using diverse and
alternative evidence in order to
develop a complex argument. This
argument might:
§ Explain nuance of an issue by
analyzing multiple variables.
§ Explain relevant and insightful
connections within and
across periods.
§ Explain the relative historical
signicance of a source’s
credibility and limitations.
§ Explain how or why a historical
claim or argument is or is
not eective.
Go to AP Classroom to assign the Personal Progress Check for Unit 6.
Review the results in class to identify and address any student misunderstandings.
UNIT AT A GLANCE
(cont’d)
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134AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
SAMPLE INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES
The sample activities on this page are optional and are oered to provide possible ways
to incorporate instructional approaches into the classroom. Teachers do not need to use
these activities and are free to alter or edit them. The examples below were developed in
partnership with teachers from the AP community to share ways that they approach teaching
some of the topics in this unit. Please refer to the Instructional Approaches section beginning
on p. 217 for more examples of activities and strategies.
Activity Topic Sample Activity
1
6.2, 6.3 Think-Pair-Share
Topics 6.2 and 6.3 share the same learning objective, Explain the causes and eects of
the settlement of the West from 1877 to 1898. Give students practice with the reasoning
process of causation by having them use think-pair-share to come up with these causes and
eects and then grouping them into like categories, such as transportation or technology.
2
6.4 Close Reading
Regional identities are a challenging topic for students in this course. Ask students to read
excerpts from Henry Grady speeches, such as his address to the Bay State Club of Boston
in 1889, and have them highlight relevant words and passages that support the author’s
claim. Ask students how the address tackles economic and social issues related to the
“New South.”
3
6.8 Create Representations
Ask students to collect information on the “new” immigrants of the late 19th century. They might
research numbers of immigrants, countries of origin, demographics, and settlement locations in
the U.S. Ask them to create an infographic for one of the “new” immigrant groups from this time
period using widely available free internet resources. Have students share their infographics
with the whole group and discuss the factors that aected migration patterns over time.
4
6.13 Debrieng
This topic contains several complex economic and political issues, such as taris and currency
and government regulation, that teachers can lead students through a debrief on to ensure
understanding of these issues, individually and collectively, in relation to the time period.
Unit Planning Notes
Use the space below to plan your approach to the unit. Consider how you want to pace the unit; which
specific historical figures, groups, or events you will use to illustrate the concepts noted in the historical
development statements; where you will incorporate writing assignments; and which primary and
secondary sources you will use.
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135AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
TOPIC 6.1
Contextualizing
Period 6
continued on next page
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136AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Spend a class period helping students understand some contexts for this unit. Considering
this unit’s key concepts (previewed below), select one or two for which your students will
most need context.
To understand context, your students could examine:
§ Change from and/or continuity with preceding historical developments.
§ Similarities and/or dierences with contemporaneous historical developments in dierent
regions or geographical areas.
Whenever possible, draw upon students’ relevant prior knowledge, and anchor this
contextualization lesson in historical source material of varying formats such as visuals,
data, or written texts, or conduct an activity that engages students in exploring context.
Required Course Content
LEARNING OBJECTIVE PREVIEW: UNIT 6 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 6: Learning Objective A
Explain the historical
context for the rise of
industrial capitalism in the
UnitedStates.
KC-6.1
Technological advances, large-scale
production methods, and the opening of new
markets encouraged the rise of industrial
capitalism in the United States.
KC-6.1.I
Large-scale industrial production—
accompanied by massive technological
change, expanding international
communication networks, and pro-growth
government policies—generated
rapid economic development and
business consolidation.
KC-6.1.II
A variety of perspectives on the economy
and labor developed during a time of
nancial panics and downturns.
KC-6.1.III
New systems of production and
transportation enabled consolidation within
agriculture, which, along with periods of
instability, spurred a variety of responses
from farmers.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.B
Explain how a specific
historical development or
process is situated within a
broader historical context.
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
PREVIEW: UNIT 6 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-6.2
The migrations that accompanied
industrialization transformed both urban and
rural areas of the United States and caused
dramatic social and cultural change.
KC-6.2.I
International and internal migration
increased urban populations and fostered
the growth of a new urban culture.
KC-6.2.II
Larger numbers of migrants moved to
the West in search of land and economic
opportunity, frequently provoking
competition and violent conict.
KC-6.3
The Gilded Age produced new cultural and
intellectual movements, public reform eorts,
and political debates over economic and
social policies.
KC-6.3.I
New cultural and intellectual movements
both buttressed and challenged the social
order of the Gilded Age.
KC-6.3.II
Dramatic social changes in the period
inspired political debates over citizenship,
corruption, and the proper relationship
between business and government.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 6: Learning Objective A
Explain the historical
context for the rise of
industrial capitalism in the
UnitedStates.
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137AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
TOPIC 6.2
Westward Expansion:
Economic Development
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Migration and Settlement
MIG
Push and pull factors shape immigration to and migration within America, and the
demographic change as a result of these moves shapes the migrants, society, and
the environment.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 6: Learning Objective B
Explain the causes and
eects of the settlement of
the West from 1877 to 1898.
KC-6.1.III.A
Improvements in mechanization helped
agricultural production increase substantially
and contributed to declines in food prices.
KC-6.1.III.B
Many farmers responded to the increasing
consolidation in agricultural markets and
their dependence on the evolving railroad
system by creating local and regional
cooperative organizations.
KC-6.1.I.A
Following the Civil War, government subsidies
for transportation and communication systems
helped open new markets in North America.
KC-6.2.II.A
The building of transcontinental railroads,
the discovery of mineral resources, and
government policies promoted economic
growth and created new communities and
centers of commercial activity.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Developments
and Processes
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
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138AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
TOPIC 6.3
Westward Expansion:
Social and Cultural
Development
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Migration and Settlement
MIG
Push and pull factors shape immigration to and migration within America, and the
demographic change as a result of these moves shapes the migrants, society, and
the environment.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 6: Learning Objective B
Explain the causes and eects
of the settlement of the West
from 1877 to 1898.
KC-6.2.II.B
In hopes of achieving ideals of self-suciency
and independence, migrants moved to both
rural and boomtown areas of the West for
opportunities, such as building the railroads,
mining, farming, and ranching.
KC-6.2.II.C
As migrant populations increased in number
and the American bison population was
decimated, competition for land and resources
in the West among white settlers, American
Indians, and Mexican Americans led to an
increase in violent conict.
KC-6.2.II.D
The U.S. government violated treaties with
American Indians and responded to resistance
with military force, eventually conning
American Indians to reservations and denying
tribal sovereignty.
KC-6.2.II.E
Many American Indians preserved their
cultures and tribal identities despite
government policies promoting assimilation,
and they attempted to develop self-sustaining
economic practices.
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139AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.C
Compare the arguments or
main ideas of two sources.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES
§ External Resource
> Smithsonian
Education: Artifact &
Analysis
§ AP Classroom Resource
> “Critical
Interpretation of
Images and the AP
History Classroom”
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
TOPIC 6.4
The “New South”
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and National Identity
NAT
The development of and debates about democracy, freedom, citizenship, diversity,
and individualism shape American national identity, cultural values, and beliefs about
American exceptionalism, and in turn, these ideas shape political institutions and
society. Throughout American history, notions of national identity and culture have
coexisted with varying degrees of regional and group identities.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 6: Learning Objective C
Explain how various factors
contributed to continuity and
change in the “New South”
from 1877 to 1898.
KC-6.1.II.D
Despite the industrialization of some segments
of the Southern economy—a change promoted
by Southern leaders who called for a “New
South”—agriculture based on sharecropping
and tenant farming continued to be the primary
economic activity in the South.
KC-6.3.II.C
The Supreme Court decision in Plessy v.
Ferguson that upheld racial segregation
helped to mark the end of most of the
political gains African Americans made during
Reconstruction. Facing increased violence,
discrimination, and scientic theories of race,
African American reformers continued to
ght for political and social equality.
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140AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.C
Explain the significance of
a source’s point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience, including
how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
TOPIC 6.5
Technological
Innovation
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Work, Exchange, and Technology
WXT
The interplay between markets, private enterprise, labor, technology, and
government policy shape the American economy. In turn, economic activity shapes
society and government policy and drives technological innovation.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 6: Learning Objective D
Explain the eects of
technological advances
in the development of the
United States over time.
KC-6.1.I.B.i
Businesses made use of technological
innovations and greater access to natural
resources to dramatically increase the
production of goods.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process
relates to another historical
development or process.
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141AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
TOPIC 6.6
The Rise of Industrial
Capitalism
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Work, Exchange, and Technology
WXT
The interplay between markets, private enterprise, labor, technology, and
government policy shape the American economy. In turn, economic activity shapes
society and government policy and drives technological innovation.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 6: Learning Objective E
Explain the socioeconomic
continuities and changes
associated with the growth
of industrial capitalism from
1865 to 1898.
KC-6.1.I
Large-scale industrial production—
accompanied by massive technological
change, expanding international
communication networks, pro-growth
government policies—generated rapid
economic development and business
consolidation.
KC-6.1.I.B.ii
Businesses made use of redesigned nancial
and management structures, advances
in marketing, and a growing labor force to
dramatically increase the production of goods.
KC-6.1.I.D
Many business leaders sought increased
prots by consolidating corporations into large
trusts and holding companies, which further
concentrated wealth.
KC-6.1.I.E.i
Businesses increasingly looked outside U.S.
borders in an eort to gain greater inuence
and control over markets and natural resources
in the Pacic Rim, Asia, and Latin America.
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142AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.B
Explain how a specific
historical development or
process is situated within a
broader historical context.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 6: 1865–1898,
Focus on Research
“Industrialization”
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
TOPIC 6.7
Labor in the
Gilded Age
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Work, Exchange, and Technology
WXT
The interplay between markets, private enterprise, labor, technology, and
government policy shape the American economy. In turn, economic activity shapes
society and government policy and drives technological innovation.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 6: Learning Objective E
Explain the socioeconomic
continuities and changes
associated with the growth
of industrial capitalism from
1865 to 1898.
KC-6.1.I.C
As the price of many goods decreased,
workers’ real wages increased, providing new
access to a variety of goods and services;
many Americans’ standards of living improved,
while the gap between rich and poor grew.
KC-6.1.II.C
Labor and management battled over wages
and working conditions, with workers
organizing local and national unions and/or
directly confronting business leaders.
KC-6.1.II.B.i
The industrial workforce expanded and child
labor increased.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Argumentation
6.C
Use historical reasoning
to explain relationships
among pieces of
historical evidence.
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143AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
TOPIC 6.8
Immigration and
Migration in the
Gilded Age
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Migration and Settlement
MIG
Push and pull factors shape immigration to and migration within America, and the
demographic change as a result of these moves shapes the migrants, society, and
the environment.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 6: Learning Objective F
Explain how cultural and
economic factors aected
migration patterns over time.
KC-6.1.II.B.ii
The industrial workforce expanded and
became more diverse through internal and
international migration.
KC-6.2.I.A
As cities became areas of economic growth
featuring new factories and businesses, they
attracted immigrants from Asia and southern
and eastern Europe, as well as African American
migrants within and out of the South. Many
migrants moved to escape poverty, religious
persecution, and limited opportunities for social
mobility in their home countries or regions.
KC-6.2.I.B
Urban neighborhoods based on particular
ethnicities, races, and classes provided new
cultural opportunities for city dwellers.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.C
Compare the arguments or
main ideas of two sources.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES
§ Classroom Resources
> AP U.S. History:
Urbanization
§ Classroom Resources
> Essay from the
American Organization
of Historians and AP
(“Driven to the City:
Urbanization and
Industrialization in the
19th Century”)
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144AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
TOPIC 6.9
Responses to
Immigration in
the Gilded Age
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Migration and Settlement
MIG
Push and pull factors shape immigration to and migration within America, and the
demographic change as a result of these moves shapes the migrants, society, and
the environment.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 6: Learning Objective G
Explain the various responses
to immigration in the period
over time.
KC-6.2.I.C
Increasing public debates over assimilation
and Americanization accompanied the growth
of international migration. Many immigrants
negotiated compromises between the cultures
they brought and the culture they found in the
United States.
KC-6.3.I.A
Social commentators advocated theories
later described as Social Darwinism to
justify the success of those at the top of the
socioeconomic structure as both appropriate
and inevitable.
KC-6.3.II.B.i
Many women, like Jane Addams, worked in
settlement houses to help immigrants adapt to
U.S. language and customs.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process
relates to another historical
development or process.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Classroom Resources
> Essay from the
American Organization
of Historians and AP
(“Crossing National
Borders: Locating
the US in Migration
History”)
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145AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
TOPIC 6.10
Development of
the Middle Class
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Social Structures
SOC
Social categories, roles, and practices are created, maintained, challenged, and
transformed throughout American history, shaping government policy, economic
systems, culture, and the lives of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 6: Learning Objective H
Explain the causes of
increased economic
opportunity and its eects
on society.
KC-6.2.I.E
Corporations’ need for managers and for
male and female clerical workers, as well as
increased access to educational institutions,
fostered the growth of a distinctive middle
class. A growing amount of leisure time also
helped expand consumer culture.
KC-6.3.I.B
Some business leaders argued that the
wealthy had a moral obligation to help the less
fortunate and improve society, as articulated
in the idea known as the Gospel of Wealth,
and they made philanthropic contributions
that enhanced educational opportunities and
urban environments.
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146AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.B
Explain how a specific
historical development or
process is situated within a
broader historical context.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 6: 1865–1989,
Focus on Research
“Cultural and
Social Changes”
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
TOPIC 6.11
Reform in the
Gilded Age
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Social Structures
SOC
Social categories, roles, and practices are created, maintained, challenged, and
transformed throughout American history, shaping government policy, economic
systems, culture, and the lives of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 6: Learning Objective I
Explain how dierent reform
movements responded to the
rise of industrial capitalism in
the Gilded Age.
KC-6.3.I.C
A number of artists and critics, including
agrarians, utopians, socialists, and advocates
of the Social Gospel, championed alternative
visions for the economy and U.S. society.
KC-6.3.II.B.ii
Many women sought greater equality with
men, often joining voluntary organizations,
going to college, and promoting social and
politicalreform.
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147AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.C
Explain the significance of
a source’s point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience, including
how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Classroom Resources
> What Is Gender
History?
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
TOPIC 6.12
Controversies over the
Role of Government
in the Gilded Age
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 6: Learning Objective J
Explain continuities and
changes in the role of
the government in the
U.S. economy.
KC-6.1.II.A
Some argued that laissez-faire policies and
competition promoted economic growth in
the long run, and they opposed government
intervention during economic downturns.
KC-6.1.I.E.ii
Foreign policymakers increasingly looked
outside U.S. borders in an eort to gain
greater inuence and control over markets
and natural resources in the Pacic Rim,
Asia, and Latin America.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.B
Explain how a specific
historical development or
process is situated within a
broader historical context.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 6: 1865–1898,
Focus on Research
“Government Power”
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148AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
TOPIC 6.13
Politics in
the Gilded Age
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 6: Learning Objective K
Explain the similarities and
dierences between the
political parties during the
Gilded Age.
KC-6.1.III.C
Economic instability inspired agrarian activists
to create the People’s (Populist) Party, which
called for a stronger governmental role in
regulating the American economic system.
KC-6.3.II.A
The major political parties appealed to lingering
divisions from the Civil War and contended over
taris and currency issues, even as reformers
argued that economic greed and self-interest
had corrupted all levels of government.
KC-6.2.I.D
In an urban atmosphere where the access
to power was unequally distributed, political
machines thrived, in part by providing
immigrants and the poor with social services.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.D
Explain how claims or
evidence support, modify, or
refute a source’s argument.
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149AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
TOPIC 6.14
Continuity and
Change Period 6
The nal topic in this unit focuses on the skill of argumentation and so provides an
opportunity for your students to draw upon the key concepts and historical developments
they have studied in this unit. Using evidence relevant to this unit’s key concepts, students
should practice the suggested skill for this topic.
Required Course Content
LEARNING OBJECTIVE REVIEW: UNIT 6 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 6: Learning Objective L
Explain the extent to which
industrialization brought
change from 1865 to 1898.
KC-6.1
Technological advances, large-scale
production methods, and the opening of new
markets encouraged the rise of industrial
capitalism in the United States.
KC-6.1.I
Large-scale industrial production—
accompanied by massive technological
change, expanding international
communication networks, and pro-growth
government policies—generated
rapid economic development and
business consolidation.
KC-6.1.II
A variety of perspectives on the economy
and labor developed during a time of
nancial panics and downturns.
KC-6.1.III
New systems of production and
transportation enabled consolidation within
agriculture, which, along with periods of
instability, spurred a variety of responses
from farmers.
continued on next page
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150AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Argumentation
6.D
Corroborate, qualify, or
modify an argument using
diverse and alternative
evidence in order to develop
a complex argument. This
argument might:
§ Explain nuance of an
issue by analyzing
multiple variables.
§ Explain relevant
and insightful
connections within and
across periods.
§ Explain the relative
historical signicance
of a source’s credibility
and limitations.
§ Explain how or why
a historical claim
or argument is or is
not eective.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES
§ External Resource
> Gilder Lehrman
Institute’s AP U.S.
History Study Guide
§ Classroom Resource
> Essay from the
American Organization
of Historians and AP
(“Race and Citizenship”)
Period 6: 1865–1898
UNIT
6
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 6: Learning Objective L
Explain the extent to which
industrialization brought
change from 1865 to 1898.
REVIEW: UNIT 6 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-6.2
The migrations that accompanied
industrialization transformed both urban and
rural areas of the United States and caused
dramatic social and cultural change.
KC-6.2.I
International and internal migration
increased urban populations and fostered
the growth of a new urban culture.
KC-6.2.II
Larger numbers of migrants moved to
the West in search of land and economic
opportunity, frequently provoking
competition and violent conict.
KC-6.3
The Gilded Age produced new cultural and
intellectual movements, public reform eorts,
and political debates over economic and
social policies.
KC-6.3.I
New cultural and intellectual movements
both buttressed and challenged the social
order of the Gilded Age.
KC-6.3.II
Dramatic social changes in the period
inspired political debates over citizenship,
corruption, and the proper relationship
between business and government.
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151AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
Remember to go to AP Classroom
to assign students the online
Personal Progress Check for
this unit.
Whether assigned as homework or
completed in class, the Personal
Progress Check provides each
student with immediate feedback
related to this unit’s topics and skills.
Personal Progress Check 7
Multiple-choice: ~40 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ Secondary source
§ No stimulus
Free-response: 1 question
§ Document-based
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154AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
continued on next page
UNI
7
T
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155AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
10–17
%
AP EXAM WEIGHTING ~21 CLASS PERIODS
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT AT A GLANCE
ctiamThe
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~21 CLASS PERIODS
7.1 Contextualizing Period 7
Continuity and
Change
4.B
Explain how a specic historical
development or process is situated
within a broader historical context.
RWO
7.2 Imperialism: Debates
Comparison
2.C
Explain the signicance of a
source’s point of view, purpose,
historical situation, and/or audience,
including how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
7.3 The Spanish–American
War
Causation
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation, and/or
audience of a source.
, PCE
GEO
7.4 The Progressives
Comparison
2.C
Explain the signicance of a
source’s point of view, purpose,
historical situation, and/or audience,
including how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
RWO
7.5 World War I:
Military and Diplomacy
Causation
2.C
Explain the signicance of a
source’s point of view, purpose,
historical situation, and/or audience,
including how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
IGM
7.6 World War I: Home Front
Causation
3.D
Explain how claims or evidence
support, modify, or refute a
source’s argument.
XTW
7.7 1920s: Innovations in
Communication and
Technology
Causation
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process relates
to another historical development
or process.
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
Thematic
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~21 CLASS PERIODS
, G
RC
MI
A
7.8 1920s: Cultural and
Political Controversies
Causation
4.B
Explain how a specic historical
development or process is situated
within a broader historical context.
XTW
7.9 The Great Depression
Causation
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process relates
to another historical development
or process.
PCE
7.10 The New Deal
Continuity and
Change
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process relates
to another historical development
or process.
RWO
7.11 Interwar Foreign Policy
Comparison
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
CSO
7.12 World War II:
Mobilization
Causation
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
RWO
7.13 World War II: Military
Causation
6.C
Use historical reasoning to
explain relationships among pieces
of historical evidence.
7.14 Postwar Diplomacy
Causation
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation, and/or
audience of a source.
7.15 Comparison in Period 7
Comparison
6.D
Corroborate, qualify, or modify
an argument using diverse and
alternative evidence in order to
develop a complex argument. This
argument might:
§ Explain nuance of an issue by
analyzing multiple variables.
§ Explain relevant and insightful
connections within and
across periods.
§ Explain the relative historical
signicance of a source’s
credibility and limitations.
§ Explain how or why a historical
claim or argument is or is
not eective.
Go to AP Classroom to assign the Personal Progress Check for Unit 7.
Review the results in class to identify and address any student misunderstandings.
UNIT AT A GLANCE
(cont’d)
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156AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
SAMPLE INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES
The sample activities on this page are optional and are oered to provide possible ways
to incorporate instructional approaches into the classroom. Teachers do not need to use
these activities and are free to alter or edit them. The examples below were developed in
partnership with teachers from the AP community to share ways that they approach teaching
some of the topics in this unit. Please refer to the Instructional Approaches section beginning
on p. 217 for more examples of activities and strategies.
Activity Topic Sample Activity
1
7.5, 7.6 Socratic Seminar
A Socratic seminar on World War I combines both Topics 7.5 and 7.6. Use the question
How was America transformed by conict? to initiate a discussion in which students can
illustrate their understanding of all the learning objectives and historical developments in
these topics.
2
7.10 Jigsaw
This strategy can be used to facilitate understanding of the various objectives and
accomplishments of the New Deal. Have students read and analyze primary and secondary
sources related to the relief, recovery, and reform eorts of the New Deal.
3
7.14 Discussion Groups
Assign students to groups to discuss the learning objective for this topic, Explain the
consequences of U.S. involvement in World War II, with the view to help them gain new
understanding by hearing the views of their classmates.
Unit Planning Notes
Use the space below to plan your approach to the unit. Consider how you want to pace the unit; which
specific historical figures, groups, or events you will use to illustrate the concepts noted in the historical
development statements; where you will incorporate writing assignments; and which primary and
secondary sources you will use.
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157AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
TOPIC 7.1
Contextualizing
Period 7
continued on next page
Spend a class period helping students understand some contexts for this unit. Considering
this unit’s key concepts (previewed below), select one or two for which your students will
most need context.
To understand context, your students could examine:
§ Change from and/or continuity with preceding historical developments.
§ Similarities and/or dierences with contemporaneous historical developments in dierent
regions or geographical areas.
Whenever possible, draw upon students’ relevant prior knowledge, and anchor this
contextualization lesson in historical source material of varying formats such as visuals,
data, or written texts, or conduct an activity that engages students in exploring context.
Required Course Content
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158AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
LEARNING OBJECTIVE PREVIEW: UNIT 7 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective A
Explain the context in which
America grew into its role as
a world power.
KC-7.1
Growth expanded opportunity, while economic
instability led to new eorts to reform U.S.
society and its economic system.
KC-7.1.I
The United States continued its transition
from a rural, agricultural economy to an urban,
industrial economy led by large companies.
KC-7.1.II
In the Progressive Era of the early
20th century, Progressives responded to
political corruption, economic instability,
and social concerns by calling for greater
government action and other political and
social measures.
KC-7.1.III
During the 1930s, policymakers responded
to the mass unemployment and social
upheavals of the Great Depression by
transforming the U.S. into a limited welfare
state, redening the goals and ideas of
modern American liberalism.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.B
Explain how a specific
historical development or
process is situated within a
broader historical context.
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
PREVIEW: UNIT 7 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-7.2
Innovations in communications and technology
contributed to the growth of mass culture,
while signicant changes occurred in internal
and international migration patterns.
KC-7.2.I
Popular culture grew in inuence in U.S.
society, even as debates increased over the
eects of culture on public values, morals,
and American national identity.
KC-7.2.II
Economic pressures, global events, and
political developments caused sharp
variations in the numbers, sources, and
experiences of both international and
internal migrants.
KC-7.3
Participation in a series of global conicts
propelled the United States into a position of
international power while renewing domestic
debates over the nation’s proper role in
the world.
KC-7.3.I
In the late 19th century and early
20th century, new U.S. territorial ambitions
and acquisitions in the Western Hemisphere
and the Pacic accompanied heightened
public debates over America’s role in
the world.
KC-7.3.II
World War I and its aftermath intensied
ongoing debates about the nation’s role in
the world and how best to achieve national
security and pursue American interests.
KC-7.3.III
U.S. participation in World War II transformed
American society, while the victory of the
United States and its allies over the Axis
powers vaulted the U.S. into a position of
global, political, and military leadership.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 7: Learning Objective A
Explain the context in which
America grew into its role as
a world power.
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159AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
TOPIC 7.2
Imperialism: Debates
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective B
Explain the similarities and
dierences in attitudes about
the nation’s proper role in
theworld.
KC-7.3.I.A
Imperialists cited economic opportunities,
racial theories, competition with European
empires, and the perception in the 1890s that
the western frontier was “closed” to argue
that Americans were destined to expand their
culture and institutions to peoples around
theglobe.
KC-7.3.I.B
Anti-imperialists cited principles of
self-determination and invoked both racial
theories and the U.S. foreign policy tradition
of isolationism to argue that the United States
should not extend its territory overseas.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.C
Explain the significance of
a source’s point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience, including
how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
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160AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
TOPIC 7.3
The Spanish–American
War
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective C
Explain the eects of the
Spanish–American War.
KC-7.3.I.C
The American victory in the Spanish–American
War led to the U.S. acquisition of island
territories in the Caribbean and the Pacic,
an increase in involvement in Asia, and the
suppression of a nationalist movement in
the Philippines.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience of a source.
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161AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
TOPIC 7.4
The Progressives
Required Course Content
continued on next page
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162AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective D
Compare the goals and
eects of the Progressive
reform movement.
KC-7.1.II.A
Some Progressive Era journalists attacked
what they saw as political corruption, social
injustice, and economic inequality, while
reformers, often from the middle and upper
classes and including many women, worked
to eect social changes in cities and among
immigrant populations.
KC-7.1.II.D
The Progressives were divided over many
issues. Some Progressives supported
Southern segregation, while others ignored
its presence. Some Progressives advocated
expanding popular participation in government,
while others called for greater reliance on
professional and technical experts to make
government more ecient. Progressives also
disagreed about immigration restriction.
KC-7.1.II.B
On the national level, Progressives sought
federal legislation that they believed would
eectively regulate the economy, expand
democracy, and generate moral reform.
Progressive amendments to the Constitution
dealt with issues such as prohibition and
women’s surage.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.C
Explain the significance of
a source’s point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience, including
how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 7: 1890–1945,
Focus on Research
“Politicians and
Reformers”
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
THEMATIC FOCUS
Geography and the Environment
GEO
Geographic and environmental factors, including competition over and debates
about natural resources, shape the development of America and foster regional
diversity. The development of America impacts the environment and reshapes
geography, which leads to debates about environmental and geographic issues.
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163AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective E
Compare attitudes toward
the use of natural resources
from 1890 to 1945.
KC-7.1.II.C
Preservationists and conservationists both
supported the establishment of national
parks while advocating dierent government
responses to the overuse of natural resources.
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
TOPIC 7.5
World War I:
Military and Diplomacy
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective F
Explain the causes and
consequences of U.S.
involvement in World War I.
KC-7.3.II.A
After initial neutrality in World War I, the nation
entered the conict, departing from the U.S.
foreign policy tradition of noninvolvement in
European aairs, in response to Woodrow
Wilson’s call for the defense of humanitarian
and democratic principles.
KC-7.3.II.B
Although the American Expeditionary Forces
played a relatively limited role in combat, the
United States’ entry helped to tip the balance
of the conict in favor of the Allies.
KC-7.3.II.C
Despite Wilson’s deep involvement in postwar
negotiations, the U.S. Senate refused to ratify
the Treaty of Versailles or join the League
of Nations.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.C
Explain the significance of
a source’s point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience, including
how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
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164AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
TOPIC 7.6
World War I:
Home Front
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Migration and Settlement
MIG
Push and pull factors shape immigration to and migration within America, and the
demographic change as a result of these moves shapes the migrants, society, and
the environment.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective G
Explain the causes and
eects of international and
internal migration patterns
over time.
KC-7.2.I.C
Ocial restrictions on freedom of speech grew
during World War I, as increased anxiety about
radicalism led to a Red Scare and attacks on
labor activism and immigrant culture.
KC-7.2.II.A.i
Immigration from Europe reached its peak in
the years before World War I. During World
War I, nativist campaigns against some
ethnic groups led to the passage of quotas
that restricted immigration, particularly from
southern and eastern Europe, and increased
barriers to Asian immigration.
KC-7.2.II.B.i
The increased demand for war production and
labor during World War I led many Americans
to migrate to urban centers in search of
economic opportunities.
KC-7.2.II.C
In the Great Migration during and after World
War I, African Americans escaping segregation,
racial violence, and limited economic
opportunity in the South moved to the North
and West, where they found new opportunities
but still encountered discrimination.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.D
Explain how claims or
evidence support, modify, or
refute a source’s argument.
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165AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
TOPIC 7.7
1920s: Innovations in
Communication and
Technology
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Work, Exchange, and Technology
WXT
The interplay between markets, private enterprise, labor, technology, and
government policy shape the American economy. In turn, economic activity shapes
society and government policy and drives technological innovation.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective H
Explain the causes and
eects of the innovations
in communication and
technology in the United
States over time.
KC-7.1.I.A
New technologies and manufacturing
techniques helped focus the U.S. economy
on the production of consumer goods,
contributing to improved standards of
living, greater personal mobility, and better
communications systems.
KC-7.2.I.A
New forms of mass media, such as radio and
cinema, contributed to the spread of national
culture as well as greater awareness of
regional cultures.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process
relates to another historical
development or process.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Classroom Resources
> Lesson Plans for
AP U.S. History:
The Automobile in
American Life
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166AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
TOPIC 7.8
1920s: Cultural and
Political Controversies
Required Course Content
continued on next page
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167AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THEMATIC FOCUS
Migration and Settlement
MIG
Push and pull factors shape immigration to and migration within America, and the
demographic change as a result of these moves shapes the migrants, society, and
the environment.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective G
Explain the causes and
eects of international and
internal migration patterns
over time.
KC-7.1.I.B
By 1920, a majority of the U.S. population lived
in urban centers, which oered new economic
opportunities for women, international
migrants, and internal migrants.
KC-7.2.II.A.ii
After World War I, nativist campaigns against
some ethnic groups led to the passage of
quotas that restricted immigration, particularly
from southern and eastern Europe, and
increased barriers to Asian immigration.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.B
Explain how a specific
historical development or
process is situated within a
broader historical context.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Classroom Resources
> Lesson Plans for AP
U.S. History: Consumer
Culture and the 1920s
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and Regional Culture
ARC
Creative expression, demographic change, philosophy, religious beliefs, scientic
ideas, social mores, and technology shape national, regional, and group cultures in
America, and these varying cultures often play a role in shaping government policy
and developing economic systems.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective I
Explain the causes and
eects of developments in
popular culture in the United
States over time.
KC-7.2.I.B
Migration gave rise to new forms of art
and literature that expressed ethnic and
regional identities, such as the Harlem
Renaissance movement.
KC-7.2.I.D
In the 1920s, cultural and political
controversies emerged as Americans debated
gender roles, modernism, science, religion, and
issues related to race and immigration.
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168AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
TOPIC 7.9
The Great Depression
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Work, Exchange, and Technology
WXT
The interplay between markets, private enterprise, labor, technology, and
government policy shape the American economy. In turn, economic activity shapes
society and government policy and drives technological innovation.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective J
Explain the causes of the
Great Depression and its
eects on the economy.
KC-7.1.I
The United States continued its transition
from a rural, agricultural economy to an urban,
industrial economy led by large companies.
KC-7.1.I.C
Episodes of credit and market instability in
the early 20th century, in particular the Great
Depression, led to calls for a stronger nancial
regulatory system.
KC-7.1.III
During the 1930s, policymakers responded to
the mass unemployment and social upheavals
of the Great Depression by transforming the
U.S. into a limited welfare state, redening the
goals and ideas of modern American liberalism.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process
relates to another historical
development or process.
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169AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
TOPIC 7.10
The New Deal
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective K
Explain how the Great
Depression and the New Deal
impacted American political,
social, and economic life
overtime.
KC-7.1.III.A
Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal attempted to
end the Great Depression by using government
power to provide relief to the poor, stimulate
recovery, and reform the American economy.
KC-7.1.III.B
Radical, union, and populist movements
pushed Roosevelt toward more extensive
eorts to change the American economic
system, while conservatives in Congress and
the Supreme Court sought to limit the New
Deal’s scope.
KC-7.1.III.C
Although the New Deal did not end the
Depression, it left a legacy of reforms and
regulatory agencies and fostered a long-term
political realignment in which many ethnic
groups, African Americans, and working-
class communities identied with the
DemocraticParty.
KC-7.2.II.B.ii
The increased demand for war production and
labor during World War II and the economic
diculties of the 1930s led many Americans
to migrate to urban centers in search of
economic opportunities.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process
relates to another historical
development or process.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 7: 1890–1945,
Focus on Research
“Evolution of Industrial
Capitalism”
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170AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
TOPIC 7.11
Interwar Foreign Policy
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective B
Explain the similarities and
dierences in attitudes about
the nation’s proper role in
the world.
KC-7.3.II.D
In the years following World War I, the United
States pursued a unilateral foreign policy that
used international investment, peace treaties,
and select military intervention to promote
a vision of international order, even while
maintaining U.S. isolationism.
KC-7.3.II.E
In the 1930s, while many Americans were
concerned about the rise of fascism and
totalitarianism, most opposed taking military
action against the aggression of Nazi Germany
and Japan until the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor drew the United States into
World War II.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Developments
and Processes
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 7: 1890–1945,
Focus on Research
“The U.S. on the
WorldStage”
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171AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
TOPIC 7.12
World War II:
Mobilization
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Social Structures
SOC
Social categories, roles, and practices are created, maintained, challenged, and
transformed throughout American history, shaping government policy, economic
systems, culture, and the lives of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective L
Explain how and why U.S.
participation in World War II
transformed American society.
KC-7.3.III.B
The mass mobilization of American society
helped end the Great Depression, and the
country’s strong industrial base played a
pivotal role in winning the war by equipping and
provisioning allies and millions of U.S. troops.
KC-7.3.III.C.i
Mobilization provided opportunities for women
and minorities to improve their socioeconomic
positions for the war’s duration, while also
leading to debates over racial segregation.
Wartime experiences also generated
challenges to civil liberties, such as the
internment of Japanese Americans.
KC-7.2.II.D
Migration to the United States from Mexico
and elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere
increased, in spite of contradictory government
policies toward Mexican immigration.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Developments
and Processes
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Classroom Resources
> Essay from the
American Organization
of Historians and
AP (“From Rosie the
Riveter to the Global
Assembly Line”)
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172AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
TOPIC 7.13
World War II:
Military
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective M
Explain the causes and
eects of the victory of the
United States and its allies
over the Axis powers.
KC-7.3.III.A
Americans viewed the war as a ght for
the survival of freedom and democracy
against fascist and militarist ideologies. This
perspective was later reinforced by revelations
about Japanese wartime atrocities, Nazi
concentration camps, and the Holocaust.
KC-7.3.III.C.ii
Military service provided opportunities
for women and minorities to improve their
socioeconomic positions for the war’s
duration, while also leading to debates over
racial segregation.
KC-7.3.III.D
The United States and its allies achieved
military victory through Allied cooperation,
technological and scientic advances, the
contributions of servicemen and women, and
campaigns such as Pacic “island-hopping”
and the D-Day invasion. The use of atomic
bombs hastened the end of the war and
sparked debates about the morality of using
atomic weapons.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Argumentation
6.C
Use historical reasoning
to explain relationships
among pieces of
historical evidence.
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173AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
TOPIC 7.14
Postwar Diplomacy
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective N
Explain the consequences
of U.S. involvement in World
War II.
KC-7.3.III.E
The war-ravaged condition of Asia and Europe,
and the dominant U.S. role in the Allied victory
and postwar peace settlements, allowed the
United States to emerge from the war as the
most powerful nation on Earth.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience of a source.
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174AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
TOPIC 7.15
Comparison in
Period 7
continued on next page
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175AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
The nal topic in this unit focuses on the skill of argumentation and so provides an
opportunity for your students to draw upon the key concepts and historical developments
they have studied in this unit. Using evidence relevant to this unit’s key concepts, students
should practice the suggested skill for this topic.
Required Course Content
LEARNING OBJECTIVE REVIEW: UNIT 7 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 7: Learning Objective O
Compare the relative
signicance of the major
events of the rst half of
the 20th century in shaping
American identity.
KC-7.1
Growth expanded opportunity, while economic
instability led to new eorts to reform U.S.
society and its economic system.
KC-7.1.I
The United States continued its transition
from a rural, agricultural economy to
an urban, industrial economy led by
large companies.
KC-7.1.II
In the Progressive Era of the early
20th century, Progressives responded to
political corruption, economic instability,
and social concerns by calling for greater
government action and other political and
social measures.
KC-7.1.III
During the 1930s, policymakers responded
to the mass unemployment and social
upheavals of the Great Depression by
transforming the U.S. into a limited welfare
state, redening the goals and ideas of
modern American liberalism.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Argumentation
6.D
Corroborate, qualify, or
modify an argument using
diverse and alternative
evidence in order to develop
a complex argument. This
argument might:
§ Explain nuance of an
issue by analyzing
multiple variables.
§ Explain relevant
and insightful
connections within and
across periods.
§ Explain the relative
historical signicance
of a source’s credibility
and limitations.
§ Explain how or why
a historical claim
or argument is or is
not eective.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ External Resource
> Gilder Lehrman
Institute’s AP U.S.
History Study Guide
Period 7: 1890–1945
UNIT
7
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 7: Learning Objective O
Compare the relative
signicance of the major
events of the rst half of
the 20th century in shaping
American identity.
REVIEW: UNIT 7 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-7.2
Innovations in communications and technology
contributed to the growth of mass culture,
while signicant changes occurred in internal
and international migration patterns.
KC-7.2.I
Popular culture grew in inuence in U.S.
society, even as debates increased over the
eects of culture on public values, morals,
and American national identity.
KC-7.2.II
Economic pressures, global events, and
political developments caused sharp
variations in the numbers, sources, and
experiences of both international and
internal migrants.
KC-7.3
Participation in a series of global conicts
propelled the United States into a position of
international power while renewing domestic
debates over the nation’s proper role in
the world.
KC-7.3.I
In the late 19th century and early
20th century, new U.S. territorial ambitions
and acquisitions in the Western Hemisphere
and the Pacic accompanied heightened
public debates over America’s role in
the world.
KC-7.3.II
World War I and its aftermath intensied
ongoing debates about the nation’s role in
the world and how best to achieve national
security and pursue American interests.
KC-7.3.III
U.S. participation in World War II transformed
American society, while the victory of the
United States and its allies over the Axis
powers vaulted the U.S. into a position of
global, political, and military leadership.
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176AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Remember to go to AP Classroom
to assign students the online
Personal Progress Check for
this unit.
Whether assigned as homework or
completed in class, the Personal
Progress Check provides each
student with immediate feedback
related to this unit’s topics and skills.
Personal Progress Check 8
Multiple-choice: ~40 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ No stimulus
§ Primary source
Free-response: 1 question
§ Long essay
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178AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
continued on next page
UNI
8
T
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179AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
10–17
%
AP EXAM WEIGHTING ~20 CLASS PERIODS
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT AT A GLANCE
c tiamThe
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~20 CLASS PERIODS
8.1 Contextualizing Period 8
Continuity and
Change
4.B
Explain how a specic historical
development or process is situated
within a broader historical context.
RWO
8.2 The Cold War from
1945 to 1980
Continuity and
Change
2.C
Explain the signicance of a
source’s point of view, purpose,
historical situation, and/or audience,
including how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
ATN
8.3 The Red Scare
Causation
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation, and/or
audience of a source.
, XT
IG
W
M
8.4 Economy after 1945
Causation
2.C
Explain the signicance of a
source’s point of view, purpose,
historical situation, and/or audience,
including how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
RCA
8.5 Culture after 1945
Continuity and
Change
4.B
Explain how a specic historical
development or process is situated
within a broader historical context.
CSO
8.6 Early Steps in the
Civil Rights Movement
(1940s and 1950s)
Causation
5.A
Identify patterns among or
connections between historical
developments and processes.
RWO
8.7 America as a
World Power
Comparison
3.C
Compare the arguments or main
ideas of two sources.
8.8 The Vietnam War
Causation
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
Thematic
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~20 CLASS PERIODS
, PCE
IGM
8.9 The Great Society
Continuity and
Change
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process relates
to another historical development
or process.
, OCS
PCE
8.10 The African American
Civil Rights Movement
(1960s)
Comparison
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process relates
to another historical development
or process.
CSO
8.11 The Civil Rights
Movement Expands
Comparison
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process relates
to another historical development
or process.
RCA
8.12 Youth Culture of
the 1960s
Continuity and
Change
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process relates
to another historical development
or process.
GEO
8.13 The Environment and
Natural Resources
from 1968 to 1980
Causation
5.A
Identify patterns among or
connections between historical
developments and processes.
, PCE
RCA
8.14 Society in Transition
Causation
4.B
Explain how a specic historical
development or process is situated
within a broader historical context.
8.15 Continuity and Change
in Period 8
Continuity and
Change
6.D
Corroborate, qualify, or modify
an argument using diverse and
alternative evidence in order to
develop a complex argument. This
argument might:
§ Explain nuance of an issue by
analyzing multiple variables.
§ Explain relevant and insightful
connections within and
acrossperiods.
§ Explain the relative historical
signicance of a source’s
credibility and limitations.
§ Explain how or why a historical
claim or argument is or is
noteective.
Go to AP Classroom to assign the Personal Progress Check for Unit 8.
Review the results in class to identify and address any student misunderstandings.
UNIT AT A GLANCE
(cont’d)
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Course Framework V.1
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180AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
SAMPLE INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES
The sample activities on this page are optional and are oered to provide possible ways
to incorporate instructional approaches into the classroom. Teachers do not need to use
these activities and are free to alter or edit them. The examples below were developed in
partnership with teachers from the AP community to share ways that they approach teaching
some of the topics in this unit. Please refer to the Instructional Approaches section beginning
on p. 217 for more examples of activities and strategies.
Activity Topic Sample Activity
1
8.2 Close Reading
This topic, at the onset of Unit 8, oers a plethora of primary source documents that
introduce the student to the context of the Cold War in the post-WWII world. Ask students
to read excerpts from Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech, George Kennan’s “Long
Telegram,” or George Marshall’s Harvard commencement speech and have them highlight
relevant words and passages that support the author’s claim. As a whole group, discuss
the changing role of the United States in the world.
2
8.4 Look for a Pattern
This topic is rich with visual data that students can describe, analyze, and interpret. Ask
students to examine complex graphs that address multiple data sets, such as demographic
changes (baby boom), private sector growth, federal spending in dierent areas,
technological developments, and economic indicators. Have them identify patterns and
trends and come to conclusions about causes of economic growth after World War II.
3
8.8 Guided Discussion
This topic oers a lot of fodder for discussion and debate in the classroom. Brainstorming
and quickwrite can be used as strategies during a guided discussion to help students
understand the causes and eects of the Vietnam War. What debates were settled?
What debates remained or emerged as a result of the Vietnam War?
4
8.10 Shared Inquiry
Provide students with a selection of primary sources from individuals and groups involved
in the civil rights movement. Divide students into groups and ask them to respond to
Unit 8: Learning Objectives L and M and present their ideas to the class. Then lead a
whole-group discussion comparing the responses of various groups and the actions and
responses by the federal government.
Unit Planning Notes
Use the space below to plan your approach to the unit. Consider how you want to pace the unit; which
specific historical figures, groups, or events you will use to illustrate the concepts noted in the historical
development statements; where you will incorporate writing assignments; and which primary and
secondary sources you will use.
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181AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
TOPIC 8.1
Contextualizing
Period 8
Spend a class period helping students understand some contexts for this unit. Considering
this unit’s key concepts (previewed below), select one or two for which your students will
most need context.
To understand context, your students could examine:
§ Change from and/or continuity with preceding historical developments.
§ Similarities and/or dierences with contemporaneous historical developments in dierent
regions or geographical areas.
Whenever possible, draw upon students’ relevant prior knowledge, and anchor this
contextualization lesson in historical source material of varying formats such as visuals,
data, or written texts, or conduct an activity that engages students in exploring context.
Required Course Content
continued on next page
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182AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
PREVIEW: UNIT 8 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective A
Explain the context for societal
change from 1945 to 1980.
KC-8.1
The United States responded to an uncertain
and unstable postwar world by asserting
and working to maintain a position of global
leadership, with far-reaching domestic and
international consequences.
KC-8.1.I
United States policymakers engaged in
a cold war with the authoritarian Soviet
Union, seeking to limit the growth of
Communist military power and ideological
inuence, create a free-market global
economy, and build an international
security system.
KC-8.1.II
Cold War policies led to public debates
over the power of the federal government
and acceptable means for pursuing
international and domestic goals while
protecting civil liberties.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.B
Explain how a specific
historical development or
process is situated within a
broader historical context.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Classroom Resources
> Essay from the
American Organization
of Historians and AP
(“Lawn and Landscape
in World Context,
1945–2000”)
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
PREVIEW: UNIT 8 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-8.2
New movements for civil rights and
liberal eorts to expand the role of
government generated a range of political
and cultural responses.
KC-8.2.I
Seeking to fulll Reconstruction-era
promises, civil rights activists and political
leaders achieved some legal and political
successes in ending segregation, although
progress toward racial equality was slow.
KC-8.2.II
Responding to social conditions and the
African American civil rights movement,
a variety of movements emerged that
focused on issues of identity, social justice,
and the environment.
KC-8.2.III
Liberalism inuenced postwar politics
and court decisions, but it came under
increasing attack from the left as well as
from a resurgent conservative movement.
KC-8.3
Postwar economic and demographic changes
had far-reaching consequences for American
society, politics, and culture.
KC-8.3.I
Rapid economic and social changes in
American society fostered a sense of
optimism in the postwar years.
KC-8.3.II
New demographic and social
developments, along with anxieties over
the Cold War, changed U.S. culture and led
to signicant political and moral debates
that sharply divided the nation.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 8: Learning Objective A
Explain the context for societal
change from 1945 to 1980.
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183AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
TOPIC 8.2
The Cold War
from 1945 to 1980
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective B
Explain the continuities and
changes in Cold War policies
from 1945 to 1980.
KC-8.1.I
United States policymakers engaged in a cold
war with the authoritarian Soviet Union, seeking
to limit the growth of Communist military power
and ideological inuence, create a free-market
global economy, and build an international
security system.
KC-8.1.I.A
As postwar tensions dissolved the wartime
alliance between Western democracies and
the Soviet Union, the United States developed
a foreign policy based on collective security,
international aid, and economic institutions
that bolstered non-Communist nations.
KC-8.1.I.B.i
Concerned by expansionist Communist
ideology and Soviet repression, the United
States sought to contain communism through
a variety of measures, including major military
engagements in Korea.
KC-8.1.I.C
The Cold War uctuated between periods of
direct and indirect military confrontation and
periods of mutual coexistence (or détente).
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.C
Explain the significance of
a source’s point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience, including
how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Classroom Resources
> Essay from the
American Organization
of Historians and
AP (“Cold War and
Global Hegemony,
1945–1991”)
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184AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
TOPIC 8.3
The Red Scare
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and National Identity
NAT
The development of and debates about democracy, freedom, citizenship, diversity,
and individualism shape American national identity, cultural values, and beliefs about
American exceptionalism, and in turn, these ideas shape political institutions and
society. Throughout American history, notions of national identity and culture have
coexisted with varying degrees of regional and group identities.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective C
Explain the causes and
eects of the Red Scare after
World War II.
KC-8.1.II.A
Americans debated policies and methods
designed to expose suspected communists
within the United States even as both
parties supported the broader strategy of
containing communism.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.B
Explain the point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience of a source.
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185AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
TOPIC 8.4
Economy
After 1945
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Work, Exchange, and Technology
WXT
The interplay between markets, private enterprise, labor, technology, and
government policy shape the American economy. In turn, economic activity shapes
society and government policy and drives technological innovation.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective D
Explain the causes of
economic growth in the years
after World War II.
KC-8.3.I.A
A burgeoning private sector, federal
spending, the baby boom, and technological
developments helped spur economic growth.
THEMATIC FOCUS
Migration and Settlement
MIG
Push and pull factors shape immigration to and migration within America, and the
demographic change as a result of these moves shapes the migrants, society, and
the environment.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective E
Explain the causes and
eects of the migration of
various groups of Americans
after 1945.
KC-8.3.I.B
As higher education opportunities and new
technologies rapidly expanded, increasing
social mobility encouraged the migration of
the middle class to the suburbs and of many
Americans to the South and West. The Sun Belt
region emerged as a signicant political and
economic force.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.C
Explain the significance of
a source’s point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience, including
how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
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186AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
TOPIC 8.5
Culture after 1945
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and Regional Culture
ARC
Creative expression, demographic change, philosophy, religious beliefs, scientic
ideas, social mores, and technology shape national, regional, and group cultures in
America, and these varying cultures often play a role in shaping government policy
and developing economic systems.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective F
Explain how mass culture
has been maintained or
challenged over time.
KC-8.3.II.A
Mass culture became increasingly
homogeneous in the postwar years,
inspiring challenges to conformity by artists,
intellectuals, and rebellious youth.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.B
Explain how a specific
historical development or
process is situated within a
broader historical context.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ External Resource
> Smithsonian
Education:
Artifact & Analysis
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187AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
TOPIC 8.6
Early Steps in the
Civil Rights Movement
(1940s and 1950s)
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Social Structures
SOC
Social categories, roles, and practices are created, maintained, challenged, and
transformed throughout American history, shaping government policy, economic
systems, culture, and the lives of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective G
Explain how and why the
civil rights movements
developed and expanded
from 1945 to 1960.
KC-8.2.I
Seeking to fulll Reconstruction-era promises,
civil rights activists and political leaders
achieved some legal and political successes in
ending segregation, although progress toward
racial equality was slow.
KC-8.2.I.B.i
The three branches of the federal government
used measures including desegregation of the
armed services and Brown v. Board of Education
(1954) to promote greater racial equality.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.A
Identify patterns among
or connections between
historical developments
and processes.
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188AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
TOPIC 8.7
America as a
World Power
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective H
Explain the various military
and diplomatic responses to
international developments
over time.
KC-8.1.I.E
Cold War competition extended to Latin
America, where the United States supported
non-Communist regimes that had varying
levels of commitment to democracy.
KC-8.1.II.C.i
Americans debated the merits of a large nuclear
arsenal and the military–industrial complex.
KC-8.1.I.D.i
Postwar decolonization and the emergence
of powerful nationalist movements in Africa
and the Middle East led both sides in the Cold
War to seek allies among new nations, many of
which remained nonaligned.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.C
Compare the arguments or
main ideas of two sources.
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189AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
TOPIC 8.8
The Vietnam War
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective I
Explain the causes and
eects of the Vietnam War.
KC-8.1.I.B.ii
Concerned by expansionist Communist
ideology and Soviet repression, the United
States sought to contain communism through
a variety of measures, including major military
engagements in Vietnam.
KC-8.1.I.D.ii
Postwar decolonization and the emergence
of powerful nationalist movements in Asia
led both sides in the Cold War to seek
allies among new nations, many of which
remained nonaligned.
KC-8.1.II.C.ii
Americans debated the appropriate power of
the executive branch in conducting foreign and
military policy.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Developments
and Processes
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Classroom Resources
> Lesson Plans for AP
U.S. History: The Tet
Oensive: 1968
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190AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
TOPIC 8.9
The Great Society
Required Course Content
continued on next page
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191AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective J
Explain the causes and
eects of continuing policy
debates about the role of
the federal government
over time.
KC-8.2.II.C
Despite an overall auence in postwar
America, advocates raised concerns about the
prevalence and persistence of poverty as a
national problem.
KC-8.2.III.A
Liberalism, based on anti-communism abroad
and a rm belief in the ecacy of government
power to achieve social goals at home, reached a
high point of political inuence by the mid-1960s.
KC-8.2.III.B.i
Liberal ideas found expression in Lyndon
Johnson’s Great Society, which attempted to
use federal legislation and programs to end
racial discrimination, eliminate poverty, and
address other social issues.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process
relates to another historical
development or process.
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
THEMATIC FOCUS
Migration and Settlement
MIG
Push and pull factors shape immigration to and migration within America, and the
demographic change as a result of these moves shapes the migrants, society, and
the environment.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective K
Explain the continuities and
changes in immigration
patterns over time.
KC-8.3.I.C
Immigrants from around the world sought
access to the political, social, and economic
opportunities in the United States, especially
after the passage of new immigration laws
in 1965.
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192AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
TOPIC 8.10
The African
American Civil Rights
Movement (1960s)
Required Course Content
continued on next page
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193AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THEMATIC FOCUS
Social Structures
SOC
Social categories, roles, and practices are created, maintained, challenged, and
transformed throughout American history, shaping government policy, economic
systems, culture, and the lives of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective L
Explain how and why various
groups responded to calls for
the expansion of civil rights
from 1960 to 1980.
KC-8.2.I.A
During and after World War II, civil rights
activists and leaders, most notably Martin
Luther King Jr., combated racial discrimination
utilizing a variety of strategies, including legal
challenges, direct action, and nonviolent
protest tactics.
KC-8.2.1.C
Continuing resistance slowed eorts at
desegregation, sparking social and political
unrest across the nation. Debates among civil
rights activists over the ecacy of nonviolence
increased after 1965.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process
relates to another historical
development or process.
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective M
Explain the various ways in
which the federal government
responded to the calls for the
expansion of civil rights.
KC-8.2.I.B.ii
The three branches of the federal government
used measures including the Civil Rights Act of
1964 to promote greater racial equality.
KC-8.2.III.B.ii
A series of Supreme Court decisions expanded
civil rights and individual liberties.
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194AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
TOPIC 8.11
The Civil Rights
Movement Expands
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Social Structures
SOC
Social categories, roles, and practices are created, maintained, challenged, and
transformed throughout American history, shaping government policy, economic
systems, culture, and the lives of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective L
Explain how and why various
groups responded to calls for
the expansion of civil rights
from 1960 to 1980.
KC-8.2.II.B
Latino, American Indian, and Asian American
movements continued to demand social
and economic equality and a redress of
past injustices.
KC-8.2.II.A
Feminist and gay and lesbian activists
mobilized behind claims for legal, economic,
and social equality.
KC-8.3.II.B.i
Feminists who participated in the
counterculture of the 1960s rejected many
of the social, economic, and political values
of their parents’ generation and advocated
changes in sexual norms.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process
relates to another historical
development or process.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Classroom Resources
> What Is Gender
History?
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195AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
TOPIC 8.12
Youth Culture
of the 1960s
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and Regional Culture
ARC
Creative expression, demographic change, philosophy, religious beliefs, scientic
ideas, social mores, and technology shape national, regional, and group cultures in
America, and these varying cultures often play a role in shaping government policy
and developing economic systems.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective N
Explain how and why
opposition to existing policies
and values developed and
changed over the course of
the 20th century.
KC-8.1.II.B
Although anti-communist foreign policy faced
little domestic opposition in previous years, the
Vietnam War inspired sizable and passionate
anti-war protests that became more numerous
as the war escalated and sometimes led
to violence.
KC-8.2.III.D
Some groups on the left also rejected liberal
policies, arguing that political leaders did too
little to transform the racial and economic
status quo at home and pursued immoral
policies abroad.
KC-8.3.II.B.ii
Young people who participated in the
counterculture of the 1960s rejected many of
the social, economic, and political values of
their parents’ generation, introduced greater
informality into U.S. culture, and advocated
changes in sexual norms.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.B
Explain how a historical
development or process
relates to another historical
development or process.
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196AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
TOPIC 8.13
The Environment and
Natural Resources
from 1968 to 1980
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Geography and the Environment
GEO
Geographic and environmental factors, including competition over and debates
about natural resources, shape the development of America and foster regional
diversity. The development of America impacts the environment and reshapes
geography, which leads to debates about environmental and geographic issues.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective O
Explain how and why policies
related to the environment
developed and changed from
1968 to 1980.
KC-8.1.II.D
Ideological, military, and economic concerns
shaped U.S. involvement in the Middle East,
with several oil crises in the region eventually
sparking attempts at creating a national
energy policy.
KC-8.2.II.D
Environmental problems and accidents led to a
growing environmental movement that aimed
to use legislative and public eorts to combat
pollution and protect natural resources.
The federal government established new
environmental programs and regulations.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Making Connections
5.A
Identify patterns among
or connections between
historical developments
and processes.
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197AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
TOPIC 8.14
Society in Transition
Required Course Content
continued on next page
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198AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective J
Explain the causes and
eects of continuing policy
debates about the role of the
federal government over time.
KC-8.2.III.C
In the 1960s, conservatives challenged liberal
laws and court decisions and perceived moral
and cultural decline, seeking to limit the role
of the federal government and enact more
assertive foreign policies.
KC-8.2.III.E
Public condence and trust in government’s
ability to solve social and economic problems
declined in the 1970s in the wake of economic
challenges, political scandals, and foreign
policy crises.
KC-8.2.III.F
The 1970s saw growing clashes between
conservatives and liberals over social and cultural
issues, the power of the federal government,
race, and movements for greater individual rights.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.B
Explain how a specific
historical development or
process is situated within a
broader historical context.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 8: 1945–1980,
Focus on Research
“A Rapidly Changing
World”
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
THEMATIC FOCUS
American and Regional Culture
ARC
Creative expression, demographic change, philosophy, religious beliefs, scientic
ideas, social mores, and technology shape national, regional, and group cultures in
America, and these varying cultures often play a role in shaping government policy
and developing economic systems.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective P
Explain the eects of
the growth of religious
movements over the course
of the 20th century.
KC-8.3.II.C
The rapid and substantial growth of evangelical
Christian churches and organizations was
accompanied by greater political and social
activism on the part of religious conservatives.
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199AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
TOPIC 8.15
Continuity and
Change in Period 8
The nal topic in this unit focuses on the skill of argumentation and so provides an
opportunity for your students to draw upon the key concepts and historical developments
they have studied in this unit. Using evidence relevant to this unit’s key concepts, students
should practice the suggested skill for this topic.
Required Course Content
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
REVIEW: UNIT 8 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 8: Learning Objective Q
Explain the extent to which
the events of the period
from 1945 to1980 reshaped
national identity.
KC-8.1
The United States responded to an uncertain
and unstable postwar world by asserting
and working to maintain a position of global
leadership, with far-reaching domestic and
international consequences.
KC-8.1.I
United States policymakers engaged in
a cold war with the authoritarian Soviet
Union, seeking to limit the growth of
Communist military power and ideological
inuence, create a free-market global
economy, and build an international
security system.
KC-8.1.II
Cold War policies led to public debates
over the power of the federal government
and acceptable means for pursuing
international and domestic goals while
protecting civil liberties.
continued on next page
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200AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Argumentation
6.D
Corroborate, qualify, or
modify an argument using
diverse and alternative
evidence in order to develop
a complex argument. This
argument might:
§ Explain nuance of an
issue by analyzing
multiple variables.
§ Explain relevant
and insightful
connections within and
across periods.
§ Explain the relative
historical signicance
of a source’s credibility
and limitations.
§ Explain how or why
a historical claim
or argument is or is
not eective.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES
§ External Resource
> Gilder Lehrman
Institute’s AP U.S.
History Study Guide
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 8: 1945–1980,
Focus on Research
“Making Connections”
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 8: 1945–1980,
Focus on Research
“Adding Complexity”
Period 8: 1945–1980
UNIT
8
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 8: Learning Objective Q
Explain the extent to which
the events of the period
from 1945 to1980 reshaped
national identity.
REVIEW: UNIT 8 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-8.2
New movements for civil rights and liberal eorts
to expand the role of government generated a
range of political and cultural responses.
KC-8.2.I
Seeking to fulll Reconstruction-era
promises, civil rights activists and political
leaders achieved some legal and political
successes in ending segregation, although
progress toward racial equality was slow.
KC-8.2.II
Responding to social conditions and the
African American civil rights movement,
a variety of movements emerged that
focused on issues of identity, social justice,
and the environment.
KC-8.2.III
Liberalism inuenced postwar politics
and court decisions, but it came under
increasing attack from the left as well as
from a resurgent conservative movement.
KC-8.3
Postwar economic and demographic changes
had far-reaching consequences for American
society, politics, and culture.
KC-8.3.I
Rapid economic and social changes in
American society fostered a sense of
optimism in the postwar years.
KC-8.3.II
New demographic and social
developments, along with anxieties over
the Cold War, changed U.S. culture and led
to signicant political and moral debates
that sharply divided the nation.
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201AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
Remember to go to AP Classroom
to assign students the online
Personal Progress Check for
this unit.
Whether assigned as homework or
completed in class, the Personal
Progress Check provides each
student with immediate feedback
related to this unit’s topics and skills.
Personal Progress Check 9
Multiple-choice: ~20 questions
Short-answer: 2 questions
§ Secondary source
§ No stimulus
Free response: 1 question
§ Document-based
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204AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
UNI
9
T
4–6
%
AP EXAM WEIGHTING ~8 CLASS PERIODS
Period 9: 1980–Present
UNIT AT A GLANCE
c tiamThe
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~8 CLASS PERIODS
9.1 Contextualizing Period 9
Continuity and
Change
4.B
Explain how a specic historical
development or process is situated
within a broader historical context.
PCE
9.2 Reagan and
Conservatism
Continuity and
Change
3.C
Compare the arguments or main
ideas of two sources.
RWO
9.3 The End of the Cold War
Causation
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
XTW
9.4 A Changing Economy
Causation
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
IGM
9.5 Migration and
Immigration in the 1990s
and 2000s
Causation
2.C
Explain the signicance of a
source’s point of view, purpose,
historical situation, and/or audience,
including how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
RWO
9.6 Challenges of the
21st Century
Causation
2.C
Explain the signicance of a
source’s point of view, purpose,
historical situation, and/or audience,
including how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
continued on next page
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205AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 9: 1980–Present
UNIT
9
Thematic
Focus
Topic
Reasoning
Process Suggested Skill
Class Periods
~8 CLASS PERIODS
9.7 Causation in Period 9
Causation
6.D
Corroborate, qualify, or modify
an argument using diverse and
alternative evidence in order to
develop a complex argument. This
argument might:
§ Explain nuance of an issue by
analyzing multiple variables.
§ Explain relevant and insightful
connections within and
acrossperiods.
§ Explain the relative historical
signicance of a source’s
credibility and limitations.
§ Explain how or why a historical
claim or argument is or is
not eective.
Go to AP Classroom to assign the Personal Progress Check for Unit 9.
Review the results in class to identify and address any student misunderstandings.
UNIT AT A GLANCE
(cont’d)
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206AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 9: 1980–Present
UNIT
9
SAMPLE INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES
The sample activities on this page are optional and are oered to provide possible ways
to incorporate instructional approaches into the classroom. Teachers do not need to use
these activities and are free to alter or edit them. The examples below were developed in
partnership with teachers from the AP community to share ways that they approach teaching
some of the topics in this unit. Please refer to the Instructional Approaches section beginning
on p. 217 for more examples of activities and strategies.
Activity Topic Sample Activity
1
9.2 Debate
This topic in the culminating unit oers students an opportunity to debate and discuss
thematic focus PCE, which focuses on the role of the federal government over time. Encourage
students to prepare by looking at dierent time periods and turning points in U.S. history when
the role of the federal government changed. Teachers can debrief with students about the
extent to which this role changed or continued under Ronald Reagan’s presidency.
2
9.3 Match Claims and Evidence
Now that students are near the end of the course and have had many opportunities to
practice argumentation, this activity can be used as early preparation for the AP Exam.
Ask small groups of students to write claims and supporting evidence statements on
individual note cards based on the causes and eects of the end of the Cold War and the
Cold War’s legacy. Have groups trade claims and evidence and revise or modify the claims
(if necessary), match the claims and evidence, and write statements explaining why the
evidence supports the claim.
3
9.5 Making Connections
Write concepts related to the course theme of Migration and Settlement (MIG) and related
concepts on index cards, place them in a box, and have students pick a card at random.
Incorporate concepts from Topic 9.5 as well as from previous topics that addressed
immigration and migration. Give students a few minutes to gather and recall information
about the theme or concept and then pair students and ask them to nd the connection
between the theme or concepts. Finally, ask the pairs to write a brief explanation of how
the concepts are related.
Unit Planning Notes
Use the space below to plan your approach to the unit. Consider how you want to pace the unit; which
specific historical figures, groups, or events you will use to illustrate the concepts noted in the historical
development statements; where you will incorporate writing assignments; and which primary and
secondary sources you will use.
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207AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 9: 1980–Present
UNIT
9
TOPIC 9.1
Contextualizing
Period 9
Spend a class period helping students understand some contexts for this unit. Considering
this unit’s key concepts (previewed below), select one or two for which your students will
most need context.
To understand context, your students could examine:
§ Change from and/or continuity with preceding historical developments.
§ Similarities and/or dierences with contemporaneous historical developments in dierent
regions or geographical areas.
Whenever possible, draw upon students’ relevant prior knowledge, and anchor this
contextualization lesson in historical source material of varying formats such as visuals,
data, or written texts, or conduct an activity that engages students in exploring context.
Required Course Content
LEARNING OBJECTIVE PREVIEW: UNIT 9 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 9: Learning Objective A
Explain the context in which
the United States faced
international and domestic
challenges after 1980.
KC-9.1
A newly ascendant conservative movement
achieved several political and policy goals during
the 1980s and continued to strongly inuence
public discourse in the following decades.
KC-9.1.I
Conservative beliefs regarding the need for
traditional social values and a reduced role
for government advanced in U.S. politics
after 1980.
KC-9.2
Moving into the 21st century, the nation
experienced signicant technological,
economic, and demographic changes.
KC-9.2.I
New developments in science and technology
enhanced the economy and transformed
society, while manufacturing decreased.
KC-9.2.II
The U.S. population continued to undergo
demographic shifts that had signicant
cultural and political consequences.
continued on next page
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208AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Contextualization
4.B
Explain how a specific
historical development or
process is situated within a
broader historical context.
Period 9: 1980–Present
UNIT
9
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 9: Learning Objective A
Explain the context in which
the United States faced
international and domestic
challenges after 1980.
PREVIEW: UNIT 9 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-9.3
The end of the Cold War and new challenges to
U.S. leadership forced the nation to redene its
foreign policy and role in the world.
KC-9.3.I
The Reagan administration promoted an
interventionist foreign policy that continued
in later administrations, even after the end
of the Cold War.
KC-9.3.II
Following the attacks of September 11,
2001, U.S. foreign policy eorts focused on
ghting terrorism around the world.
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209AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 9: 1980–Present
UNIT
9
TOPIC 9.2
Reagan and
Conservatism
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Politics and Power
PCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in
American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions,
political parties, and the rights of citizens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 9: Learning Objective B
Explain the causes and
eects of continuing policy
debates about the role of
the federal government
over time.
KC-9.1.I.A
Ronald Reagan’s victory in the presidential
election of 1980 represented an important
milestone, allowing conservatives to enact
signicant tax cuts and continue the
deregulation of many industries.
KC-9.1.I.B
Conservatives argued that liberal programs
were counterproductive in ghting poverty
and stimulating economic growth. Some
of their eorts to reduce the size and scope
of government met with inertia and liberal
opposition, as many programs remained
popular with voters.
KC-9.1.I.C
Policy debates continued over free-trade
agreements, the scope of the government
social safety net, and calls to reform the
U.S. nancial system.
KC-9.1.I
Conservative beliefs regarding the need for
traditional social values and a reduced role for
government advanced in U.S. politics after 1980.
KC-9.2.II.C
Intense political and cultural debates continued
over issues such as immigration policy,
diversity, gender roles, and family structures.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Claims and
Evidence in Sources
3.C
Compare the arguments or
main ideas of two sources.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 9: 1980–Present,
Focus on Research
“A Conservative Era?”
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210AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 9: 1980–Present
UNIT
9
TOPIC 9.3
The End of
the Cold War
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 9: Learning Objective C
Explain the causes and
eects of the end of the
Cold War and its legacy.
KC-9.3.I.A
Reagan asserted U.S. opposition to communism
through speeches, diplomatic eorts, limited
military interventions, and a buildup of nuclear
and conventional weapons.
KC-9.3.I.B
Increased U.S. military spending, Reagan’s
diplomatic initiatives, and political changes
and economic problems in Eastern Europe and
the Soviet Union were all important in ending
the Cold War.
KC-9.3.I.C
The end of the Cold War led to new diplomatic
relationships but also new U.S. military and
peacekeeping interventions, as well as
continued debates over the appropriate use
of American power in the world.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Developments
and Processes
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 9: 1980–Present,
Focus on Research
“The Cold War and
Beyond”
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211AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 9: 1980–Present
UNIT
9
TOPIC 9.4
A Changing Economy
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Work, Exchange, and Technology
WXT
The interplay between markets, private enterprise, labor, technology, and
government policy shape the American economy. In turn, economic activity shapes
society and government policy and drives technological innovation.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 9: Learning Objective D
Explain the causes and eects
of economic and technological
change over time.
KC-9.2.I.A
Economic productivity increased as
improvements in digital communications
enabled increased American participation in
worldwide economic opportunities.
KC-9.2.I.B
Technological innovations in computing,
digital mobile technology, and the internet
transformed daily life, increased access to
information, and led to new social behaviors
and networks.
KC-9.2.I.C
Employment increased in service sectors
and decreased in manufacturing, and union
membership declined.
KC-9.2.I.D
Real wages stagnated for the working and
middle class amid growing economic inequality.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Developments
and Processes
1.B
Explain a historical concept,
development, or process.
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212AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 9: 1980–Present
UNIT
9
TOPIC 9.5
Migration and
Immigration in the
1990s and 2000s
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
Migration and Settlement
MIG
Push and pull factors shape immigration to and migration within America, and the
demographic change as a result of these moves shapes the migrants, society, and
the environment.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 9: Learning Objective E
Explain the causes and eects
of domestic and international
migration over time.
KC-9.2.II.A
After 1980, the political, economic, and cultural
inuence of the American South and West
continued to increase as population shifted to
those areas.
KC-9.2.II.B
International migration from Latin America
and Asia increased dramatically. The new
immigrants aected U.S. culture in many ways
and supplied the economy with an important
labor force.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.C
Explain the significance of
a source’s point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience, including
how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ Professional
Development
> Teaching and
Assessing Module—
Period 9: 1980–Present,
Focus on Research
“Social Changes
Since 1980”
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213AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 9: 1980–Present
UNIT
9
TOPIC 9.6
Challenges of the
21st Century
Required Course Content
THEMATIC FOCUS
America in the World
WOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations,
and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly
important role in the world.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Unit 9: Learning Objective F
Explain the causes and
eects of the domestic and
international challenges the
United States has faced in
the 21st century.
KC-9.3.II.A
In the wake of attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon in 2001, the United
States launched military eorts against
terrorism and lengthy, controversial conicts in
Afghanistan and Iraq.
KC-9.3.II.B
The war on terrorism sought to improve
security within the United States but also
raised questions about the protection of civil
liberties and human rights.
KC-9.3.II.C
Conicts in the Middle East and concerns
about climate change led to debates over U.S.
dependence on fossil fuels and the impact of
economic consumption on the environment.
KC-9.3.II.D
Despite economic and foreign policy
challenges, the United States continued as the
world’s leading superpower in the 21st century.
SUGGESTED SKILL
Sourcing and
Situation
2.C
Explain the significance of
a source’s point of view,
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience, including
how these might limit the
use(s) of a source.
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214AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Period 9: 1980–Present
UNIT
9
TOPIC 9.7
Causation in Period 9
The nal topic in this unit focuses on the skill of argumentation and so provides an
opportunity for your students to draw upon the key concepts and historical developments
they have studied in this unit. Using evidence relevant to this unit’s key concepts, students
should practice the suggested skill for this topic.
Required Course Content
LEARNING OBJECTIVE REVIEW: UNIT 9 KEY CONCEPTS
Unit 9: Learning Objective G
Explain the relative
signicance of the eects
of change in the period
after 1980 on American
national identity.
KC-9.1
A newly ascendant conservative movement
achieved several political and policy goals during
the 1980s and continued to strongly inuence
public discourse in the following decades.
KC-9.1.I
Conservative beliefs regarding the need for
traditional social values and a reduced role
for government advanced in U.S. politics
after 1980.
KC-9.2
Moving into the 21st century, the nation
experienced signicant technological,
economic, and demographic changes.
KC-9.2.I
New developments in science and
technology enhanced the economy
and transformed society, while
manufacturing decreased.
KC-9.2.II
The U.S. population continued to undergo
demographic shifts that had signicant
cultural and political consequences.
continued on next page
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215AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
SUGGESTED SKILL
Argumentation
6.D
Corroborate, qualify, or
modify an argument using
diverse and alternative
evidence in order to develop
a complex argument.
This argument might:
§ Explain nuance of an
issue by analyzing
multiple variables.
§ Explain relevant
and insightful
connections within and
across periods.
§ Explain the relative
historical signicance
of a source’s credibility
and limitations.
§ Explain how or why
a historical claim
or argument is or is
not eective.
AVAILABLE RESOURCE
§ External Resource
> Gilder Lehrman
Institute’s AP U.S.
History Study Guide
Period 9: 1980–Present
UNIT
9
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Unit 9: Learning Objective G
Explain the relative
signicance of the eects
of change in the period
after 1980 on American
national identity.
REVIEW: UNIT 9 KEY CONCEPTS
KC-9.3
The end of the Cold War and new challenges to
U.S. leadership forced the nation to redene its
foreign policy and role in the world.
KC-9.3.I
The Reagan administration promoted an
interventionist foreign policy that continued
in later administrations, even after the end
of the Cold War.
KC-9.3.II
Following the attacks of September 11,
2001, U.S. foreign policy eorts focused on
ghting terrorism around the world.
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216AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
AP U.S. HISTORY
Instructional
Approaches
Selecting and Using
Course Materials
Using a wide array of historical source material helps
students become procient with the historical thinking
skills and develop a conceptual understanding of
U.S. history. In addition to using a college-level textbook
that will provide required course content, students
should regularly examine primary source material in
dierent and varied forms as well as other types of
historical scholarship. Rich, diverse source material
provides more exibility in designing learning activities
that develop the habits of historical thinking that are
essential for student success in the course.
Textbooks
The AP U.S. History course requires the use of a
college-level textbook that includes discussion of
historical developments and processes from 1491 into
the 21st century in a way that encourages conceptual
understanding. While nearly all college-level U.S. history
textbooks will address the various themes of U.S. history,
they may cover these thematic approaches dierently.
It will be important to identify other types of secondary
sources and supplement the textbook accordingly.
Ideally, the textbook selected will use the thematic
approaches as threads to make connections across
dierent time periods.
AP Central has an example textbook list of
college- level textbooks that meet AP Course Audit
resource requirements. Additionally, the AP U.S. History
Teacher Community on AP Central provides reviews
of recently published texts to help teachers determine
their appropriateness for the AP course.
Primary Sources
Students will nd it useful to analyze primary source
material regularly to deepen their understanding of the
learning objectives and develop the required historical
thinking skills. While publishers are increasingly
including primary source material within the textbook,
students should be introduced to a wide variety
of source material so that they can analyze historical
evidence from diverse sources. These sources should
include written documents as well as images, such as
photographs, cartoons, and works of art. The ancillary
materials and website sources that accompany most of
the recently published textbooks may have high-quality
primary source documents, artwork, charts, and other
sources of data that are linked to the topics and themes
addressed in the textbook. If the textbook used does
not provide ample primary sources, or the sources are
too brief, teachers may decide to supplement their
course with document readers that provide lengthier
selections or online compilations of primary sources
related to particular topic areas.
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219AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Secondary Sources
Student success in the course also depends on
exposure to and analysis of multiple secondary sources.
Secondary sources include noncontemporary accounts
of the past written by historians or scholars of other
related disciplines, such as economists, sociologists,
political commentators, or art historians, as well as data
sets, charts, and maps. Secondary sources of all types
can provide a broader and more substantive perspective
on topics addressed by a textbook. Additionally,
secondary sources can be helpful in supplementing
textbooks with older publication dates.
It is especially important that students practice
analyzing and comparing historians’ interpretations of
events. Students should have opportunities to compare
a primary source with a secondary source or compare
the views represented by two dierent secondary
sources. This need can often be met by source
collections that provide both primary and secondary
source material, or through ancillary resource material
oered by textbook publishers. When nding resources
to use with students, teachers may consider a variety
of sources that vary in complexity, building toward
publications by practicing historians, university presses,
or scholarly journals.
School library media specialists can also help identify
databases that contain a variety of useful source
material—both primary and secondary. Many schools
already subscribe to databases, such as ABC-CLIO,
JSTOR, or Gale, that may augment the materials found
in texts or document readers. Library media specialists
can assist in developing course-specic LibGuides
that give students easy access to the source material
identied by the teacher.
Teaching with the Founding
Documents
Students who engage in close reading and analysis
of the ideas and debates of the founding documents
gain historical understanding and capacity to trace
the inuence of these ideas throughout the course.
For this reason, teachers may use these documents in
an in-depth examination of the themes of the course
and ideas of freedom and democracy. Teachers who
are especially interested in using a cross-disciplinary
approach, such as American studies, or teaching
this course in conjunction with a course like AP U.S.
Government and Politics, may nd this approach
especially helpful.
Ultimately, a command of the ideas and language of
the founding documents and their inuence will not
only help students succeed on the AP Exam and in
college but also will open up opportunities for them to
participate more deeply in civic life in the United States
and globally.
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220AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Instructional Strategies
The AP U.S. History course framework outlines the concepts and skills students must master in order to be
successful on the AP Exam. To address those concepts and skills eectively, it helps to incorporate a variety of
instructional approaches into daily lessons and activities. The following table presents strategies that can help
students apply their understanding of course concepts.
Strategy Denition Purpose Example
Close Reading
Students read, reread, and
analyze small chunks of text
word for word, sentence by
sentence, and line by line.
Develops
comprehensive
understanding of a text.
When students are reading
foundational documents,
such as the Declaration of
Independence, have them
highlight relevant words and
passages that support the
author’s claim. Ask students
to connect the grievances
listed in the third section of
the Declaration to specic
abuses enacted by Parliament
and the king.
Create
Representations
Students create tables,
graphs, or other infographics
to interpret text or data.
Helps students organize
information using multiple
ways to present data.
Give students a set of data,
such as voting patterns by race
and gender, and have them
create a graph that best shows
the data and the trends.
Critique
Reasoning
Through collaborative
discussion, students critique
the arguments of others,
questioning the author’s
perspective, evidence
presented, and reasoning
behind the argument.
Helps students learn
from others as they
make connections
between concepts and
learn to support their
arguments with evidence
and reasoning that make
sense to peers.
Have students critique
Abraham Lincoln’s arguments
for reunication in his rst
inaugural address. Have
students examine Lincoln’s
perspective and the evidence
and reasoning he uses to
support this position.
Debate
Students present an informal or
formal argument that defends a
claim with reasons, while others
defend dierent claims about
the same topic or issue. The
goal is to debate ideas without
attacking the people who
defend those ideas.
Gives students an
opportunity to collect
and orally present
evidence supporting
the armative and
negative arguments of a
proposition or issue.
Have students debate which
U.S. president was the most
signicant, using evidence
and reasoning to support
their claims.
continued on next page
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221AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Strategy Denition Purpose Example
Debrieng
Students participate in
a facilitated discussion
that leads to consensus
understanding or helps them
identify the key conclusions
or takeaways.
Helps students
solidify and deepen
understanding
of content.
For complex issues, such as
nancial panics, lead students
in a debrief to ensure
their understanding.
Discussion
Groups
Students engage in an
interactive, small-group
discussion, often with an
assigned role (e.g., questioner,
summarizer, facilitator,
evidence keeper) to consider
a topic, text, question, etc.
Helps students gain
new understanding of
or insight into a text or
issue by listening to
multiple perspectives.
Assign students to groups to
discuss a learning objective,
such as Explain how and
why a new national culture
developed from 1800 to
1848, with the view to help
them gain new understanding
by hearing the views of
their classmates.
Fishbowl
Some students form an inner
circle and model appropriate
discussion techniques while an
outer circle of students listens,
responds, and evaluates.
Provides students
with an opportunity
to engage in a formal
discussion and to
experience roles both
as participant and active
listener; students also
have the responsibility of
supporting their opinions
and responses using
specic textual evidence.
Have students discuss the
arguments presented in
American Revolution–era
documents and how they
responded to British actions
and policies leading up to the
American Revolution.
Graphic
Organizer
Students use a visual
representation for the
organization of information.
Builds comprehension
and facilitates discussion
by representing
information in visual form.
Ask students to use a graphic
organizer to compare political,
economic, religious, social,
intellectual, and technological
ideas. Make sure students
use any organizer thoughtfully
and are not simply lling
in the blanks.
Guided
Discussion
A guided discussion is an
umbrella strategy that allows
for the use of dierent
techniques as you guide
students through the lesson.
Helps students see the
big picture and builds
their condence when
dealing with dicult
content and/or new skills.
Use brainstorming and
quickwrite as strategies
during a guided discussion
in which you help students
understand the motivations
and patterns of colonization in
North America by European
countries and ultimately
why the British “won.”
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222AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Strategy Denition Purpose Example
Jigsaw
Each student in a group reads
a dierent text or dierent
passage from a single text,
taking on the role of “expert”
on what was read. Students
share the information
from that reading with
students from other groups
and then return to their
original groups to share their
new knowledge.
Helps students
summarize and present
information to others
in a way that facilitates
an understanding of a
text (or multiple texts)
or issue without having
each student read the
text in its entirety; by
teaching others, they
become experts.
Use this strategy to
facilitate understanding of
the various objectives and
accomplishments of the
Progressive movement. Have
students read and analyze
primary and secondary
sources related to political
corruption, social injustice,
and economic inequality.
Look for a
Pattern
Students evaluate data or
create visual representations
to nd a trend.
Helps students identify
patterns that may be
used to draw conclusions.
Using a complex graph
(with at least two data
sets), such as one showing
agricultural production in
the late 19th century, have
students compare acres
under cultivation and crop
yield per acre to nd a trend
and draw a conclusion.
Making
Connections
Students are given a concept,
term, or document and
asked to write what they
know about it. Then students
are paired and asked to
determine, describe, and
then explain the connection
between the two concepts.
Reinforces the fact that
concepts are often
connected and provides
the opportunity for
students to make and
explain connections
between and among
these concepts.
Write concepts related to
one of the course themes
on cards, place them in a
box, and have students pick
a concept at random. Give
students a few minutes to
gather and recall information
about the term and then pair
students and ask them to
nd the connection between
their concepts. Finally, ask
the pairs to write a brief
explanation of how the
concepts are related.
Match Claims
and Evidence
Students are given sample
claims (most of which can be
improved on) to evaluate and
revise. Then students match
their revised claims with
pieces of evidence that can
be used to support the claims.
Once matched, students
write a statement explaining
how and why the evidence
supports the claim.
Provides opportunities
for students to edit
existing claims and match
those claims with existing
evidence in preparation
for writing their own
argumentative essays.
In early stages of practicing
argumentation, ask small
groups of students to write
claims and supporting
evidence statements based
on a prompt. Have groups
trade claims and evidence and
revise or modify the claims (if
necessary), match the claims
and evidence, and write
statements explaining why the
evidence supports the claim.
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223AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Strategy Denition Purpose Example
Questioning
the Text
Developing literal, interpretive,
and universal questions about
a text while reading it.
Allows students to
engage more actively
with texts, read with
greater purpose and
focus, and ultimately
answer questions to
gain greater insight
into the text.
Ask students to read and
analyze propaganda posters
from either World War I
or II and write down any
clarication and discussion
questions that come to
mind while reading the
text. Form groups around
similar questions and ask
students to research answers
from a source, such as the
textbook. Have groups
present their ndings and
lead a discussion about
propaganda, mobilization,
and preparedness.
Quickwrite
Students write for a short,
specic amount of time about
a designated topic.
Helps students generate
ideas in a short time.
As preparation for the free-
response questions, use
Unit 5: Learning Objective B,
Explain the causes and
eects of westward
expansion from 1844 to
1877, to have students write
claims and explain evidence
that supports their claims
for various topics.
Self/Peer
Revision
Students work alone or
with a partner to examine a
piece of writing for accuracy
and clarity.
Provides students with
an opportunity for editing
a written text to ensure
correctness of identied
components.
Have students perform self-
and peer revisions of their
practice argument essays so
that they have the opportunity
to review their practice
claims, supporting evidence,
sourcing, and analysis
and reasoning.
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224AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Strategy Denition Purpose Example
Shared Inquiry
Students actively read a
provocative text, asking
interpretive questions
(questions for which there
are no predetermined right
answers) before and during
reading. After reading the text,
students engage with their
peers to make meaning
from the text, oer dierent
answers to the questions,
and debate one another,
supporting their positions
with specic evidence from
the text.
Allows a teacher to lead
a deep discussion about
a text and encourages
diverse ideas to
emerge as students
think deeply and share
interpretations.
Provide a selection of primary
sources from individuals
involved in Latino, American
Indian, and Asian American
movements. In groups,
ask students to formulate
responses to Unit 8: Learning
Objective L, Explain how
and why various groups
responded to calls for the
expansion of civil rights from
1960 to 1980, and present
their ideas to the class.
Then lead a whole-group
discussion comparing these
movements to the African
American movement for
civil rights.
Socratic
Seminar
A focused discussion tied to
a topic, question, or selected
text in which students ask
questions of one another.
The questions initiate a
conversation that continues
with a series of responses and
additional questions.
Helps students arrive
at a new understanding
by asking questions
that clarify; challenging
assumptions; probing
perspective and point of
view; questioning facts,
reasons, and evidence;
or examining implications
and outcomes.
Use a question such as
How and why was the United
States a world leader after
World War II? to initiate
a discussion in which
students can illustrate their
understanding of the learning
objectives and historical
development statements.
Think-Pair-
Share
Students think through a
question or issue alone,
pair with a partner to share
ideas, and then share results
with the class.
Enables the development
of initial ideas that
are then tested with a
partner in preparation
for revising ideas and
sharing them with a
larger group.
To practice comparing the
responses by the executive,
legislative, and judicial
branches to the calls for
expansion of civil rights, have
students use think-pair-share
to come up with similarities,
dierences, and relevance to
the historical situation.
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225AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Developing Historical
Thinking Skills
Throughout the AP U.S. History course, students will develop skills that are
fundamental to the study of history. Since these historical thinking skills represent
the complex skills that adept historians demonstrate, students will benet from
multiple opportunities to develop them in a scaolded manner.
The historical thinking skills and reasoning processes used in the course framework
help students begin to understand and create historical arguments in a process
similar to that used by historians. This process begins with a close analysis of
historical sources and reaches its conclusion when evidence, drawn from historical
sources, is used eectively to support an argument about the past.
The tables on the pages that follow look at each of the skills and provide examples
of tasks or questions for each skill, along with instructional notes and strategies for
integrating that skill into the course.
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226AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Historical Thinking Skill 1:
Identify and explain historical developments and processes
Historical knowledge is gained from a variety of formats: knowledge transfer from
the teacher, reading textbooks, analyzing primary and secondary sources, and from
other media. In order to perform historical analysis and argumentation, students
need to establish a depth of knowledge about historical events, processes, and
people and their actions. This skill allows students to gain that empirical knowledge
that they can then apply using more sophisticated skills.
Skill Tasks/Questions Sample Activity
Instructional
Strategies
1.A Identify a
historical concept,
development,
or process.
§ Identify the characteristics
and traits of a concept,
development, or process.
§ What does the historical
evidence tell you about
a concept, development,
or process?
Ask students to read the
“Declaration of Sentiments”
and identify the sentiments
expressed by the authors.
§ Quickwrite
§ Think-Pair-
Share
1.B Explain a
historical concept,
development,
or process.
§ Using specic historical
evidence, explain how
and why a historical
concept, development, or
process emerged.
§ Begin to think about
causation and patterns
of continuity and change
over time.
Ask students to explain
through writing how the
Seneca Falls Convention
came to be.
§ Quickwrite
§ Graphic
Organizer
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227AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Historical Thinking Skill 2: Analyze sourcing and
situation of primary and secondary sources
Historians use primary sources and the arguments of other historians (secondary
sources) as the foundation for creating an understanding about historical
events—in short, a historical argument. Sources need to be closely evaluated so
that they can be used properly to support, refute, or even modify an argument. By
using these skills, students will build an understanding of source analysis that they
can later use in developing their own historical arguments. Good analysis requires a
critical evaluation of the source’s limitations.
Skill Tasks/Questions Sample Activity
Instructional
Strategies
2.A Identify a
source’s point
of view, purpose,
historical situation,
and/or audience.
§ Identify the author.
§ Identify his or
her perspective.
§ Identify the purpose.
§ Identify the intended audience.
§ Place the source within its
historical situation.
Lead students on a
guided reading of
Booker T. Washington’s
“Atlanta Compromise”
speech. Ask them to
identify the author and his
perspective (point of view).
§ Critique
Reasoning
§ Jigsaw
2.B Explain the point
of view, purpose,
historical situation,
and/or audience of
a source.
§ Explain the many dierent
variables that impact a
source’s:
◆
Content
◆
Tone
◆
Interpretation
◆
Audience
◆
Purpose
Ask students to examine
the factors that led
Booker T. Washington to
respond to Jim Crow the
way he did in the time period
of the late 19th and early
20th centuries?
§ Socratic
Seminar
2.C Explain the
signicance of a
source’s point of
view, purpose,
historical situation,
and/or audience,
including how these
might limit the use(s)
of a source.
§ Why does the source’s point
of view, purpose, historical
situation, and audience
matter?
§ What does the source not
tell you?
§ How do the tone and
audience of a source aect
its value to historians?
§ How could historians use this
information in their analysis
of evidence?
Identify the justications
used by James K. Polk when
he asked Congress for a
declaration of war against
Mexico in 1846. Have
students explain how the
purpose, historical situation,
and/or audience might limit
the use(s) of this source.
§ Discussion
Groups
§ Think-Pair-
Share
§ Quickwrite
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228AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Historical Thinking Skill 3: Analyze arguments
in primary and secondary sources
Because historians rely on primary and secondary sources to serve as evidence
to support their claims, they need to closely analyze these sources. This analysis
includes investigating what the source does and does not communicate,
determining the argument established by a source, and identifying the evidence the
author uses to support that argument.
Skill Tasks/Questions Sample Activity
Instructional
Strategies
3.A Identify and
describe a claim
and/or argument in a
text-based or non-
text-based source.
§ What is the author trying to
prove in the source?
Ask students to identify
Benjamin Franklin’s
argument in his “Join or Die”
political cartoon.
§ Debrieng
3.B Identify the
evidence used in a
source to support
an argument.
§ What is the source’s
argument?
§ What specic examples does
the author use to support
the argument?
Ask students to identify
the justications that
William McKinley presents
in his April 11, 1898,
message to Congress
requesting a declaration of
war against Spain.
§ Critique
Reasoning
3.C Compare the
arguments or main
ideas of two sources.
§ Identify the argument or main
idea in each source.
§ What are the similarities
between the arguments or
main ideas in each source?
§ What are the dierences
between the arguments or
main ideas in each source?
Using excerpted transcripts
of majority and dissenting
opinions, ask students
to compare the justices’
interpretations of the
14th Amendment in the case
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).
§ Fishbowl
3.D Explain
how claims or
evidence support,
modify, or refute a
source’s argument.
§ Explain the source's claim.
§ Explain the evidence
presented in the source.
§ Explain how outside evidence
supports the claims in
the source.
§ Explain how outside evidence
contradicts the claims in
the source.
Ask students to explain
the arguments made in the
Declaration of Independence.
What outside evidence
supports and refutes the
claims made?
§ Close Reading
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229AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Historical Thinking Skill 4: Analyze the context
of historical events, developments, or processes
Historical events, developments, and processes do not happen in a vacuum. They
cannot be understood without proper examination within the relevant context.
While students are often taught to focus on comparison, causality, and patterns of
continuity and change over time as ways to look at these events, historical context
also plays a part. Analyzing historical events using context helps students see the
big picture and make the connections they will need to make when developing
thoughtful arguments. These skills guide students through the process of
contextual analysis.
Skill Tasks/Questions Sample Activity
Instructional
Strategies
4.A Identify and
describe a historical
context for a specic
historical development
or process.
§ What events led up to the
one being studied?
§ What else is happening in
orth America or the world at
his time?
N
t
The United States acquired
lands mainly in the Western
Hemisphere. As you
move into studying Unit 6,
have students relate the
various motivations for the
acquisition of those lands
to broader economic and
political developments.
§ Debrieng
§ Discussion
Groups
4.B Explain how a
specic historical
development or
process is situated
within a broader
historical context.
§ What does the source tell
us about the time in which it
was created?
§ Use historical reasoning to
explain how an event relates
to a broader process.
§ How does the relationship
aect the event
being studied?
§ Examine the evidence
through the lens of
another historical event
or development.
§ How can this evidence be
used to explain other, related
historical events?
Have students examine
Washington’s Proclamation
of Neutrality in the context of
the American Revolution and
the U.S. Constitution. Extend
the discussion to include
American foreign policy of the
1790s under Washington.
Challenge students to look
at events and processes
both inside and outside of
the United States during
this exercise.
§ Close Reading
§ Socratic
Seminar
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230AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Historical Thinking Skill 5: Using historical
reasoning processes (comparison, causation,
continuity and change), analyze patterns and
connections between and among historical
developments and processes
Analyzing patterns and making connections is the bridge between all of the
previous historical thinking skills. This skill pulls everything together and allows
students to connect all concepts. Whether they are using sources or their own
historical knowledge, students will use the historical reasoning processes to identify
and explain patterns and connections between historical events and developments.
Skill Tasks/Questions Sample Activity
Instructional
Strategies
5.A Identify patterns
among or connections
between historical
developments
and processes.
§ What historical developments
or processes are described
in this source?
§ What are the causes of this
development or process?
§ What are the eects of this
development or process?
§ Where does the development
or process t into a pattern of
continuity or change over time?
§ What are the similarities and
dierences between this
development or process
and another?
§ What does the data in a non-
text-based source represent?
§ What trends and patterns can
you identify from non-text-
based data?
Have students examine a
series of visual sources from
the post–War of 1812 time
period in order to identify
and describe a pattern or
connection between the
emergent nationalism and
single-party politics. Use
these sources to assess
the validity of the label
“Era of Good Feelings.”
Have students organize
their ndings on a timeline
or graphic organizer
(concept web).
§ Debrieng
§ Look for a
Pattern
§ Graphic
Organizer
5.B Explain
how a historical
development or
process relates to
another historical
development
or process.
§ Which historical developments
are illustrated in the
historical evidence?
§ How or why are the causes of
this development or process
related to another historical
development or process?
§ How or why are the eects of
this development or process
related to another historical
development or process?
§ How or why does the
development or process t
into a pattern of continuity or
change over time?
§ How or why are developments
and processes similar
and/or dierent?
Have students write a
practice response to a long
essay question explaining
the extent to which the
mobilization for World War
II was responsible for social
and civil rights movements
in the second half of the
20th century.
As part of their response,
students should explain how
World War II mobilization
relates to social and civil
rights movements, using
causation or patterns of
continuity and change
over time.
§ Quickwrite
§ Self/Peer
Revision
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231AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Historical Thinking Skill 6: Develop an argument
Writing claims is often the rst argumentation skill that students practice, but claims
are dicult to develop without prompting. Giving students prompts to work with can
help them as they learn this skill. The prompt should establish parameters that force
students to take a position, either by choosing one of two presented alternatives or
by assessing the extent to which a given proposition or scenario is valid.
In order to develop a historically defensible claim, students need to know what
evidence is available to support that claim. They can practice writing claims using
just their knowledge as evidence, as they will in the long essay question. They
should also write claims using documents, to practice both evidence and sourcing
(a few at rst, then build quantity as students gain skills and condence), as they
will in the document-based question.
The reasoning processes, discussed in more depth starting on page 236, will
help students develop historical reasoning needed to appropriately connect their
evidence to their claims.
There is no simple path to teaching students to develop complex arguments. The
tasks/questions and the sample activities in the table below can serve as a roadmap.
However, students will also need a mastery of the course content, source analysis,
a highly developed understanding of historical context, and the ability to make
connections between and among events to demonstrate this skill. In short, it is the
culminating skill for an AP U.S. History student.
Skill Tasks/Questions Sample Activity
Instructional
Strategies
6.A Make a
historically
defensible claim.
§ What do you know about
the development or
processes established
in the prompt?
§ What are your options
regarding positions
to take?
§ What historical reasoning
process is indicated
(or best ts the structure
of the essay you plan
to write)?
§ Based on the prompt
and the evidence (either
provided or from your
own knowledge), which
position will you take?
§ State in a few words how
you will prove your claim
(“because” statement).
Provide students with a practice
writing prompt, such as Evaluate
the extent to which Manifest
Destiny was motivated by social
or economic reasons.
Have students break down the
prompt into potential positions
(Manifest Destiny was socially
motivated or Manifest Destiny
was economically motivated, or
was motivated by both).
Have them identify a historical
reasoning process that best ts
the essay that they would go on
to develop (such as comparison
or causation).
Ask them to think of evidence
that would support all of the
identied positions. Then ask
them to write a defensible
claim that establishes a line of
reasoning by stating their chosen
position and providing a roadmap
for how they are going to prove
their claim (“because” statement).
§ Self/Peer
Revision
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232AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Skill Tasks/Questions Sample Activity
Instructional
Strategies
6.B Support an
argument using
specic and
relevant evidence.
§ Describe specic
examples of
historically
relevant evidence.
§ Explain how specic
examples of
historically relevant
evidence support
an argument.
§ Brainstorm relevant
evidence that relates
to the development or
process established in
the prompt.
§ Hone your initial list of
evidence by describing
specic examples that
support the argument.
§ If practicing a document-
based question, evaluate
the evidence provided.
§ Determine whether the
evidence supports,
refutes, or modies each
of the possible positions.
Provide students with three to
four documents* that could be
used to support the positions
outlined in a sample prompt,
such as Evaluate the extent
to which Reconstruction
produced a radical change in
the lives of African Americans.
Ask students to evaluate the
evidence using a Venn diagram.
They should group the evidence
into three categories: evidence
that supports the idea that
Reconstruction was a radical
change, evidence that the
change was not as radical, and
evidence that could be used to
support both positions. For each
piece of evidence, have students
write a statement explaining
how the evidence supports
the position(s).
*Teachers can use this same
activity for long essay question
practice by asking students to
brainstorm relevant evidence
instead of providing documents.
§ Graphic
Organizer
6.C Use historical
reasoning to explain
relationships
among pieces of
historical evidence.
§ Which reasoning
process(es) is indicated
in the prompt?
§ If comparison is indicated,
establish relevant
categories in which to
compare the evidence.
§ If causation is indicated,
how does the evidence
show a pattern of causes
and/or eects?
§ If continuity and
change is indicated,
identify patterns or
developments that
indicate it and draw
conclusions in support
of your claim.
In a practice argumentation
essay, have students identify
the historical reasoning process
indicated in the prompt. Then
have them develop and use a
graphic organizer (such as a
Venn diagram or ow chart) to
arrange the evidence in a way
that reects the organizational
structure of the historical
reasoning process.
§ Graphic
Organizer
§ Self/Peer
Revision
§ Debate
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233AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Skill Tasks/Questions Sample Activity
Instructional
Strategies
6.D Corroborate,
qualify, or modify
an argument
using diverse and
alternative evidence
in order to develop a
complex argument.
This argument might:
§ Create
Representations
§ Graphic
Organizer
§ Think-Pair-Share
§ Quickwrite
§ Self/Peer
Revision
§ Explain nuance
of an issue
by analyzing
multiple variables.
§ Explain relevant
and insightful
connections within
and across periods.
§ Identify which categorical
variables (e.g.,
economics, social issues,
politics, religion) have a
signicant eect on the
development or process.
§ How does the
development or process
relate to or how was
it aected by the
categorical variables
you identied?
§ How is this development
or process signicantly
similar to or dierent
from a related
development or process?
§ Is this development
or process a
signicant result of
or a major catalyst
for a development or
process within or across
time periods?
§ Does this development
or process represent a
signicant change or a
continuity over time?
In an essay on the eectiveness
of New Deal programs, have
students provide evidence to
support various categorical
variables and explain their
impact on the eectiveness
of the New Deal programs.
Have them rank the categorical
variables in order to show most
to least importance in terms
of eectiveness.
In an essay, ask students to
make connections between the
political reform movements of
the 20th century.
For example, the Progressive
movement of the early 20th
century had later iterations
(New Deal, Fair Deal, Great
Society). How were those
later movements similar to
or dierent from the rst
Progressive movement? In what
ways do the later movements
show continuity with the original
movement? In what ways do
they show change?
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234AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Skill Tasks/Questions Sample Activity
Instructional
Strategies
§ Explain the
relative historical
signicance of a
source’s credibility
and limitations.
§ How or why is the
source’s point of view,
purpose, historical
situation, or audience
relevant to the argument?
§ How would this eect
the use of the source in
developing an argument?
Give students a set of four
documents with contradictory
perspectives on the debate over
preparing the nation for World
War I.
Ask them to examine each
document and weigh the relative
historical signicance and
credibility of each.
Then have students establish a
position on whether the United
States should prepare for war
through an evaluation of each
source’s point of view, purpose,
historical situation, or audience.
§ Create
Representations
§ Graphic
Organizer
§ Think-Pair-Share
§ Quickwrite
§ Self/Peer
Revision
§ Explain how or why
a historical claim
or argument is or is
not eective.
§ Evaluate the historical
claim.
§ How does the evidence
support this claim?
§ What evidence goes
against this claim?
§ What evidence-based
counterarguments exist?
§ Using evidence, refute
the counterargument by
explaining why it is not
as eective.
Using a collection of sources
from a released document-
based question, ask students
to identify the claim of a source
and list the evidence presented
in a chart. Then ask them to
corroborate or refute the claim
based on the evidence. Ask them
to present disparate, diverse,
or contradictory evidence that
they glean from the sources.
After refuting the claim,
ask them why their argument is
the most persuasive.
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235AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Developing the
Reasoning Processes
Reasoning processes describe the cognitive operations
that students will be required to apply when engaging
with the historical thinking skills on the AP Exam. The
reasoning processes ultimately represent ways in which
historians think.
Student responses on the AP Exam should reect
their ability to apply a reasoning process that aligns
to the intent of the question. For example, if students
are asked to explain how and why European and
Native American perspectives of others developed
and changed in the period 1450–1607, successful
student responses will be organized around the
reasoning process of comparison. In many cases,
guiding students toward a better alignment between
the reasoning process and the task unlocks their
understanding and helps them improve their writing.
The table that follows provides suggestions for
approaching the reasoning processes in the AP U.S.
History course.
Reasoning
Process Key Tasks Examples
Sample
Instructional
Strategies
Comparison
1.i: Describe similarities and/or
dierences between dierent
historical developments
or processes.
Describe the similarities and
dierences between the political
parties during the Gilded Age.
(Topic 6.13)
§ Debrieng
1.ii: Explain relevant similarities
and/or dierences between
specic historical developments
and processes.
Explain the similarities and
dierences in how regional
attitudes aected federal
policy in the period after the
Mexican–American War. (Topic 5.4)
§ Graphic
Organizer
1.iii: Explain the relative
historical signicance of
similarities and/or dierences
between dierent historical
developments or processes.
Compare the relative signicance
of the major events of the rst
half of the 20th century in shaping
American identity. (Topic 7.15)
§ Self/Peer
Revision
continued on next page
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236AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Reasoning
Process Key Tasks Examples
Sample
Instructional
Strategies
Causation
2.i: Describe causes and/or
eects of a specic historical
development or process.
Describe the eects of Lincoln’s
election. (Topic 5.7)
§ Close Reading
2.ii: Explain the relationship
between causes and eects of a
specic historical development
or process.
Explain the causes and eects
of slavery in the various British
colonial regions. (Topic 2.6)
§ Graphic
Organizer
2.iii: Explain the dierence
between primary and secondary
causes and between short- and
long-term eects.
Explain short-term and long-term
eects of the Columbian Exchange
during the period after 1492.
(Topic 1.4)
§ Discussion
Groups
2.iv: Explain how a relevant
context inuenced a specic
historical development
or process.
Explain how British colonial policies
regarding North America led to the
Revolutionary War. (Topic 3.3)
§ Quickwrite
2.v: Explain the relative historical
signicance of dierent causes
and/or eects.
Explain the relative importance
of the various causes of U.S.
involvement in World War I.
(Topic 7.5)
§ Socratic
Seminar
Continuity and
Change
3.i: Describe patterns of
continuity and/or change
over time.
Describe the various factors
that contributed to change and
continuity in the “New South” from
1877 to 1898. (Topic 6.4)
§ Think-Pair-
Share
3.ii: Explain patterns of
continuity and/or change
over time.
Explain how American political,
social, and economic life was
impacted by the Great Depression
and New Deal over time.
(Topic 7.10)
§ Jigsaw
3.iii: Explain the relative
historical signicance of specic
historical developments in
relation to a larger pattern of
continuity and/or change.
Explain the extent to which the
events of the period from 1945
to1980 reshaped national identity.
(Topic 8.15)
§ Self/Peer
Revision
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237AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
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AP U.S. HISTORY
Exam
Information
Exam Overview
The AP U.S. History Exam assesses student understanding of the historical
thinking skills and learning objectives outlined in the course framework.
The exam is 3 hours and 15 minutes long and students are required to
answer 55 multiple-choice questions, 3 short-answer questions, 1 document-
based question, and 1 long essay question. The details of the exam, including
exam weighting and timing, can be found below:
Section Question Type
Number of
Questions
Exam
Weighting Timing
I
Part A: Multiple-choice questions 55 40% 55 minutes
Part B: Short-answer questions 3 20% 40 minutes
Question 1: Secondary source(s)
Question 2: Primary source
Students select one:
Question 3: No stimulus
Question 4: No stimulus
II
Free-response questions 2
Question 1: Document-based 25% 60 minutes
(includes a
15-minute
reading period)
Students select one:
Question 2: Long essay
Question 3: Long essay
Question 4: Long essay
15% 40 minutes
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241AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
The exam assesses content from the eight course themes:
Theme 1: American and National Identity
Theme 2: Work, Exchange, and Technology
Theme 3: Geography and the Environment
Theme 4: Migration and Settlement
Theme 5: Politics and Power
Theme 6: America in the World
Theme 7: American and Regional Culture
Theme 8: Social Structures
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242AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
The exam weighting for each of the nine units of the course is provided below.
Units Exam Weighting
Unit 1: Period 1: 1491–1607
4–6%
Unit 2: Period 2: 1607–1754
6–8%
Unit 3: Period 3: 1754–1800
10–17%
Unit 4: Period 4: 1800–1848
10–17%
Unit 5: Period 5: 1844–1877
10–17%
Unit 6: Period 6: 1865–1898
10–17%
Unit 7: Period 7: 1890–1945
10–17%
Unit 8: Period 8: 1945–1980
10–17%
Unit 9: Period 9: 1980–Present
4–6%
Section I
PART A: MULTIPLE-CHOICE
The rst part of Section I of the AP U.S. History Exam includes 55 multiple-choice
questions typically appearing in sets of three to four questions, each with one or more
stimuli, including primary texts, secondary texts, images (artwork, photos, posters,
cartoons, etc.), charts or other quantitative data, and maps. Additionally, there will be
at least one set of paired text-based stimuli (in either the multiple-choice questions
or one of the short-answer questions). Multiple-choice questions require analysis
of the provided stimulus sources and of the historical developments and processes
described in the sources.
PART B: SHORT-ANSWER
The second part of Section I of the AP Exam also includes three required short-answer
questions. Short-answer question 1 is required and includes a secondary source
stimulus. The topic of the question includes historical developments or processes
between the years 1754 and 1980.
Short-answer question 2 is required and includes a primary source stimulus. The topic
of the question includes historical developments or processes between the years 1754
and 1980.
Students may select short-answer question 3 or 4, neither of which includes a
stimulus. Short-answer question 3 focuses on historical developments or processes
between the years 1491 and 1877. Short-answer question 4 focuses on historical
developments or processes between the years 1865 and 2001.
Section II
DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION
The document-based question presents students with seven documents oering
various perspectives on a historical development or process. The question requires
students to do the following:
§ Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that
establishes a line of reasoning.
§ Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt.
§ Use the provided documents to support an argument in response to the prompt.
§ Use historical evidence beyond the documents relevant to an argument about
the prompt.
§ For at least three documents, explain how or why the document’s point of view,
purpose, historical situation, and/or audience is relevant to an argument.
§ Demonstrate a complex understanding of the historical development that is the
focus of the prompt, using evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument
that addresses the question.
The topic of the document-based question will include historical developments or
processes between the years 1754 and 1980.
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243AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
LONG ESSAY QUESTION
The long essay question requires students to do the following:
§ Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that
establishes a line of reasoning.
§ Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt.
§ Support an argument in response to the prompt using specic and relevant
examples of evidence.
§ Demonstrate a complex understanding of the historical development that is the
focus of the prompt, using evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument
that addresses the question.
Students must select one of three long essay questions. Each question focuses on the
same reasoning process, but historical developments and processes in dierent time
periods. The rst option focuses on historical developments or processes between
1491 and 1800, the second on historical developments or processes between 1800 and
1898, and the third on historical developments or processes between 1890 and 2001.
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244AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
How Student Learning Is
Assessed on the AP Exam
The six historical thinking skills are assessed on the AP Exam as detailed below.
Historical
Thinking Skill Multiple-Choice Questions Free-Response Questions
Skill 1:
Developments
and Processes
Multiple-choice questions assess students’ ability
to identify and explain historical developments
and processes.
The short-answer questions,
document-based question, and long
essay question assess students’
ability to identify and explain historical
developments and processes.
Skill 2: Sourcing
and Situation
Multiple-choice questions assess students’ ability
to analyze sourcing and situation of primary and
secondary sources.
Students will need to identify and explain the point
of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience
of a source including its signicance. Additionally,
students will need to explain how the sourcing and
situation might limit the use(s) of a source.
Short-answer questions 1 and/or
2 assess students’ ability to
analyze the sourcing or situation in
primary or secondary sources. The
document-based question assesses
students’ ability to analyze how the
point of view, purpose, historical
situation, and/or audience is relevant
to an argument.
Skill 3: Claims
and Evidence in
Sources
Multiple-choice questions assess students’ ability
to analyze arguments in primary and secondary
sources, including identifying and describing
claims and evidence used. Additionally, students
will need to compare arguments and explain how
claims or evidence support, modify, or refute a
source’s argument.
Short-answer questions 1 and/or
2 assess students’ ability to
analyze arguments in primary
or secondary sources. The
document-based question
also provides opportunities for
students to analyze arguments in
primary sources.
Skill 4:
Contextualization
Multiple-choice questions assess students’ ability to
identify and describe a historical context for a specic
historical development or process as well as explain
how a specic development or process is situated
within a broader historical context.
The document-based question
and long essay question assess
students’ ability to describe a
broader historical context relevant
to the topic of the question. One or
two of the short-answer questions
may also assess this skill.
Skill 5: Making
Connections
Multiple-choice questions assess students’ ability
to analyze patterns and connections between and
among historical developments and processes, using
historical reasoning processes (e.g., comparison,
causation, continuity and change).
The document-based question, long
essay question, and one or more
of the short-answer questions all
assess this skill.
Skill 6:
Argumentation
No multiple-choice questions explicitly assess the
argumentation skill.
The document-based question
and long essay question assess
argumentation.
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245AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Task Verbs Used in
the Free-Response
Questions
The following task verbs are commonly used in the free-response questions:
Compare: Provide a description or explanation of similarities and/or dierences.
Describe: Provide the relevant characteristics of a specied topic.
Evaluate: Judge or determine the signicance or importance of information, or
the quality or accuracy of a claim.
Explain: Provide information about how or why a relationship, pattern, position,
situation, or outcome occurs, using evidence and/or reasoning. “Explain
how” typically requires analyzing the relationship, process, pattern, position,
situation, or outcome, whereas “explain why” typically requires analysis of
motivations or reasons for the relationship, process, pattern, position, situation,
or outcome.
Identify: Indicate or provide information about a specied topic, without
elaboration or explanation.
Support an argument: Provide specic examples and explain how they
support a claim.
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246AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Sample Exam
Questions
The sample exam questions that follow illustrate the relationship between the course
framework and the AP U.S. History Exam and serve as examples of the types of
questions that appear on the exam. After the sample questions is a table that shows to
which skill and learning objective(s) each question relates. The table also provides the
answers to the multiple-choice questions.
Section I
PART A: MULTIPLE-CHOICE
Questions 1–4 refer to the following excerpt.
“May it . . . please your most excellent Majesty, that it may be declared . . . in
this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, at
the said colonies and plantations in America have been, are, and of right
ought to be, subordinate unto, and dependent upon the imperial crown and
parliament of Great Britain; . . . and [they] of right ought to have, full power
and authority to make laws and statutes of sucient force and validity to bind
the colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain, in
all cases whatsoever.”
e Declaratory Act, passed by the British Parliament in 1766
1. Which of the following contributed most directly to the enactment of the law in
the excerpt?
(A) e increasing divergence between colonial and British culture in the 1700s
(B) Debates over how Britain’s colonies should bear the cost of the Seven Years’
War (French and Indian War)
(C) e draing of a declaration of independence for Britain’s colonies in
North America
(D) Conicts between colonists and British army leaders over recognizing
Native American sovereignty
2. e actions described in the excerpt most immediately led to
(A) Parliament strengthening its approach to generating new tax revenue in the
North American colonies
(B) major and sometimes violent conicts emerging between the various
colonial regions
(C) a colonial convention to call for independence from Britain
(D) Britain delegating greater authority to colonial assemblies
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247AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
3. Which of the following was the American colonists’ immediate response to the
attempts of the British Parliament to enforce the claims made in the excerpt?
(A) ey acceded to Parliament’s authority to regulate colonial commerce.
(B) ey denied the power of the British king over the colonies.
(C) ey sought an alliance with France against Great Britain.
(D) ey initiated boycotts of imported British goods.
4. Debates over the claims of the British Parliament in the excerpt most directly
contributed to which of the following later characteristics of the United States
government?
(A) e reservation of some governmental powers for the states
(B) e enforcement of term limits for the president
(C) e establishment of taxation power in Congress
(D) e practice of judicial review by the Supreme Court
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248AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Questions 5–7 refer to the following excerpt.
“e Erie Canal poured into New York City [wealth] far exceeding that which
its early friends predicted. . . . In the city, merchants, bankers, warehousemen,
[and] shippers . . . seized the opportunity to perfect and specialize their
services, fostering round aer round of business innovations that within a
decade of the opening of the Erie Canal had made New York by far the best
place in America to engage in commerce. . . .
“. . . Even before its economic benets were realized fully, rival seaports
with hopes of tapping interior trade began to imagine dreadful prospects
of permanent eclipse. Whatever spirit of mutual good feeling and national
welfare once greeted [internal improvements] now disappeared behind
desperate eorts in cities . . . to create for themselves a westward connection.”
John Lauritz Larson, historian, Internal Improvement:
National Public Works and the Promise of
Popular Government in the Early United States, 2001
5. e excerpt best illustrates which of the following developments?
(A) e extension of commerce with Native Americans
(B) e expansion of access to markets
(C) e growth in the internal slave trade
(D) e increase in semisubsistence agricultural production
6. Which of the following developments in the early nineteenth century could best
be used as evidence to support the argument in the second paragraph of the
excerpt?
(A) e opposition of some political leaders to providing federal funds for
public works
(B) e failure of some infrastructure projects to recover their costs
(C) e recruitment of immigrant laborers to work on new transportation
projects
(D) e rise of a regional economy based on the production and export
of cotton
7. Which of the following later developments had an eect most similar to that
described in the excerpt?
(A) e invention of the mechanical reaper in the 1830s
(B) e annexation of Texas in the 1840s
(C) e growth of political party competition in the 1850s
(D) e completion of the rst transcontinental railroad in the 1860s
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249AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Questions 8–10 refer to the following excerpt.
“e normal condition of all the territory of the United States is that of
freedom. at as our Republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery
in all our national [western] territory, ordained that ‘no person should
be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law,’ it
becomes our duty by legislation, whenever such legislation is necessary, to
maintain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate
it; and we deny the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, or
of any individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the
United States.”
Republican Party platform, 1860
8. Which of the following best serves as evidence for the claim that “our
Republican fathers . . . had abolished slavery in all our national territory”?
(A) e ban on the trans-Atlantic slave trade implemented in 1808
(B) e relationship of George Washington and omas Jeerson to slavery
(C) e provisions of the Northwest Ordinance regarding slavery
(D) e agreement to count three-hs of enslaved people for representation in
Congress
9. e ideas expressed in the excerpt were most directly inuenced by the
(A) nativist movement
(B) free-soil movement
(C) Texas independence movement
(D) temperance movement
10. Republicans asserted that political leaders could not “give legal existence to
slavery in any territory of the United States” in order to express opposition
against the
(A) idea of popular sovereignty exemplied by the Kansas-Nebraska Act
(B) removal of American Indians from their homelands
(C) recruitment of laborers for Northern factories
(D) application of California for statehood
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250AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Questions 11–14 refer to the following image from the 1940s.
Copyright © Boeing. All Rights Reserved
11. e image most directly reects which of the following developments during
the early 1940s?
(A) e wartime repression of civil liberties
(B) e emergence of the United States as a world power
(C) e limited access to consumer goods during wartime
(D) e wartime mobilization of United States society
12. e image was most likely intended to promote
(A) popular support for federal civil rights legislation to end discrimination
(B) the belief that women should have rights equal to those of men
(C) the movement of women into jobs traditionally held by men
(D) access to union membership for all workers regardless of race or gender
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251AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
13. Production activities like those depicted in the image most directly contributed to
(A) calls to limit arms and naval destroyers for the major world powers
(B) critical wartime provisioning for the Allies that led to victory
(C) eorts to rebuild Western Europe’s postwar economy
(D) concerns about the political inuence of the military-industrial complex
14. In the 1950s, the activities of workers such as those depicted in the image would
be most challenged by
(A) a culture of conformity that emphasized domestic ideals for women
(B) an increased need for dual incomes in suburban middle-class families
(C) the rise of a second-wave feminist movement in the United States
(D) the long-term decline of industrial production in the United States
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252AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Questions 15–17 refer to the following excerpt.
“e oath that I have taken is the same oath that was taken by George
Washington and by every President under the Constitution. But I assume
the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances never before experienced
by Americans. is is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts
our hearts.
“I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your
ballots, and so I ask you to conrm me as your President with your prayers. . . .
“I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our
Government but civilization itself. at bond, though strained, is unbroken
at home and abroad.
“In all my public and private acts as your President, I expect to follow my
instincts of openness and candor with full condence that honesty is always
the best policy in the end. My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare
is over.”
President Gerald Ford, Remarks on Taking the Oath of Oce, 1974
15. e remarks in the excerpt were most likely given in response to which of the
following?
(A) Political scandals resulting from the president’s illegal campaign activity
(B) Accusations that the adoption of national wage and price controls
constituted socialism
(C) e growing concern over escalating antiwar protests and the shooting of
students at Kent State University
(D) e discovery that the president had ordered invasions of Cambodia
and Laos
16. e “strained” bond referenced in the excerpt most directly reected which of
the following?
(A) Increased United States involvement in Vietnam
(B) A declining economy and rising energy prices
(C) Growing federal support for returning power to states
(D) Decreasing public trust in the federal government
17. e events discussed in the excerpt led to which of the following political
changes?
(A) Democrats consolidated political support in areas of the South that
Republicans had previously dominated.
(B) Republicans overcame divisions within their party with Ronald Reagan’s
election as president in 1980.
(C) ird-party candidates won increasing numbers of electoral college votes in
presidential elections.
(D) Congress announced a bipartisan proposal for a Contract with America to
regain voters’ trust.
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253AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
PART B: SHORT-ANSWER QUESTION WITH SECONDARY SOURCE
The following is an example of short-answer question 1 found on the AP Exam.
Note that on the actual AP Exam, students will answer three short-answer questions.
1. “Of all the amusements that bedazzled the single working woman, dancing
proved to be her greatest passion. Aer a long day laboring in a factory or shop,
young women dressed themselves in their fanciest nery, put on their dancing
shoes, and hurried out to the neighborhood hall, ballroom, or saloon equipped
with a dance oor. . . . By the 1910s, over ve hundred public dance halls opened
their doors each evening throughout greater New York. . . .
“New ballrooms and dance palaces oered a novel kind of social space for
their female patrons, enhancing and legitimizing their participation in a
public social life. e commercial culture of the dance halls meshed with
that of working-class youth in a symbiotic relationship, reinforcing emergent
values and ‘modern’ attitudes.”
Kathy Peiss, historian, Cheap Amusements:
Working Women and
Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York, 1986
“As strikers thronged the public streets of New York City [in 1909],
demonstrated in parades and mass meetings, and picketed in front of
factories, they challenged established assumptions about the identity and
appearance of political actors and access to public space. ese working-class,
largely immigrant women comprised a subordinated group long denied an
active voice in recognized political forums. By occupying the arena of labor
politics through a mass strike, they demanded a voice.”
Nan Enstad, historian, Ladies of Labor, Girls of Adventure:
Working Women, Popular Culture, and Labor Politics at the Turn of the
Twentieth Century, 1999
Using the excerpts above, answer (a), (b), and (c).
(A) Briey describe ONE important dierence between Peiss’ and Enstad’s
historical interpretations of women’s emergence in the public sphere at the
turn of the twentieth century.
(B) Briey explain how ONE specic historical event, development, or
circumstance from the period 1880–1929 that is not specically mentioned
in the excerpts could be used to support Peiss’ argument.
(C) Briey explain how ONE specic historical event, development, or
circumstance from the period 1880–1929 that is not specically mentioned
in the excerpts could be used to support Enstad’s argument.
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254AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Section II
The following are examples of the kinds of free-response questions found on the exam.
Note that on the actual AP Exam, students will answer one document-based question
and will select one of the three long essay questions to answer.
DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION
1. Evaluate the relative importance of dierent causes for the expanding role of the
United States in the world in the period from 1865 to 1910.
In your response you should do the following:
§ Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that
establishes a line of reasoning.
§ Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt.
§ Support an argument in response to the prompt using at least six documents.
§ Use at least one additional piece of specic historical evidence (beyond that found
in the documents) relevant to an argument about the prompt.
§ For at least three documents, explain how or why the document’s point of view,
purpose, historical situation, and/or audience is relevant to an argument.
§ Use evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument that addresses
the prompt.
Document 1
Source: Treaty concerning the Cession of the Russian Possessions in
North America by his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias to the
United States of America, June 20, 1867.
His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias agrees to cede to the United
States, by this convention, immediately upon the exchange of the ratications
thereof, all the territory and dominion now possessed by his said Majesty
on the continent of America and in the adjacent islands, the same being
contained within the geographical limits herein set forth. . . .
e inhabitants of the ceded territory, according to their choice . . . may
return to Russia within three years; but if they should prefer to remain in the
ceded territory, they, with the exception of uncivilized native tribes, shall be
admitted to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of
citizens of the United States, and shall be maintained and protected in the
free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion. e uncivilized tribes
will be subject to such laws and regulations as the United States may, from
time to time, adopt in regard to aboriginal tribes of that country. . . .
In consideration of the cession aforesaid, the United States agree to pay . . .
seven million two hundred thousand dollars in gold.
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255AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Document 2
Source: Josiah Strong, Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis,
1885.
It seems to me that God, with innite wisdom and skill, is training the
Anglo-Saxon race for an hour sure to come in the world’s future. Heretofore
there has always been in the history of the world a comparatively unoccupied
land westward, into which the crowded countries of the East have poured
their surplus populations. But the widening waves of migration, which
millenniums ago rolled east and west from the valley of the Euphrates, meet
today on our Pacic coast. ere are no more new worlds. e unoccupied
arable lands of the earth are limited, and will soon be taken. e time is
coming when the pressure of population on the means of subsistence will
be felt here as it is now felt in Europe and Asia. en will the world enter
upon a new stage of its history—the nal competition of races, for which
the Anglo-Saxon is being schooled. . . . en this race of unequaled energy,
with all the majesty of numbers and the might of wealth behind it—the
representative, let us hope, of the largest liberty, the purest Christianity, the
highest civilization—having developed peculiarly aggressive traits calculated
to impress its institutions upon mankind, will spread itself over the earth.
Document 3
Source: Captain Alfred ayer Mahan, e Interest of America in Sea Power,
Present and Future, 1897.
To arm the importance of distant markets, and the relation to them of
our own immense powers of production, implies logically the recognition
of the link that joins the products and the markets,—that is, the carrying
trade; the three together constituting that chain of maritime power to which
Great Britain owes her wealth and greatness. Further, is it too much to say that,
as two of these links, the shipping and the markets, are exterior to our own
borders, the acknowledgment of them carries with it a view of the relations of
the United States to the world radically distinct from the simple idea of self-
sucingness? . . . ere will dawn the realization of America’s unique position,
facing the older worlds of the East and West, her shores washed by the oceans
which touch the one or the other, but which are common to her alone.
Despite a certain great original superiority conferred by our geographical
nearness and immense resources,—due, in other words, to our natural
advantages, and not to our intelligent preparations,—the United States is
woefully unready, not only in fact but in purpose, to assert in the Caribbean
and Central America a weight of inuence proportioned to the extent of
her interests. We have not the navy, and, what is worse, we are not willing to
have the navy, that will weigh seriously in any disputes with those nations
whose interests will conict there with our own. We have not, and we are
not anxious to provide, the defence of the seaboard which will leave the navy
free for its work at sea. We have not, but many other powers have, positions,
either within or on the borders of the Caribbean.
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256AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Document 4
Source: e Boston Globe, May 28, 1898.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress #LC-USZ62-91465
Document 5
Source: John Hay, United States Secretary of State, e Second Open Door
Note, July 3, 1900.
To the Representatives of the United States at Berlin, London, Paris, Rome,
St. Petersburg, and Tokyo Washington, July 3, 1900
In this critical posture of aairs in China it is deemed appropriate to dene
the attitude of the United States as far as present circumstances permit this
to be done. We adhere to the policy . . . of peace with the Chinese nation, of
furtherance of lawful commerce, and of protection of lives and property of
our citizens by all means guaranteed under extraterritorial treaty rights and
by the law of nations. . . . We regard the condition at Pekin[g] as one of virtual
anarchy. . . . e purpose of the President is . . . to act concurrently with the
other powers; rst, in opening up communication with Pekin[g] and rescuing
the American ocials, missionaries, and other Americans who are in
danger; secondly, in aording all possible protection everywhere in China to
American life and property; thirdly, in guarding and protecting all legitimate
American interests; and fourthly, in aiding to prevent a spread of the disorders
to the other provinces of the Empire and a recurrence of such disasters. . . .
e policy of the Government of the United States is to seek a solution which
may bring about permanent safety and peace to China, preserve Chinese
territorial and administrative entity, protect all rights guaranteed to friendly
powers by treaty and international law, and safeguard for the world the
principle of equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese Empire.
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257AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Document 6
Source: Puck, a satirical magazine, November 20, 1901.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress #LC-DIG-ppmsca-25583
Document 7
Source: President eodore Roosevelt, Fourth Annual Message to Congress,
December 6, 1904.
ere are kinds of peace which are highly undesirable, which are in the long
run as destructive as any war. Tyrants and oppressors have many times made a
wilderness and called it peace. Many times peoples who were slothful or timid
or shortsighted, who had been enervated by ease or by luxury, or misled by false
teachings, have shrunk in unmanly fashion from doing duty that was stern and
that needed self-sacrice, and have sought to hide from their own minds their
shortcomings, their ignoble motives, by calling them love of peace. . . .
It is our duty to remember that a nation has no more right to do injustice
to another nation, strong or weak, than an individual has to do injustice to
another individual; that the same moral law applies in one case as in the other.
But we must also remember that it is as much the duty of the Nation to guard
its own rights and its own interests as it is the duty of the individual so to do. . . .
It is not true that the United States feels any land hunger or entertains any
projects as regards the other nations of the Western Hemisphere save such
as are for their welfare. All that this country desires is to see the neighboring
countries stable, orderly, and prosperous. Any country whose people
conduct themselves well can count upon our hearty friendship. If a nation
shows that it knows how to act with reasonable eciency and decency in
social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it need
fear no interference from the United States. Chronic wrongdoing, or an
impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society,
may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some
civilized nation, and . . . the exercise of an international police power.
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258AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
LONG ESSAY QUESTION
The following is an example of a long essay question. Free-response questions 2, 3, and
4 in Section II of the AP Exam are long essay questions, and students will select one
question of the three to answer.
2. Evaluate the extent to which the ratication of the United States Constitution
fostered change in the function of the federal government in the period from
1776 to 1800.
In your response you should do the following:
§ Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that
establishes a line of reasoning.
§ Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt.
§ Support an argument in response to the prompt using specic and relevant
examples of evidence.
§ Use historical reasoning (e.g., comparison, causation, continuity or change) to
frame or structure an argument that addresses the prompt.
§ Use evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument that addresses
the prompt.
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259AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Answer Key and Question
Alignment to Course Framework
Multiple-Choice
Question Answer Skill Learning Objective
1 B 1.B Unit 3: Learning Objective B
2 A 1.A Unit 3: Learning Objective C
3 D 1.A Unit 3: Learning Objective C
4 C 5.B Unit 3: Learning Objective J
5 B 4.A Unit 4: Learning Objective E
6 A 3.D Unit 4: Learning Objective C
7 D 5.A Unit 6: Learning Objective B
8 C 3.D Unit 3: Learning Objective H
9 B 4.A Unit 5: Learning Objective F
10 A 1.B Unit 5: Learning Objective G
11 D 4.A Unit 7: Learning Objective L
12 C 2.A Unit 7: Learning Objective L
13 B 1.A Unit 7: Learning Objective M
14 A 5.B Unit 8: Learning Objective F
15 A 2.A Unit 8: Learning Objective J
16 D 4.A Unit 8: Learning Objective J
17 B 5.B Unit 9: Learning Objective B
Short-Answer Question Skill Learning Objective
1 3.C, 3.D Unit 6: Learning Objective I
Unit 7: Learning Objective G
Free-Response
Question
Question
Type Skill Thematic Focus Learning Objective
1 Document-
based
1.B, 2.B, 2.C,
3.C, 3.D, 4.A,
6.A, 6.B, 6.D
WOR Unit 7: Learning
Objectives B, C, O
2 Long essay 4.A, 6.A, 6.B,
6.C, 6.D
PCE Unit 3: Learning
Objectives J, H, L, P
The scoring information for the questions within this course and exam description, along with further
exam resources, can be found on the AP U.S. History Exam Page on AP Central.
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260AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
AP History Rubrics
Introductory notes:
§ Except where otherwise noted, each point of the rubric is earned independently.
For instance, a student could earn a point for evidence beyond the documents
without earning a point for thesis/claim.
§ Accuracy: The components of this rubric each require that students demonstrate
historically defensible content knowledge. Given the timed nature of the exam, a
response may contain errors that do not detract from its overall quality, as long as
the historical content used to advance the argument is accurate.
§ Clarity: Exam essays should be considered rst drafts and thus may contain
grammatical errors. Those errors will not be counted against a student unless
they obscure the successful demonstration of the content knowledge, skills, and
reasoning processes described in the rubrics.
AP History DBQ Rubric (7 points)
Reporting Category Scoring Criteria Decision Rules
A. THESIS/CLAIM
(0–1 pt)
1 pt.
Responds to the prompt with a
historically defensible thesis/claim
that establishes a line of reasoning.
To earn this point, the thesis must make
a claim that responds to the prompt
rather than restating or rephrasing
the prompt. The thesis must consist
of one or more sentences located in
one place, either in the introduction
or the conclusion.
B. CONTEXTUALIZATION
(0–1 pt)
1 pt.
Describes a broader historical
context relevant to the prompt.
To earn this point, the response must
relate the topic of the prompt to broader
historical events, developments, or
processes that occur before, during,
or continue after the time frame of the
question. This point is not awarded for
merely a phrase or reference.
continued on next page
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261AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Reporting Category Scoring Criteria Decision Rules
C. EVIDENCE
(0–3 pts)
Evidence from the Documents
1 pt.
Uses the
content of at
least three
documents to
address the
topic of the
prompt.
OR 2 pts.
Supports an
argument in
response to
the prompt
using at
least six
documents.
To earn one point
, the response must
accurately describe—rather than simply
quote—the content from at least three
of the documents.
To earn two points, the response must
accurately describe—rather than simply
quote—the content from at least six
documents. In addition, the response
must use the content of the documents
to support an argument in response to
the prompt.
Evidence Beyond the Do
cuments
1 pt.
Uses at least one additional piece
of the specic historical evidence
(beyond that found in the documents)
relevant to an argument about
the prompt.
To earn this point
, the response must
describe the evidence and must use
more than a phrase or reference. This
additional piece of evidence must be
dierent from the evidence used to earn
the point for contextualization.
D. ANALYSIS AND
REASONING
(0–2 pts)
1 pt.
For at least three documents,
explains how or why the document’s
point of view, purpose, historical
situation, and/or audience is relevant
to an argument.
To earn this point, the response must
explain how or why (rather than simply
identifying) the document’s point of
view, purpose, historical situation, or
audience is relevant to an argument
about the prompt for each of the three
documents sourced.
1 pt.
Demonstrates a complex
understanding of the historical
development that is the focus of
the prompt, using evidence to
corroborate, qualify, or modify an
argument that addresses the question.
A response may demonstrate a complex
understanding in a variety of ways,
such as:
§ Explaining nuance of an issue by
analyzing multiple variables
§ Explaining both similarity and
dierence, or explaining both
continuity and change, or explaining
multiple causes, or explaining both
cause and eect
§ Explaining relevant and insightful
connections within and across
periods
§ Conrming the validity of an
argument by corroborating multiple
perspectives across themes
§ Qualifying or modifying an argument
by considering diverse or alternative
views or evidence
This understanding must be part of
the argument, not merely a phrase
or reference.
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262AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Reporting Category Scoring Criteria Decision Rules
A. THESIS/CLAIM
(0–1 pt)
1 pt.
Responds to the prompt with a
historically defensible thesis/claim
that establishes a line of reasoning.
To earn this point, the thesis must
make a claim that responds to the
prompt, rather than merely restating
or rephrasing the prompt. The thesis
must consist of one or more sentences
located in one place, either in the
introduction or the conclusion.
B. CONTEXTUALIZATION
(0–1 pt)
1 pt.
Describes a broader historical
context relevant to the prompt.
To earn this point, the response must
relate the topic of the prompt to broader
historical events, developments, or
processes that occur before, during,
or continue after the time frame of the
question. This point is not awarded for
merely a phrase or a reference.
C. EVIDENCE
(0–2 pts)
1 pt.
Provides
specic
examples
of evidence
relevant to the
topic of the
prompt.
OR 2 pts.
Supports an
argument in
response to
the prompt
using specic
and relevant
examples of
evidence.
To earn one point, the response must
identify specic historical examples
of evidence relevant to the topic of
the prompt.
To earn two points the response must
use specic historical evidence to
support an argument in response
to the prompt.
AP History LEQ Rubric (6 points)
continued on next page
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263AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
Reporting Category Scoring Criteria Decision Rules
D. ANALYSIS AND
REASONING
(0–2 pts)
1 pt.
Uses historical
reasoning (e.g.,
comparison,
causation,
continuity
and change)
to frame or
structure an
argument that
addresses the
prompt.
OR 2 pts.
Demonstrates
a complex
understanding
of the
historical
development
that is the
focus of the
prompt, using
evidence to
corroborate,
qualify, or
modify an
argument that
addresses the
question.
To earn the rst point, the response
must demonstrate the use of historical
reasoning to frame or structure an
argument, although the reasoning might
be uneven or imbalanced.
To earn the second point, the response
must demonstrate a complex
understanding. This can be accomplished
in a variety of ways, such as:
§ Explaining nuance of an issue by
analyzing multiple variables
§ Explaining both similarity and
dierence, or explaining both
continuity and change, or explaining
multiple causes, or explaining both
causes and eects
§ Explaining relevant and insightful
connections within and
across periods
§ Conrming the validity of an
argument by corroborating multiple
perspectives across themes
§ Qualifying or modifying an argument
by considering diverse or alternative
views or evidence
This understanding must be part of
the argument, not merely a phrase
or reference.
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264AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
AP U.S. HISTORY
Appendix
AP U.S. HISTORY
Appendix:
AP U.S. History
Concept Outline
A concept outline for AP U.S. History, which presents the course content organized
by key concept, can be found online.
The coding that appears throughout the unit guides in this course and exam
description corresponds to the organization of course content found in this outline.
Teachers who would like to print and add a copy of the outline to their course
and exam description binder can nd the AP U.S. History Concept Outline on
AP Central.
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267AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description
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