AP U.S. HISTORY – COURSE SYLLABUS

COURSE OVERVIEW

Instructor: T. Anderson Contact: [email protected] Web: andersonapush.wordpress.com

Advanced Placement United States History is a chronological and thematic survey course in United States History covering the time period from Colonial America (1492) to contemporary America (2000s). The Advanced Placement program is designed to provide students with the analytic skill and factual knowledge to deal critically with the problems and issues in United States History. The course prepares students for intermediate and advanced college courses by making demands equivalent to those made by full year introductory college courses. Students will learn to assess historical materialstheir relevance to a given interpretive problem, their reliability, their importance and to weigh the evidence and interpretations presented in historical scholarship. The course will emphasize key themes in United States history including: American diversity, identity and culture, demographic change, economic transformations, the environment, globalization politics, reform, religion, slavery and its legacies in North America and war and diplomacy. COURSE OBJECTIVES • • • • • •

Students will acquire fundamental and advanced knowledge of United States political, social, economic, constitutional, cultural and intellectual history Students will develop proficiency of specific process skills: analysis, synthesis, evaluation and critical reading necessary for the mastery of United States History content Students will demonstrate an advanced knowledge of the content, concepts and themes unique to United States History Students will develop the ability to recognize the significance of change over time and cause and effect Students will be able to develop historically accurate interpretations of the events of United States History Students will develop the ability to think and reason analytically as demonstrated through essay and expository writing of document based and free response essay questions as well as article and book reviews

COURSE MATERIALS • • •

Newman, John J. ‘United States History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination.’ Amsco, NYC, Second Revised Edition, 2003. (REQUIRED) Henretta, James. ‘America’s History’ Sixth Ed. Bedford/St. Martins, NYC, 2008. Zinn, Howard. ‘A People’s History of the United States 1492- Present.’ Harper Perennial, NYC. 2003

COURSE REQUIREMENTS •

Students are required to keep a current and updated course notebook. The notebook will be divided into ten categories in the following order: 1. Syllabus/Intro 2. D.B.Q./F.R.Q. 3. Multiple Choice 4. I. 1450-1763 5. II. 1763-1820 6. III. 1820-1876 7. IV. 1877-1914 8. V. 1914-1945 9. VI. 1945-2003 10. Review

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Students must bring their notebook and Newman text each class meeting (students must purchase this text, $25, through the Angel Foundation).

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There will be a minimum of one exam for each of the six units we will cover. In addition to the unit exam, students will complete in-class quizzes, reading and writing assignments, and projects and presentations.

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LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED

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All assignments are due at the beginning of the period on the assigned date, unless instructed otherwise. No electronic submissions.

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All students enrolled in AP U.S. History are required to take the AP exam in May, 2010.

GRADING •

Grades are calculated on a 4.0 scale. Assignments are given points and a running total is maintained throughout each six-week grading period.

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Extra credit is given in the form of bonus questions, outside the class activities, review sessions and other assignments. Please note, extra credit is given to provide a buffer between myself and your grade. At the end of each grading period, the points YOU have earned are final. Take responsibility for your own success and achievement.

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Students who choose to plagiarize, cheat or participate in activities in violation of East High School’s code of conduct in relation to academic honesty will be penalized as follows: o First offense: Student will receive a ‘0’ on their assignment. Parents/Guardians will be notified. o Second Offense: Student will receive a ‘0’ on their assignment. A meeting between the instructor and parent will be called and the student will receive one day of Saturday School. o Third offense: Student will receive an ‘F’ for that six-week grading period.

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Please check Infinite Campus and the course website (andersonapush.wordpress.com) regularly.

COURSE OUTLINE Unit 1 – The Creation of American Society, 1450-1763 (August 20th – September 10th) Central Focus: Analyze the development of northern, middle and southern colonies in America during period 1450-1763. Themes: American Diversity, Slavery and its legacies, Religion, Demographic changes Content: Native American cultures before European contact European colonization of North America; France, Spain, the Dutch, Great Britain Merging Cultures: Native American, African, European Religion in America The Great Awakening Society and Culture in Colonial America; Southern, Middle and Northern colonies The French and Indian War Conceptual Identifications: Colonialism, mercantilism, slavery, labor, representative government, race, class, gender, Protestantism, geographic differences Essential Documents: The Mayflower Compact, 1620 A Model of Christian Charity (City Upon a Hill – John Winthrop) The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account – Bartolome de Las Casas An Indentured Servant Describes Life in Virginia – Richard Frethorne Reading Assignments: Unites States History: chapters 1-5 A People’s History: excerpts from chapters 1-3 America’s History: parts of chapters 1-4 Media Recourses: Africans in America Part I (PBS) In Search of History: The Salem Witch Trials (The History Channel) 500 Nations (WB) Methods of Assessment: Multiple Choice D.B.Q.: Although New England and the Chesapeake region were both settled largely by people of English origin; by 1700 the regions had evolved into two distinct societies. Why did this difference in development occur? (1993 AP U.S. History Exam)

Unit 2 – The New Republic, 1763 – 1820 (September 11th – October 15th) Central Focus: What challenges did the early federal government face in establishing a strong central government from 1789-1820? Themes: Demographic changes, economic transformations, war and diplomacy, reform, slavery and its legacy, politics and citizenship, American identity Content: Mercantilism The Enlightenment The American Revolution Forming a national government: Confederation and Constitution Emergence of political parties: Federalists and Republicans Federalism: National power and States rights The Supreme Court; John Marshall The Revolution of 1800 The Louisiana Purchase Native American resistance The War of 1812 Growth of slavery and free Black communities Conceptual Identifications: Federalism, nationalism, sectionalism, reform, industrialization Essential Documents: Hamilton and Jefferson on the creation of the National Bank The Louisiana Purchase Washington’s Farewell Address Marbury v. Madison First Inaugural Address of Thomas Jefferson Alien and Sedition Acts “Why We Have a Bill of Rights” Leonard W. Levy Reading Assignments: Unites States History: chapters 6-10 A People’s History: excerpts of chapters 5-8 America’s History: parts of chapters 5-8 Media Resources: Daughters of Free Men (American Social History Film Library) Sins of our Mothers (PBS American Experience Series) Methods of Assessment: Multiple Choice F.R.Q.: In what ways and to what extent did the Articles of Confederation provide the United States with an effective government from 1781-1789?

Unit 3 – Economic Revolution and Sectional Strife, 1820 – 1865 (Oct. 16 – November 19) Central Focus: In what ways and to what extent did the forces of growth and expansion beginning with the Constitution contribute to disunion? Explain the growing economic, social and political divisions within the United States between 1800-1860.

Themes: demographic changes, economic transformation, reform, slavery and its legacies, politics and citizenship Content: Early national politics The Second Party system Industrialization, transportation, the creation of a national market Changes in class structure Immigration and nativist reaction The economic and social system of the South Sectionalism: The Missouri Compromise Egalitarianism and Jacksonian Democracy Nullification and the Bank War Slavery as a moral issue Indian Removal The Civil War Conceptual Identifications: economic diversification, factory system, transportation, egalitarianism, nationalism, states’ rights, manifest destiny, sectionalism, compromise, industrialization

Essential Documents: Gibbons v. Ogden “Ain’t I a Woman?” – Sojourner Truth “On Manifest Destiny, 1839” – John O’ Sullivan “South Carolina Exposition and Protest” – John C. Calhoun “The Liberator” – William Lloyd Garrison “Defense of the American System” – Henry Clay Dred Scott v. Sanford Reading Assignments: United States History: chapters 11-15 A People’s History: excerpts from chapters 7-10 America’s History: parts of chapters 9-13 Media Resources: Slavery in America Pt. 2 (PBS) Various video clips Methods of Assessment: Multiple Choice F.R.Q.: Discuss the impact of territorial expansion on national unity between 1800 and 1850. D.B.Q.: “Reform movements in the United States sought to expand democratic ideals.” Assess the validity of this

statement with specific reference to the years 1820-1850.

Unit 4 – A Maturing Industrial Society, 1866 – 1914 (November 20th – December 17th) Central Focus: In what ways did the United States become an industrialized and modernized nation? Content:

Plains Indians Reconstruction ‘New South’ Progressive Era reforms Gilded Age Population Shifts Immigration American West (gender, ethnicity and race) Agriculture Spanish American War (American Imperialism) Industrialization Environmental Impacts Corporate consolidation of Industry Social Darwinism and the Social Gospel

Conceptual Identifications: Nationalism, Imperialism, Industrialization, Urbanization Essential Documents: Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1892 Populist Party Platform “Cross of Gold” – William Jennings Bryan Thomas Nast Cartoons Plessey v. Ferguson, 1896 “Our Country” – Josiah Strong “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington” – W.E.B. DuBois “Atlanta Compromise” – Booker T. Washington How the Other Half Lives – Jacob Riis The Gospel of Wealth – Andrew Carnegie

Reading Assignments: United States History: 16-20 A People’s History: excerpts from chapters11-13 America’s History: parts of chapters 16-21 Media Resources: Andrew Carnegie: The Richest Man in the World – (The American Experience, PBS) Crucible of Empire: The Spanish American War (PBS) Methods of Assessment: Multiple Choice F.R.Q.: “Although the economic growth of the U.S. between 1860-1900 has been attributed to the governmental policy of laissez-faire, it was in fact encouraged and sustained by direct governmental intervention.” Assess the validity of this statement.

D.B.Q.: How successful was organized labor in improving the position of workers in the period from 1875-1900? Analyze the factors that contributed to the level of success achieved. (2000 D.B.Q.)

Unit 5 – The Modern State and Society, 1914 - 1945 (December 18th – January 28th) Central Focus: Analyze and interpret the changes in the social, political and economic involvement of the government in American Society

Themes: Culture, American identity, economic transformation, environment, reform, war and diplomacy Content: World War I and the American home-front Black America: urban migration and civil rights initiatives Nativism (1900-1930) Harlem Renaissance American Foreign Policy pre and post WWI Great Depression New Deal F.D.R. Defining women’s roles, work, family National culture, Culture of modernism, Responses to Modernism Normalcy Rise of Fascism and militarism World War II Civil liberties and civil rights

Conceptual Identifications: urbanization, business, fundamentalism, morality, nativism, immigration, ethnocentrism, modernism, fascism, militarism, demography

Essential Documents: Immigration Act of 1921, 1924 17th, 18th, 19th Amendments Wilson’s Fourteen Points “A Dream Deferred” – Langston Hughes “The Bridge” – Joseph Stella “Fireside Chats” – F.D.R.

Reading Assignments: United States History: chapters 21-25 A People’s History: excerpts from chapters 14-17 America’s History: parts of chapters 22-25

Media Resources: The Century: America’s Time, Volumes 1-3 (The History Channel, ABC News)

Methods of Assessment: Multiple Choice F.R.Q.: Describe and account for the rise of nativism in American society from 1900 to 1930. D.B.Q.: Analyze the responses of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration to the problems of the Great Depression. How effective were these responses? How did they change the role of the federal government? (2003)

Unit 6 – The Age of Cold War Liberalism, 1945 – 2006 (January 29th – February 25th) Central Focus: In what ways and to what extent did the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement shape American society?

Content: The United States and the early Cold War Containment – George Kennan; Asia, Latin America, Middle East 1950s America (consensus and conformity) 1960s cultural change (gender roles, music, education, race relationships) The New Frontier Lyndon Johnson Vietnam War The Civil Rights Movement Equality Movements (Asian, Gay, Latino, Native Americans, Women, Elderly) Richard Nixon Politics, Economics, Society and Culture at the end of the twentieth century Jimmy Carter Biotechnology, communication and computers Globalization Environmental movement Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy

Conceptual Identification: Unilateralism, multilateralism, Black Power, Identity politics, Human Rights, liberalism, neo-conservatism, authoritarianism, Reaganomics

Essential Documents: “Reflections of a Neo-Conservative” – Irving Kristol “Vietnam Veterans against the War” (1971) – John Kerry “The Equal Rights Amendment” “Remarks at the Annual Convention of the National Association of Evangelicals” – Ronald Regan “Hate, Rape and Rap” – Tipper Gore “2 Live Crew, Decoded” – Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Reading Assignments: United States History – chapters 26-30 A People’s History – excerpts from chapters 18-23 America’s History – parts of chapters 26-32 Media Resources: The Century: “America’s Time” Volumes 5 & 6 (The History Channel and ABC News) “Eyes on the Prize” Volume 7 (PBS)

Methods of Assessment: F.R.Q.: Analyze the extent to which the following movements transformed American society in the 1960s and 1970s: Civil Rights, Anti-War, and Women’s. “1968 was a turning point for the United States.” To what extent is this an accurate assessment?