AP United States History - Yorktown



|AP United States History |

|2015-2016 |

|Reading Assignment |

|Yorktown High School |

Welcome to AP US History! This is a college-level survey course of American History, which is designed to prepare students to take and succeed on the national AP exam. The course is aimed at students who achieve at a high level, are self-motivated, and who have a serious interest in U.S. History.

To be ready for the AP exam, which is given during the first two weeks of May, we must cover a significant amount of content (from pre-Columbus through the Cold War) in a short amount of time. We must also develop analytical skills to interpret historical events and ideas and evaluate the interpretations of various historians. Therefore, we will jump into content and assignments the first week of school.

To help you get a head start before the first week of school, the following assignment is recommended for you to begin over the summer. You will need to obtain a copy of the book by the end of the first week of school and have completed the reading and seminar preparation by the end of the 3rd week of September. The reading will be in preparation for class discussions and writing assignments during the first month of school.

Before you Read: Consider what you already know about Benjamin Franklin and his role in American History. In a well-written response, answer the following questions based on your own knowledge—do not conduct outside research: What do you already know about Franklin? Why is Franklin a significant figure in American History? How do you or most people you know feel about Franklin?

Also, in order to better understand the book please define, in detail, the following terms before you read:

- Hutchinson Letters (affair) - Coercive (Intolerable) Acts

- Federalists - Sugar Act

- French & Indian War - Stamp Act

- House of Burgesses - Tea Tax

- Continental Congress - Confederation Congress

- Committees of Correspondence - Virginia Plan

- Sons of Liberty - Connecticut Compromise

- Molasses Act - Albany Plan of Union

Reading: Gordon Wood, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin, 2004. (Published by Penguin Group: ISBN: 0143035282)

In this book, Pulitzer Prize winning author Gordon Wood examines and challenges the idea of Franklin’s role as “the first American” or the quintessential American. It considers important aspects of Franklin’s life such as “his preoccupation with becoming a gentleman; his longtime loyalty to the Crown and burning ambition to be a player in the British Empire’s power structure; the personal character of his conversion to revolutionary; his reasons for writing the Autobiography; his controversies with John and Samuel Adams and with Congress; his love of Europe and conflicted sense of national identity.”[1] This book will allow us to examine the culture of and key events in colonial America and during the Revolution through the experiences of Benjamin Franklin. We will also examine Wood’s argument about Franklin in order to understand how historians make and defend their interpretations in scholarly works – something you must do in your own writing.

Copies of the book are available at the local library, online ( for purchase), or you may wish to borrow a book from a former student. Barnes & Noble at Clarendon will also have copies throughout the summer for you to purchase.

Seminar Preparation: As you read consider the following questions. Then answer the following questions in writing with support from your reading. Answers may be written out or in bulleted note form, but answers should be thorough and detailed so that you can use these notes/responses in a graded discussion.

Seminar Questions:

1. What does it mean to be “American” in the colonies? How does that compare to being “British”? Is there a difference?

2. Is Benjamin Franklin a quintessential American? Should he be considered the “first American”?

3. Why does Franklin undergo the “Americanization” that Wood describes? To what extent is this transformation unique to Franklin? To what extent is it representative of the larger society?

4. Was Franklin a necessary part of the Revolution? How might the Revolution have differed without Franklin?

5. Write 2 open-ended discussion questions that you could introduce into our seminar.

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[1] Gordon S. Wood, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin, Penguin Press: New York, 2004.

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