Themes in AP U
Themes in AP U.S. History
The Test Development Committee of the College Board has encouraged the close examination of twelve themes in U.S. History. These themes will be incorporated into each unit of study throughout the course of the year. Students should familiarize themselves with each of these themes and consider them both within and between units. Students should attempt to ascertain the “change over time” that each of the themes undergoes in the progression of U.S. History, but they should also be aware of the interactions of these themes on each other both within and between units of study. The suggested themes follow:
American Diversity
The diversity of the American people and the relationships among different groups. The roles of race, class, ethnicity, and gender in the history of the United States.
American Identity
Views of the American national character and ideas about American exceptionalism. Recognizing regional differences within the context of what it means to be an American.
Culture
Diverse individual and collective expressions through literature, art, philosophy, music, theater, and film throughout U.S. history. Popular culture and the dimensions of cultural conflict within American society.
Demographic Changes
Changes in birth, marriage, and death rates; life expectancy and family patterns; population size and density. The economic, social, and political effects of immigration internal migration, and migration networks.
Economic Transformations
Changes in trade, commerce, and technology across time. The effects of capitalist development, labor and unions, and consumerism.
Environment
Ideas about the consumption and conservation of natural resources. The impact of population growth, industrialization, pollution, and urban and suburban expansion.
Globalization
Engagement with the rest of the world from the fifteenth century to the present: colonialism, mercantilism, global hegemony, development of markets, imperialism, cultural exchange.
Politics and Citizenship
Colonial and revolutionary legacies, American political traditions, growth of democracy, and the development of the modern state. Defining citizenship; struggles for civil rights.
Reform
Diverse movements focusing on a broad range of issues, including anti-slavery, education, labor, temperance, women’s rights, civil rights, gay rights, was public health, and government.
Religion
The variety of religious beliefs and practices in America from prehistory to the twenty-first century; influence of religion on politics, economics, and society.
Slavery and Its Legacies in North American
Systems of slave labor and other forms of unfree labor (e.g., indentured servitude, contract labor) in Native American societies, the Atlantic World, and the American South and West. The economics of slavery and its racial dimensions. Patterns of resistance and the long-term economic, political, and social effects of slavery.
War and Diplomacy
Armed conflict from the pre-colonial period to the twenty-first century; impact of war on American foreign policy and on politics, economy, and society.
Organizing Principles
1. Between 1607 and 1763, the British North American colonies developed experience in, and the expectation of self-government in the political, religious, economic, and social aspects of life.
2. Between 1763 and 1776, British attempts to exert control over the colonies led to violent, organized, successful resistance.
3. The Articles of Confederation provided a reasonable and workable transition from the unitary system of British rule to the federal system established under the Constitution.
4. Between 1789 and 1820, conflict over the increasing power of the national government created intensified sectional tension.
5. Between 1789 and 1823, geographic isolation allowed the United States to pursue a policy of selective involvement in world affairs.
6. During the "Reign of Jackson," politics became more democratic, the power of the presidency increased, America became more optimistic and expansionistic, and sectionalism supplanted nationalism.
7. The Civil War was caused by historic economic, social, and political sectional differences that were further emotionalized by the slavery issue.
8. The Civil War effectively determined the nature of the Union, the economic direction of the United States, and political control of the country.
9. The Gilded Age fostered the consolidation of business, the government, and disadvantaged economic and social classes.
10. From 1890 to 1918, the United States became increasingly active and aggressive in world affairs.
11. The Progressive movement partially succeeded in improving life for average Americans by curbing big business, making the government more responsive to the will of the people, and enacting social welfare legislation.
12. Disillusionment with the idealism of World War I led Americans to fear change and difference and to retreat into a superficial shell of self-satisfaction.
13. The Great Depression and New Deal led to the expectation of government intervention to maintain the economic stability of the nation.
14. Between World War II and 1960, the New Deal philosophy that the government was a legitimate agent of social welfare became firmly embedded in the American mind.
15. The Cold War led the United States to pursue an ambivalent policy of confrontation, negotiation, and preventive maintenance between 1945 and 1970.
16. Disillusionment with the increasingly violent protest of the 1960s led to the entrenchment of conservative ideology between 1968 and 1992.
17. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, America's foreign policy groped for ways to promote world peace with minimal U.S. involvement.
18. Technological developments between 1950 and 2000 radically altered the economic, social, and moral fiber of
the nation.
The Structure of the AP U.S. History Exam
Multiple choice:
• 80 multiple choice questions
• 55 minutes
• 50% of the total exam
Five minute break between multiple choice and free response section
Free response section:
• 15 minute mandatory reading period
Document based question (DBQ)
• 45 minute suggested writing time
• 22.5% of total exam grade
Standard essay questions:
• Answer one question each from two groups of two questions
• 35 minute suggested writing time for each essay
• Each essay 13.75% of the total exam grade
• Generally, the first group of questions will be pre-1865
• Generally, the second group of questions will be post-1865
Neither the DBQ or any of the four essay questions will deal exclusively with the post-1980 period.
TERMS FROM MULTIPLE CHOICE EXAMS
1607-1763
indentured servants proprietary, royal, charter colonies Pilgrims/Separatists
Trade and Navigation Acts Peter Zenger trial House of Burgesses
Mayflower Compact King Philip's War Anne Hutchinson
Roger Williams George Whitefield William Bradford
Great Puritan Migration Great Awakening French and Indian War
New England Confederation Thomas Hobbes John Locke
Freedom of consciences mercantilism Iroquios Confederacy
Jonathan Edwards Bacon's Rebellion headright system
Halfway Covenant Harvard College Salutary neglect
Salem Witch trials Middle Passage Albany Plan
city on a hill Phyllis Wheatly James Oglethorpe
William Penn Puritans
1763-1775
Proclamation of 1763 Boston Tea Party Battle of Saratoga
Thomas Paine/Common Sense/ Coercive/Intolerable Acts no taxation without representation
Crisis Papers Loyalists/Tories Stamp Act
Stamp Act Congress Sons of Liberty non-importation agreements
Olive Branch Petition First/Second Continental Congress virtual representation
Pontiac's Rebellion Boston Massacre Gaspee Affair
Quartering Act Paxton Boys Sugar Act 1764
Townshend Acts Tea Act
1775-1825
Monroe Doctrine corrupt bargain Marbury v Madison
Embargo Act 1807 loose/strict constructionism Bank of the United States
Louisiana Purchase Lewis and Clark yeomen farmers
Tecumseh Gibbons v Ogden Virginia-Kentucky Resolutions
Jay Treaty Treaty of Ghent Shay's Rebellion
Whiskey Rebellion Land Ordinance of 1785 Northwest Ordinance
Gabriel Prosser's Rebellion Critical period Lowell/Walthan System/Lowell girls
Annapolis Convention XYZ Affair Erie Canal
Orders in Council War Hawks impressment
Hartford Convention cotton gin/Eli Whitney Declaration of Independence
American Colonization Society Articles of Confederation Missouri Compromise
republicanism/democracy Three-fifths Compromise Adams-Onis Treaty
interchangeable parts Deism American System
Henry Clay Revolution of 1800 Bill of rights
Washington's Farewell Address full funding/assumption Judicial Review
Connecticut (Great) Compromise Virginia/New Jersey Plans Era of Good Feelings
Barbary Pirates Samuel Slater Citizen Genet
undeclared naval war Federalist/First American Party System Alien and Sedition Acts
Treaty of Alliance 1778 Benjamin Banneker Pinckney Treaty
Treaty of Paris 1783 Haitian Rebellion National Republicans
Republican Motherhood
1825-1865
Seneca Falls Convention Trail of Tears Compromise of 1850
Dorothea Dix Emancipation Proclamation nullification
John C. Calhoun Hinton Helper/Impending Crisis William Lloyd Garrison/Liberator
Oregon Territory Dred Scott v Sandford spoils system/rotation in office
Stephen Douglas Bank war popular sovereignty
Wilmot Proviso Mexican Cession Gadsden Purchase
John Deere Cyrus McCormick American Anti-slavery Society
Maine Laws Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo Irish immigration
Making Generalizations: Construct a focused topic statement for each numbered group which expresses a main idea for which all of the items could serve as supporting information.
1. 2.
Sons of Liberty Fletcher v Peck
Non-importation agreements Whiskey Rebellion
Boston Tea Party Loose constructionism
Committees of Correspondence Assumption
Stamp Act Congress War of 1812
Gaspee Affair McCulloch v Maryland
Boston Massacre Pinckney Treaty
3. 4.
Bank War Transcendentalism
Nullification of the Tariff of 1832 Abolitionist movement
Non-enforcement of Worcester v Georgia Utopian communitarianism
Spoils System Second Great Awakening
Maysville Road veto Manifest Destiny
Mandate from the people Seneca Falls Convention
Rotation in office Movement for public education
5. 6.
Wilmot Proviso The Liberator
Kansas-Nebraska Act Harper’s Ferry raid
Freeport Doctrine Bleeding Kansas
Compromise of 1850 The Gag Rule
Ostend Manifesto Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Filibustering expeditions Fugitive Slave Law
Lecompton Constitution Dred Scott v Sandford
7. 8.
Shay's Rebellion separation of powers
Albany Plan egalitarianism
Regulator Movement disestablishment
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions abolitionism
Paxton Boys Bills of Rights
Whiskey Rebellion separation of church and state
Burr's Conspiracy enfranchisement
9. 10.
National Origins Act NSC - 68
Scopes Trial Domino Theory
Sacco and Vanzetti Berlin Crisis
Babbit McCarthyism
H.L. Mecken Truman Doctrine
Harlem Renaissance Marshall Plan
Flappers Korean War
11. 12.
Glass-Stegall Act Seventeenth Amendment
NLRB Oregon System
Social Security Act Secret Ballot
Fair Labor Standards Act Sixteenth Amendment
Securities and Exchange Commission Commission System
Twenty-first Amendment Nineteenth Amendment
TVA Referendum
Generalization Exercise
For each of the following groups, write out one clear, concise, direct sentence which clearly expresses the change over time that the factual information listed could support (the equivalent of a topic sentence). For one bit of specific factual information, write one clear, concise, direct sentence which provides interpretive commentary (shows HOW and WHY the information supports the topic sentence).
Group 1
Stamp Act
Intolerable Acts
Proclamation of 1763
Admiralty Courts
Writes of Assistance
New York Suspending Act
Topic sentence
Interpretive commentary
Group 2
Egalitarianism
Republican Motherhood
Manumission
Primogeniture
Disestablishment
Enfranchisement
Topic sentence
Interpretive commentary
Group 3
Boston Massacre
Non-consumption Agreements
Sons of Liberty
Boston Tea Party
Suffolk Resolves
Lexington and Concord
Topic sentence
Interpretive Commentary
Group 4
Land Ordinance of 1785
Treaty of Paris of 1783
United States of America
Township system
Confederal system
Transitional phase
Topic sentence
Interpretive commentary
Group 5
Division of powers
Bill of Rights
Checks and Balances
State Constitutions
Federal system
Separation of powers
Topic sentence
Interpretive commentary
Group 6
Confederal system
Power to tax
Right of Deposit
Continentals
Northwest Forts
Interstate trade wars
Topic sentence
Interpretive commentary
................
................
In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.
To fulfill the demand for quickly locating and searching documents.
It is intelligent file search solution for home and business.
Related searches
- themes in writing
- common themes in kids books
- different themes in literature
- themes in children s literature printable
- themes in children s literature examples
- types of themes in books
- list of themes in novels
- types of themes in writing
- themes in stories
- types of themes in movies
- themes in literature
- what are themes in literature