AP United States History 2009-2010
Text: America: A Narrative History, George B. Tindall and David E. Shi, W.W. Norton
& Company, 2007, 7th edition
Supplementary texts
FALL SEMESTER
Unit 1 The Emerging Giant, 1880-1908
The Souls of Black Folk, DuBois; How the Other Half Lives, Riis
Unit 2 Reform, War, and Depression, 1900-1932
Fast Food Nation, Schlosser, The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck (summer reading)
Unit 3 The American Age, 1932-1952
The New Deal: Hope for the Nation, Edwards; World War II: On the Homefront,
Emert; The Manhattan Project: Secret Wartime Mission, Deitch; The Defining Moment, Alter (summer reading)
Unit 4 Prosperity and Tumult, 1952-1980
The Crucible, Miller; The Vietnam Reader, ONan; The Cuban Missile Crisis, Valois;
Civil Rights Movement, Yamasaki
Unit 5 The Modern Era, 1980-present
SPRING SEMESTER
Unit 1 Our Colonial Background, Prehistory-1763
The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries..., Greer
Unit 2 Forming a New Nation, 1763-1800
Common Sense, Paine; The Meaning of Independence, Morgan; The American Creation,
Ellis
Unit 3 Growing Pains, 1800-1840
The Lowell Mill Girls, Deitch
Unit 4 A New Birth of Freedom, 1840-1865
When I Was a Slave, Yetman; Team of Rivals, Goodwin (summer reading)
Unit 5 Reshaping a Nation, 1865-1880
Unit 6 - Post-AP reading
The World is Flat, Friedman
Assignments, projects, and links are on the Web site at www.tcamb1.com
Grading Policy
Short-answer tests and quizzes = 35%
Papers/Essays/Projects (at home and in class) = 35%
Class discussion/class work/group work = 15%
Final exam = 15%
Tests, papers and essay assignments will be announced ahead of time; quizzes may be announced or unannounced. Papers that are late and unexcused will be graded down a letter grade for each day late. Plagiarism will result in a Disciplinary Committee hearing. Everyone starts with 12 points out of 15 for class discussion.
Goals and Purpose
The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with the ideas, events, values, conflicts, and achievements of the United States from its earliest beginnings to the modern period. This course is to be viewed not as an end -- not as the last course in American history you will ever take -- but rather as a beginning -- your first detailed look at the people and ideas that have shaped this nation. As a result of our readings, discussions, and writing, I hope you will develop a lifelong interest in history.
Facts, names, and events are important, but they are not the sum total of history. This course is designed to move beyond that to look at other issues, including these:
q How does historiography (the writing of history) affect our understanding of the United States? What difference does it make who writes history? How should we look at primary and secondary sources? How do primary sources enrich the information found in textbooks? Why are we reading the supplementary readings I have chosen?
q How and why do certain issues and themes recur in our history? How have issues of race played out at various times in our history? What has been the role of faith and religion for Americans? Have differences in class, national origin, and gender affected our perceptions of what it is to be an American? How have we changed our definition or view of freedom over the centuries?
q How have issues in other related social science fields shaped the development of our national history? How has economic policy reflected the national character? How has the geography of this expanse influenced people and events? Have art, literature, and popular culture reflected or effected change?
Our goal is to examine these and other ideas in the context of readings and discussions. You must be committed to reading with diligence and openness, thinking with a critical mind, and speaking with insight and a willingness to listen to others. This is a college-level course, and I will expect your work and efforts to reflect that.
In addition to the textbook, sources of information for our discussions and for your analytical essays will come from primary sources (such as first-person slave narratives), secondary sources (references books and articles from scholarly journals), software (such as the Cold War simulation "Escalation" or the software on Ellis Island), the Internet (such as Web sites devoted to the Lowell Mill), and DVD's (such as "The Progressive Era" from the History Channel).
FALL SEMESTER
(one exam at the end of each unit)
Unit 1 The Emerging Giant, 1880-1908
Chap 20 - Big Business and Organized Labor (743-778)
Chap 21 - The Emergence of Urban America (779-818)
Chap. 22 - Gilded Age Politics and Agrarian Revolt (819-853)
Chap 23 - An American Empire [Spanish-Amer. War, Big Stick Diplomacy] (859-889)
Unit 2 Reform, War, and Depression, 1900-1932
Chap 24 - The Progressive Era (890-929)
Chap 25 - America and The Great War (930-967)
Chap 26 - The Modern Temper [Culture in the 1920s] (968-990)
Chap 27 - Republican Resurgence and Decline (991-1021)
Unit 3 The American Age, 1932-1952
Chap 28 - New Deal America (1022-1062)
Chap 29 - From Isolation to Global War (1063-1090)
Chap 30 - The Second World War (1091-1130)
Chap 31 - The Fair Deal and Containment (1137-1165 only -- NOT 1166-1169)
Unit 4 Prosperity and Tumult, 1952-1980
Chap 31 - The Fair Deal and Containment (1166-1169 ONLY)
Chap 32 - Through the Picture Window: Society and Culture, 1945-1960 (1171-1194)
Chap 33 - Conflict and Deadlock: the Eisenhower Years (1195-1225)
Chap 34 - New Frontiers (1226-1264)
Chap 35 - Rebellion and Reaction in the 1960s and 1970s (1266-1312)
Unit 5 The Modern Era, 1980-present
Chap 36 - A Conservative Insurgency (1313-1341)
Chap 37 - Triumph and Tragedy (1342-1390)
Besides exams, you will have these writing assignments:
· One-pagers on primary sources
· An analytical paper on the summer reading
· A research paper on a New Deal Program
· A project related to World War II
· Writing an original DBQ on a first-semester topic
· Responding to sample DBQs and primary sources
SPRING SEMESTER
(one exam at the end of each unit)
Unit 1 Our Colonial Background, Prehistory-1763
Chap 1 - The Collision of Cultures (5-44)
Chap 2 - Britain and its Colonies (45-97)
Chap 3 - Colonial Ways of Life (98-146)
Chap 4 - The Imperial Perspective (147-173)
Unit 2 Forming a New Nation, 1763-1800
Chap 5 - From Empire to Independence (174-207)
Chap 6 - The American Revolution (213-248)
Chap 7 - Shaping a Federal Union (249-278)
Chap 8 - The Federalist Era (279-319)
Unit 3 Growing Pains, 1800-1840
Chap 9 - The Early Republic (320-352)
Chap 10 - Nationalism and Sectionalism (357-384)
Chap 11 - The Jacksonian Impulse (385-415)
Chap 12 - The Dynamics of Growth (416-457)
Chap 13 - An American Renaissance (458-488)
Unit 4 A New Birth of Freedom, 1840-1865
Chap 14 - Manifest Destiny (489-524)
Chap 15 - The Old South (531-564)
Chap 16 - The Crisis of Union (565-606)
Chap 17 - The War of the Union (607-658)
Unit 5 Reshaping a Nation, 1865-1880
Chap 18 - Reconstruction: North and South (659-698)
Chap 19 - The South and West Transformed (705-742)
Unit 6 - Post-AP reading
The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman
Besides exams, you will have these writing assignments:
· DBQs on relevant topics
· Responses to readings of primary sources
· A project related to the post-AP reading (The World is Flat)
