US History

US History - Independent Studies
(you will earn AP credit if you pass the test)

Reading

The American Pageant by Bailey, Kennedy, Cohen (Amazon)
The American Pageant Guidebook: A Manual for Students (Amazon)
Cracking the AP U.S. History Exam, 2002-2003 (Amazon)
REA's AP US History Test Prep with TESTware Software Amazon BUY THIS

Summer Work

Outline the Book

Schedule

Summer - read The American Pageant & write chapter summaries and post them. (You are expected to have read the book in its entirety.)
Fall - take tests, read historical documents and write a research paper.
Spring - Prep for AP exam
May - AP Exam and you're done.

The Summer Agreement

While a bulk of the reading will take place during the summer, you will not register for this class until Fall and Spring. You have agreed to post your chapter summaries and to have read the entire book The American Pageant by the end of summer. Failure to do so will mean you will not be registered for this class in the Fall and Spring and you will take a regular US History class. You will take the AP Exam in May. If you pass you will receive AP credit.

Answer the following essay prompts. These prompts will require you to apply the information in your chapter summaries. You will not be able to find the "correct" answers by just reading the books or summaries. Use good essay format. Here are what the directions on the AP exam:
"Answers to standard essay questions will be judged on the strength of the thesis developed, the quality of the historical argument, and the evidence offered in support of the thesis, rather than on the factual information per se." You will have 70 minutes to write two free-response essays. Please copy the prompt on the top of each of your essays. Please use a separate document for each prompt.

Come see me for a rubric that we will be using to evaluate your essays. Each response should be 500 words.
Email me your essays as attachments. If you are not using MS Word, please save as RTF (rich text format). Feel free to convert to pdf if you have the capability.

Due Saturdays

Chp 1	What was the impact on the Indians, Europeans and Africans when each of their previously separate worlds collided with each other? How were they all changed?
Chp 2	Compare and contrast the early colonial empires of Portugal, Spain, and England in terms of motives, economic foundations, and relations with African and Indians. What factors affected these similarities and differences?
Chp 3	Explain the differences between the New England colonies, middle colonies and the southern colonies. Be sure to include into your discussion the economic, religious, political and founding factors.

Chp 4	How did the numbers and condition of women affect family life and society in New England, the South, and African-American slaves? Compare and contrast these three groups and describe each group's dominant characteristics and how they became distinct in character.
Chp 5	Describe (1) the causes and results of the Great Awakening, (2) the features of colonial politics as it led to the development of American democracy, and (3) how the Great Awakening and the development of democracy are linked together.
Chp 6	Why did the Americans and British win the "French and Indian War" against the Native Americans and French? Why did most Indians fight with the French? Why was France's influence in the New World so much less than that of the English and Spanish?

Chp 7	Given the history of the colonies' founding and British "divine neglect" until the period just before the Revolution, was the American Revolution inevitable? Or could the thirteen colonies have remained peacefully attached to Britain for many years, as Canada did?
Chp 8	Describe the different courses of the Revolutionary War in New England, the Middle Atlantic states and the South. What role did the battles in each region play in the eventual American victory?
Chp 9	What were the basic features of the new Constitution, and how did they differ from the government under the Articles of Confederation? How can you relate this to the Federalists and the anti-Federalists? Why did the Federalists win?

Chp 10	What were the philosophical and political disagreements between Hamilton and Jefferson that led to the creation of the first American political parties?
Chp 11	What were the central principles animating American government in the years 1800-1812? Was the War of 1812 a violation of the principles of the "Revolution of 1800" or its fulfillment?
Chp 12	Part 1: Discuss the role of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun in the events and issues of the period 1815-1824. Is it valid to see Clay as being a spokesman for the West, Webster for the North and Calhoun the South? (500 words) Part 2: Why had the Jeffersonian Republicans by 1815-1824 adopted many of the principles of "loose construction" once held by their rivals, the Hamiltonian Federalists (see chps 6 & 10)? Explain which aspects of strong federal power did they favor and which did they resist? (500 word)

Chp 13	Part 1: Explain Andrew Jackson's influence on the new mass democracy in the 1820s and 1830s. Part 2: What did the two new democratic parties, the Democrats and the Whigs, really stand for? Were they actual ideological opponents or were their disagreements less important than their shared roots in the new mass democracy?
Chp 14	In America, early industrialization, westward expansion, and growing sectional tension all occurred at the same time. How was the development of the economy before the Civil War related to both the westward movement and increasing sectional conflict?
Chp 15	In what ways were the movements of American religion, reform, and culture an outgrowth of the American Revolution and American Independence, and in what ways did they reflect qualities of American life reaching back to the Puritans?

Chp 16	Describe the complex structure of southern society. What role did plantation owners, small slaveholders, independent white farmers, poor whites, free blacks, and black slaves each have in the southern social order?
Chp 17	Part 1: Most Americans believed that expansion across North America was their "destiny." Was expansion actually inevitable? What forces might have stopped it? Part 2: What were the causes and consequences of the Mexican War?
Chp 18	How similar was the Compromise of 1850 to the Missouri Compromise of 1820? How did each sectional compromise affect the balance of power between the North and South? Why could sectional issues compromised in 1820 and 1850, but not in 1854?

Chp 19	How did the North and South each view the various climatic events events of the 1850s? Why were their views so divergent?
Chp 20	Part 1: How did the Civil War change from being a limited war to preserve the Union into a total war to abolish slavery? Part 2: How did the North and the South each handle their economic and human resources needs? Why were the the economic consequences of the war so different?
Chp 21	What were the primary military goals for each side of the Civil War? How did they attempt to achieve these goals? Why and how did the South still think they would achieve these goals even as late as 1865?

Chp 22	Part 1: Why did Reconstruction fail so badly? Was the failure primarily one of immediate political circumstances, or was it more deeply rooted in the history of American sectional and race relations? Part 2: How did freed Blacks react to the end of slavery? how did the northern and southern whites react?
Chp 23	In what ways did the political conflicts of the Guilded Age still reflect the aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction? To what extent did the political leaders of the time address issues of race and sectional conflict, and to what extent did they merely shove them under the rug?
Chp 24	How did the industrial transformation after the Civil War compare with the earlier phase of American economic development? (see chp 14) Why were the economic developments of 1865-1900 often seen as a threat to American democracy, whereas those of the 1815-1860 were not?

Chp 25	Part 1: What opportunities did the cities create for America? Part 2: How did the "old" immigration differ from the new one? How did America respond to this?
Chp 26	Part 1: How did the whites finally overcome the plains Indians? What happened to the Indians? Part2. Some historians see Bryan was the political heir of Jefferson and Jackson; while they see McKinley as the political heir of Hamilton and the Whigs. Explain what you think of these ideas.
Chp 27	How was U.S. overseas imperialism in 1898 similar to and different from "manifest destiny" and the settlement across North America? Was overseas imperialism merely an extension of manifest destiny or was it a departure from American traditions?

Chp 28	What were the essential principles of Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy, and how did he apply them to South America and Japan? How did this differ from the Monroe Doctrine?
Chp 29	What were the causes of the progressive movement and how did it affect national, state and local government?
Chp 30	Part 1: How was Wilson's foreign policy an attempt to expand progressive principles from domestic to the international arena? Why did Wilson's progressive idealism draw him into U.S. interventions which he disliked? Part 2: What were the causes and consequences of the Mexican-American War?

Chp 31	Did WWI substantially alter American society as it did Europe? How was Wilson forced to compromise during the peace negotiations and why did America fail to ratify the treaty and refused to join the League of Nations?
Chp 32	In what ways were the 1920s a social and cultural reaction against the progressive idealism that held sway prior to WWI?
Chp 33	What were factors that led to the Great Depression and how did the depression affect the American people? How did Hoover attempt to balance the his belief of "rugged individualism" with the economic necessities of that time? Evaluate Hoover's effectiveness as president.

Chp 34	Part 1: What particular role did Eleanor play in FDR's political success? Part 2: How did the New Deal legislation attempt to achieve the three goals of relief, recovery, and reform?
Chp 35	Compare the US entry into WWI with its entrance into WWII. How did FDR manage to move the US toward providing aid to Britain while slowly undercutting isolationist opposition?
Chp 36	Discuss the effects of WWII on women and minorities. Is it accurate to see the war as a turning point in the movement toward equality. How and why did America's international role change after WWII but not WWI?

Chp 37	How and why did the American economy soar? Pt. 2: Can President Harry Truman be considered to be a great president? Explain domestically and internationally.
Chp 38	Despite widespread power and affluence, the 1950s were often described as an "age of anxiety." What were the the major sources of anxiety and conflict that stirred beneath the surface of the time? Could they have been addressed more effectively by President Eisenhower and other national leaders? Explain.
Chp 39	Pt.1 What successes and failures did President Kennedy's New Frontier experience at home and abroad? Pt. 2 What were President Johnson's major domestic achievements?

Chp 40	What policies did President Nixon pursue with Vietnam, the USSR, and China, and what were the consequences of those policies? Pt. 2: Why can the 70s be characterized as a "decade of stalemate"? What caused the apparent inability of the federal government to cope with new problems?
Chp 41	What caused the rise of Reagan and the "new conservatism" in the 80s, and how did their conservative movement affect American politics and foreign policy in the Middle East, Central America, and Eastern Europe? Pt. 2 Explain how Bill Clinton take traditional democratic party themes and adopt them to match conservative ideals.
Chp 42	How did the "new immigration" and rise of ethnic minorities transform American society of the 1990s? Was this immigration similar or different from earlier immigrations?

We will begin working in the AP prep book which you need to purchase from Amazon.
REA's AP US History Test Prep with TESTware Software Amazon BUY THIS

Essay: Given the rise of terrorism around the world and events of 9/11, explain the relationship of American foreign policy to this phenomenon? See responses.

Document-Based Questions - follow the link We are currently working on DBQs.

We will soon be working on assignments in the REA prep book. Please order it if you have not done so.