AP US History

APUSH 2020


Welcome to Advanced Placement United States History! I am excited that you have decided to join me and to challenge yourself to be the best and reap the most from your high school education! APUSH will challenge you: historically and in your writing strategies; however, it is nothing that you cannot handle IF you commit to success; accept that there will be stumbling blocks; and teach yourself to grow from failures.

Google Classroom: jr4h7x2

For this summer assignment you will need to create a Google Doc that you will eventually share with your APUSH teacher. A note of caution: APUSH summer work is not due until September 3rd; (our first day of classes for 2020-2021) but if you wait until August to get a start on this you will make yourself miserable. Put a plan in place and stick to it over the summer!!


Period 6: 1865-1898

Overview: The transformation of the United States from an agricultural to an increasingly industrialized and urbanized society brought about significant economic, political, diplomatic, social, environmental, and cultural changes.

Key Concept 6.1: Technological advances, large-scale production methods, and the opening of new markets encouraged the rise of industrial capitalism in the United States.

Key Concept 6.2: The migrations that accompanied industrialization transformed both urban and rural areas of the United States and caused dramatic social and cultural change.

Key Concept 6.3: The Gilded Age produced new cultural and intellectual movements, public reform efforts, and political debates over economic and social policies.


  1. View the Period 6 Overview from the Gilder Lehrman website 12 minutes. Take notes on the Google Doc you have created on the BIG IDEAS of Period 6. Use the APUSH Themes listed below to organize the BIG IDEAS of Period 6 in your notes. You do not need to find a BIG IDEA for every theme, this will simply help you see which come up most often in this time period.

  2. Documents and Essays Analysis: Using the Documents and Essays for Period 6 on the AP Gilder Lehrman Website, choose THREE (3) documents and TWO (2) essays to analyze. You goal here is to link your analysis of the documents to the essays you choose. In your Google Doc, for each of the THREE Documents you have chosen, you should compose a 1-2 paragraph analysis. In other words, what is the author saying in the document, what is their point of view on the subject, who are they speaking to, why have they decided to speak/take a particular picture, and what is the historical context around the subject of the document/picture. Then you should choose and read TWO Essays, and in your Google doc, in 1-2 paragraphs, show how your chosen documents relate to essays. Please be as specific as possible when composing your paragraphs.

  3. DBQ Grading: In an effort to keep your DBQ writing skills sharp during the summer, you will be grading student samples from the 2018 DBQ from the operational (or regular) exam. This DBQ was about US Imperialism at the end of the 19th century. This is the next topic to be covered when we get back in September. Please read through the DOCUMENTS (pages 5-11 on the pdf via the link) and then access the pdf on the Google Classroom with the Scoring Rubric and student samples. In your Google doc, please grade these FIVE student samples, and give rationals/reasons for the grade you gave the student (for example, “I did not give them the contextualization point because there was nothing in their essay that showed a lead up to or the reasons for American Imperialism at the end of the 19th century.”) DO NOT PRINT THE STUDENT SAMPLES!!!!


APUSH THEMES :

  • American and National Identity (NAT): How and why of American and national identity and values have developed, as well as related topics such as citizenship, constitutionalism, foreign policy, assimilation, and American exceptionalism.

  • Politics and Power (POL): How different social and political groups have influenced society and government in the United States, as well as how political beliefs and institutions have changed over time.

  • Work Exchange, and Technology (WXT): Factors behind the development of systems of economic exchange, particularly the role of technology, economic markets, and government.

  • Culture and Society (CUL): The role that ideas, believes, social mores and creative expression have played in shaping the United States, as well as how various identifies, cultures, and values have been preserved or changed in different contexts of US history.

  • Migration and Settlement (MIG): Why and how the various people who moved to and within the United States both adopted to and transformed their new social and physical environments.

  • Geography and the Environment (GEO): The role of geography and both the natural and human-made environments on social and political developments in what would become the United States.

  • American in the World (WOR): The interactions between nations that affected North American history in the colonial period, and on the influence of the United States on world affairs.