The Advanced Placement United States History course is designed for students who are judged ready for the rigors of college-level work two years ahead of the traditional time. Students analyze the causes of the American Revolution, the unique documents (Declaration of Independence and the Constitution etc.) that have shaped American freedoms, and the challenges faced by a new country. Students chart the growth of the U.S. and analyze the conflicts that eventually led to the Civil War and its aftermath. Particular attention is paid to the various interest groups that make up the American mosaic. As the students learn about the many reform movements and industrial developments of the 19^th Century, they interpret the significance of technology and its impact on America’s indigenous people. In the20^th century. Students observe and interpret the emergence of the U.S. as a world power and its relationship with the rest of the world.

College texts and primary source documents are used extensively throughout the year to challenge students’ critical thinking and document analysis skills. In addition to the core text, students are exposed to a multitude of other resources and perspectives. Unique interpretations based on documented history, critical evaluations, and the works of a variety of historians are emphasized. Students are exposed to the literature, music, art, and architecture that have impacted American culture throughout history as a means of obtaining a broad based knowledge of our nation’s heritage. Students are required to read and write both widely and intensively, beginning in the summer prior to their junior year.

COURSE GOALS

• To provide students with the analytical skills and factual knowledge needed for effectively analyzing essential issues relating to U.S. History
• To supply students with a multitude of diverse historical interpretations and evaluations of events, movements, and individuals in U.S. History, in order to emphasize the value of determining perspective
• To provide the skills necessary to successfully compose essays that analyze questions, interpret documents, provide a thesis and conclusion, as well as supplying an abundance of relevant support that incorporates information from outside any source materials provided
• To expose the students to historical documents, charts, graphs, and journals
• To require exposure to college level texts and outside resources that will provide the interpretations of a variety of noted historians
• To provide students with a variety of historical thinking skills, such as interpretation, argumentation, causation, continuity, change over time, periodization, comparison, contextualization, and synthesis to develop a deeper understanding of U.S. History
• To expose students to the thematic approach of historical thinking, including:
  • Identity
  • Work, exchange, and technology
  • Peopling
  • Politics and power
  • America in the world
  • Environment and geography – physical and human
  • Ideas, beliefs, and culture

CONTENT OBJECTIVES

The student will . . .

• analyze the motivations for European settlement in North America.
• compare and contrast the values and lifestyles of European, Native and African cultures.

CONTENT OBJECTIVES

The student will . . .

• identify the different colonies and their social, political, and economic development.
• explain how did the diversity of American experiences shape the development of the colonies in the 17^th and 18^th centuries and contribute to the growth of an American character?
• explain the effects of the policies of mercantilism and slavery on the development of colonial politics, their economies, and social structures.
• compare and contrast the foundation of colonial freedoms with the structures we have in place in modern America.
• evaluate the role of education, science, art, literature and religion in the daily lives of colonial Americans.

CONTENT OBJECTIVES

The student will . . .

• explain how did the outcome of the French & Indian War shape the relationship between Britain and her colonies?
• analyze the Patriot and Loyalist perspectives on the issue of American Independence.
• decide if the American Revolution inevitable?
• analyze the impact of the Declaration of Independence on colonial and modern America.
• explain how did the Articles of Confederation fail to meet the needs of the new nation?
• analyze how the Constitution changed and strengthened the government.
• compare and contrast the different perspectives of the Federalists, and Democratic Republicans.

CONTENT OBJECTIVES

The student will . . .

• rate the successes and failures of the first four Presidents in maintaining American ideals of liberty, equality, democracy and posterity.
• choose between Hamiltonianism and Jeffersonianism as the best representation of the American hopes for liberty, posterity, and political an economic independence.
• evaluate the impact of the reform movement and Manifest Destiny on future movements for secession, feminism and civil rights.
• explain how did Manifest Destiny and the acquisition of Texas lead to increased sectionalism and finally, war.
• explain to what extent were the reform movements an extension of Jacksonian ideals.
• explain to what extent did the reform movements reflect and contribute to a uniquely American identity?
• explain to what extent were Jacksonians guardians of the Constitution, political democracy and economic opportunity?
• exlpain in what ways did Jacksonian Democracy live up to its characterization as an era of the "common man.”
• explain in what ways did Jacksonian Democracy show the flaws and defects of the US Constitution prior to the Civil War?

CONTENT OBJECTIVES

The student will . . .

• understand the 1850s as the convergence of the structural defects present from the beginning of the American experiment with self-government and nation building
• analyze the attempts at reconciliation and the major causes of the Civil War and determine if the conflict was inevitable.
• discuss the strategies and major battles of the Civil War.
• explain the methods used by Lincoln to consolidate the Revolutionary redefinition of the American Experiment via his First Inaugural Address, Fort Sumter and his war goals.
• analyze the arguments and perspectives of idealism and ideology, in both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, used by the North and South to determine the legality of: suspension of habeas corpus, secession, drafts, income taxes and war goals.
• develop and map proper strategy for the Union forces as it applies to foreign pressures, new military technology, home front election pressures and the need to create a whole and unified nation.
• predict the impact and consequences of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
• make predictions as to the future of the redefined American Experiment under the victorious ideals of the Hamiltonian North in terms of economics, politics, morality and society.
• analyze the actions, goals and beliefs of the various interest groups during the Reconstruction Era to determine in what ways the Era was a success and a failure.
• identify the legal and social obstacles used by the southern States to deny, deflect and obfuscate the goals and ideals of the freemen and the Radical Republicans.

CONTENT OBJECTIVES

The student will . . .

• explain what role did the Federal government played in the development of the frontier?
• discuss the US policy toward reservations and consequences of the policy for Natives.
• analyze the impact of railroads in the late 19^th century upon farmers and Natives and industrialization in the east.
• discuss the characteristics of Gilded Age politics at the local and national level.
• compare and contrast laissez-faire capitalism, Social Darwinism, the Gospel of Wealth, and Horatio Alger stories as either consistent or inconsistent with American ideals and reality.
• analyze the need for reform in the United States and determine, what, if any changes need to be made to the social, economic and political structure to remain consistent with its idea as a City Upon a Hill.

CONTENT OBJECTIVES

The student will . . .

• describe the actions of the United States in the Caribbean, Pacific and the MonroeDoctrine and compare these actions to the American Experiment’s anti-monarchial and anti-colonialist past.
• describe the actions of the United States in the Caribbean, Pacific and the MonroeDoctrine and compare these actions to the American Experiment’s anti-monarchial and anti-colonialist past.
• critique the role of the United States in Latin America and the extent to which the United States continues to experience dilemmas in its international relations.
• trace the changes in American foreign policy, from the Farewell Address to involvement in the Great War and identify the factors that moved the United States into breaking with its traditional foreign policy.
• list and understand the post-war foreign policy objectives of the Wilson Administration and its consistency with traditional American ideology as the City Upon a Hill.
• identify the people and events of the 1920s and their contributions to the Jazz Age, Red Scare, Prohibition flouting, the Lost Generation and the effect of technology upon the United States.
• investigate the 1920s as a period of Old vs. New, Xenophobia, Cynicism vs. Optimism, Urban vs. Rural, and Modernism vs. Traditionalism.
• scrutinize the political and economic philosophy and actions of the Republican Presidents of the 1920s as either do-nothing politicians or defenders of American political tradition, custom and ideals.
• identify the people and events of the 1920s and their contributions to the Jazz Age, Red Scare, Prohibition flouting, the Lost Generation and the effect of technology upon the United States.
• identify the causes of and changes created by the Great Depression upon the American moral, psychological, political and economic systems.
• list the policies, principles and programs of the New Deal and Keynesian Economics.
• analyze whether the American diplomatic movements of the 1930s were consistent with American tradition and custom and determine if the Pearl Harbor attack should be considered a surprise or a predictable event.
• formulate a strategy for the Pacific and European theatres of war.
• formulate a strategy for the Cold War and relations with the Soviet Union in the post-WWII period.

CONTENT OBJECTIVES

The student will . . .

• analyze the Yalta Conference and the creation of the UN, the Truman Doctrine and NATO in establishing post-war relations with the Soviet Union and its satellites.
• apply the core philosophies and ideas of Containment Policy to American and world actions in the 1950s and 1960s and demonstrate how it influenced and counteracted traditional American foreign policy.
• examine the business model of the post-war United States as a driver for social and cultural standardization and the coming counter-culture.
• evaluate the success or failure of the Federal government’s response and policiesconcerning the Reconstruction Era from 1865 through 1896.
• evaluate the success or failure of the Federal government’s response and policiesconcerning Civil Rights from the 1954 through the present day.
• evaluate methodology, experience and technology in the evolution of civil rights from the Reconstruction Era through the present day.
• judge the success or failure of the Ribicoff plan to end de facto segregation, Nixon’sSouthern Strategy, Affirmative Action, the Kerner Commission and the Moynihan Report.
• explain how did the values, beliefs, and ethics held by Americans of the late fifties and early sixties lead to the origins of the Civil Rights Movement, the conflict between conformity and the counterculture, and the ideals of the New Frontier and the Great Society.
• analyze the impact of the Vietnam War on national politics, ideology and American perceptions of themselves and the world at large.interpret the major Supreme Court decisions of the 1960s and link their connection to the Silent Majority, the Vietnam War era ethos and the Election of 1980.