U.S. History

About the AP U.S. History Exam WHAT'S ON THE TEST Key facts Important themes and topics POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIAL (PES) QUESTIONS Politics trends Economy trends Trends in social history WHAT THE AP GRADES MEAN Converting letters to numbers College credit policies TEST PREPARATION A study strategy Time limits Avoiding test-induced panic Getting Mentally Prepared for the Big Test IDENTIFYING THE WAY YOU LEARN Studying by sight Studying by sound Studying through movement WAYS TO MAXIMIZE YOUR STUDY TIME STRATEGIES TO REDUCE PRETEST ANXIETY Progressive relaxation Deep breathing Quiet Ears TWO DAYS BEFORE THE EXAM EXAM DAY Section I: Multiple choice Break time Section II: The DBQ and essays Strategies for the Multiple-Choice Section THINKING LIKE THE TEST WRITERS Points hidden in plain sight Leveraging what you know Avoiding word traps Going with what you know Using historic eras to gain points Questioning illustrations TIME MANAGEMENT DURING THE TEST Target easy questions first Pace yourself Mark in the question book Scoring Well on Document-Based Questions (DBQs)USING DOCUMENTS LIKE A HISTORIAN DBQ SCORES The 8-to-9 essay The 5-to-7 essay The 2-to-4 essay The 0-to-1 essay PAT: A STRATEGY FOR ANSWERING DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTIONS Writing a good thesis Using appropriate proof SAMPLE DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION: THE RECONSTRUCTION The question and source documents example Answering the Reconstruction DBQ Writing AP-Quality Essays HOW TO HANDLE TIMING SELECTING THE BEST QUESTIONS Writing like a professor Using proof, analysis, and thesis (PAT)GRADING CRITERIA FOR ESSAY QUESTIONS CONVERTING QUESTIONS TO PAT ANSWERS Analyzing an essay question Settling on your thesis Planning the essay Writing the essay Checking out a sample essay Wrapping up the essay plan U.S. History from America's Beginning to Now American Indians from 20,000 BCE to 1491 CE THE FIRST AMERICANS ,000 years before Columbus to Columbus's time The focus on Mesoamerican cultures EARLY AMERICAN INDIAN EMPIRES The Mayan empire The Incan empire The Aztec empire AMERICAN INDIANS IN NORTH AMERICA NATIVE AMERICANS AND THE SPREAD OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES UNEVEN GIFT EXCHANGE The New World: 1492-1690 EUROPEANS SETTLE INTO THE NEW WORLD The far-reaching impact of Columbus's discovery The Spanish and Portuguese settlement of the New World English colonies The different approaches to colonization THE AMERICAN COLONIES The settling of Massachusetts The founding of Rhode Island The Connecticut colony Dutch colonies in New York and New Jersey The difference between Puritans and Pilgrims Pennsylvania and Delaware Colonial Maryland The Virginia colony The Carolina colony Georgia EARLY CHALLENGES TO THE NEW COLONIES American Indian troubles The Navigation and Molasses Acts Disease and money Early rebellions Slavery before the Revolution Life in New England Witches and religion The Road to the Revolution: 1691-1775 POPULATION EXPANSION IN THE COLONIES The Scotch-Irish The Germans The French Africans and the ongoing issue of slavery DAILY LIFE IN THE COLONIES The relative prosperity of the colonies Education and vocations AMERICAN ARTS American painters Architecture Literature, libraries, and the birth of American journalism CHANGING ATTITUDES TOWARD RELIGION EARLY POLITICS MAKING MONEY IN COLONIAL AMERICA The triangular trade Mercantilism Trade tension FIGHTING ACROSS NORTH AMERICA Frontier fighting The French and Indian War The British halt Western expansion PRELUDE TO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR New thoughts about freedom The Stamp Act The Townshend Act The Boston Massacre The Boston Tea Party The Intolerable Acts The first Continental Congress Lexington and Concord COLONIAL HISTORY ESSAY SUBJECTS From Revolution to Republic: 1776-1815 COMMON SENSE AND THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE EARLY BATTLES BETWEEN BRITAIN AND THE PATRIOTS Problems faced by the British Problems the patriots faced Slaves: Fighting for both sides THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: AN OVERVIEW Valley Forge and help from France Cornwallis and losing morale Victory and the Treaty of Paris DESIGNING A NEW COUNTRY Separation of church and state Early attempts to abolish slavery Women's gains and republican motherhood Trade, industry, and economic democracy Expanding the country THE LEGAL FOUNDATION OF A NATION The Articles of Confederation Shays' Rebellion The first president: George Washington The Bill of Rights THE YOUNG REPUBLIC The Whiskey Rebellion Forming political parties Staying out of other people's wars Washington leaves office JOHN ADAMS THOMAS JEFFERSON AND THE 1800S Empowering the Supreme Court The Louisiana Purchase The Lewis and Clark expedition EVENTS LEADING TO THE WAR OF 1812 James Madison steps in Britain's deal with Tecumseh The War of 1812 against Britain THE ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS The United States Grows Up, 1816-1845 MANIFEST DESTINY KICK-STARTING POLITICAL ACTION Presidents during this period The Marshall Court THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE OF 1820 THE MONROE DOCTRINE (1823)THE TRAIL OF TEARS (1838)ANDREW JACKSON'S PRESIDENCY Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet Jackson's response to nullification Abolishing the Bank of the U.S.MODERN CONVENIENCES Factory jobs and the American Dream Advances in transportation The Industrial Revolution SLAVERY GROWS WITH COTTON The cotton gin and expanding slavery The increasing power of pro-slavery factions The anti-slavery movement EDUCATION AND THE ARTS TRANSCENDENTALISM AND THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING From Sea to Shining Sea: 1846-1854 NEW INVENTIONS The advent of mass production The telegraph STRIDES IN TRANSPORTATION Traveling the long and winding road Creating canals SOCIAL CHANGE Key social movements of the 1800s Moving from farm to factory Public education Expanding religious diversity EXPANDED ROLES FOR WOMEN Gaining control of their own lives Women's rights ARTS IN MID-19TH CENTURY AMERICA Stephen Foster and the American songbook The rise of American literature THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY EARLY ETHNIC GROUP ISSUES The relocation of Native Americans The treatment of immigrants Problems faced by free blacks Slave revolts Abolitionists in the North MORE LAND FOR AMERICA SLIDING TO CIVIL WAR The Compromise of 1850 Stephen Douglas and the Kansas-Nebraska Act The Fight over Slavery: 1855-1865 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN AND THE SHIFT IN PUBLIC OPINION FROM WORDS TO BULLETS IN BLEEDING KANSAS THE DRED SCOTT DECISION Background The ruling The ramifications FINANCIAL COLLAPSE: THE PANIC OF 1857 THE ELECTION OF 1860: WIDENING THE DIVIDE Abraham Lincoln runs for president John Brown Lincoln's election and Southern succession THE CIVIL WAR ERUPTS The battles at Bull Run (1861 and 1862)The battle at Antietam (1862)The Emancipation Proclamation Blockade of southern supply lines The battles of Fredericksburg (1862) and Chancellorsville (1863)The battles at Gettysburg and Vicksburg (1863)Extending freedom The presidential election of 1864 and the end of the war The loss of Lincoln THE AFTERMATH OF THE CIVIL WAR Reconstruction and the Move Westward, 1866-1880 RECONSTRUCTION The Radical Republicans The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments Women, former slaves, and the limits of freedom Southern opposition to Reconstruction The end of Reconstruction THE PRESIDENCY OF ULYSSES S. GRANT LIFE IN THE GILDED AGE The change in currency to paper money Immigration Industrialization and the birth of labor unions Increasing literacy The impact of Charles Darwin Censorship and women's rights The temperance movement THE PUSH WESTWARD The railroad and economic growth The cultivation of the West Further assaults on Native American holdings and rights The U.S. Grows Up, 1881-1899 SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE GILDED AGE Separate but not equal Dealing with change on the railroads Progress for immigrants The growing women's rights movement Educating the population Bicycles: Providing transportation for everyone ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY Literature leading to action Arts and music PRESIDENTS OF THE PERIOD James Garfield, Chester Arthur, and William McKinley Grover Cleveland Benjamin Harrison The return of Grover Cleveland GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS The rise of the big businessman North versus South in business Private enterprise and antitrust laws HARD TIMES AND LABOR UNIONS Hard times for farmers, too Third parties SETTLING THE WEST Pressure on American Indians Helen Jackson's Ramona BACKING PAPER MONEY WITH PRECIOUS METALS AMERICAN IMPERIALISM The annexation of Hawaii The Spanish-American War Rejecting the idea of empire America on the International Stage, Ready or Not: 1900-1919 THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA China and the Open Door Policy The Boxer Rebellion THEODORE ROOSEVELT Early life Appointments and positions The McKinley-Roosevelt election of 1900 The Roosevelt presidency EXPOSING THE SHORTCOMINGS OF SOCIETY The era of the muckraker Food safety Achievements of the Progressives Roosevelt's Square Deal Preserving the American wilderness The financial panic in 1907 Roosevelt's legacy WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT AND TRUST-BUSTING IDEALISM WITH WOODROW WILSON Wilson's New Freedoms The Federal Reserve Act The Trade Commission and Anti-Trust Act Victories for ordinary people Wilson's great shortcoming: Government segregation Wilson's international progress WORLD WAR I The sinking of the Lusitania America enters the Great War Wilson's 14 points Laws repressing anti-war sentiment War preparations Women's progress during the Great War Wartime food production and Prohibition Entering the fight — reluctantly The Great War ends The peace that cannot hold Wilson's attempt to save the peace The League of Nations falls The Jazz Age and the Great Depression: 1921-1939 U.S. VERSUS COMMUNISM: THE EARLY YEARS THE RETURN OF THE KLAN IMMIGRATION ACT OF 1924 THE JAZZ AGE Prohibition: High demand and high crime Changing morals Mass production and mass consumption Advances in transportation Radio The Harlem Renaissance Movies and their influence Flappers Controversy over evolution The power of the pen Architecture SIGNS OF ECONOMIC TROUBLE AHEAD POLITICS LEADING TO THE DEPRESSION Calvin Coolidge: "Silent Cal" stands by Herbert Hoover: Good intentions, bad mistakes THE STOCK MARKET CRASH OF 1929 The Smoot-Hawley Tariff The millionaires' dole The height of the Depression: 1932 FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT AND THE NEW DEAL Attempts to address the greatest needs The Dust Bowl The legacy of the New Deal DEMAGOGUES OF THE DEPRESSION World War II: 1940-1945 THE BRINK OF WAR The London Economic Conference (1933)Latin America and the Good Neighbor Policy Japan eyes the Philippines Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco The Neutrality Acts THE FLAMES OF WAR GROW HIGHER Britain and France take a stand Tentative U.S. steps toward war Hitler invades the Soviet Union Japan attacks Pearl Harbor FIGHTING TO WIN ON THE HOME FRONT The treatment of Japanese Americans War production Fighting discrimination in defense industries Minorities in the armed forces U.S. recovery from the Depression THE FIGHT IN THE PACIFIC Midway Guadalcanal THE FIGHT IN EUROPE British and U.S. air attacks on Germany The Soviets fight back D-day and Normandy The Holocaust THE ATOMIC BOMB AND THE END OF THE CONFLICT The decision to drop the bomb The outcome of World War II Victory and Cold War: 1946-1960 POST-WWII AMERICA The baby boom A brighter economic outlook The GI Bill The International Monetary Fund The United Nations TRUMAN, THE UNEXPECTED PRESIDENT THE BEGINNING OF THE COLD WAR The shift from ally to enemy The escalation of perceived threats The policy of containment The Marshall Plan The National Security Act and NATO ANTI-COMMUNISM HYSTERIA The Loyalty Review Board McCarthyism THE KOREAN WAR THE EISENHOWER PRESIDENCY Politics under Ike Tensions with the U.S.S.R.THE PROSPEROUS 1950S Doubling the middle class Women in the workforce Addicted to energy The first computer The cost of affluence THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT OF THE 1950S Dixiecrats Rosa Parks Brown v. Board of Education The Civil Rights Commission Sit-in demonstrations THE SPACE RACE CASTRO IN CUBA THE ELECTION OF JOHN KENNEDY Rock and Roll Living: 1961-1979 KENNEDY: PROGRESS AND THE COLD WAR The Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile crisis The Peace Corps The Space Race Kennedy in Berlin TRADE AGREEMENTS THE UNITED STATES AS WORLD COP Early involvement in Vietnam THE SUPREME COURT OF THE 1960S Kennedy's peacemaking initiative THE ASSASSINATION OF JFK THE HEIGHT OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT Separation versus integration Martin Luther King's legacy LYNDON B. JOHNSON (LBJ)Legislating for the Great Society Women's liberation Medicare, Medicaid, and the 24th Amendment THE VIETNAM WAR Hard fighting in Vietnam War protests The Tet offensive RICHARD NIXON The established order versus the counterculture The expansion of the war into Cambodia China and the SALT talks Nixon's social programs Pulling out of Vietnam Watergate GERALD FORD JIMMY CARTER The Iranian hostage crisis Mounting problems Leading in the Modern World: 1980-The Present RONALD REAGAN AND REAGANOMICS New Conservative ideas Reaganomics A growing trade deficit COMMUNISM FADES The U.S. flexes its military muscles Mikhail Gorbachev Iran-Contra and other problems GEORGE H.W. BUSH The fall of the Soviet Union Operation Desert Storm Legislation under the elder Bush MODERN DEMOCRACY WITH BILL CLINTON The new rainbow America Battling extremism Reforming welfare Politics of the possible Personal politics GEORGE W. BUSH Texas governor to U.S. President Increasing economic problems Health care and children: Hot-button issues Climate change Hurricane Katrina The terrorist attacks on 9/11 THE 21ST CENTURY Business changes with society A continuing trend: The rich get richer, the poor get poorer Life in the USA Shifting demographics Into the future Review of Key Trends, Events, and Supreme Court Cases Key Events in U.S. History -1675: SETTING UP THE COLONIES -1775: BUILDING THE COLONIES REVOLUTION -1800: THE CONSTITUTION -1840: DEMOCRACY AND MANIFEST DESTINY -1860: THE LONG PREQUEL TO THE CIVIL WAR -1865: CIVIL WAR -1900: THE UNITED STATES GROWS UP -1945: U.S. AS WORLD POWER TO NOW: GUARDIAN OF THE PEOPLE Key Issues in U.S. History U.S. DIVERSITY THE AMERICAN IDENTITY AMERICAN CULTURE DEMOGRAPHICS ECONOMICS WOMEN'S RIGHTS RACIAL EQUALITY REFORM U.S. RELATIONS WITH THE WORLD SPIRITUALITY Key Supreme Court Decisions MARBURY V. MADISON (1803)MCCULLOCH V. MARYLAND (1819)GIBBONS V. OGDEN (1824)DRED SCOTT V. SANDFORD (1857)PLESSY V. FERGUSON (1896)WEST COAST HOTEL CO. V. PARRISH (1937)BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION (1954)MAPP V. OHIO (1962)GIDEON V. WAINWRIGHT (1963)GRISWOLD V. CONNECTICUT (1965)MIRANDA V. ARIZONA (1966)ROE V. WADE (1973)UNITED STATES V. NIXON (1974)