AP Summer Assignments

Dear AP student,

Welcome! I am happy that you have decided to take AP U.S. History. Summer assignments are very important for an AP class as they provide a base of knowledge that you will need to build on throughout the year. You will be responsible for TWO (multi-part) assignments this summer. Please be sure to actively complete the assignments throughout your vacation. Break it up! Please note students will NOT be provided with A People’s History of the United States (Fourth Edition and Beyond). These assignments are due the first time that you are in AP U.S. History class.

Materials Needed

1 book (A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn: Must Be purchased.) A People’s History Topics/Prompts Packet (Provided) Primary Source Packet (Provided) SOAPSTone Information Page (Explanation for Assignment)(Provided) Historiography Information Page (Provided)

Assignment #1 You must read:

Select Chapters of A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. This book offers an interesting view of U.S. history, with most of the sources coming from “minor” players in the traditional narrative. Be sure to read the Historiography Information Page before reading the book.

AND

Take notes on the topics from each of the chapters. You will be able to use these notes on a TEST in September. These notes must be hand written and should be neat and organized. (Topics are located on a separate page). These notes will be checked for completion in September.

Assignment #2

1. Read the primary sources located in the stapled packet.

2. Perform a SOAPSTone breakdown for each of the primary sources. (Directions on a separate page). This assignment can be typed, but it must be printed and handed in on the first day of school. Each letter should be answered using 2-3 sentences.

Summer Advice

1. Buy the book A Peoples’ History (4th edition and beyond) early. It can be purchased at bookstores such as Barnes and Noble as well as online at websites like Amazon.com. 2. Please read the directions and information pages carefully. 3. Read the book and take notes in parts. Set goals for yourself and do not wait to the last minute. 4. Be sure to mark up the Primary Sources Packet (underline/highlight) 5. Please email me if you have any questions. I generally check my email at least once per day and will get back to you as soon as possible with a response. ONCE AGAIN, DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK QUESTIONS! 6. My Email: [email protected]. 7. The Lyndhurst High School website also contains my email address.

Have a great, productive summer!

Mr. Tessalone

SOAPSTone Instructions (APCentral.com)

Students need to recognize that any good composition, whether written, spoken, or drawn, is carefully planned. This composition has integral parts that work together in a complex and subtle arrangement to produce meaning. Originally conceived as a method for dissecting the work of professional writers, SOAPSTone provides a concrete strategy to help students identify and use these central components as a basis for their own writing.

SOAPSTone (Speaker, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Subject, Tone) is an acronym for a series of questions that students must first ask themselves, and then answer, as they begin to plan their compositions.

Who is the Speaker? The voice that tells the story. Before students begin to write, they must decide whose voice is going to be heard. Whether this voice belongs to a fictional character or to the writers themselves, students should determine how to insert and develop those attributes of the speaker that will influence the perceived meaning of the piece.

What is the Occasion? The time and the place of the piece; the context that prompted the writing. Writing does not occur in a vacuum. All writers are influenced by the larger occasion: an environment of ideas, attitudes, and emotions that swirl around a broad issue. Then there is the immediate occasion: an event or situation that catches the writer's attention and triggers a response.

Who is the Audience? The group of readers to whom this piece is directed. As they begin to write, students must determine who the audience is that they intend to address. It may be one person or a specific group. This choice of audience will affect how and why students write a particular text.

What is the Purpose? The reason behind the text. Students need to consider the purpose of the text in order to develop the thesis or the argument and its logic. They should ask themselves, "What do I want my audience to think or do as a result of reading my text?"

What is the Subject? Students should be able to state the subject in a few words or phrases. This step helps them to focus on the intended task throughout the writing process.

What is the Tone? The attitude of the author. The spoken word can convey the speaker's attitude and thus help to impart meaning through tone of voice. With the written word, it is tone that extends meaning beyond the literal, and students must learn to convey this tone in their diction (choice of words), syntax (sentence construction), and imagery (metaphors, similes, and other types of figurative language). The ability to manage tone is one of the best indicators of a sophisticated writer.

A Peoples’ History Topic List

Directions: You must read each chapter identified in A Peoples’ History of the United States. While reading, you should take notes on the following topics below. You will be able to use the notes for the test in September and on group presentations throughout the year. Remember, you are only reading TEN chapters of the book.

Note: One of the challenges of AP U.S. History (APUSH) is the fact that there is a lot of content throughout the course. The AP test requires skills and content from the entirety of U.S. history. Therefore, this summer assignment will chronologically begin around 1900 and extend into the 1990’s. This will provide a strong foundation for content topics that we will analyze later in the school year. To keep these readings fresh, there will be group presentations throughout the year on them (these instructions will be given when you return to school.)

Note: “History is always interpretative of the past. Factual events, such as the Battle of Saratoga, become significant through the interpretations given to them by contemporaries and by the historians and others who view them from the distance of time, whose worldviews and biases are usually quite different from those accepted when the events took place.” (APCentral.com)

Note: A key component of history is historiography, or the study of historical writing. This will be a major focus of the class. Please be aware that this assignment requires you to read and analyze an historian’s (Zinn’s) interpretation of events. This year in AP U.S. History, you will be reading historical writings from a diverse group of historians.

Chapter 12: The Empire and the People 1. Theodore Roosevelt’s views on expansionism and war 2. Henry Cabot Lodge and his role in U.S. imperialism 3. The open door policy in China 4. The Cuban Revolution 5. William McKinley’s thoughts on war with Spain 6. The Spanish-American War 7. The Philippine-American War

Chapter 13: The Socialist Challenge 1. Emma Goldman’s views on the Spanish-American War 2. Taylorism 3. Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire 4. Differences between the AFL and the IWW 5. The Socialist Party 6. The Niagara Movement 7. Criticisms of the Progressive Movement 8. The different definitions of liberalism

Chapter 14: War is the Health of the State 1. Media portrayals of the war in England and Germany 2. W.E.B Du Bois’s view on World War I 3. The Espionage and Sedition Act 4. Eugene Debs 5. Protests against the war and the draft

Chapter 15: Self-help in Hard Times 1. The local and national response to the Johnstown Strike 2. Immigration policies of the 1920’s 3. Marcus Garvey 4. Long-term causes of the Great Depression 5. Hoovervilles 6. Unemployment during the Depression 7. The Bonus Army March 8. You should be familiar with the following New Deal programs (NIRA, AAA, TVA, Wagner Act, Social Security) 9. How did African Americans fare under the New Deal

Chapter 16: A People’s War 1. International Bank for Reconstruction 2. Control of the United Nations 3. Women’s increased militancy in the factories 4. The Smith Act 5. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 6. Strikes after the war 7. Truman Doctrine 8. Joseph McCarthy 9. The Korean War 10. The Marshall Plan 11. Fidel Castro

Chapter 17: “Or Does it Explode?” 1. African American Migration 2. Martin Luther King, Jr. vs. Malcolm X 3. The Scottsboro Boys Incident 4. NAACP 5. The immediate and long term impacts of Brown vs. Board of Education 6. Tactics used by Civil Rights groups 7. Segregation and Disenfranchisement of African Americans 8. The FBI vs. The Black Panthers

Chapter 18: The Impossible Victory: Vietnam 1. The goal of the Vietminh 2. The goal of the United States 3. The National Liberation Front 4. Criticism of Diem’s regime in South Vietnam 5. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident and Resolution 6. The Massacre at My Lai 7. SNCC 8. The Pentagon Papers 9. The influence of the ‘people’ on ending the war according to Zinn

Chapter 19: Surprises 1. Women working during World War II 2. Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique 3. The various challenges women were subjected to in the United States 4. Challenges faced by prisoners 5. The fight for Native rights and tribal recognition 6. The protest at Alcatraz

Chapter 20: The Seventies: Under Control? 1. Reasons people were disillusioned with the establishment 2. The media’s role in the 1970’s 3. The reluctance to use military intervention abroad in the 1970’s 4. Watergate and Nixon 5. Henry Kissinger 6. Noam Chomsky’s article

Chapter 21: Carter-Reagan-Bush: The Bipartisan Consensus 1. The Iran-Contra Affair 2. Winners and losers during the Carter Administration according to Zinn 3. Winners and losers during the Reagan Administration according to Zinn 4. Winners and losers during the Bush Administration according to Zinn

Extended Writing Portion

Directions: There will be an extended writing portion on your test in September. Please read the prompts below and answer them to the best of your ability.

1. Provide some background information on Howard Zinn. (Early life, education, career, and legacy).

2. Do you think that Zinn’s political and social beliefs influenced how he views and writes about historical events? Explain.

3. What types of sources (primary and secondary) does the author use throughout the book? (Cite some examples) Do you think these sources contribute to a bias or prejudice of the author? Explain.

4. Write a thesis statement that you think encompasses the selected chapters as a whole.

Historiography Information Page (City University of New York)

In a nutshell, historiography is the history of history. Rather than subjecting actual events - say, Hitler's annexation of Austria - to historical analysis, the subject of historiography is the history of the history of the event: the way it has been written, the sometimes conflicting objectives pursued by those writing on it over time, and the way in which such factors shape our understanding of the actual event at stake, and of the nature of history itself.

Questions of historiography include the following:

• Who writes history, with what agenda in mind, and towards what ends? • How accurate can a historian ever hope to be, analyzing past events from the vantage point of the historian's present? • Does the historian's own perspective, impacted as it undoubtedly is by gender, age, national and ideological affiliation, etc., contribute to an "agenda" that the historian's work is playing into, unwittingly or consciously? • What about the types of sources, both primary and secondary, an historian chooses to base his or her work upon? Do they too contribute to the above-mentioned "agenda"? • Does the very selection of sources (and, by extension, the decision to exclude certain other sources) prejudice the outcome of the historian's work in certain ways? et cetera...

As you can tell, the underlying sentiment of historiography is one of skepticism. This is due to the recognition that historians do have agendas and do select sources with the intent of "proving" certain preconceived notions. History is therefore never truly "objective," but always a construct that presents the historian's view of things. At its most objective - and even this is debatable - history presents basic "facts" (dates, events, etc.); the task of the historian, then, is to interpret those facts, the outcome of which (a book, a journal article, a lecture -- even a student paper) can never be truly objective, as interpretation is by definition a subjective mental process.

All this is just a fancy way of saying what you already know, and what has long been articulated in such platitudes as "the victors write the history." Does this render the entire pursuit of history pointless? Do not despair: far from undermining your desire and potential to become a better writer and student of history, a keen sense of historiography will in fact increase your potential in these realms. Asking the types of questions bulleted above of any historical text you read will push you to delve more deeply into the matter, to explore both the event itself and the writer whose work you are reading in greater detail, and to consult additional sources. The outcome may complicate your view of things but, undoubtedly, will give you a greater appreciation for the many factors that contribute to the interpretation of an historical event, including factors of bias and prejudice - even your own. This appreciation, in turn, will make you a more thoughtful reader and writer of history yourself.