Jefferson Davis High School

Instructor: Aisha O. Taylor Jefferson Davis High School

COURSE SYLLABUS

Subject: Advanced Placement U.S. History (APUSH)

Course Introduction and Expectations Advanced placement U.S. History is a survey course oriented to college-bound students that meets five days a week. These courses are divided into eight (8) units of study from 1450 to the present. The course is designed to provide students with the analytic skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problems and materials in U.S. History. The class prepares students for post-secondary course work in history by setting standards equivalent to those made by full-year introductory college courses. Students will learn to assess historical materials—their relevance to given interpretive problems, reliability, and importance—and to weigh the evidence and interpretations presented in historical scholarship. The Advanced Placement U.S. History classes will help students develop the skills necessary to arrive at conclusions on the basis of an informed judgment and to present reasons and evidence clearly and persuasively through oral discussions and in essay format.

Skills Students will read U.S. History Advanced Placement textbooks and supplementary readings, complete historical outlines, research projects, practice process skills, analyze documents, engage in levels of questioning, write document-based and free-response essays, and prepare for a College Board Advanced Placement exam.

Classroom Expectations In addition to daily course attendance students are expected to:  Complete the required units of study in a satisfactory manner with a passing grade as based on the MCBOE Grade and Retention.  Quiz on each chapter within the units of study. (Tentative)  Complete a unit objective test and essay test for each unit. Essay tests throughout the year will be document-based and free-response.  Read all supplementary readings assigned. (Tentative)  Prepare historical outlines and reports on major periods of history.  Complete selected assignments to constitute a quiz grade as indicated by the instructor.  Complete a final exam for the course at the end of the school year to demonstrate mastery of the course objectives.

The overall student grade will be determined using the following method:  Unit objective and essay exams, and projects, outline notebooks and will make up 65% of the grade.  Homework, in-class assignments, and quizzes will make up 35% of the grade.

Teacher/Student Resources

Primary Textbook: Kennedy, David M., et al. The American Pageant. 13th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.

Unit I: 1450 – 1783 – Pre-Columbian Societies to Establishing a New Nation (5 weeks)

Readings:  Text: American Pageant, Chapters 1-8  Opposing Viewpoints, Vol. I, pages 48, 62-67  History of Women in America, page 214  American Spirit, Volume I, pages 44-48, 79-81, 85-86, 92-96, 113-117, 130-132, 154- 156, 168-171  Ordinary Americans, pages 18-20, 21-25  Declaration of Independence  various handouts

Themes:  American Diversity  American Identity  Demographic Changes  Economic Transformations  Globalization  Politics and Citizenship  Religion  Slavery and Its Legacies in North America  War and Diplomacy

Course Content:  Spanish, English, and French exploration and the long-term influence upon America  Motives for the founding of the colonies  Distinctions among the New England, Southern, and Middle Colonies  Mercantilism – advantages/disadvantages upon the colonies  Colonial social structure  Significance of events leading to the American Revolutionary War

Unit II: 1783 – 1800 – The Constitution and the Early Republic (4 weeks)

Readings:  Text: American Pageant, Chapters 9-10  History of Women in America, pages 30-37  U.S. Constitution  Opposing Viewpoints, Vol. I, pages 74-75, 76-87  American Spirit, Vol. I, pages 200-202, 207-209, 216-220  Bill of Rights  “The Federalist No. 10”  Ordinary Americans, “Life of Hamilton and Jefferson”  Opposing Viewpoints, “Jeffersonians versus Hamiltonians”  various handouts

Themes:  American Identity  Politics and Citizenship  Slavery and Its Legacies in North America  War and Diplomacy

Course Content:  Drafting the Constitution  Federalists versus Anti-Federalists  Bill of Rights  Washington’s presidency  Hamilton’s financial program  Foreign and domestic difficulties  Beginnings of political parties  John Adams’ presidency  Alien and Sedition Acts  XYZ Affair  Election of 1800

Unit III: 1800 – 1840 – From Jefferson to the Age of Jackson (4 weeks)

Readings:  Text: The American Pageant, Chapters 11-16  American Spirit, Vol. I, pages 222-226, 252-256  Ordinary Americans, pages 46-48  Supreme Court cases during the tenure of John Marshall as Chief Justice  Social Reformers: 1815-1860, pages 1-124  various handouts

Themes:  American Identity  Culture  Demographic Changes  Economic Transformations  Politics and Citizenship  Reform  Religion  Slavery and Its Legacies in North America  War and Diplomacy

Course Content:  Jefferson’s presidency  The Supreme Court under John Marshall  Neutral rights, impressments, embargo  James Madison and the War of 1812  Jackson’s presidency  Democracy and the “common man”  Second party system  Internal improvements and states’ rights  The Nullification Crisis  Tariff issue  The Union: Calhoun and Jackson  The Bank War: Jackson and Biddle  Martin Van Buren’s presidency  Independent treasury system  Panic of 1837  Manifest Destiny and territorial expansion  Texas annexation, the Oregon boundary, and California  James K. Polk and the Mexican War  Slavery and the Wilmot Proviso  The American culture is created  The period of reform crusades

Unit IV: 1840 – 1877 – A Decade of Crisis to the Civil War and Reconstruction (4 weeks)

Readings:  Text: American Pageant, Chapters 17-22  Ordinary Americans, pages 81, 84-85  American Spirit, Vol. 1, pages 383-385, 422-428, 441-451  Documentary History of the United States, pages 115-118  History of Women in America, pages 140-151  Opposing Viewpoints, pages 226-230, 283-289  Social Reformers: 1815-1860, pages 125-218  various handouts

Themes:  American Diversity  Reform  Slavery and Its Legacies in North America  War and Diplomacy

Course Content:  A decade of crisis results in the breakup of the union  Compromise of 1850  Kansas-Nebraska Act and realignment of parties  Dred Scott decision and Lecompton crisis  The election of 1860 – Abraham Lincoln  The secession crisis  The Civil War: Cause, Course, Consequences  Presidential plans for reconstruction  Congressional plans for reconstruction  Southern state governments: problems, achievements, weaknesses  Compromise of 1877 and the end of Reconstruction

Unit V: 1865 – 1898 – The Gilded Age (5 weeks)

Readings:  Text: American Pageant, Chapters 23-26  Ordinary Americans, pages 122-126, 128-133  Opposing Viewpoints, Vol. II, pages 4-7  various handouts

Themes:  Culture  Demographic Changes  Economic Transformations  Environment  Globalization  War and Diplomacy

Course Content:  The Gilded Age  Tariff controversy  Railroad regulation  Trusts  Agrarian discontent  Populism  Silver question  Industrial growth: railroads, iron, coal, electricity, steel, oil, banks  Laissez-faire conservatism  Union movement  Knights of Labor and American Federation of Labor  Haymarket, Homestead, and Pullman  The new imperialism  Spanish-American War: Causes, Course, Consequences

Unit VI: 1898 – 1920 – The Progressive Era to the New Era of the 1920’s (4 weeks)

Readings:  Text: The American Pageant, Chapters 27-31  Ordinary Americans, pages 144-149, 150-156  Opposing Viewpoints, pages 86-89, 153-160  History of Women in America, pages 219-233  various handouts

Themes:  American Diversity  Culture  Demographic Changes  Economic Transformations  Environment  Globalization  Politics and Citizenship  Reform  Religion  War and Diplomacy

Course Content:  America becomes a World Power  The Progressive Era: objectives, goals, accomplishments  The presidencies of T. Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson  The 1920s: A New Era  Republican governments  Economic development  New culture  Consumerism: automobile, radio, movies  Women, the family  Modern religion  Literature of alienation  Jazz age  Harlem Renaissance  Conflict of cultures  Prohibition, bootlegging  Nativism  Ku Klux Klan  Religion’s fundamentalism versus modernists  Myth of isolation  Replacing the League of Nations  Business and diplomacy

Unit VII: 1920 – 1940 – America During the 1920s, Diplomacy in the 1930s, and Events Leading to WWII (5 weeks)

Readings:  Text: The American Pageant, Chapters 32-36  History of Women in America, pages 307-314  Opposing Viewpoints, pages 170-174  various handouts

Themes:  American Identity  Economic Transformations  War and Diplomacy

Course Content:  America goes through a Depression  Depression economy  Moods of despair  The New Deal: Philosophy of the New Deal  Critics, left and right  Rise of CIO; labor strikes  Supreme Court fight  Recession of 1938  American people in the Depression  Social values, women, ethnic groups  World War II: Causes, Course, Consequences

Unit VIII: 1940 – Present – WWII to the Cold War and Beyond (5 weeks)

Readings:  Text: The American Pageant, Chapters 37-41  American Spirit, Vol. II, pages 250-256  Opposing Viewpoints, 1960-1972, 1972-1999  various handouts

Themes:  American Diversity  Demographic Changes  Economic Transformations  Environment  Globalization  Politics and Citizenship  Reform  Slavery and Its Legacies in North America  War and Diplomacy

Course Content:  Truman and the Cold War  Civil Rights in the U.S.  Foreign policy after WWII  The presidencies of Nixon through Reagan  Resurgent fundamentalism  The New Right and the conservative social agenda