The AP U.S. History course focuses on the development of disciplinary practices and reasoning skills and an understanding of content organized around seven themes:
- American and National Identity
- Politics and Power
- Work, Exchange, and Technology
- Culture and Society
- Migration and Settlement
- Geography and the Environment
- America in the World
The course is divided into nine chronological periods (some units overlap chronologically due to the different concepts covered in each unit):
- 1491-1607
- 1607-1754
- 1754-1800
- 1800-1848
- 1844-1877
- 1865-1914
- 1890-1945
- 1945-1989
- 1980-present
In this course, you’ll develop the AP history disciplinary practices and reasoning skills:
- Practice 1: Analyzing historical evidence
- Practice 2: Argument development
- Skill 1: Contextualization
- Skill 2: Comparison
- Skill 3: Causation
- Skill 4: Continuity and change over time
AP United States History will:
- Provide you with the reasoning skills and enduring understandings necessary to deal critically with the main issues and documents of U.S. history
- Prepare you for intermediate and advanced college courses by making demands upon you equivalent to those made by full-year introductory college courses
- Enable you to assess historical sources — their relevance to a given interpretive problem, their reliability, and their importance — and to weigh the evidence and interpretations of the past presented in historical scholarship
- Develop the skills necessary to arrive at conclusions on the basis of an informed judgment and to present reasons and evidence clearly and persuasively in an essay format
- Train you to analyze and interpret primary sources, including documentary materials, maps, statistical tables, and pictorial and graphic evidence of historical events
- Teach you to take notes from both printed materials and lectures or discussions, to write essay examinations, and to write analytical and research papers
- Enable you to express yourself with clarity and precision and know how to cite sources and credit the phrases and ideas of others