AP U.S. History Premium, 2025: Prep Book with 5 Practice Tests + Comprehensive Review + Online Practice

PART 1

Introduction

Preparing for the Advanced Placement United States History Exam

Congratulations on taking the Advanced Placement course in United States History. If taken seriously, the class and the exam will develop your critical thinking skills and your ability to understand the world in nuanced ways. The class and the exam ask more of you than merely memorizing facts. You are asked to think through problems, to engage in debates, to organize your thinking, to develop your communication skills, and to take thoughtful stands on important issues.

The College Board’s course framework, included in its AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description, identifies nine periods in United States history. Within each period, there are seven to fifteen topics. This sequence of topics is designed to mirror the sequence of units often found in college courses and textbooks. The College Board has also identified specific historical thinking skills and reasoning processes, as well as themes, that students must show proficiency in to earn high scores on the AP exam.

The skills, processes, and themes in the framework reflect the College Board’s desire to align the AP curriculum and exam with history courses at the university level. The College Board has put more of an emphasis on developing the skills and processes that will deepen your understanding and appreciation of history, and less of an emphasis on memorizing hundreds of seemingly unrelated facts. Yes, you still must be familiar with a wide variety of developments in United States history. However, the exam focuses on your ability to use this historical content in analyzing and developing arguments, in making connections across time, in understanding the broader context of particular developments, in assessing causation, and in evaluating interpretations and developing new ones. The course and exam will push you toward greater intellectual growth and will help you think in new and more sophisticated ways about the world we live in.

Using This Book to Help You Prepare for the Exam

This book has been written and revised with the explicit aim of helping you succeed on the AP United States History exam. In the following chapter you will find descriptions of the historical thinking skills and reasoning processes, as well as themes, that are central to the exam. The book provides examples of how these skills and themes apply to the content of American history. These descriptions are followed by a detailed description of the exam. Each of the four sections of the exam is explored, along with tips, strategies, and approaches for achieving high scores on the exam.

Next, the book contains nine chapters of historical content corresponding to the breakdown of United States history in the College Board’s course framework. Each content chapter is broken down into seven to fifteen topics, mirroring the sequence of topics in the College Board’s course framework. The content chapters in this book provide you with a wealth of illustrative examples that are most relevant to the topics in the course framework and will be most useful to you as you preparefor the AP exam.

Each of the nine content chapters concludes with a Subject to Debate section. These sections will help you recognize the contentious nature of historical interpretation, which is the focus of the first short-answer question on the AP exam. This short-answer question will provide you with two historians’ interpretations of a historical development or process and will assess your ability to describe and compare these interpretations. As you become more familiar with historians’ interpretations of the past, you will begin to develop your own interpretations of historical developments. It will become clear that you are becoming a participant in ongoing debates about the past. By gaining a deeper understanding of the nature of these debates, you will become better prepared to develop your own interpretive ideas.

Finally, the book contains two practice exams. It is suggested that you time yourself as you take these exams. In this way, you will get used to the pacing required for the actual Advanced Placement exam. The exams are followed by explanations for the multiple-choice questions and descriptions of high-scoring responses for the written sections of the exam. Please consult these explanations and descriptions if the material in the questions is not clear to you.

Good luck as you prepare for the AP exam.

1

Historical Thinking Skills, Reasoning Processes, and Themes

Learning Objectives

In this chapter, you will learn about:

Historical Thinking skills and reasoning processes

Historical thinking skills

Historical reasoning processes

Themes in U.S. history

The College Board has identified a set of historical thinking skills and reasoning processes as well as thematic learning objectives that it expects AP U.S. History students to develop. These skills, processes, and themes, used in all the AP history courses, are central to all the questions on the exam. The skills and processes outlined by the College Board reflect the skills used by professional historians in their day-to-day work. The themes are windows to help students see continuities and enduring debates and challenges in U.S. history.

Below, these skills, processes, and themes are described and discussed; it is crucial to be familiar with them during the AP course and, of course, as you prepare for the AP exam.

Historical Thinking Skills and Reasoning Processes

The College Board has identified five historical thinking skills and four reasoning processes that are commonly used by those who participate in the field of historical study. These nine skills and processes outlined by the College Board for the AP U.S. History exam are the same as those used on the AP World History exam and on the AP European History exam. Therefore, familiarity with these skills and processes can aid you in other AP history courses you may take. These skills and processes, discussed in this chapter and illustrated in boxes throughout the content chapters of this book, are at the heart of the practice of history—in college, in graduate school, and in the field. At least one of these skills or processes is built into every question on the AP exam. Therefore, an understanding of these skills and processes is essential to success on the AP exam.

Historical Thinking Skills

Skill 1: Developments and Processes

This skill calls on you to identify and explain historical developments and processes. Developing a broad base of empirical historical knowledge represents the beginning point of historical inquiry.

Identifying and Explaining Historical Developments and Processes

Identify a historical concept, development, or process.

Explain a historical concept, development, or process.

You attain knowledge of historical concepts, developments, and processes from a variety of sources—participating in classroom activities, engaging in public history (monuments, museums, documentaries), reading textbooks, and analyzing primary and secondary sources. Before you can carry out the more sophisticated skills discussed below, you need to establish a solid foundation of historical events, processes, and people and their actions.

Skill 2: Sourcing and Situation

This skill calls on you to analyze sourcing and situation of primary and secondary sources. Sourcing refers to analyzing the origins of a document; situation refers to the context it was created in. You must be able to carefully describe and evaluate evidence about the past from a variety of primary and secondary sources.

Identifying and Explaining Sourcing and Situation

Identify a source’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience.

Explain a source’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience.

Primary and secondary sources are essential building blocks of the historian. Primary sources can include written documents, artifacts, oral traditions, works of music and art, and other sources. Secondary sources include a variety of historical accounts created after the event in question—history books, textbooks, journal articles, documentaries, museum exhibits, public monuments, and other sources. You should be proficient in reading a variety of sources, including documents from the point of view of traditionally underrepresented groups and cultures. For example, in understanding the impact of Protestant missionary work in nineteenth-century Irish-Catholic immigrant neighborhoods, you might be asked to look at different types of evidence—from the point of view of the Protestant missionaries as well as from the point of view of the Irish immigrants. The exam might also invite you to analyze historical evidence beyond the written word; you might have to evaluate archaeological evidence or geographical analyses. In addition, you should be prepared to examine popular culture in gaining an understanding of a period, such as the 1950s or 1960s. Finally, not all relevant evidence will be from an American point of view; in examining the role of the United States in the world, it is important to be able to understand evidence offered by non-American actors.

This practice calls on you to understand the content of sources, but also to interrogate sources by looking beyond the explicit content and by thinking critically about how to use documents in a meaningful and effective way. Specifically, you are expected to identify and explain the following elements of sources:

Point of view: The point of view of the author—his or her ideology, background, way of understanding the world—can shape the content of a document. An author’s point of view, in turn, can be shaped by a number of factors, including his or her gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and age.

Purpose: The purpose of the author also helps us better understand a document’s meaning. Is the document aimed at convincing others or is it merely a recording of one’s private thoughts? Does the author have a score to settle or is he or she attempting to remain above the fray? Related to purpose is audience.

Audience: Individuals often shape the content of a speech or a letter to appeal to an intended audience—allies or antagonists, a close friend or a powerful figure, a select group or the general public. One might emphasize or leave out certain points based on the purpose and audience.

Historical Situation: The historical situation of a document helps us better understand the author’s purpose. Thomas Paine’s tract, Common Sense (published in January 1776), for instance, can be better understood when seen in its particular historical situation–namely, the deteriorating relationship between Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies and the bitter debates among Americans about what course of action to pursue. A better understanding of a document’s historical situation will also help us better understand how it was received by contemporaries.

Significance of Sourcing and Usefulness of Sources

Explain the significance of a source’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience, including how these might limit the uses(s) of a source.

You are expected not to simply identify and explain the above elements of sourcing and situation but also to determine the relative significance of these elements. This part of the skill calls on you to evaluate which elements of sourcing (discussed on pages 6–7) are most important in understanding a document. In addition, this part of the skill asks you to determine the degree to which the sourcing of a document might limit the usefulness of that document. Here, you must employ the four elements of sourcing and situation (point of view, purpose, audience, and historical situation) to better assess a document’s credibility and limitations. Perhaps an author’s background or social position might limit his or her ability to comprehend a situation. A document describing an event years earlier might contain inaccuracies as memories become less vivid over time. A closing argument from a judicial proceeding may leave out certain elements or emphasize other elements that advance a lawyer’s contention of guilty or not guilty. Noting a document’s credibility and limitations also begs the question of what additional documents would be helpful to fill in gaps.

Skill 3: Claims and Evidence in Sources

This skill calls on you to analyze arguments in primary and secondary sources. It requires you to first identify a source’s argument and then to cite the specific evidence that an author uses to support his or her argument. In addition, you should be able to compare the main idea of two sources, and finally to explain how additional evidence can support, modify, or refute a source’s argument.

Identifying claims and arguments

Identify and describe a claim and/or argument in a text-based or non-text-based source.

Claims can be found in primary or secondary sources. In regard to primary sources, be prepared to identify the main argument of a manifesto, letter, speech, or other pronouncement. What specifically, for example, is Nathaniel Bacon attempting to prove in his 1676 manifesto? What is Frederick Douglass asserting in his speech, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? What is the main claim that Woodrow Wilson is making in his argument for entering World War I in his 1917 Joint Address to Congress? Be prepared to also identify claims in secondary sources—notably the writings of historians. How, for example, does Eric Foner interpret the Reconstruction period in his (1988) book, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877? What is the main argument of Gar Alperovitz in The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb (1995)? Excerpts from historical writing can appear on the AP exam in the document-based question as well as in multiple-choice questions. In addition, the focus of the first short-answer question on each AP exam will include two excerpts of historical writing that you must compare (see pages 20–21).

Identifying Evidence in Claims

Identify the evidence used in a source to support an argument.

A compelling argument includes evidence to support that argument. Be prepared to identify specific pieces of evidence that authors provide to bolster their points, both in primary sources and secondary sources. What evidence, for example, does President Lyndon B. Johnson provide in his 1965 State of the Union Address to support his claim that the nation needs to invest in his Great Society agenda? Does historian Richard Hofstadter provide sufficient evidence in The Age of Reform (1955) to support his claim that the Populists were driven more by provincial prejudices and irrational fears than by legitimate political and economic injustices? What evidence does the historian Carl Degler (Out of Our Past, 1959) provide in support of his thesis that the New Deal represented a dramatic break with American traditions, a revolutionary response to the economic crisis of the 1930s?

Comparing arguments

Compare the main ideas of two sources.

This skill requires you to note different arguments among historical actors (in primary sources) as well as among historians (in secondary sources). Often historians come to very different interpretations about historical developments and processes. Many factors shape a historian’s interpretation of the past—the era the historian was writing in, the availability of sources, the background of the historian (in regard to gender, race, class, age, ethnicity), and the allegiances and political inclinations of the historian, as well as the methods and approach of the historian. Historians realize that their interpretations are contingent and will likely be modified or even refuted by future historians as new evidence emerges and new approaches to understanding the past develop. Historical inquiry is an ongoing conversation about the past. Historians, therefore, can come up with widely divergent interpretations of events in the past. You should be prepared to evaluate and engage with a variety of historical arguments and to compare competing interpretations of the past. It is important, then, to be familiar with historiographical debates of historical topics. Debates have occurred between historians over the reasons for the American Revolution, the nature of slavery, the causes of the Civil War, the impact of progressivism, American conduct in the Cold War, and many others. The Subject to Debate section of each of the content chapters of this book introduces you to the historiographical debates of that time period.

This part of the skill can be assessed on multiple-choice questions and on the document-based essay question on the AP exam. In addition, it will be the focus of the first short-answer question. The question, which addresses historical developments or processes between the years 1754 and 1980 (Period 3 to Period 8), will require you to grapple with two historical sources and to compare how they differ on a particular topic (see more on the short-answer question section, pages 20–21).

Modify and Refuting a Source’s Argument

Explain how claims or evidence support, modify, or refute a source’s argument.

In addition to explaining a source’s claim and explaining how the author uses evidence to support his or her claim, you should be able to explain how additional evidence can support or contradict a particular claim. In terms of claims in primary sources, this skill can involve first identifying an argument in a source and then evaluating the impact of additional evidence. You could be asked, for example, to identify the arguments of the Declaration of Independence, and then to evaluate whether additional evidence from the time supports or refutes the arguments of the document. A document by an American Indian critiquing colonial encroachments on Indian lands might refute the Declaration’s claim that the King excited domestic insurrections. Does the additional evidence support or refute the claim the King established an absolute Tyranny? A similar approach can be applied to secondary sources. After familiarizing yourself with a historian’s argument, you should be able to test its validity by examining additional evidence.

Skill 4: Contextualization

This skill requires you to look at historical events and processes and to be able to evaluate how they connect with a broader historical setting. The context of a particular event can be regional, national, or global.

Identifying and Explaining Historical Context

Identify and describe an accurate historical context for a specific historical development or process.

Explain how a specific historical development or process is situated with a broader historical context.

Contextualization deepens our understanding of how and why particular events and developments occur. The skill of contextualization requires you to situate a particular development or process within broader developments. The skill will be assessed on all essay questions. Although the essay questions can focus on one of the three reasoning processes—comparison, causation, or continuity and change—all essay questions (the document-based question as well as the long essay question) will require you to contextualize the subject of the prompt.

Contextualizing civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, for example, requires going beyond the stories of the individuals and organizations involved. Contextualization involves examining relevant developments during and before the period in question—in the South, in the United States, and even in the world. You could look at the context of economic changes in the South in the post–World War II period or the experiences of African-American veterans. More broadly, an understanding of the origins of the movement might lead one to examine changes in the Democratic Party as it distanced itself from the ideology of its base in the white South. You could also look at the context of the Cold War to understand why calls for African-American civil rights found a receptive audience; many political leaders found it difficult to accuse the Soviet Union of denying democracy to its people while certain section of the United States practiced Jim Crow segregation. These layers of context help students of history to more fully understand a particular event or phenomenon.

Skill 5: Making Connections

This skill requires you to use the historical reasoning processes—comparison, causation, and continuity and change—in order to identify and explain patterns and connections between and among historical developments and processes.

Identifying and Explaining Patterns and Relationships in History

Identify patterns among or connections between historical developments or processes.

Explain how a historical development or process relates to another historical development or process.

The skill of Making Connections encourages you to pull together the previously discussed skills and find patterns among historical developments, processes, claims, and evidence. However, it is not enough to simply note connections. You must be able explain how developments are connected. One can readily see that there is a connection between antebellum reform movements and Progressive-era reform movements: reform activity existed during both periods. However, this skill requires that you use the historical reasoning processes—comparison, causation, and continuity and change—to explain and evaluate how a phenomenon, event, or process connects to similar developments across space and time.

Analyzing patterns and making connections is the bridge between all of the previous historical thinking skills. This skill pulls everything together and allows you to connect all concepts. Whether you are using sources or your own historical knowledge, you will use the historical reasoning processes (discussed in the next section of this chapter) to identify and explain patterns and connections between historical events and developments.

Skill 6: Argumentation

Argumentation is a basic skill in the field of history. This skill calls on you to develop an evaluative thesis and to use evidence in making an argument. Argumentation draws together many of the other skills discussed in this chapter—identifying developments and processes, analyzing sources, analyzing arguments, putting events into a broader context, making connections between developments and processes—and invites you to develop meaningful and compelling new understandings of the past. In addition, you should understand that historians have been addressing major interpretative questions for generations. Therefore, in constructing an argument, you are entering, and interacting with, a community of scholars.

Developing a Claim/Argument

Make a historically defensible claim.

You should be able to develop an argument about the past. A convincing argument contains a compelling and comprehensive thesis and draws on relevant evidence.

Using Evidence to Support an Argument

Support an argument using specific and relevant evidence.

This element of the skill requires you to both describe and explain how specific pieces of historically relevant evidence support an argument. The skill is used in both the document-based essay and the long essay. In the long essay, you will have to supply appropriate and relevant evidence to support a thesis. It might be useful to brainstorm a wide variety of pieces of evidence that are relevant to the topic of the prompt and then to narrow the list to items that support your argument. In regard to the document-based question, you will need to evaluate the evidence provided, and determine whether the evidence supports, refutes, or modifies a possible argument.

Explaining Relationships Among Pieces of Evidence

Use historical reasoning to explain relationships among pieces of historical evidence.

This element of Argumentation is especially relevant in tackling the document-based essay question. The question provides you with a variety of pieces of evidence, but it is up to you to determine how they are related to one another. The prompt will involve one of the three reasoning processes (discussed in the next section). The question might call for comparison. In that case, establish meaningful categories in which to compare the pieces of evidence. If the question is built around the reasoning process of causation, note how the varied evidence shows a pattern of causes or a pattern of effects. Finally, if the question calls for noting patterns of continuity and/or change, look for patterns among the documents and draw conclusions to support an argument.

Developing Complexity in Historical Argumentation

Corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument using diverse and alternative evidence in order to develop a complex argument.

This element of Argumentation invites you to move beyond simplistic understandings of the past and to use a diversity of approaches to add shades of gray to arguments and claims. You should be able to consider ways in which diverse or alternative evidence could be used to qualify or modify an argument. The College Board has identified the following methods of adding complexity to arguments and claims:

Multiple Variables: Explain the nuance of an issue by analyzing multiple variables. An argument could add nuance by analyzing multiple variables. Such variables can include different categories of analysis, such as economic, political, social, and cultural factors, or the impact of a historic development on different groups of people. The lack of multiple voices was evident in traditional accounts of the Reconstruction period. The African-American historian W. E. B. Du Bois criticized the historical profession in his 1935 book, Black Reconstruction, for failing to include the views of African Americans and working people in analyzing Reconstruction, and for refusing to look at alternative evidence. In the decades since, historians have taken up his call in studying the Reconstruction period. Additionally, the use of multiple themes can add nuance to an essay. For example, an essay prompt dealing with antebellum westward expansion might primarily focus on the theme of migration and settlement. A complex response could include multiple perspectives from a variety of themes: politics and power; work, exchange, and technology; and/or social structure. These multiple perspectives can be used to confirm or challenge the validity of an argument. A compelling essay can demonstrate complexity by doing the same. As you attempt to create new arguments, you should be prepared to challenge traditional narratives and ask what voices, perspectives, and categories of analysis might be missing.

Connections Across Time: Explain relevant and insightful connections within and across periods. A response could explain connections across and within time periods—applying understandings and insights about the past to other contexts and circumstances, including the present. For example, in an essay about the Progressive movement of the early twentieth century, you may wish to draw connections between the Progressive movement and other reform movements that followed it. To what degree is it similar to or different from the New Deal of the 1930s or the Great Society of the 1960s? Such connections across time allow you to add depth and nuance to your argument.

The Credibility and Limitations of Sources: Explain the historical significance of a source’s credibility and limitations. This element is especially relevant to the document-based essay question on the AP exam, but it can be applied to any historical writing that draws on sources. It calls on you to use the elements of Sourcing and Situation—point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience (see Skill 2: Sourcing and Situation)—in developing an argument. For example, if there was a document-based essay question about conditions of Irish-Americans living in the Five Points neighborhood of New York City in the 1850s, a document written by a Protestant member of the Know-Nothing Party should be handled cautiously. By assessing the point of view of the author (vehemently anti-Catholic and anti-Irish), you can question its reliability as an accurate description of the Five Points neighborhood.

The Effectiveness of Claims: Explain how or why a historical claim or argument is or is not effective. Students in AP U.S. History are entering an ongoing conversation about the past. Sophisticated students will be able to see that not all claims are created equal. Some are more sound and are supported by stronger evidence than others. Be prepared to judge whether evidence supports a particular claim. Is there additional evidence that goes against the claim? Can a counterclaim be put forward? Is the counterclaim more or less effective than the initial claim?

History Reasoning Processes

Reasoning Process 1: Comparison

You should be able to look at two or more different historical developments or processes and note similarities and differences. You should also be able to compare different perspectives on a particular process or development. This process is often presented in history class as the directive to compare and contrast. Specifically, in order to show proficiency with this process, you should be able to:

Describe similarities and/or differences between different historical developments or processes.

Explain relevant similarities and/or differences between specific historical developments and processes.

Explain the relative historical significance of similarities and/or differences between different historical developments or processes.

Questions on the AP exam might ask you to compare developments or processes across time and place. The developments might be from different societies or from within the same society. A sophisticated analysis might compare different developments and processes across more than one variable—such as across time and across place. In any case, a successful comparison will demonstrate the ability to describe, compare, and evaluate different historical developments or processes.

There is a wide variety of comparison-based questions that you might encounter on the AP exam: How similar and how different were the antebellum reform movements and the Progressive-era reform movements? How does the anti-imperialism movement of the early twentieth century compare to the antiwar movement of the 1960s and 1970s? You might be asked to compare thematic developments in different time periods, such as how ideas and debates around gender norms and roles in the 1920s compare to those in the 1950s.

Reasoning Process 2: Causation

This practice involves thinking about the causes and effects of historical events. You must see that events in history do not happen in a vacuum—that they are connected to and influenced by previous events in history. Specifically, in order to show proficiency with this process, you should be able to:

Describe the causes or effects of a specific historical development or process.

Explain the relationship between causes and effects of a specific historical development or process.

Explain the differences between primary and secondary causes and between short-term and long-term effects.

Explain the relative historical significance of different causes and/or effects.

This process also requires you to assess historical contingency. Historical contingency presumes that each event in history depends on a whole array of events and circumstances—that each event is contingent on this universe of previous conditions. If one or more of the antecedent conditions were absent, then perhaps a historical event would have occurred differently or not at all. This process requires you to interrogate and dissect the myths of inevitability that have shaped many people’s thinking about the past. The events that led the United States to expand its borders, for example, were contingent on earlier events—expansion was not simply the manifest destiny of the American nation.

Thinking about historical contingency requires you to distinguish among coincidence, causation, and correlation in looking at different events. Perhaps two events happening around the same time are not related to each other in any significant way—they are merely coincidental. Perhaps one can be seen as the cause of the other. Or, perhaps, the two events are related, but one cannot clearly be seen as the cause of the other. Teasing out the relationship of events in history is key to historical interpretation and to critiquing existing interpretations of causality.

Reasoning Process 3: Continuity and Change

Recognizing patterns of continuity and change requires you to see patterns and trends in history and at the same time to see that not all events can fit neatly into existing patterns. Students of history can readily see change over time—that our predecessors functioned with different technologies, lived under different laws, participated in different cultural pursuits. This process requires you to identify and evaluate these changes over time, but also to note continuities as well. Specifically, in order to show proficiency with this process you should be able to:

Understand and describe patterns of continuity and/or change over time.

Explain patterns of continuity and change over time.

Explain the relative significance of specific historical developments in relation to a larger pattern of continuity and/or change.

An essay prompt might invite you to explore continuity and change in regard to attitudes around immigrants by examining the pre–Civil War responses to large-scale Irish and German immigration, and the responses to the large influx of new immigrants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A response could explore thematic continuities—in terms of fears, rhetoric, actions—between the anti-immigrant sentiment that led to the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the earlier Know-Nothing Party of the 1840s and 1850s. The context of the red scare and pseudo-scientific ideas about race in the later period might show discontinuities with the antebellum nativist movement. A continuity and change essay prompt could have you examine any one of a host of historical issues as they were manifested in different time frames—living conditions for certain groups, popular culture, American foreign policy, race relations.

Themes in U.S. History

The AP curriculum highlights eight themes that are woven into the entire AP course. These themes are broader ideas that are revisited at different points in the curriculum. They help develop a deeper understanding of the topics covered in the curriculum. All the questions on the exam are designed to assess your proficiency in one or more of these themes.

Below is a list of the eight themes in the Advanced Placement curriculum, followed by a description of each theme. Familiarity with the themes is crucial for success on the AP exam. The different themes run through the entire curriculum and allow you to develop meaningful connections across time periods.

The eight themes are:

American and National Identity

Work, Exchange, and Technology

Geography and the Environment

Migration and Settlement

Politics and Power

America and the World

American and Regional Culture

Social Structures

American and National Identity

The development of and debates about democracy, freedom, citizenship, diversity, and individualism shape American national identity, cultural values, and beliefs about American exceptionalism, and in turn, these ideas shape political institutions and society. Throughout American history, notions of national identity and culture have coexisted with varying degrees of regional and group identities.

This theme encourages you to analyze both the identity of the American people as a national entity as well as to explore the ways that various groups of individuals have sought to define their identities within the broader American culture. This theme requires you to understand that identity changes over time and that participants in these various groups themselves play an important role in reshaping and redefining identity. Groups have sought to define themselves along lines of gender, class, race, and ethnicity.

The concept of national identity involves topics such as citizenship, foreign policy, constitutionalism, and assimilation. In addition, this theme invites us to grapple with the idea of American exceptionalism. This idea posits the uniqueness of the United States, based on democratic ideals and individual liberty. It sees the United States as unique in that it was formed around a creed, rather than around a shared history or common ethnicity. Others view these American qualities as manifestations of broader developments in global history.

The following are sub-themes of the theme of American and National Identity:

Democracy, Freedom, and Individualism: Ideas about democracy, freedom, and individualism have found expression in the development of cultural values, political institutions, and American society.

The Constitution and Citizenship: Interpretations of the Constitution and debates over rights, liberties, and definitions of citizenship have affected American values, politics, and society.

American Identity in a Global Context: Ideas about national identity have changed in response to U.S. involvement in international conflicts and the growth of the United States.

Regional and National Identity: Different regional, social, ethnic, and racial groups have developed different identities and these groups’ experiences have contributed to national identity in the United States.

Work, Exchange, and Technology

The interplay between markets, private enterprise, labor, technology, and government policy shape the American economy. In turn, economic activity shapes society and government policy and drives technological innovation.

This theme expands on the traditional theme in the American history curricula of economic history. The theme looks broadly at the development of the American economy from the colonial period through the present. The College Board identifies agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing as the basis of the American economy.

The following are sub-themes of the theme of Work, Exchange, and Technology:

Labor Systems: Different labor systems have developed in North America and the United States, affecting workers’ lives and American society.

Markets and Government Policy: Different patterns of exchange, markets, and private enterprise have developed over time, and governments have responded to changing economic patterns in diverse ways.

Technology and Development: Technological innovation has affected economic development and society is diverse ways.

Geography and the Environment

Geographic and environmental factors, including competition over and debates about natural resources, shape the development of America and foster regional diversity. The development of America impacts the environment and reshapes geography, which leads to debates about environmental and geographic issues.

The inclusion of this theme represents a coming together of two traditionally discrete disciplines—history and geography. In the last decade, geographers have become increasingly interested in the historical patterns of the human imprint on the physical world, and historians have become increasingly interested in the degree to which the physical environment has shaped human patterns of behavior over time. The theme focuses on interactions. Specifically, how have interactions between the physical environment and various North American groups shaped their institutions and values? In addition, the theme invites you to examine decisions and policies related to the environment. Geography and the Environment is the only theme of the eight that has no sub-themes.

Migration and Settlement

Push and pull factors shape immigration into and migration within America, and the demographic change as a result of these moves shapes the migrants, society, and the environment.

The theme of Migration and Settlement covers migration into the United States, out of the United States, and within the United States. Further, this theme recognizes the impact that the adjustments of borders have had on the people who did not migrate. Migrants bring with them ideas, beliefs, technologies, gender roles, and traditions. This theme explores the ways in which people adapt to new settings, and how these adaptations have shaped American society.

The following are sub-themes of the theme of Migration and Settlement:

Immigration from Abroad: There have been a variety of causes and effects of the migration of different groups of people to colonial North America and, later, to the United States.

Internal Migrations: There have been a variety of causes and effects of internal migrations and patterns of settlement in what would become the United States.

Politics and Power

Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions, political parties, and the rights of citizens.

This theme expands on the traditional theme of political history, which has been at the center of standard American history curricula for decades. The theme of politics and power goes well beyond the traditional focus of elections, presidents, parties, and policies. This theme invites you to explore the interactions between power on the one hand, and popular participation on the other. Attempts have been made to limit participation by certain groups throughout American history; likewise, reform movements have attempted to expand avenues for participation in the political process. The theme of politics and power also examines the debates about the proper role of government in society. You should be familiar with changes in the relationship among the three branches of government and between the national government and the state governments. Finally, this theme invites you to explore the ongoing tensions between liberty and authority in American history.

The following are sub-themes of the theme of Politics and Power:

Ideas, Institutions, and Parties: Political ideas, beliefs, institutions, party systems, and alignments have developed and changed over time.

Movements for Change: Various popular movements, reform efforts, and activist groups have sought to change American society and institutions.

The Role of the Federal Government: Different beliefs about the federal government’s role in American social and economic life have affected political debates and policies.

America in the World

Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations, and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly important role in the world.

Traditional U.S. history curricula have certainly focused on the diplomatic and military history of the United States. Such traditional history courses have focused almost exclusively on the decisions made by leaders and on the impact of those decisions. The College Board, however, goes beyond this traditional approach by looking at the United States in a global context and looking at a wide range of factors that have shaped the role of the United States in the world. The primary focus is no longer on the diplomatic and military decisions of American political leaders. Rather, you are asked to put the United States in a global context. You should be able to look at the broad array of factors and motives that have shaped specific decisions in relation to American military, economics, and diplomatic interventions abroad. This theme places foreign policy in the broader context of American social, economic, and political history.

The following are sub-themes of the theme of America in the World:

Empire and the Shaping of Colonial North America: Cultural interactions, cooperation, competition, and conflict between empires, nations, and peoples have influenced political, economic, and social developments in North America.

American Diplomatic, Economic, and Military Initiatives: There have been a variety of reasons for and results of U.S. diplomatic, economic, and military initiatives in North America and overseas.

American and Regional Culture

Creative expression, demographic change, philosophy, religious beliefs, scientific ideas, social mores, and technology shape national, regional, and group cultures in America, and these varying cultures often play a role in shaping government policy and developing economic systems.

In traditional history courses, cultural history often occupies a marginal place, relegated to the random song or poem introduced as a precursor to the more serious history. Over the last generation, historians have worked to integrate cultural, religious, moral, and intellectual history into the mainstream of historical study. The College Board’s curriculum framework recognizes this shift in the American and Regional Culture theme. The theme explores the roles that ideas, beliefs, social mores, and creative expression have played in the ongoing development of the United States. Part of understanding the identity of the United States is understanding the development of aesthetic, religious, scientific, and philosophical principles. In addition, you should be prepared to examine how these principles have affected individual and group actions. Beliefs and value systems do not exist in isolation—they intersect with ideas about community and economics, and with movements for social change.

The following are sub-themes of the theme of American and Regional Culture:

Religion and American Life: Various religious groups and ideas have affected American society and political life.

Culture and Society: Artistic, philosophical, and scientific ideas have developed and shaped American society and institutions.

Social Structures

Social categories, roles, and practices are created, maintained, challenged, and transformed throughout American history, shaping government policy, economic systems, culture, and the lives of citizens.

This theme looks at the variety of ways that social groups have been organized and maintained in U.S. history. These groups can be organized around religious institutions, schools, type of work, political affiliations, kinship and friendship networks, as well as around different forms of identity—race, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, and others. These social structures are formed and altered by the needs, desires, and actions of individual members of society, and they also work to determine social behavior of individuals.

The following are sub-themes of the theme of Social Structures:

Gender and Society: Evolving ideas about women’s rights and gender roles have affected society and politics.

The Evolution of Social Groups: Different groups identities, including those based on race, ethnicity, class, and region, have emerged and changed over time.

2

Navigating the Advanced Placement United States History Exam

Learning Objectives

In this chapter, you will learn about:

Multiple-choice questions

Short-answer questions

Document-based questions

Long essay questions

The AP U.S. History exam is focused explicitly on assessing your achievement with the historical thinking skills, reasoning processes, and themes. Familiarity with the skills, processes, and themes discussed in the previous chapter is essential to success on the exam.

The AP exam has two sections; each section has two parts. Section I consists of the multiple-choice and short-answer questions, and Section II consists of the document-based question and long essay question. Starting in May 2025, the AP exam in United States history will be fully digital. Paper exams will not be offered, unless students have approved accommodations requiring paper testing.

Section I, Part A: Multiple-Choice Questions

Part A of Section I consists of 55 multiple-choice questions. You have 55 minutes to complete this part; it accounts for 40 percent of your total exam grade.

Section I, Part B: Short-Answer Questions

Part B of Section I consists of three short-answer questions—Questions 1 and 2 are required; you can choose between Questions 3 and 4. Question 1 will require you to analyze secondary source material. Question 2 will be based on primary source material and will require you to employ one of the following two skills—comparison or causation. Both questions will be drawn from material within Periods 3 to 8.

Questions 3 and 4 will have no stimulus material. They will both employ the same skill—comparison or causation (the skill not used in Question 2). Question 3 will draw from material within Periods 1 to 5; Question 4 will draw from material within Periods 6 to 9. Again, for Questions 3 and 4, you can choose the one you feel most confident answering. You will have 40 minutes for this part; it accounts for 20 percent of your total exam grade.

Section II, Part A: Document-Based Question

Part A of Section II consists of a document-based question. You will have 60 minutes for this part; it accounts for 25 percent of your total exam grade. The document-based question will draw from material within Periods 3 to 8.

Section II, Part B: Long Essay Questions

Part B of Section II requires you to complete one of three long essay questions. The three questions will all address the same theme and will all be based on the same historical reasoning process (causation, comparison, or continuity and change). However, each of the three choices will deal with material from different time periods—Periods 1 to 3, Periods 4 to 6, and Periods 7 to 9. You will have 40 minutes to complete the long essay; it accounts for 15 percent of your total exam grade.

KEEP IN MIND

Pace Yourself

All told, the exam is lengthy—3 hours and 15 minutes long. You will have 95 minutes for the multiple-choice and short-answer section and 100 minutes for the essay section. You should pace yourself so you have sufficient time for all the sections.

Breakdown of Questions on the AP Exam

In terms of content, the questions on the AP exam focus on the points in each topic of the course framework in the College Board’s AP U.S. Course and Exam Description. These topics, and the points outlined in the course framework, are described and elaborated upon in this book within each of the nine chronological periods. Multiple-choice questions on the AP exam are based on the points in the course framework. However, the written portions of the exam invite you to introduce illustrative examples from history to add depth and insight to your responses. As you respond to the short-answer and essay questions, you have the flexibility to introduce illustrative examples that are appropriate and compelling.

Questions on the AP exam can address topics in any of the nine time periods. The written portions of the exam emphasize the core periods of the curriculum—Periods 3 through 8, covering material from the beginning of the French and Indian War through the election of President Ronald Reagan. These core periods represent approximately 80 percent of the material on the AP exam, with Periods 6 through 8 weighted more heavily (45 percent of the total) than Periods 3 through 5 (35 percent). Two of the three short-answer questions and the document-based question will be based on material from within these core periods. Periods 1, 2, and 9 are not ignored, but they are given less weight in the written sections. These three periods could be explored in the third short-answer question and in the long essay question, but in both of these questions you will have options in terms of which time period(s) to address. The approximate overall breakdown of time periods for exam questions and the curriculum is outlined in the following chart:

Multiple-Choice Questions

Section I, Part A of the exam consists of 55 multiple-choice questions. You will have 55 minutes to complete this part of the exam; 40 percent of your grade on the exam is based on this section.

The multiple-choice questions focus on your ability to reason about different types of historical evidence. Questions are organized in sets of two to five, with each set referring to specific stimulus material. All of the multiple-choice questions require you to show proficiency in one or more of the themes and require you to apply one or more of the historical thinking skills or reasoning processes. Each multiple-choice question has four choices.

The multiple-choice questions require you to reason about the specific stimulus material provided with each set of questions. The stimulus material could be drawn from graphs, charts, maps, paintings, photographs, political cartoons, historical interpretations, letters, diary entries, speeches, books, manifestos, proclamations, political platforms, laws, legal proceedings and decisions, newspaper articles—virtually any primary or secondary source. The multiple-choice questions ask you to draw on the stimulus material as well as on your knowledge of the concepts and historical developments in the College Board’s course framework. These concepts and historical developments are all described in this book.

The following is a sample set of multiple-choice questions. In this case, you are presented with a political cartoon and then four questions related to the cartoon. (Answers and explanations to the following multiple-choice questions can be found on pages 32–33.)

KEEP IN MIND

Tips for Completing the Exam

Bring a watch with you and try to work at a steady pace. You have about a minute for each question. This means that you cannot get hung up on difficult questions. If the answer does not immediately come to you, make a notation in the test book and come back to it if you have time. Make sure you leave yourself time to get to all the questions.

Questions 1–4 refer to the following image:

—Thomas Nast, This Is a White Man’s Government, Harper’s Weekly, September 5, 1868

The political cartoon shown above makes the point that

northern capitalists benefit as much from the institution of slavery as southern plantation owners do.

Reconstruction was brought to an unfortunate end by a coalition of forces in the North and South.

African Americans were incapable of effectively participating in the political process.

nativist politicians were unfairly presenting Irish Americans as ignorant and brutish.

Which of the following would most likely support the perspective of the cartoon?

Radical Republicans

Southern Democrats

Working-class Irish immigrants

Northern opponents of the Civil War

The sentiments expressed in the cartoon most directly contributed to which of the following?

The compromise ending Reconstruction

The rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the South

The enactment of segregation laws in Southern states

The passage of the Fifteenth Amendment

The ideas expressed in the cartoon most directly reflect which of the following continuities in United States history?

Debates about immigration policy

Debates about the regulation of big business

Debates about access to voting rights

Debates about nullification and secession

Short-Answer Questions

Section I, Part B of the exam consists of four short-answer questions, of which you will answer three. The first two questions are required; you will have a choice of whether to respond to the third or fourth question. You will have 40 minutes to complete this part of the exam; 20 percent of your grade on the exam is based on this section. Each short-answer question has three parts, with each part given a grade of 0 or 1. Therefore, the maximum grade for each of the short-answer questions is 3.

The first question will assess the skill of analyzing secondary sources. You will be presented with one or two secondary sources—generally excerpts from the work of one or more historians. The question will ask you to describe a historical interpretation or to describe differences in historical interpretation. Then it will ask you to explain how evidence from the period under discussion could be used to support the interpretation(s). This question will draw on material from Periods 3 through 8.

The second question will include some sort of primary source material, such as letters, diary entries, political cartoons, newspaper articles, posters, photographs, legal documents, speeches, manifestos, and other material. This question will use one of two historical reasoning processes—causation or comparison. You will be asked to describe the significance of the source document or documents and to use historical evidence to explain a historical development related to the image. This question will draw on material from Periods 3 through 8.

The third question will provide you with a choice of two questions. These questions will not have any stimulus material. They will both use the same historical reasoning process—either causation or comparison (whichever of the two skills that was not used in the second question). A causation question will ask you to describe a historical development and explain its causes and/or effects. A comparison question will present you with two historical developments and ask you to describe how they are similar and how they are different. In addition, it may ask you to explain reasons for differences or the impact of one or the other historical development. Again, you will be asked to provide historical evidence relevant to the task at hand. The first of these two questions (Question 3) will draw from material in Periods 1 through 5; the second of the two questions (Question 4) will draw from material in Periods 6 through 9.

The following are examples of the types of short-answer questions you will encounter on the AP exam (see pages 33-35 for explanations of good answers):

Question 1

Out of this frontier democratic society where the freedom and abundance of land in the great Valley opened a refuge to the oppressed in all regions, came the Jacksonian democracy. . . . It was because Andrew Jackson personified these essential Western traits that in his presidency he became the idol and mouthpiece of the popular will. . . . [H]e went directly to his object with the ruthless energy of a frontiersman. . . . The triumph of Andrew Jackson marked the end of the old era of trained statesmen for the Presidency. With him began the era of the popular hero.

Frederick Jackson Turner, historian, The Frontier in American History, 1920

Not only was [Andrew] Jackson not a consistent politician, he was not even a real leader of democracy. He had no part whatever in the promotion of the liberal movement which was progressing in his own state. . . . [H]e always believed in making the public serve the ends of the politician. Democracy was good talk with which to win the favor of the people and thereby accomplish ulterior objectives. Jackson never championed the cause of the people; he only invited them to champion his.

Thomas P. Abernathy, historian, From Frontier to Plantation in Tennessee, 1932

Using the excerpts above, answer (a), (b), and (c).

Briefly describe ONE major difference between Turner’s and Abernathy’s historical interpretations of President Andrew Jackson.

Briefly explain how ONE specific historical event or development during the period 1820 to 1850 that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts could be used to support Turner’s interpretation.

Briefly explain how ONE specific historical event or development during the period 1820 to 1850 that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts could be used to support Abernathy’s interpretation.

Question 2

—W. A. Rogers, Uncle Sam’s New Class in the Art of Self-Government, 1898

Using the image above, answer (a), (b), and (c).

Briefly describe ONE perspective about American foreign policy in the period 1890 to 1910 expressed in the image.

Briefly explain ONE specific event or development that led to the perspective expressed in the image.

Briefly explain ONE specific effect of the foreign policy actions referenced in the image.

Question 3 or Question 4

Answer (a), (b), and (c).

Briefly describe ONE specific historical similarity between the First Great Awakening of the 1730s through the 1740s and the Second Great Awakening of the 1810s through the 1840s.

Briefly describe ONE specific historical difference between the First Great Awakening of the 1730s through the 1740s and the Second Great Awakening of the 1810s through the 1840s.

Briefly explain ONE specific historical reason for a difference between the First Great Awakening of the 1730s through the 1740s and the Second Great Awakening of the 1810s through the 1840s.

Answer (a), (b), and (c).

Briefly describe ONE specific historical similarity between the government reforms enacted in the 1900s to the 1920s and the government reforms enacted in the 1930s.

Briefly describe ONE specific historical difference between the government reforms enacted in the 1900s to the 1920s and the government reforms enacted in the 1930s.

Briefly explain ONE specific historical reason for a difference between the government reforms enacted in the 1900s to the 1920s and the government reforms enacted in the 1930s.

Document-Based Question

Section II, Part A of the AP exam consists of one document-based question. You will have 60 minutes to complete this part of the exam; 25 percent of your grade on the exam comes from the document-based question. The DBQ evaluates your ability to assess, analyze, and synthesize a wide variety of types of historical evidence and to construct a coherent essay. Your response to the document-based question is judged on your ability to formulate a thesis and support it with relevant evidence. The documents can include written materials, charts, graphs, cartoons, and pictures. The documents are carefully chosen to allow you to explore the interactions and complexities of the topic at hand.

Each document-based question will focus on one of the following historical reasoning processes: comparison, causation, or continuity and change (see pages 11–12 for a description of these reasoning processes). In addition, the document-based question assesses all six historical thinking skills—developments and processes, sourcing and situation, claims and evidence in sources, contextualization, making connections, and argumentation (see pages 5–11 for a description of these skills).

KEEP IN MIND

Historical Neutrality

Try to avoid using the words us, our, and we when discussing the United States. Refer to the United States in a neutral manner. Strong essays should be intellectually engaged, but not emotionally invested in a particular outcome or position. Such personal investment tends to undermine one’s argument.

Elements and Scoring Rubric for the Document-Based Question

The maximum score you can receive for the document-based question is 7. Below is a description of the specific scoring criteria for each element of the document-based essay, along with a description of each element.

Thesis: 0–1 points

1 point: Responds to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis/claim that establishes a line of reasoning.

Your thesis must make a claim that directly addresses all parts of the question. The thesis must consist of one or more sentences located in one place. It can be in the introduction or the conclusion; however, it is a stronger strategy to state your claim in the introduction so that the reader is readily aware of what you are attempting to demonstrate.

You must do more than restate the question. The last element of the document-based essay requires you to demonstrate a complex understanding of the topic (see page 25). A strong thesis will reflect this complex understanding. Such a thesis could break down the topic into different categories of analysis, such as social, political, and economic factors. It could make connections over time, could include multiple perspectives across themes, or could consider alternative viewpoints. A strong thesis should avoid overly simplistic assertions and should acknowledge gray areas—similarities as well as differences, multiple causes, changes as well as continuities, causes as well as effects.

Contextualization: 0–1 points

1 point: Describes a broader historical context relevant to the prompt.

This element of the rubric