AP U.S. History
High School
Social Studies
Course Description:
In AP U.S. History, students investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes in nine historical periods from approximately 1491 to the present. Students develop and use the same skills and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; developing historical arguments; making historical connections; and utilizing reasoning about comparison, causation, and continuity and change. The course also provides eight themes that students explore throughout the course in order to make connections among historical developments in different times and places: American and national identity; work, exchange, and technology; geography and the environment; migration and settlement; politics and power; America in the world; American and regional culture; and social structures.
Semester 1
Unit 1: Period 1: 1491–1607
Unit 2: Period 2: 1607–1754
Unit 3: Period 3: 1754–1800
Unit 4: Period 4: 1800–1848
Unit 5: Period 5: 1844–1877
Semester 2
Note: if the following section is blank the course is 1 semester long
Unit 6: Period 6: 1865–1898
Unit 7: Period 7: 1890–1945
Unit 8: Period 8: 1945–1980
Unit 9: Period 9: 1980–Present