Essential Understanding for AP United States History

Semester 1

* Learn how to write academically

* Understand the similarities and differences between pre-Columbian societies

* Compare and contrast the settlement of the Chesapeake and Massachusetts Bays

* Know the evolution of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and how they function

* Understand how the major political parties evolved and their characteristics

* Learn the impact of reform movements, including religions, on United States History

* Know how slavery became the paramount issue in the Antebellum Era

Semester 2

* Continue to focus on academic writing

* Learn the basic events of contiguous expansion in United States History

* Describe the origins and effects of the Gilded Age

* Compare and contrast major wars involving the United States

* Understand the nature of the Cold War

* Understand and recognize the changing role of women in United States History

* Describe the impact of the Vietnam War Era on subsequent history

* Learn how foreign policy decisions have led to the present world situation

* Know the basic elements of Historiography as it applies to United States History