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=Welcome to the AP US History Wiki!!!=

__**What is AP US History (APUS)?**__

The AP U.S. History 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 program prepares students for intermediate and advanced college courses by making demands upon them equivalent to those made by full-year introductory college courses. Students should learn to assess historical materials—their relevance to a given interpretive problem, reliability, and importance—and to weigh the evidence and interpretations presented in historical scholarship. An AP U.S. History course should thus 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 essay format.

__**Themes of the Class**__

American Diversity The diversity of the American people and the relationships among different groups. The roles of race, class, ethnicity, and gender in the history of the United States.

American Identity Views of the American national character and ideas about American exceptionalism. Recognizing regional differences within the context of what it means to be an American.

Culture Diverse individual and collective expressions through literature, art, philosophy, music, theater, and ﬁlm throughout U.S. history. Popular culture and the dimensions of cultural conﬂict within American society.

Demographic Changes Changes in birth, marriage, and death rates; life expectancy and family patterns; population size and density. The economic, social, and political effects of immigration, internal migration, and migration networks.

Economic Transformations Changes in trade, commerce, and technology across time. The effects of capitalist development, labor and unions, and consumerism.

Environment Ideas about the consumption and conservation of natural resources. The impact of population growth, industrialization, pollution, and urban and suburban expansion.

Globalization Engagement with the rest of the world from the ﬁfteenth century to the present: colonialism, mercantilism, global hegemony, development of markets, imperialism, and cultural exchange.

Politics and Citizenship Colonial and revolutionary legacies, American political traditions, growth of demo-cracy, and the development of the modern state. Deﬁning citizenship; struggles for civil rights.

Reform Diverse movements focusing on a broad range of issues, including anti-slavery, education, labor, temperance, women’s rights, civil rights, gay rights, war, public health, and government.

Religion The variety of religious beliefs and practices in America from prehistory to the twenty-ﬁrst century; inﬂuence of religion on politics, economics, and society.

Slavery and Its Legacies in North America Systems of slave labor and other forms of unfree labor (e.g., indentured servitude, contract labor) in American Indian societies, the Atlantic World, and the American South and West. The economics of slavery and its racial dimensions. Patterns of resistance and the long-term economic, political, and social effects of slavery.

War and Diplomacy Armed conﬂict from the precolonial period to the twenty-ﬁrst century; impact of war on American foreign policy and on politics, economy, and society.

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