Advanced Placement United States History

Summer Assignment for the 2017-2018 School Year

Welcome to AP US History! AP United States History is a course that is meant to emulate an entry-level
university course in its content and help prepare you for the rigor of college.

The class is very fast-paced so that we can best prepare for the AP Exam in May 2018. Therefore, a
summer assignment is required to help you prepare for the class. This preparation is to be done before you
arrive in September. This assignment will introduce you to the pace of the class, the level of work that
will be expected, and it will keep your mind fresh with historical thought. The expectation is that this
assignment will be completed and turned in on the first day of class in September. Activities on those first
days of school will be connected to the summer material. No late assignments will be accepted for the
summer activities.

Complete the following activities in the order that they are listed. Each assignment will build off of
information from the previous section.

Required Text:

A Peoples History of the United States:1492 to the Present by Howard Zinn

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html
Howard Zinns book is available for free online.

Task 1. A Peoples History Of The United States

Read the first five chapters of A Peoples History of the United States:1492 to the Present
Take at least two pages of outlined Cornell Notes for each chapter.
Answer the attached 40 questions on loose leaf paper. Make sure you have complete sentences in
blue or black ink only in your own handwriting. Typed assignments will not be accepted.
Study your notes and answers. You will write multiple AP-style short essays during the first week
of school in response to prompts generated from the reading.

Chapter: Name:
Date:

Questions/Main Ideas/Vocabulary Notes/Answers/Definitions/Examples/Sentences

Chapter 1: Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress
1. How did the Arawaks greet Columbus and his men? (Use the excerpts from Columbus journal)
2. What were the Arawaks known for and why was this remarkable to the Europeans?
3. Why had the Spanish monarchs financed the Columbus expedition?
4. What way(s) did the Arawaks fight Columbus actions?
5. What were encomiendas?
6. Who was Bartolome de las Casas and his significance?
7. Why is Zinn critical of Columbus Day?
8. Why is Zinn critical of Harvard Historian Samuel Eliot Morison?
9. What lens of history does Zinn examine history through? Which lens does he avoid?
Why does he feel this is necessary?
10. Describe Cortes conquest of the Aztecs and Pizzaros conquests.
11. How were the English colonial settlements similar to that of the Spanish?
12. How did the Pilgrims and Puritans respond to the Indian problem?
13. What was the Pequot War?
14. What, does Zinn argue, is the sacrifice of human progress?
15. Describe the Native American peoples of the North and South American continent that Columbus
considered inferior.

Chapter 2: Drawing the Color Line

16. What is significant about J. Saunders Reddings description of the arrival of a ship in 1619?
17. How did slavery develop? How did racism develop along with it?
18. Describe the African civilization during the time of colonization.
19. When was the first large scale slave revolt? Why was it significant?
20. Why was it feared that whites would join slave revolts? How was this prevented?

Chapter 3: Persons of Mean and Vile Condition

21. Describe Bacons Rebellion and its consequences.
22. How did Bacons Rebellion come to symbolize the class struggle, even though Bacon himself was a
part of the wealthy class?
23. How was the indentured servants Atlantic crossing similar to that of the slave?
24. What happened on May 19, 1713?
25. What combination did the wealthy white planters fear? How did Bacons Rebellion realize this fear?

Chapter 4: Tyranny is Tyranny

26. Who were the colonists two enemies? How did the colonists see the Proclamation of 1763 uniting
these two forces?
27. What happened on March 5, 1770? Who was Crispus Attucks?
28. What societal group made up the Sons of Liberty? How does this support Zinns argument that the
Revolution was fought for the wealthy?
29. How was Patrick Henry able to unite the different classes towards war with England?
30. Explain the circumstances around the phrase, Tyranny is tyranny let it come from whom it may.

Chapter 5: A Kind of Revolution

31. What battles did the Americans lose? Which did they win?
32. What was the turning point in the Revolution? Why?
33. What did not change as a result of the Revolution?
34. What happened at Fallen Timbers? What was the Treaty of Grenville?
35. How could one argue that the abolitionist movement started during the Revolutionary War?
36. How did a strong central (federal) government help the already wealthy?
37. Describe Daniel Shays rebellion.
38. How does the intent and interpretation of the Constitution change when seen through the light of
economic interests?
39. Why was the Bill of Rights so important?
40. How was the First Amendment violated under John Adams administration?
 TASK II. US Geography
1. Download a copy of a blank outline map of the United States.
2. Use BLACK INK to label the fifty states. You may use the state abbreviations to do this.
3. Label the following bodies of water IN BLUE INK (you may have to draw in the rivers):
a. Five Great Lakes b. Mississippi River
c. Rio Grande River d. Atlantic Ocean
e. Pacific Ocean f. Gulf of Mexico
g. Ohio River h. Missouri River
4. Draw the following mountain ranges in BROWN and label in BLACK ink: Appalachian and Rocky.
5. On the back of the map, list all the states that are considered part of the original thirteen colonies and
group the three major regions of the original thirteen colonies.
6. Study your work. You will be required to identify all of the above items on a blank map during the
first week of school.
 PART III. HISTORICAL THINKING SKILLS
1. Read the descriptions of the nine historical thinking skills.
2. Conduct further independent research to deepen your understanding of their meaning.
- TomRichey.net
- http://apcentral.collegeboard.com
- https://magoosh.com/hs/apush/2017/apush-notes-study-better/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5HV8d461Po

3. Using your knowledge of United States history, create a graphic interpretation (drawing, political
cartoon, etc.) of EACH historical thinking skill that creatively demonstrates the meaning of the skill.

APUSH - HISTORICAL THINKING SKILLS

Skill 1: Historical Causation- The ability to identify, analyze, and evaluate the relationships among multiple
historical causes and effects, distinguishing between long-term and proximate, and among coincidences and
causes.

Skill 2: Patterns of Continuity and Change Over Time- The ability to recognize, analyze, and evaluate the
dynamics of historical continuity and change over periods of time of varying lengths, as well as the ability to relate
these patterns to larger historical processes or themes.

Skill 3: Periodization- The ability to describe, analyze, evaluate, and construct models that historians use to
organize history into discrete periods. Identify turning points and recognize that the choice of specific dates gives
a higher value to one narrative, region, or group than to other narratives, regions, or groups. How a historian
defines historical periods depends on what the historian considers most significant political, economic, social,
cultural, or environmental factors. Changing periodization can change a historical narrative.

Skill 4: Comparison- The ability to describe, compare, and evaluate multiple historical developments within one
society, one or more developments across or between different societies, and in various chronological and
geographical contexts. It also involves the ability to identify, compare, and evaluate multiple perspectives.

Skill 5: Contextualization- The ability to connect historical events and processes to specific circumstances of
time and place and to broader regional, national, or global processes.

Skill 6: Historical Argumentation- The ability to define and frame a question about the past and to address
that question through the construction of an argument. A plausible and persuasive argument requires a clear,
comprehensive, and analytical thesis, supported by relevant historical evidence not simply evidence that
supports a preferred or preconceived position. In addition, argumentation involves the capacity to describe,
analyze, and evaluate the arguments of others in light of available evidence.

Skill 7: Appropriate Use of Relevant Historical Evidence- The ability to describe and evaluate evidence
about the past from diverse sources (including written documents, works of art, archaeological artifacts, oral
traditions, and other primary sources) and requires students to pay attention to the content, authorship, purpose,
format, and audience of such sources. It involves the capacity to extract useful information, make supportable
inferences, and draw appropriate conclusions from historical evidence while also noting the context in which the
evidence was produced and used, recognizing its limitations, and assessing the points of view it reflects.

Skill 8: Interpretation- The ability to describe, analyze, evaluate, and construct diverse interpretations of the
past, and being aware of how particular circumstances and contexts in which individual historians work and write
also shape their interpretation of past events. Analyzing evidence, reasoning, determining the context, and
evaluating points of view can all be found in both primary and secondary sources.

Skill 9: Synthesis- The ability to develop meaningful and persuasive new understandings of the past by applying
all of the other historical thinking skills, by drawing appropriately on ideas and methods from different fields of
inquiry or disciplines, and by creatively fusing disparate, relevant, and sometimes contradictory evidence from
primary sources and secondary works. Additionally, synthesis may involve applying insights about the past to other
historical contexts or circumstances, including the present.