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AP®︎/College US History
Course: AP®︎/College US History > Unit 10
Lesson 1: AP®︎ US History worked examples- AP US History periods and themes
- AP US History multiple choice example 1
- AP US History multiple choice example 2
- AP US History short answer example 1
- AP US History short answer example 2
- AP US History DBQ example 1
- AP US History DBQ example 2
- AP US History DBQ example 3
- AP US History DBQ example 4
- AP US History long essay example 1
- AP US History long essay example 2
- AP US History long essay example 3
- Preparing for the AP US History Exam (5/4/2016)
- AP US History Exam Prep Session (5/1/2017)
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AP US History periods and themes
Your guide to major themes, documents, and key words for the AP US History exam!
AP US history periods and themes
For an overview of major themes in US history, check out this table:
If that's too small to read, here are some close ups of the themes:
Example AP US history problems
We've put together some video examples of how to tackle each section of the AP US history exam. Find them here:
Multiple choice section: How to approach multiple choice questions
Short answer section: How to approach short answer questions
Document-based essay: How to approach the DBQ
Long essay: How to approach the long essay question/LE
Key terms, documents, and court cases to know
Having a general grasp of the following major documents, terms, and cases will be a big help on the AP US history exam. Don't worry about knowing specifics or memorizing details—just get the general gist.
Primary documents:
John Winthrop, “City on a Hill” / “A Model of Christian Charity”
Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
Thomas Jefferson, “Declaration of Independence”
James Madison, “Constitution of the United States”
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, “Declaration of Sentiments”
Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (main ideas)
Abraham Lincoln, “House Divided” speech, Second Inaugural Address
Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?”
Andrew Carnegie, “The Gospel of Wealth” (main ideas)
Josiah Strong, “Our Country” (main ideas)
Upton Sinclair “The Jungle” (main ideas)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, December 8 1941 address
George Kennan, “Long Telegram”
Martin Luther King Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, “I Have a Dream” speech
Betty Friedan “The Feminine Mystique” (main ideas)
Ronald Reagan “Evil Empire” speech
Supreme Court cases:
Marbury v. Madison
Dred Scott v. Sanford
Plessy v. Ferguson
Brown v. Board of Education
Roe v. Wade
Bush v. Gore
Foreign policy doctrines:
Monroe Doctrine
Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
Truman Doctrine
Nixon Doctrine
Bush Doctrine
Key terms
virgin soil epidemic
salutary neglect / benign neglect
mercantilism
Federalist
Anti-Federalist
isolationism
judicial review
embargo
Democratic-Republican
Whig
Jacksonian Democracy
nullification
popular sovereignty
Emancipation
Jim Crow segregation
sharecropping
nativism
mass production
monopoly
labor union
frontier
imperialism
self-determination
prohibition
laissez-faire economics
liberalism (economics/politics)
Soviet Union
containment
Domino Theory
communism
non-violent protest (Civil Rights)
Vietnamization
conservatism
terrorism
Want to join the conversation?
- What does 'AP' stand for?(0 votes)
- advanced placement or advanced preparation(2 votes)
- Why was the Whig Party taken down? What was the Whig Party? What did they do?(10 votes)
- From the author:Great question! The Whig Party was a political party in the first half of the 1800s. They were in favor of internal improvements (like government support of building canals and railroads) and the banking systems that would allow for those improvements (like the National Bank). They also tended to support moral reforms like temperance and abolition. Abraham Lincoln was a Whig as a young man, and the most famous Whig was probably Henry Clay, The Great Compromiser.
The Whig Party fell apart in the 1850s as its members could not agree on their position on the institution of slavery. Most Northern Whigs then joined the new Republican Party and most Southern Whigs joined either the Democratic Party or the (short-lived) Constitutional Union party.(36 votes)
- Is there a more clear version of this chart for printing purposes?(15 votes)
- Try right-clicking on the image and selecting "Open in new tab". The image should appear larger in the new tab, and then you can print the larger image.(18 votes)
- Who has to take the AP US History exam? Is it the same for everyone?(7 votes)
- Whoever takes an AP course in high school must take the AP exam to test their understanding of the curriculum.(15 votes)
- What is the difference between US History and AP US history here on Khanacademy? From what I saw the videos for both categories seem to be the same so I am a little confused.(5 votes)
- From the author:Good question! Right now, they are ALMOST all the same. The US History subject has a few things that don't appear in the AP curation, because they aren't aligned with the AP course. We've kept "US History" as more general interest, while the AP US History subject has nothing that's not part of the AP course.(10 votes)
- I have no idea why everyone is starting wars in all of the videos.(3 votes)
- Why? is always a good question. To get to an answer, we may need to narrow down our focus, because not all wars start for the same reason. For instance, the Revolutionary War was fought because American colonists no longer felt that their efforts should support England. World War II was fought to stop fascist nations from conquering their neighboring countries and killing their residents. Is there a specific war that you are interested in the beginning of?(7 votes)
- @Kim Kutz, do you have a clearer version of the table at the beginning of this study sheet? right now the letters are too small to be viewed clearly and if I download the picture and zoom in the letters go blurry.
Thank you very much!(4 votes) - When will you add more questions for APUSH? I want to review but most review sources seem different than the test format.(5 votes)
- What is the DBQ?(2 votes)
- A DBQ is a type of essay question asked on the AP US History Exam. You are given prompt. You must answer it using information from seven provided documents.
You can read more here: https://www.albert.io/blog/how-to-write-a-new-ap-us-history-dbq/(6 votes)
- Hi, I was looking to take the AP US History exam next year and only say three main periods of AP-styled practice questions. Before next year's exam, do you guys plan on adding more to the practice section?(4 votes)