On behalf of all the scholars who can see that history is a wonderful adventure, welcome to the world. School’s out, and it’s time to have some fun getting credit for what you know. While you’re in the game, you can make sure you’ve got the right stuff to make it through the AP U.S. History exam. AP U.S. History contains all the information you need to know to tackle the AP exam head-on and emerge triumphant.
Millions have made it through the AP U.S. History examination before; it’s the most widely taken single-subject test in the Advanced Placement world. If you’re holding this book with slightly shaky hands because you’re not sure you know enough to get a good score on the Big AP, you’ve come to the right place. On the other hand, if you race through the past so quickly that you feel like you already know most of the important stuff, this is a good time to test your knowledge. If you hated history and had to slap yourself awake through every dull lecture, now is the time to see the past come alive.
Please accept the apologies of all good adventure historians for any harm that instructors who parade historic humans as if they were plaster saints have done you. You didn’t deserve to be crammed full of names, dates, and places without being shown the rainbow bridge of history that makes what happened before you were born important to everything you are today. Remember, no one ever lived in the past. Everybody you read about in history was struggling in their present, just like you, with no idea how it would turn out. The decisions they made, whether trying to do the right thing or swept away by emotion, form the world in which all Americans will live until they too can change their little bit of history for the sake of their children and their children’s kids.
The history of the United States IS important. The U.S. and the New World arrived on the global scene like sunshine through the clouds. The late 1700s saw an almost-religious belief in the power of human progress and reason. That belief was called Enlightenment. The founding of the United States became Enlightenment in action. The U.S. is far from perfect, and its growth has included the subjugation of Africans, American Indians, and other minorities. Without ducking that reality, the United States has also been a meeting place for people and ideas from all over the world — the most diverse and unified society that history has ever produced.
The human beings who make up the United States have been brave and sometimes selfish but are usually welcoming of newcomers and eager to share their ideals of freedom with the world. You read a lot about Manifest Destiny and American Exceptionalism in history, as if the U.S. had some sort of cosmic advantage. The United States doesn’t have to be exceptional or manifest to be beautiful; in a way, it’s better for being the product of human possibility.
The story of the U.S. is a great example of people from all nations working together to promote tolerance and real democracy. The fate of the United States is very probably a window unto the future of the world. When the Enlightenment came to the New World, it was just an idea; now it’s a nation.
I’ve designed AP U.S. History so that you know the particulars of the exam itself thanks to the first sections, have access to the important points of U.S. History in the middle sections, and have a good practice run thanks to the practice exams in a later section. Like the Internet, the book is also set up so you can hit it and quit it. You can bounce around between practice tests and exam strategies or just spend a few moments mentally downloading a little knowledge about a specific time in the United States’ past, like Jacksonian Democracy. The words in italics — like Erie Canal (1817) — are especially likely to show up on the Big AP test. You also want to pay attention to the review questions scattered throughout the history sections.
Sometimes you may like to just skim through the pages to pick up the Tips and Warnings. That’s fine as far as it goes, but be advised: To really understand the game, you’ve got to watch the whole field, not just the play action. Read the sections around the Tips to see why the Tips are important.
Millions have made it through the AP U.S. History examination before; it’s the most widely taken single-subject test in the Advanced Placement world. If you’re holding this book with slightly shaky hands because you’re not sure you know enough to get a good score on the Big AP, you’ve come to the right place. On the other hand, if you race through the past so quickly that you feel like you already know most of the important stuff, this is a good time to test your knowledge. If you hated history and had to slap yourself awake through every dull lecture, now is the time to see the past come alive.
Please accept the apologies of all good adventure historians for any harm that instructors who parade historic humans as if they were plaster saints have done you. You didn’t deserve to be crammed full of names, dates, and places without being shown the rainbow bridge of history that makes what happened before you were born important to everything you are today. Remember, no one ever lived in the past. Everybody you read about in history was struggling in their present, just like you, with no idea how it would turn out. The decisions they made, whether trying to do the right thing or swept away by emotion, form the world in which all Americans will live until they too can change their little bit of history for the sake of their children and their children’s kids.
The history of the United States IS important. The U.S. and the New World arrived on the global scene like sunshine through the clouds. The late 1700s saw an almost-religious belief in the power of human progress and reason. That belief was called Enlightenment. The founding of the United States became Enlightenment in action. The U.S. is far from perfect, and its growth has included the subjugation of Africans, American Indians, and other minorities. Without ducking that reality, the United States has also been a meeting place for people and ideas from all over the world — the most diverse and unified society that history has ever produced.
The human beings who make up the United States have been brave and sometimes selfish but are usually welcoming of newcomers and eager to share their ideals of freedom with the world. You read a lot about Manifest Destiny and American Exceptionalism in history, as if the U.S. had some sort of cosmic advantage. The United States doesn’t have to be exceptional or manifest to be beautiful; in a way, it’s better for being the product of human possibility.
The story of the U.S. is a great example of people from all nations working together to promote tolerance and real democracy. The fate of the United States is very probably a window unto the future of the world. When the Enlightenment came to the New World, it was just an idea; now it’s a nation.
I’ve designed AP U.S. History so that you know the particulars of the exam itself thanks to the first sections, have access to the important points of U.S. History in the middle sections, and have a good practice run thanks to the practice exams in a later section. Like the Internet, the book is also set up so you can hit it and quit it. You can bounce around between practice tests and exam strategies or just spend a few moments mentally downloading a little knowledge about a specific time in the United States’ past, like Jacksonian Democracy. The words in italics — like Erie Canal (1817) — are especially likely to show up on the Big AP test. You also want to pay attention to the review questions scattered throughout the history sections.
Sometimes you may like to just skim through the pages to pick up the Tips and Warnings. That’s fine as far as it goes, but be advised: To really understand the game, you’ve got to watch the whole field, not just the play action. Read the sections around the Tips to see why the Tips are important.
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