AP United States History
Summer Assignment-Main Idea Logs
The Purpose of Your Work This Summer
The historian R.G. Collingworth once wrote, “Nothing capable of being memorized is history,”
emphasizing the need to think about the discipline of history as constructing arguments from evidence.
Although you will need to know facts in this class, the focus of the course is on interpreting the past,
understanding how past events affected the evolution of the United States up until the present.
In addition to helping us get a head start to the year (to build in much needed review time in
April and May), the goal of your summer assignment is to help you connect evidence to the arguments
that your textbook authors make about specific time periods. As the seminal historian Edward Hallett
Carr argued, “History is the study of causes.” Your goal is constantly to search out why change occurs
over time and explore the significance of those changes in the development of American culture.
The Assignment
Using your A.P. United States History textbook, The American Pageant edited by David M.
Kennedy, Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey (13th Edition), complete main idea logs for chapters
2-5 (except for Makers of America and Varying Viewpoints sections). Main idea logs are a method of
taking notes that emphasize connecting historical arguments to SFI (specific factual evidence).Basically,
a main idea log approaches each subsection of each chapter of your textbook as a mini historical
argument or essay. After writing down the section title, your job is to read and then define the main
change that the textbook authors argue occurs over the course of that section in ONE clear and concise
sentence. Then under that thesis (main change over time), you must identify AT LEAST two pieces of
SFI (specific factual evidence) that the authors use to substantiate (offer evidence to prove) that
argument. SFI is generally a concept, a law, rebellion, act of government, a social movement, or a
document; the point is that your SFI should be specific and should be stated in 1-3 words, rather than a
general sentence. These main idea logs must be handwritten and should be completed independently.
The job of the historian requires more than having basic understandings of a time period. The
shift from indentured servitude to slavery, for example, does not happen randomly. In order to prove
historical arguments, historian must seek causes for that change. Kennedy (et. al.) argue that slave
owners, fearful of future insurrections by white ex-indentured servants in the wake of Bacon’s Rebellion
(1676), shifted their focus to African slavery, particularly after the development of triangle trade and
tobacco cultivation by John Rolfe in Jamestown earlier in the century made the practice of slavery more
profitable. Rather than just saying that slavery ended, the previous sentence explains why the shift in
labor systems of the Chesapeake region changed, using SFI (indentured servants, Bacon’s Rebellion,
triangle trade, John Rolfe, Jamestown) to make the argument. A sophisticated understanding of history
requires dealing with both complexity and nuance, meaning that the details are important: practice
explaining WHY change happens.
Your main idea logs will be collected on the first day of class and will serve as a study guide for the first
test that will follow shortly after we return.
(over)
Examples of Main Idea Logs
Chapter 5: Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution
Primary idea of the chapter:
Distinctively American social, political, and economic structures in the British Atlantic seaboard
colonies helped create a shared culture, eventually leading thirteen colonies to revolt.
(Use the main idea in the chapter’s introduction to help identify the most significant change over time in
each section. There is more than one potential thesis for each subsection of the textbook, but try to keep
this overall main idea in mind)
The Great Awakening
The Great Awakening’s focused on emotional, religious revivals, creating an upsurge in religious belief
in the colonies, and, perhaps most importantly, helped create a distinct American culture by breaking
down sectional boundaries.
• Jonathan Edwards (1730s, 1740s): Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, focused on
salvation through God’s grace
• George Whitefield (1730s): religious revivals, emotional revivals, “saving” sinners
• New Light (pro-Great Awakening): Princeton, Brown, Rutgers, Dartmouth
Schools and Colleges
Although still primarily for boys, colonial colleges made education available to wider numbers than
England, particularly in New England, while the South relied primarily on private tutors.
• Puritan education: focus on individual interpretation of the Bible. Focus (elementary through
university) was on religious studies and training priests.
• Southern tutors: lack of population density and slavery prevent effective school system
***Notice that for this section, there was not really SFI. This is rarely the case, but if it is, identify
major trends.
Complete a main idea log for each chapter heading, rather than simply creating one entry per chapter.
This means that you will need to complete multiple main idea logs for each chapter (one for each
subsection in chapters 2-5).
Note: Although your textbook does a nice job linking American developments to events in Europe, your
own notes should focus on the colonial experience. The historian Carl Degler’s argumed that “as the
germ of the [American] Revolution can be detected in the political history of the 17th century, so the
genesis of the Civil War is implicit in its social history.” Our focus in studying colonial America is to
explore both the roots of distinctive sectional cultures (particularly distinctive identities in New England
vs. the Chesapeake and South), as well as the roots of American independence in the period.