AP US History Summer Work
Welcome to AP US History! Get ready for an exciting and challenging year. I am really
looking forward to meeting you all in August. AP US History requires dedication to reading
and understanding how to think and write like a historian. Hopefully this summer assignment
will give you a sneak peek into the rest of the school year.
Please email me with any questions: [email protected]
Through the year, I will slowly be adding information to my website:
www.mrsmarchman.weebly.com
Have a great summer!
Mrs. Marchman
APUSH Summer Assignments
Instructions: Print out all assignments and follow the directions below to complete the work.
TYPED WORK WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED FOR ANY ASSIGNMENT. Handwrite all assignments.
Assignment #1
For assignment #1, you will read Chapters 1 of the assigned classroom textbook, The
American Pageant. (I have provided a link below for an online version of the textbook.)
While you read, you must take notes on the chapter. Take notes how you are most
comfortable taking notes.
Online version:
http://classroom.dickinsonisd.org/users/0829/docs/the_american_pageant_12th_edition.pdf
You will have a quiz on the chapter when we return in August.
While taking notes, please keep in mind the seven historical thinking skills listed below. We will
discuss each of these skills in depth, but use them as a guide while taking notes.
CULTURE AND SOCIETY
AMERICAN & NATIONAL IDENTITY
MIGRATION & SETTLEMENT
POLITICS AND POWER
WORK, EXCHANGE, TECHNOLOGY
AMERICA IN THE WORLD
GEOGRAPHY & ENVIRONMENT
Assignment #2
Answer the following questions with specific examples and concrete thoughts.
Precontact Period: 1491-1607
Columbian Exchange
1. Explain how labor systems and the Columbian Exchange help to bolster the development of the Spanish and
French Empires in the western hemisphere. In your answer be sure to include the demographic, economic,
and social changes.
2. Explain how the Natives changed as a result of European contact in terms of religion, gender roles, family,
land use, and power? Include any native rebellions and the outcomes.
3. Explain some specific positive outcomes on the Western Hemisphere as a result of European exploration.
Assignment #3
Document analysis is at the heart of AP US History. For assignment #3, you will be doing a “precis” on one
documents. A precis is a brief summary of a primary source document that will highlight a thesis or main point. In
your brief summary, get to the core essence of the document. Keep it simple and short. Do not research any
information about the document. The purpose is to see how well you can summarize based only on what is
presented in the document.
Do not:
-Quote or paraphrase the document
-Give your opinion/evaluation/analysis – keep it objective.
-Add examples or other information
-Include specifics (numbers, %s, etc.)
-Assume facts or opinions not present.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Document #1:
The Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in
Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and
so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate
a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to
add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget
what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they
who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great
task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for
which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall
not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that
government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.