AP United States History

• Founding the British colonies and regional development

  ≈ 1.8%1 h 30 min

  This topic covers the motives, founding patterns, and regional development of the British colonies from 1607 to 1754, including how environment, resources, and colonial goals produced distinct New England, Middle, Chesapeake, and Southern societies. On the exam, students are asked to explain causes of colonization, compare regional patterns, and interpret how geography and imperial goals shaped settlement and development.

  • Explain how and why various European colonies developed and expanded from 1607 to 1754.
  • Explain how and why environmental and other factors shaped the development and expansion of British colonies in the Chesapeake, New England, the Middle Colonies, and the Southern Atlantic coast.
  • Compare the British colonies in terms of founding motives, economic activities, labor needs, religious aims, and patterns of settlement.
  • Interpret how interactions among Europeans, American Indians, and Africans influenced the growth and character of the British colonies.
  • Evaluate the extent to which regional differences in geography, climate, natural resources, and access to markets shaped colonial development before 1754.

• Labor systems, slavery, and the Atlantic economy

  ≈ 1.8%1 h 30 min

  This topic examines the labor systems that sustained colonial economies, especially indentured servitude, slavery, and participation in the Atlantic economy and triangular trade. The exam tests students on explaining changes in labor systems, evaluating the growth of racial slavery, and connecting colonial production to wider Atlantic commercial networks.

  • Explain how and why labor systems developed and changed in British North America from 1607 to 1754.
  • Compare indentured servitude, African slavery, and other forms of coerced labor in terms of economic function, regional use, and social consequences.
  • Explain the development of the transatlantic slave trade and its role in the expansion of colonial economies in British North America and the wider Atlantic world.
  • Evaluate the causes and effects of the transition from indentured servitude to racialized chattel slavery in the colonies.
  • Explain how mercantilism, plantation agriculture, and the Atlantic economy shaped patterns of production, exchange, and labor in the colonies.

• Society, culture, and self-government in the colonies

  ≈ 1.8%1 h 30 min

  This topic covers the growth of colonial society, the influence of Enlightenment and Great Awakening ideas, and the development of representative self-government under British rule. The exam commonly asks students to explain how social, religious, and intellectual movements shaped colonial identity and how local political institutions developed in the colonies.

  • Explain how and why the political, social, and economic structures of the colonies developed and changed from 1607 to 1754.
  • Explain the development of representative government and political autonomy in the colonies, including the role of colonial assemblies and traditions of self-rule.
  • Interpret the influence of Protestant evangelicalism, especially the Great Awakening, on colonial religion, society, and ideas about authority.
  • Explain the effects of the Enlightenment on colonial thought, political culture, education, and attitudes toward government and society.
  • Evaluate how immigration, demographic growth, and regional diversity contributed to the development of distinct colonial societies and cultures.

• Imperial rivalry, warfare, and the road to 1754

  ≈ 1.6%1 h 15 min

  This topic focuses on competition among European empires, alliances and conflicts with American Indians, and the wars that reshaped North America before the Seven Years’ War. On the exam, students are expected to explain the causes and effects of imperial rivalry and assess how warfare and frontier tensions set the stage for 1754.

  • Explain the causes and effects of transatlantic trade and competition among the British, French, and Spanish empires from 1607 to 1754.
  • Explain how and why interactions between various European nations and American Indian groups changed over time through diplomacy, trade, alliance, migration, and conflict.
  • Evaluate the effects of colonial wars and frontier conflicts on British North America, including shifting balances of power among empires and Native peoples.
  • Explain how British attempts to manage empire and colonial settlement contributed to tensions on the North American frontier before 1754.
  • Interpret how imperial rivalry, territorial expansion, and competition for resources created the conditions that led to the Seven Years’ War.

About 5 h 45 min of study, lessons and core practice

• The Seven Years’ War and the crisis of the British Empire

  ≈ 2.7%1 h 30 min

  This topic covers the causes and consequences of the Seven Years’ War and explains how British efforts to tighten imperial control after 1763 produced growing colonial resistance. On the exam, students are asked to explain causation, evaluate changes in the imperial relationship, and interpret primary or secondary sources about taxation, representation, and resistance.

  • Explain the causes and effects of the Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War) on British imperial policy and on relations among Britain, colonists, and American Indians.
  • Explain how victory over France altered the balance of power in North America and led Britain to assert greater control over its North American colonies.
  • Explain how and why British attempts to raise revenue and enforce imperial authority through measures such as the Proclamation of 1763, Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Townshend Acts, and Tea Act generated colonial opposition.
  • Explain how colonial resistance developed through boycotts, petitions, intercolonial cooperation, and arguments about rights, representation, and self-government.
  • Evaluate the extent to which the imperial crisis transformed colonial political identity from loyalty within the empire to resistance against British authority.

• The American Revolution and the creation of republican government

  ≈ 3%1 h 45 min

  This topic examines the movement from protest to independence, the military and political course of the American Revolution, and the emergence of republican ideals in new state governments. On the exam, students must explain causes of independence, assess the Revolution’s impact on different groups, and analyze founding-era arguments in documents.

  • Explain the major factors that led the colonies to declare independence, including Enlightenment ideas, imperial conflicts, and escalating violence after 1773.
  • Interpret the arguments of the Declaration of Independence and explain how it justified a break from Britain using natural rights and popular sovereignty.
  • Explain the course of the American Revolution and evaluate how military, diplomatic, ideological, and international factors contributed to American victory.
  • Explain how the Revolution produced debates over liberty, equality, and political power in the states, including the spread of republicanism and the creation of new constitutions.
  • Evaluate the effects of the American Revolution on different groups, including women, American Indians, enslaved people, free Black people, and Loyalists.

• The Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, and the new republic

  ≈ 3%2 h

  This topic focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, the debates that produced the Constitution, and the establishment of the federal republic in the 1780s and 1790s. The exam tests students’ ability to compare governing systems, explain constitutional compromise, and evaluate arguments of Federalists and Anti-Federalists.

  • Explain the structure and purposes of the Articles of Confederation and evaluate the extent to which the Articles government was effective.
  • Explain how economic problems, interstate disputes, foreign-policy difficulties, and unrest such as Shays’s Rebellion intensified calls for a stronger national government.
  • Explain the major debates at the Constitutional Convention, including representation, federalism, slavery, and the balance among branches of government.
  • Compare the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution in terms of national power, state power, taxation, commerce, and executive and judicial authority.
  • Explain the arguments of Federalists and Anti-Federalists over ratification and the role of the Bill of Rights in securing support for the Constitution.

• Politics, diplomacy, society, and migration in the early republic

  ≈ 3.3%1 h 45 min

  This topic covers the rise of the first party system, major diplomatic conflicts of the 1790s, social change in the early republic, and migration and settlement patterns to 1800. On the exam, students are commonly asked to connect domestic politics to foreign affairs and to explain how migration, slavery, and regional development shaped the new nation.

  • Explain the origins and development of the first party system, including the differing political and economic visions of Federalists and Democratic-Republicans.
  • Explain how debates over Hamilton’s financial program, the Bank of the United States, assumption, and the national debt reflected broader disputes over federal power and the meaning of the Constitution.
  • Explain how the French Revolution, Washington’s neutrality, Jay’s Treaty, Pinckney’s Treaty, and the XYZ Affair shaped American foreign policy and intensified partisan conflict.
  • Explain how social and political debates in the 1790s, including the Alien and Sedition Acts and the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, raised questions about civil liberties and states’ rights.
  • Explain how migration and settlement in the trans-Appalachian West affected relations with American Indians, Spain, and Britain and contributed to regional development.

• Writing short answers from sources and historical developments, 1491–1800

  ≈ 2%1 h 30 min

  This topic develops the APUSH short-answer skills needed for Bluebook Section I Part B using content from 1491 to 1800. The exam requires students to answer three required SAQs, including source-based and non-source prompts, by making specific historical claims supported with relevant evidence.

  • Interpret written, visual, or quantitative sources from 1491 to 1800 by identifying the author’s argument, perspective, audience, or historical situation when relevant to the prompt.
  • Answer each part of an SAQ with a historically defensible claim that directly addresses the task using concise, specific evidence.
  • Apply relevant evidence from 1491 to 1800 to explain a historical development, similarity, difference, cause, or effect without writing a full essay.
  • Distinguish between what a source states and what outside historical knowledge can be used to explain or qualify it.
  • Use the historical thinking skills most common in SAQs—causation, comparison, and continuity and change over time—to organize brief but complete responses.

About 8 h 30 min of study, lessons and core practice

• Jeffersonian and Madisonian America, expansion, and foreign policy

  ≈ 2.4%1 h 30 min

  This topic covers the rise of Jeffersonian Republicanism, major territorial expansion, Native resistance, and foreign-policy conflicts from the election of 1800 through the aftermath of the War of 1812. On the exam, students are asked to explain continuities and changes in federal power, interpret causes and effects of expansion and war, and assess how diplomacy and conflict shaped national identity.

  • Explain how the election of 1800 marked a change in party control while preserving constitutional government and debate over the proper role of the federal state.
  • Evaluate the extent to which Jeffersonian policies aligned with or departed from earlier Republican ideals, including the Louisiana Purchase and attitudes toward federal authority.
  • Explain the causes and significance of westward expansion in the early republic, including the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition, and conflicts with Native peoples.
  • Analyze Native American efforts to resist United States expansion, including the leadership and goals of Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa.
  • Explain how maritime conflict, British and French interference with American trade, impressment, and regional political divisions contributed to the War of 1812.
  • Evaluate the political, economic, and diplomatic consequences of the War of 1812, including increased nationalism, weakened Native resistance in the Old Northwest and South, and the growth of manufacturing.

• The market revolution and social change

  ≈ 2.7%1 h 45 min

  This topic examines how transportation improvements, technological innovation, and expanding markets transformed the economy and reshaped labor, family life, migration, and regional specialization. The exam tests students on causes and effects of the market revolution and on comparisons among northern, southern, and western development.

  • Explain how innovations in transportation and communication, including roads, canals, steamboats, and railroads, contributed to national and regional economic integration.
  • Explain how technological developments such as interchangeable parts and early factory production changed manufacturing, labor systems, and the organization of work.
  • Analyze how the market revolution encouraged agricultural specialization, commercial farming, and greater economic interdependence among the Northeast, South, and West.
  • Explain how the market revolution affected women, families, and gender roles, including the cult of domesticity and the experiences of female wage earners in textile mills.
  • Evaluate the social effects of urbanization and internal migration, including the growth of cities, changing class relations, and opportunities for white settlers in the West.

• Jacksonian democracy and the expansion of white male politics

  ≈ 2.5%1 h 30 min

  This topic focuses on the expansion of democratic participation for white men, the emergence of mass party politics, and debates over federal power during the Jacksonian era. Exam questions often ask students to assess the democratic and undemocratic features of Jacksonian politics and to explain conflicts over the bank, tariffs, nullification, and Indian removal.

  • Explain the causes and consequences of the expansion of suffrage and popular politics for white men in the early nineteenth century.
  • Analyze the development of the Second Party System and the competing visions of the Democratic and Whig parties.
  • Evaluate the presidency of Andrew Jackson in relation to the spoils system, executive power, and claims of representing the common man.
  • Explain the causes and significance of the Bank War and debates over the American System, economic opportunity, and federal authority.
  • Explain the nullification crisis and evaluate what it revealed about sectional tensions and the balance between state and federal power.
  • Analyze the causes and consequences of Indian removal, including the Indian Removal Act, Cherokee resistance, Worcester v. Georgia, and the Trail of Tears.

• Reform, religion, culture, and resistance in antebellum America

  ≈ 2.5%1 h 45 min

  This topic covers the Second Great Awakening, antebellum reform movements, the flowering of new cultural and intellectual currents, and forms of resistance to dominant institutions. On the exam, students are expected to connect religious change to reform, explain how culture reflected social transformation, and assess challenges to authority and inequality.

  • Explain how the Second Great Awakening influenced religion, individualism, and social reform in the first half of the nineteenth century.
  • Analyze the goals and methods of major reform movements, including temperance, public education, asylum and prison reform, and efforts to improve the status of women.
  • Explain the origins and significance of the early women’s rights movement, including the Seneca Falls Convention and the Declaration of Sentiments.
  • Interpret the development of antebellum cultural and intellectual movements, including transcendentalism, romanticism, and distinctive American literature and art.
  • Analyze how reformers and critics used moral, religious, and republican language to challenge social problems and inequality.

• Slavery, immigration, and sectional tensions to 1848

  ≈ 2.9%1 h 45 min

  This topic examines the expansion of slavery and cotton, the experiences of immigrants and migrants, and the growing sectional conflicts that emerged before 1848. The exam tests students on how economic change intensified debates over slavery, labor, and national expansion, as well as on the ways enslaved people and immigrants shaped antebellum society.

  • Explain how the cotton gin, global demand for cotton, and territorial expansion strengthened the institution of slavery and the southern plantation economy.
  • Analyze the domestic slave trade and the ways slavery shaped southern society, politics, and regional identity.
  • Explain the diverse ways enslaved African Americans resisted slavery, preserved family and culture, and adapted to life under bondage.
  • Explain the causes and effects of increased immigration, especially from Ireland and Germany, on urban life, labor, and politics in the antebellum era.
  • Evaluate how nativism and anti-immigrant sentiment developed in response to demographic and religious change.
  • Analyze how the expansion of slavery and regional economic differences increased sectional tensions in the years leading up to 1848, including debates connected to western lands and the Mexican Cession.

About 8 h 15 min of study, lessons and core practice

• Manifest destiny, the Mexican-American War, and western conflict

  ≈ 2.4%1 h 30 min

  This topic covers the causes and consequences of westward expansion from the 1840s through the 1850s, including manifest destiny, the Mexican-American War, and conflicts over land, migration, and Native peoples. On the exam, students are asked to explain causes, compare viewpoints, and evaluate how expansion intensified political and sectional conflict.

  • Explain the ideology of manifest destiny and evaluate how it motivated U.S. territorial expansion and debates over national purpose.
  • Explain the causes and effects of the annexation of Texas, the Oregon boundary settlement, and the Mexican-American War.
  • Explain the causes and effects of the settlement of the West from the Mexican Cession into western territories, including the effects of migration on Native Americans, Hispanics, and the environment.
  • Interpret how the discovery of gold in California and other economic opportunities accelerated migration, economic development, and political conflict in the West.
  • Evaluate how federal expansionist policies and military conflict shaped U.S. relations with Mexico and Native nations.

• The intensifying sectional crisis, 1848–1861

  ≈ 3.2%2 h

  This topic examines how debates over slavery in the territories, party breakdown, and failed compromises intensified sectional conflict between 1848 and 1861. The exam tests students on political causation, competing sectional arguments, and the extent to which the Civil War became unavoidable.

  • Explain the causes and effects of the debate over the extension of slavery into western territories after the Mexican Cession, including free-soil arguments, popular sovereignty, and proslavery constitutional claims.
  • Explain the political and sectional significance of the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act.
  • Explain the causes and effects of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, violence in Kansas, and the collapse of the Second Party System.
  • Evaluate the impact of the Dred Scott decision, abolitionist resistance, and John Brown’s raid on sectional mistrust.
  • Explain the causes and significance of the rise of the Republican Party and the election of 1860.
  • Explain why southern secession followed Lincoln’s election and evaluate the relative importance of slavery, states’ rights arguments, and sectional identity in the decision to leave the Union.

• The Civil War: mobilization, emancipation, and Union victory

  ≈ 3%1 h 45 min

  This topic covers the political, military, economic, and social dimensions of the Civil War, including Union and Confederate mobilization, emancipation, and the reasons for Union victory. Exam questions commonly ask students to explain turning points, assess wartime change, and evaluate the war’s effects on different groups.

  • Explain the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Union and the Confederacy at the start of the Civil War and evaluate how those factors shaped wartime strategy.
  • Explain how both the Union and the Confederacy mobilized their economies, societies, and governments for war.
  • Explain the significance of key turning points in the Civil War, including military and diplomatic developments that weakened the Confederacy and strengthened the Union.
  • Explain the causes and effects of the Emancipation Proclamation and evaluate how the Civil War transformed from a war for Union into a war for Union and emancipation.
  • Explain the contributions of African Americans, including Black soldiers and formerly enslaved people, to the Union war effort and to the destruction of slavery.

• Reconstruction: freedom, politics, and its collapse

  ≈ 2.8%1 h 45 min

  This topic examines the meaning of freedom after the Civil War, the policies of Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction, and the reasons Reconstruction ended. On the exam, students are expected to analyze constitutional change, limits on racial equality, and the extent of continuity and change in the South.

  • Explain the different plans and goals of Presidential Reconstruction and Congressional Reconstruction.
  • Explain the significance of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and evaluate how they redefined citizenship, rights, and federal power.
  • Explain how freedpeople sought to define freedom through family formation, education, labor negotiations, land aspirations, and political participation.
  • Explain the role of the Freedmen’s Bureau, Reconstruction governments, and Black officeholding in reshaping southern politics and society.
  • Explain how white southern resistance, including Black Codes, sharecropping arrangements, political violence, and paramilitary groups, limited Reconstruction.
  • Evaluate the causes of the end of Reconstruction and explain the political, social, and economic consequences of its collapse for African Americans and the South.

• Writing the LEQ on causation, comparison, and continuity and change

  ≈ 1.6%1 h 30 min

  This topic develops the writing skills needed for the fully digital APUSH Long Essay Question, where students write one broad LEQ in about 40 minutes. The exam rewards a historically defensible thesis, contextualization, specific evidence, and analytical reasoning using causation, comparison, or continuity and change over time.

  • Develop a historically defensible thesis or claim that directly answers a causation, comparison, or continuity and change over time prompt.
  • Apply relevant historical context to situate an LEQ argument within broader regional, national, or chronological developments.
  • Use specific and relevant evidence to support an argument rather than merely describing events.
  • Explain historical relationships using the reasoning process named in the prompt, including causes and effects, similarities and differences, or patterns of continuity and change over time.
  • Organize an LEQ into a clear line of reasoning that addresses the full prompt and maintains focus on the stated time period.
  • Evaluate how to adapt LEQ writing to the fully digital Bluebook format by planning efficiently, writing clearly on screen, and allocating time for thesis, evidence, and analysis.

About 8 h 30 min of study, lessons and core practice

• The West: migration, conquest, agriculture, and mining

  ≈ 3%1 h 45 min

  This topic covers the settlement and economic development of the trans-Mississippi West after the Civil War, including migration, federal land policy, Native American resistance and dispossession, ranching, farming, and mining. On the exam, students are asked to explain causes and effects of western expansion, interpret maps or images of the West, and evaluate how conquest and economic change reshaped both Indigenous peoples and the national economy.

  • Explain how migration into the West was encouraged by federal policy, economic opportunity, and improvements in transportation and communication.
  • Explain the causes and effects of the settlement of the West from the perspectives of settlers, migrants, and Native Americans.
  • Interpret how the building of transcontinental railroads and related infrastructure promoted western development, national markets, and the integration of regional economies.
  • Explain how the discovery of mineral resources, the growth of ranching, and the expansion of commercial agriculture transformed western lands and labor systems.
  • Evaluate the impact of U.S. government actions, military conflict, and reservation policy on Native American societies in the late nineteenth century.
  • Explain how new farming technologies, environmental conditions, and national and international markets shaped the lives of western farmers and contributed to political discontent.

• Industrialization, big business, labor, and technology

  ≈ 4%2 h

  This topic examines the rise of large-scale industrial capitalism from 1865 to 1898, including corporate consolidation, technological innovation, labor conflict, and debates over government’s role in the economy. The exam tests this material through questions on causes of industrial growth, comparisons among business and labor strategies, and analysis of arguments about laissez-faire, regulation, and inequality.

  • Explain the causes of rapid industrial growth in the late nineteenth century, including natural resources, labor supply, transportation systems, and technological innovation.
  • Explain how entrepreneurs and corporations organized production and finance through vertical integration, horizontal integration, trusts, and other forms of consolidation.
  • Evaluate the social, economic, and political effects of industrial capitalism, including the concentration of wealth, new business practices, and changing class relations.
  • Explain the causes of industrial labor conflict, including working conditions, wage pressures, immigration, deskilling, and economic instability.
  • Compare the goals, strategies, and effectiveness of major labor organizations and strikes in the late nineteenth century.

• Urbanization, immigration, and social change in the Gilded Age

  ≈ 3%1 h 45 min

  This topic focuses on the rapid growth of cities, the surge of immigration, and the social transformations of the Gilded Age, including new cultural conflicts and responses to urban poverty. On the exam, students may analyze demographic trends, compare experiences of different immigrant and social groups, and explain how urbanization reshaped politics, culture, and reform.

  • Explain the causes of urbanization in the late nineteenth century, including industrial employment, migration, and immigration.
  • Explain how new waves of immigration from southern and eastern Europe and from Asia contributed to demographic change and intensified debates over assimilation, labor, and citizenship.
  • Compare the experiences of different immigrant, ethnic, racial, and class groups in growing cities.
  • Explain how urban growth produced new social problems, including overcrowding, political corruption, inadequate housing, and public health challenges.
  • Evaluate how political machines, settlement houses, social gospel reformers, and other groups responded to the opportunities and problems created by urbanization.

• Politics, reform, and the rise of American imperialism

  ≈ 3%1 h 30 min

  This topic covers Gilded Age politics, agrarian and labor-based reform movements, and the beginnings of a more assertive U.S. role overseas by the 1890s. The exam commonly tests how political corruption, monetary debates, and Populism revealed tensions in industrial society, and how economic, strategic, and ideological motives helped drive expansion beyond the continent.

  • Explain the characteristics of Gilded Age party politics, including patronage, political machines, voter loyalty, and debates over tariffs, currency, and civil service reform.
  • Evaluate the causes of agrarian and labor unrest and explain why farmers and workers pursued political reform in the late nineteenth century.
  • Explain the goals, ideas, and significance of the Populist movement, including demands related to railroad regulation, currency expansion, and democratic reform.
  • Explain why reform efforts had limited success in the Gilded Age while still laying foundations for later Progressive reforms.
  • Explain the economic, strategic, religious, and cultural factors that contributed to the rise of American imperialism in the 1890s.

About 7 h of study, lessons and core practice

• Progressivism at home and American power abroad, 1890–1917

  ≈ 2.5%1 h 45 min

  This topic covers the causes, goals, and limits of Progressivism in politics, society, and the economy, alongside the growth of United States interventionism from the 1890s to 1917. On the exam, students are asked to explain reform movements, evaluate continuity and change in federal power, and connect overseas expansion to debates about democracy, race, and national interest.

  • Explain the socioeconomic and political conditions of the Gilded Age and early industrial era that gave rise to Progressive reform movements.
  • Evaluate how Progressive reformers and presidents sought to address the effects of industrial capitalism, political corruption, urbanization, and social inequality through local, state, and federal action.
  • Explain the ways women reformers, settlement house workers, and advocates for suffrage and social justice expanded the goals of Progressivism while also facing limits rooted in race and gender inequality.
  • Interpret how ideas such as Social Darwinism, Anglo-Saxonism, missionary impulse, strategic expansion, and economic interest shaped debates over American imperialism.
  • Explain the causes and consequences of the Spanish-American War, the annexation or control of overseas territories, and continued intervention in the Caribbean and Latin America.
  • Compare the foreign policies of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson in expanding American power abroad before U.S. entry into World War I.

• World War I and its domestic consequences

  ≈ 2%1 h 30 min

  This topic examines the causes of U.S. entry into World War I, the American role in the war, and the war’s effects on politics, civil liberties, migration, and social conflict at home. The exam tests explanation of turning points, analysis of wartime mobilization, and evaluation of how war reshaped federal authority and reform movements.

  • Explain the reasons for United States entry into World War I, including unrestricted submarine warfare, economic ties, and ideological claims about democracy and world order.
  • Analyze how the federal government mobilized the economy, military, public opinion, and labor during World War I.
  • Evaluate the impact of wartime policies on civil liberties, dissent, and definitions of loyalty, including the suppression of antiwar activism and radicalism.
  • Explain how World War I contributed to migration, changing opportunities for women and African Americans, and intensified racial and social tensions.
  • Explain the goals of Wilson’s peace program and evaluate the reasons the United States rejected membership in the League of Nations.

• The 1920s: prosperity, conflict, and cultural transformation

  ≈ 2.5%1 h 45 min

  This topic focuses on the economic expansion, consumer culture, cultural innovation, and social conflict of the 1920s. On the exam, students must explain how modernity transformed American life while evaluating resistance expressed through nativism, fundamentalism, immigration restriction, and conflicts over race, gender, and values.

  • Explain the causes and effects of the economic boom of the 1920s, including mass production, consumer credit, new technologies, and the growth of a national consumer culture.
  • Analyze how urbanization, mass media, and new cultural forms transformed ideas about leisure, gender roles, and modern life in the 1920s.
  • Explain the significance of the Harlem Renaissance and other cultural movements in expressing new identities and challenging older racial hierarchies.
  • Evaluate the causes and consequences of nativism, immigration restriction, religious fundamentalism, and the revival of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.
  • Explain how debates over Prohibition, evolution, and women’s changing public roles reflected tensions between traditional and modern values.

• The great depression and the new deal

  ≈ 3.5%2 h

  This topic covers the causes of the Great Depression, the human and political response to economic collapse, and the expansion of federal government under the New Deal. The exam commonly asks students to explain causes, compare New Deal approaches, and evaluate both the achievements and limitations of reform between 1929 and the early 1940s.

  • Explain the causes of the Great Depression, including weaknesses in agriculture, industry, finance, and consumption, as well as the effects of the stock market crash.
  • Analyze the social and economic effects of the Great Depression on workers, farmers, families, and different racial and regional groups.
  • Compare the responses of Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Depression and evaluate why many Americans demanded more active federal intervention.
  • Explain the goals and major features of New Deal relief, recovery, and reform programs, including banking regulation, public works, labor protections, and social welfare measures.
  • Evaluate the ways the New Deal redefined the role of the federal government in the economy and in citizens’ lives while also preserving aspects of the existing capitalist system.

• World War II on the home front and abroad

  ≈ 2.5%1 h 45 min

  This topic examines the causes, major developments, and consequences of U.S. participation in World War II, including wartime diplomacy, military strategy, and transformation on the home front. On the exam, students are expected to connect the war to expanded federal power, changes in labor and migration, and the emergence of the United States as a global superpower.

  • Explain the causes of United States entry into World War II and the shift from neutrality to increasing support for the Allies before Pearl Harbor.
  • Analyze how the United States mobilized industry, science, labor, and military manpower for total war and how wartime production ended the Depression.
  • Explain how World War II reshaped American society through migration, expanded employment opportunities for women and minorities, and intensified struggles over civil rights and inclusion.
  • Evaluate the significance of wartime policies affecting civil liberties and minority groups, including Japanese American internment and the Double V campaign.
  • Explain the major military turning points and strategic priorities of the war in both the European and Pacific theaters.

• Writing the DBQ: sourcing, contextualization, evidence, and argument

  ≈ 1%1 h 45 min

  This topic builds the specific writing moves required for the APUSH DBQ in Bluebook: reading documents, sourcing them, placing the prompt in broader context, using evidence, and constructing a defensible historical argument. The exam rewards historical reasoning and document use rather than summary, so students must practice writing directly to the rubric under timed digital conditions.

  • Interpret a DBQ prompt to identify the historical skill being tested, the time frame, and the task required to produce a defensible thesis.
  • Contextualize a DBQ by explaining broader historical developments, processes, or events that situate the prompt without drifting outside the argument.
  • Use the content of documents as evidence to support an argument rather than merely summarizing or quoting them.
  • Source documents by explaining how an author’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, or audience is relevant to the argument.
  • Incorporate specific, relevant evidence beyond the documents to strengthen the line of reasoning.
  • Develop a historically defensible argument that organizes documents into analytical groupings, addresses nuance or complexity, and sustains a clear line of reasoning in a timed essay.

About 10 h 30 min of study, lessons and core practice

• Origins and escalation of the Cold War, 1945–1963

  ≈ 3.5%2 h

  This topic covers the causes, major policies, and early crises of the Cold War from the end of World War II through the early 1960s, including the development of containment and its global consequences. On the exam, students are asked to explain causes and effects, compare foreign-policy approaches, and interpret how anti-communism shaped both international actions and domestic politics.

  • Explain the historical context for the emergence of the Cold War after 1945, including wartime tensions, ideological conflict, and disputes over the postwar settlement in Europe and Asia.
  • Explain the causes and consequences of the United States policy of containment, including the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Berlin airlift, and the creation of collective-security and national-security institutions such as NATO and the National Security Act.
  • Explain the causes and effects of Cold War conflict in Asia, including the Chinese Revolution, the Korean War, and the expansion of U.S. commitments beyond Europe.
  • Evaluate the extent to which anti-communism shaped U.S. foreign policy and domestic politics, including loyalty investigations, McCarthyism, and public debate over security and civil liberties.
  • Explain the continuities and changes in Cold War strategy from Truman through Kennedy, including brinkmanship, massive retaliation, covert intervention, the nuclear arms race, Sputnik, and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

• The affluent society, liberal reform, and postwar culture

  ≈ 3%1 h 45 min

  This topic examines the economic growth, suburbanization, demographic change, and mass culture of postwar America, together with liberal reform efforts from Truman through Johnson. The exam tests students on how prosperity and federal policy reshaped daily life, while also asking them to assess limits of affluence and reform across regions and social groups.

  • Explain the causes of the postwar economic boom and the rise of an affluent society, including wartime legacies, consumer demand, defense spending, and productivity growth.
  • Explain how suburbanization, interstate highway construction, migration to the Sun Belt, and the baby boom transformed American society, politics, and the environment.
  • Explain the growth of postwar mass culture and changing social norms, including television, youth culture, gender expectations, and the persistence of conformity and dissent.
  • Explain the goals and effects of liberal reform in the postwar era, including Truman’s Fair Deal, the Warren Court, and Johnson’s Great Society.
  • Evaluate the extent to which Great Society programs and other federal initiatives expanded economic opportunity, education, health care, and civil rights while leaving enduring inequalities unresolved.

• The African American freedom struggle and expanding movements for equality

  ≈ 4%2 h

  This topic focuses on the long civil rights movement and the ways other groups expanded claims for equality in the postwar era. The exam commonly asks students to trace strategies, evaluate federal responses, and compare the African American freedom struggle with later movements for women’s rights, Latino rights, Native American rights, and gay liberation.

  • Explain the causes and goals of the postwar African American freedom struggle, including challenges to segregation, disfranchisement, and racial violence.
  • Explain the role of courts, grassroots activism, and nonviolent direct action in advancing civil rights, including Brown v. Board of Education, the Montgomery bus boycott, sit-ins, freedom rides, and the March on Washington.
  • Explain the significance of major federal civil rights legislation and enforcement, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
  • Evaluate the continuities and changes in the civil rights movement, including the emergence of Black Power, urban uprisings, and debates over strategy, leadership, and the meaning of equality.
  • Compare the goals, strategies, and achievements of other movements for equality, including the women’s movement, the Chicano movement, the American Indian Movement, and the gay liberation movement.

• The Vietnam War, the antiwar movement, and the crisis of liberalism

  ≈ 3%1 h 45 min

  This topic covers the escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, the growth of antiwar opposition, and the political and social strains that undermined postwar liberalism. On the exam, students are expected to explain turning points, analyze competing viewpoints, and assess how war abroad intensified division at home.

  • Explain the causes of increasing U.S. involvement in Vietnam, including containment, the legacy of French colonialism, the domino theory, and decisions made under Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson.
  • Explain the reasons for and consequences of the escalation of the Vietnam War, including the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, sustained bombing, and the commitment of ground troops.
  • Evaluate the military and political turning points of the war, including the Tet Offensive, and explain how they affected public confidence in U.S. policy.
  • Explain the growth and significance of antiwar activism, including student protest, counterculture, draft resistance, and criticism from within the broader civil rights and liberal coalitions.
  • Evaluate the extent to which the Vietnam War contributed to a crisis of liberalism by exposing tensions over presidential power, social spending, credibility, and the relationship between foreign policy and domestic reform.

• Conservatism, economic turmoil, and foreign policy in the 1970s

  ≈ 2.5%1 h 30 min

  This topic examines the rise of modern conservatism, the economic and political crises of the 1970s, and shifts in U.S. foreign policy after the high Cold War. The exam tests students on change over time in political ideology, the causes and effects of stagflation and distrust in government, and the mixed results of détente and renewed global challenges.

  • Explain the causes of the rise of the New Right and modern conservatism, including reactions against liberal reform, social change, and federal power.
  • Explain the causes and effects of economic instability in the 1970s, including deindustrialization, energy crises, inflation, and stagflation.
  • Explain how Watergate and related controversies affected public trust in government, political participation, and debates over executive power.
  • Explain the goals and outcomes of changing U.S. foreign policy in the 1970s, including détente, arms-control efforts, and opening relations with the People’s Republic of China.
  • Evaluate the extent to which foreign-policy setbacks and domestic turmoil in the 1970s reshaped national politics and prepared the ground for a conservative resurgence by 1980.

About 9 h of study, lessons and core practice

• The Reagan revolution, conservatism, and the end of the Cold War

  ≈ 2%1 h 30 min

  This topic covers the rise of the New Right, the Reagan administration’s domestic and foreign policies, and the causes and consequences of the end of the Cold War. On the exam, students are asked to explain continuities and changes in conservatism, evaluate policy outcomes, and interpret evidence about the late twentieth-century shift in politics and diplomacy.

  • Explain the causes of the conservative resurgence from the 1970s through the 1980s, including reactions against liberal social movements, economic discontent, and changing ideas about the role of government.
  • Explain the policies of the Reagan administration and their intended effects, including tax reduction, deregulation, anti-union action, increased defense spending, and challenges to New Deal and Great Society liberalism.
  • Evaluate the extent to which the Reagan revolution reshaped American politics, society, and debates over federal power while preserving some earlier programs and institutions.
  • Explain the changing U.S. approach to the Cold War in the 1980s, including military buildup, anticommunist intervention, and later diplomacy with the Soviet Union.
  • Explain the causes of the end of the Cold War and evaluate the relative significance of U.S. policy, Soviet reforms, and broader global changes.
  • Interpret primary and secondary sources to analyze late twentieth-century conservatism, political realignment, and the end of the Cold War.

• Globalization, migration, technology, and changing American society since 1980

  ≈ 2%1 h 30 min

  This topic examines economic restructuring, globalization, demographic change, migration, and technological innovation since 1980, along with their effects on culture, politics, and inequality. The exam tests students through questions that connect recent developments to longer-term historical patterns in immigration, labor, social change, and debates over national identity.

  • Explain how globalization and economic restructuring since 1980 changed U.S. industry, labor, and patterns of inequality, including the growth of the service and financial sectors and the decline of some manufacturing regions.
  • Explain how migration and immigration since 1980 reshaped U.S. society, politics, and culture, including the growth of Latino and Asian American populations and debates over immigration policy.
  • Explain the causes and effects of demographic shifts, suburban growth, Sun Belt development, and regional change in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
  • Explain how technological innovation, especially the spread of computers, the internet, and digital communication, transformed the economy, politics, and everyday life.

• Analyzing multiple-choice stimuli and synthesis across 1491–present

  ≈ 1%1 h 15 min

  This topic develops the exam skill of answering stimulus-based multiple-choice questions by connecting documents, images, maps, charts, and excerpts to major developments across the full APUSH timeline. It is tested in Section I, Part A through questions that require contextualization, claim identification, corroboration, and synthesis across periods rather than simple recall.

  • Interpret written, visual, and quantitative stimuli by identifying the author or creator’s perspective, audience, purpose, and historical situation when relevant.
  • Use contextualization to place a stimulus within the correct period, development, or debate from 1491 to the present.
  • Apply knowledge of causation, comparison, and continuity and change over time to infer the best answer from a stimulus-based multiple-choice set.
  • Corroborate claims by connecting a stimulus to relevant historical evidence, trends, and developments from other periods or regions of U.S. history.
  • Distinguish between accurate historical interpretations and plausible distractors by testing each answer choice against chronology, context, and evidence.

About 4 h 15 min of study, lessons and core practice