Historical Themes and Skills
Historical Thinking Skills
The basis for the AP US History course is utilizing the historical thinking skills that allow for the study and practice of history. These are organized into four types of skills:
- Chronological reasoning
- Comparison and contextualization
- Crafting historical arguments from historical evidence
- Historical interpretation and synthesis
Skill 1: Chronological Reasoning |
Historical thinking involves the ability to describe, compare, and evaluate multiple historical documents within one society, one or more developments across different societies, and in various chronological and geographical contexts. It also involves the ability to identify, compare and evaluate multiple perspectives on a given historical experience.
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Skill 2: Comparison and Contextualization |
Students should be able to:
Historical thinking involves the ability to connect historical events and processes to specific circumstances of time and place and to a broader regional, national or global processes.
Students should be able to:
The skill of contextualization takes on different forms depending on the scope of time and geography. One of the central contextualization question for US History is:
- compare related historical developments and processes across place, time and different societies or within one society
- explain and evaluate multiple and differing perspectives on a given historical phenomenon
Historical thinking involves the ability to connect historical events and processes to specific circumstances of time and place and to a broader regional, national or global processes.
Students should be able to:
- explain and evaluate ways in which specific historical phenomena, events or processes connect to broader regional, national or global processes occurring at the same time
- explain and evaluate ways in which a phenomenon, event or process connects to other, similar historical phenomena across time and place
The skill of contextualization takes on different forms depending on the scope of time and geography. One of the central contextualization question for US History is:
"How does the history of a particular group, region or era fit into the larger story of the development of the United States?"
Skill 3: Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical Evidence |
Historical thinking involves the ability to define and frame a question about the past to address that question through the construction of an argument. A plausible an persuasive argument requires a clear, comprehensive and analytical thesis, supported by relevant historical evidence - not simply evidence that supports a preferred or preconceived position.
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In addition, argumentation involves the capacity to describe, analyze and evaluate the arguments of others in light of available evidence. This skill requires that students be able to describe commonly accepted historical arguments about the nature of the past and then explain how such arguments have been constructed from historical evidence. Over the span of the course, students should move from describing to evaluating the conflicting historical evidence used in making plausible historical evidence.
Students should be able to:
In US History, the skill of historical argumentation often operates in conjunction with course themes that transcend several period with other skills.
Students should be able to:
- analyze commonly accepted historical arguments and explain how an argument has been constructed from historical evidence
- construct convincing interpretations through analysis of disparate, relevant historical evidence
- evaluate and synthesize conflicting historical evidence to construct persuasive historical arguments
In US History, the skill of historical argumentation often operates in conjunction with course themes that transcend several period with other skills.
The application of argument and causation might take students back to previous centuries to construct a coherent thesis with supporting evidence that includes a sophisticated analysis of the introduction of slavery to North American colonies, relative growth and economic divergence of geographic regions, the impact of migration and technology, Congressional gridlock and political ideas about democracy and federalism.
Students should be able to:
- analyze features of historical evidence such as audience, purpose, point of view, format, argument, limitations and context relating to the evidence considered
- based on analysis and evaluation of historical evidence, make supportable inferences and draw appropriate conclusions
This skill could be applied when, for example, determining the relationship of Native American tribes to their environment and making assertions about why some persevered and others disappeared. In this case, archaeological or geographical analysis may have to be used instead of the more traditional forms of historical research.
Historical thinking involves the ability to describe, analyze, evaluate and construct diverse interpretations of the past, and being aware of how particular circumstances and contexts in which individual historians work and write also shape their interpretation of past events. |
Skill 4: Historical Interpretation and Synthesis |
Historical interpretation requires analyzing evidence, reasoning, determining the context and evaluating points of view found in both primary and secondary sources.
Students should be able to:
The skill of interpretation becomes particularly important as students progress from describing what they are learning about past events to reflecting on assorted historical evidence in terms of contextual values and cultural bias.
Students should be able to:
- analyze diverse historical interpretations
- evaluate how historians' perspectives influence their interpretations and how models of historical interpretation change over time
The skill of interpretation becomes particularly important as students progress from describing what they are learning about past events to reflecting on assorted historical evidence in terms of contextual values and cultural bias.
Examine historical interpretations over time, such as the different ways that historians have interpreted the institution of slavery or evaluated Reconstruction.
Historical thinking involves the ability to develop meaningful and persuasive new understandings of the past by applying all of the other historical thinking skills, by drawing appropriately on ideas and methods from different fields of inquiry or disciplines, and by creatively fusing disparate, relevant and, sometimes contradictory evidence from primary sources and secondary works. Additionally, synthesis may involve applying insights about the past to other historical contexts or circumstances, including the present.
Students should be able to:
Students should be able to:
- combine disparate, sometimes contradictory, evidence from primary sources and secondary works in order to create a persuasive understanding of the past
- apply insights about the past to other historical contexts or circumstances, including the present
Challenge the narratives to which you are exposed so that you will have a better understanding of your place in an increasingly globalized and diverse world.
Thematic Learning Objectives
The seven thematic objectives presented in this AP US History course represent the major historical understandings that colleges and universities want AP students to have developed in order to be awarded college credit for an introductory college US History survey course. You should be able to use a range of historical thinking skills to investigate the thematic learning objectives and the AP Exam will measure your proficiency in both the historical thinking skills, as well as the seven thematic objectives.
The content learning objectives for the AP US History course are divided into seven themes:
These themes focus student understanding of major historical issues and developments. helping you to recognize broad trends and processes that have emerged over centuries in what has become the United States.
The content learning objectives for the AP US History course are divided into seven themes:
- Identity
- Work, Exchange and Technology
- Peopling
- Politics and Power
- America in the World
- Environment and Geography (physical and human)
- Ideas, Beliefs and Culture
These themes focus student understanding of major historical issues and developments. helping you to recognize broad trends and processes that have emerged over centuries in what has become the United States.
This theme focuses on the formation of both American national identity and group identity in US history. |
Identity (ID) |
Students should be able to:
- explain how various identities, cultures and values have been preserved or changed in different contexts of US history, with special attention given to the formation of gender, class, racial and ethnic identities
- explain how these sub-identities have interacted with each other and with larger conceptions of American national identity
Overarching thematic questions:
* How and why have debates over American national identity changed over time?
* How have gender, class, ethnic, religious, regional and other groups identities changed in different eras?
Work, Exchange and Technology (WXT) |
This theme focuses on the development of American economies based on agriculture, commerce and manufacturing. |
Students should be able to:
- examine ways that different economies and labor systems, technological innovations and government policies have shaped American society
- explore the lives of working people and the relationships among social classes, racial and ethnic groups, and men and women, including the availability of land and labor, national and international economic developments and the role of government support and regulation
Overarching thematic questions:
* How have changes in markets, transportation and technology affected American society from colonial times to present day?
* Why have different labor systems developed in British North America and the United States,and how have they affected US
society?
* How have debates over economic values and the role of government in the US economy affected politics, society, the economy
and the environment?
This theme focuses on why and how the various people who moved to, from and within the US adapted to their new social and physical environments. |
Peopling (PE) |
Students should be able to:
- examine migration across borders and long distances, including the slave trade and internal migration, and how both newcomers and indigenous inhabitants transformed North America
- explore the ideas, beliefs, traditions, technologies, religions and gender roles that migrants/immigrants and annexed peoples brought with them and the impact that these factors had on both these peoples and on US society
Overarching thematic questions:
* Why have people migrated to, from and within North America?
* How have changes in migration and population patterns affected American life?
Politics and Power (POL) |
This theme focuses on mechanisms for creating, implementing or limiting participation in the political process and the resulting social effects, as well as the changing relationships among the branches of the federal government and among national, state and local governments.
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Students should be able to:
- examine ongoing debates over the role of the state in society and its potential as an active agent for change
- trace efforts to define or gain access to individual rights and citizenship and survey the evolution of tensions between liberty and authority in different periods of US history
Overarching thematic questions:
* How and why have different political and social groups competed for influence over society and government in what would
become the United States?
* How have Americans agreed on or argued over the values that guide the political system as well as who is a part of the political
process?
This theme focuses on the global context in which the US originated and developed as well as the influence of the United States on world affairs. |
America in the World (WOR) |
Students should be able to:
- examine how various world actors (such as people, states, organizations and companies) have competed for the territory and resources of the North American continent, influencing the development of both American and world societies and economies
- investigate how American foreign policies and military actions have affected the rest of the world as well as social issues within the United States itself
Overarching thematic questions:
* How have events in North America and the United States related to contemporary developments in the rest of the world?
* How have different factors influenced US military, diplomatic and economic involvement in international affairs and foreign
conflicts, both in North America and overseas?
Environment and Geography - Physical and Human (ENV) |
This theme examines the role of environment, geography and climate in both constraining and shaping human actions. |
Students should be able to:
- analyze the interaction between the environment and Americans in their efforts to survive and thrive
- explore efforts to interpret, preserve, manage or exploit natural and man-made environments, as well as the historical contexts within which interactions with the environment have taken place
Overarching thematic questions:
* How did interactions with the natural environment shape the institutions and values of various groups living on the North
American continent?
* How did economic and demographic changes affect the environment and lead to debates over use and control of the environment and natural resources?
This theme explores the roles that ideas, beliefs and social mores and creative expression have played in shaping the United States. |
Ideas, Beliefs and Culture (CUL) |
Students should be able to:
- examine the development of aesthetic, moral, religious, scientific and philosophical principles and consider how these principles have affected individual and group actions
- analyze the interactions between beliefs and communities, economic values and political movements, including attempts to change American society to align it with specific ideals
Overarching thematic questions:
* How and why have moral, philosophical and cultural values changed in what would become the United States?
* How and why have changes in moral, philosophical and cultural values affected US history?