xii PrefaceBritish, French, and Spanish and the ways in which these themes influenced their
relations with native peoples.- Building AP® Writing Skills
The chapters in this textbook end with a feature that will teach you how to write
historical argument by integrating historical thinking skills and useful writing
strategies to form clear, coherent arguments. “Building AP® Writing Skills” will
enable you to pull together the skills, concepts, and themes in each chapter into a
coherent essay.
These lessons are arranged sequentially, beginning with prewriting (Lesson 1)
and organization (Lesson 2) and moving into increasingly sophisticated aspects
of writing, such as creative synthesis of sources, inclusion of multiple perspec-
tives, and effective approaches to logical argument. Each “Building AP® Writing
Skills” segment•
offers its own AP®-style prompt, which represents the thematic focus and
primary documents of the given chapter;•
providesastep-by-stepapproachtobuildyourabilitiesandconfidencein
tackling such questions;•
provides opportunities to practice developing your argument—because the
more you practice, the more natural it feelsThese writing units are developed sequentially, beginning with fundamental
building blocks to writing historical argument, moving toward effective ways of
using and organizing evidence, and concluding with different ways of approach-
ing historical argument.- Working with Secondary Sources: Short Answer
Questions for the AP® Exam
One important skill of AP® US History is interpreting and analyzing historical
writing by professional historians. For each of the nine time periods, you will find
sections titled “Working with Secondary Sources: AP® Short Answer Questions,”
which include two short readings by prominent historians. These readings are
followed by questions that ask you to construct short answer responses like those
needed for the AP® US History exam.These Skills Will Help in Other Classes Too!
The skills developed in this textbook are transferable to many of your other
classes. For example, you will be able to apply what you learn here in your AP®
English language and composition classroom. The ability to read a piece criti-
cally, synthesize multiple sources, and develop an original argument are featured
prominently in the AP® English Language and Composition curriculum.Preface xiii01_STA_2012_FM_001-xxxvi.indd 12 10/04/15 11:37 AM