well across the country. this is the time of year when high school students are prepping for advanced placement tests here on american history. tv. we're going to take a close look

at the u.s. history advanced placement tests. we have to guess who are also coauthors. jason stacey is a history professor at southern illinois university and edwards, phil and matt ellington is a high school teacher at iowa high school in chino hills, california. these two gentlemen are all also the coauthors of this book, fabric of a nation a history with skills and sources for the ap us history course. matt ellington what is advanced placement history? well, hello, thanks for having us on again. peter advanced placement. us history is a program designed by the college board in coordination with universities and school districts, and it's an opportunity for students in high school to push themselves by taking a course that is equivalent in terms of the

skills and the rigor to the kind of course they would take in college. so ap was history is fundamentally designed to be similar to in terms of the scope of the content and the skills that students need to be successful in it to a two semester survey course that freshmen would often have to take in college on u.s. history. so jason stacy they get college credit for this if they pass. that's right. if they get a three, four or five, it depends on the college or university. they determine what scores they will accept. but typically a score of three, four or five out of five will get a student college credit. in the us history survey course on the test, how many students take it per year and who administers it? last year, over 400,000 students took the ap, us history corps or the ap us history exam, making it, i think the second largest of the ap exams. schools usually give it in lieu

of the us history require it at my school. that's the junior year though at some other schools that might be the sophomore or senior year. how is it administered. well, it's administered on friday, may 10th with a makeup about a week and a half later, and it's administered at 8 a.m. local time. it is a four is a comprehensive exam, 3 hours and 15 minutes with four different components, a multiple choice, a short answer, a document based essay question and a long essay question. this year, school districts had an option to either take the tradition no pencil and paper version or a digital version of the exam. starting next year, with the 2025 administration, all of the ap us history exams will be digital only on a computer. jason stacy. what time periods does this exam

encompass? there are nine time periods and it goes back to pre-columbian era and all the way up to about the present. and those nine time periods are weighted differently and it's important students understand that periods one and nine, the earliest and the most recent history each make up about 4 to 6% of the exam period, to which runs. to 1754, which is the end of the french and indian war. that takes up about 6 to 8% of the exam. and the other time periods are each about 10 to 17%. and those time periods may look a little unusual for when they are divided and so, for example, if you're looking at a period three, which ends in 1800, but the period just before it, period two ends in 1754, and students may ask, well, why did

they decide 1754 for period two or or 1800 for period three? and in that way, students can use those time periods and those dates to help them remember some of the material that falls within those time periods. for example, 1754 is the is the beginning of the of the french and indian war or or 1800 is the election of thomas jefferson. and so those published time periods can actually help students remember some of the turning points that are significant to the u.s. history. and then they can use those time periods themselves as buckets into which they can help. remember, some of the key factors and historical trends that happened within each time period. professor stacey, you and matt ellington have written a study guide, fabric of a nation to help students prepare for this test. what's a typical question and how would it be asked?

well, first of all, fabric of a nation is a composite, pensive textbook of the ap us history course. and the narrative overall. and so in fabric of a nation, we've got a complete narrative, a history of the united states from pre colonial times to the present. and it is aligned to the college board's framework. but also, i'm glad you brought up questions, peter, because in fabric of a nation, we include practice for students for long essay questions, short answer questions, multiple choice questions and document based questions. and we also provide instruction to help students write those plan for those. and we take a step by step approach to teach them how to help tackle some of those questions. on the apa history exam and also the the textbook is full of primary source documents. so throughout the narrative to get students used to those difficult images and pieces of

historical writing that they'll have to contend with on the exam. matt ellington memorizing dates often gets disparaged. is memorizing dates important? memorizing dates is actually helpful, but there's a reason it's disparaged because too much rote memorize asian doesn't really get at the heart of what the college board and what we as educators are trying to do. and that is trying to help students develop those kind of deeper critical thinking in analytical skills. so jason mentioned the nine time periods and the years, while college board does not require students to memorize those, i think it's really helpful to know those dates because those dates reflect various turning points or key events that are used to shape a narrative and an understanding. so for example, we see some of the time periods actually have some overlap to them. so period for for instance is

1800 to 1848, but period five is 1844 to 1877. and so that overlap is in order to help better tell a story, the story of unit four is the story of antebellum america. and that story includes political changes, early industrialized nation in immigration, but it also includes reform movements. and one of the key early reform movements is the women's movement and an important event that takes place in that movement is the seneca falls declaration of rights and sentiments. that's in 1848, but unit five starts before that in 1844 because there's another key event that happens in 1844. that's the election of james k pauken, a very expansionist platform. and of course his election leads into the mexican war and college

board wants to tell the story in unit five of the war. the mexican war. sectionalism in the 1850s, the civil war in the 1860s. and then reconstruction in the sixties and seventies. and so while students don't need to memorize dates, i think it's very helpful for them to know those nine time periods and to know a few other essential dates, because the dates allow students to be able to kind of hang some of their historical knowledge on. and while dates aren't critical. chronology is very important. college board does expect students to understand things like causation, cause and effect. it's hard to do that if you don't understand the the scope, the actual time frames and the years things happen. so while it's not critical that students remember that the sugar act is 1764, the stamp act is

1765, the towns and acts. 1767. it'd be helpful to know the order that those things happened and roughly the time period, because there is an interplay between them and the events of the colonial era that students are expected to know. so that's a long answer to say that, well, dates aren't critical and college board would never test student as on any specific date. they would never see a multiple choice question asking which of the following dates. there is an expectation that they do know key dates in the events that go with them and more than that they understand the chronological flow jason stacy has the test been updated to reflect current trends and sensibilities with regard to teaching history? well, it has and it has in, i think to important ways. the first of all, first way is that we've changed the way we

teach history at the college level. traditionally, a college history course would be primarily about memorization, facts and the ability of students to recall those facts. but really, in the last 20 or 25 years, college level history classes have moved increasingly towards analysis. student analysis of primary sources, students ability to generate a thesis, and so the college board test almost ten years ago now, in fact, over ten years ago now, went through a revision process where students are increasing early, encouraged to analyze primary sources and secondary sources. for example, in the short answer questions, students have to analyze and compare to historians talking about a particular event or time period, and also the multiple choice questions are now what are called stimulus based, where each multiple choice question has a prime area or secondary

source that is part of the question so that a student needs to both analyze the source and understand the period of time that the question is related to. and of course, the test is always being updated for new discoveries and changes in trends that historians are currently interested in. and so this this 2024 exam is going to represent the up to date state of american historiography today. and in fact, the test development committee is made up of working his story stories and high school teachers so that so that test can continue to be fresh. well, matt ellington, let's look at some examples from potentially from the test itself. we're looking now at a political engraving by paul revere. it's called the bloody massacre, 1770 is the year. why is this significant? well, what you have there on the screen is a very famous

engraving by paul revere. like you said in 1770. so this is a really good example of the kinds of visual documents that students might see on the ap us history exam. it is a primary source document and jason already explained. but, but most parts of the test, the multiple choice at least one of the short answers and the document based essay question all in incorporate primary sources. these are documents, whether they're visual documents like this engraving or their maps or their posters or paintings or their text based documents, such as speeches or excerpts from a from a court transcript or laws and so students really need to have the ability to work with these documents, to be able to analyze them, to get information from them, but also to look at them more critically like a historian would and apply their

knowledge of the history and the events and developments that are taking place as to what they see in this document. and to the question that's being asked of them, whether it's a multiple choice question, short answer or document based essay question. so this document, of course, is the document that many students will actually have something, larry, with. this is a document that maybe they've seen in their textbook or maybe they even saw it when they took u.s. history back in junior high school. so just to review what we have is a document with british soldiers lined up on one side, colonists on the other side, and the british opening fire on the colonists. and it's titled the bloody massacre. so the first thing the students want to do is always look at the source line, look at who the author is, and they may know something about paul revere. they may have they may be familiar with the poem of paul revere riding in front to warn against the british invasion

that was coming. or they may know that he's a patriot. they may be familiar with the place. they may know that boston is the kind of heart of patriot activity during this time. or it's possible that they'll be able to look at the year and while 1770 is not a year where anything besides maybe the boston massacre happened that students would need to know and there's no expectation that they would memorize the year again, what students want to be able to should be able to do is to put that year in, can't next and say, okay, what do i know about the time period? i know that the french and indian war ends in 1763. i know that there are laws that are being passed the stamp act and then the towns and acts which have not yet been repealed as of this event and so students can start to look at the context, what they should already know about the document. it can really inform their analysis. of course, students ought to

actually look at the document specifically. when you look at the document, there's all kinds of telltale signs that this is a document that is very one sided. the british are lined up their fire ring. it looks like they're being given an order by their commander. one of the british soldiers is actually kind of smiling. some of the colonists have their hands up or their backs turn or there's even a sniper in the window. all of these and more clues really get to the kind of by bias that is pretty clearly evident in this document, because students should have some information of the boston massacre. they should be able to compare that document with what they know about the events, which is a lot more nuanced and a lot more complex where you've got colonists who were actually throwing things at the british and some of the british troops were scared and it was it was a much more confused event than is being portrayed in this

document. and so one of the the skills that college board asks of students is to be able to think like a historian. and they've identified three different reasoning processes. i call them the three c's compare assign causation and continuity and change over time. so if we take the most fundamental of those, perhaps causation, one of the things that students can do is ask what led to the event depicted in the document. that's the kind of question that the college board might even ask. this was a multiple choice question. so again, by looking at the time period, looking at the year 1770, thinking about the events that have taken place and the fact that that that the bus that the colonists are being taxed, that boston is a center of patriot activity. maybe they know that the british are occupying boston. there's 4000 redcoats in boston and only in a population of only 15,000 in the city.

there's clues within the document behi on the wall behind the british it says customs house. that's a reminder of the anger over the taxes that are disproportionately hurting a city like boston. that is so dependent on trade and commerce because it's a port city. if students can start to remember those elements and bring those in in an analysis, whether they're answering this is a multiple choice question or responding to this and short answer. d.b. q they'll they'll be well on their way to being successful in using this document on the exam. professor stacy, on a secondary note, would it get a student extra credit to know that a future president, john adams, represented one of the british soldiers at trial? that's a good question, peter. i wouldn't say it would get them extra credit, but one of the benefits of these documents appearing on the exam is that they help students trigger and

remember other information that they should know. so, for example, if they're looking at this in graving that paul revere made to try to convince fellow colonists about the the cruelty of the british in boston, it might also trigger their memory that john adams, a prominent rebel against the british, actually defended many of these british soldiers. and that would count as outside information on the document based question. and this is one of the element that students have to bring to bear when they're answering the document based question. they have to be able to call to mind and to deploy information as part of their arguments. that's outside information that isn't necessary early in the question or in the documents themselves. and so if a student were to recall from their reading of the textbook or from their teachers

lessons that john adams actually defended some of the british soldiers in an attempt to point out that the british colonies were capable of approaching the the various laws and oppressions of the british in in a in a fair minded and legalistic way, they would get some credit for bringing in some out side information and it would be outside information brought to mind by this primary source. well, through our c-span in the classroom teachers, we solicited questions from high school students. and here's one professor stacy, i'll address this to you. this is from ma yo at le bosco stem academy. wayne, new jersey. what are some of the key things we should remember from around the time of the ratification of the cons stitution? wow, that's a great question.

and i think what's important to remember is that the new constitution came out of conflict itself, as you probably remember, mario, the the article of confederation by 1786 was not doing very well. it proved to be a relatively weak government and that caused all sorts of conflicts between the former colonies themselves. and in fact, it also caused a lot of conflict within some of the colonies, probably the best example would be shay's rebellion of 1786, when a number of farmers in western massachusetts rose up against that stake government. and so the original plan of the constitutional convention was to revive ais, the articles of confederation, and what came out of that was a new plan for a new kind of government, a constitution and the constitution we think of today.

and you probably remember there were a lot of compromises during that constitutional convention between the the virginia plan and the new jersey plan, which led to our house of representatives in our senate, the awful two thirds compromise for counting enslaved black people in the south as part of determining representatives in the house of representatives. but, of course, after that constitution, final convention, that new constitution had to be ratified by the states. and during that ratification process, there was a lot of conflict as well. and the two sides of that conflict generally fall into what was called at the time. and we still call them now federalists who were in favor of ratification of the new constitution, a stronger federal government and antifa federalists who saw it as a danger to individual liberties. and you probably remember some prominent figures on each side among the federalists would be

john j. alexander hamilton and james madison. and in the anti-federalists would be people like like patrick henry or mercy otis warren. and that those two sides in their debates published a number of important documents that very well could show up in some capacity on the ap exam, on the part of the federalists would be the famous federalist papers where john jay alexander hamilton and james madison tried to argue for why this new constitution, with the stronger federal government over a vast territorial space, would actually be more conducive to literary liberty because of the order it would provide. and on the part of the anti federalists, what eventually became the bill of rights, which was demanded by anti-federalists to protect what they saw as

essential rights that could be in danger under the newly powerful federal government. and those bill of rights were approved after ratification of the constitution. really to tamp down some of the some of the conflict and some of the concern about the new constitution during that ratification process. well, let's skip ahead. professor stacy, we'll stick with you for this next image. we're showing you an image from 1848 and goatees ladies book why is so significant? yeah, this is a great document. and this is one of those documents that nate may not be familiar to students when they take the test. you see the the paul revere picture from the boston massacre. and they may be remember it for middle school, but this is an image that students may never have seen before. and you're going to get documents that you've never seen before. and so one of the key skills to

interpreting these these document is to take a look at the source statement. so that students can see that this was published in 1848. so we're in the anti bellum time period. and as i mentioned, that's also the year of the seneca falls convention advocating for women's rights and also notice the title of the document. this is an image from goatees ladies book, so that here we have a public fashion that is aimed specifically at women and then we take a look at the picture and we can see what look like a number of middle or upper class women of different ages, and they look like they're shopping for shoes. they look like they're in a shoe store. and it looks like there's a clerk there helping them out. and so if we take one of those reasoning processes, then that was talking about let's take continuity and change. there's a lot of continuities

that we can see in this image, in that there are still very clearly gender roles. we can see that, by the way, in which the the women are dressed. they're dressed in very feminine attire, large dresses, and they're dressed very differently than the male in the picture. but we can also begin to see some some changes here in that 1848 is is pretty early to be going to a shoe store with ready made shoes and to have these these women clearly with some purchasing power deciding which shoes they would like to purchase and, you know, before this time period, of course, most shoes were handmade and little shops by shoe makers and individuals would go and they would get personally size ized, and then they would have a pair of shoes made personally for them. but this looks a little more familiar, like a like a modern

shoe store where a lot of these shoes are ready made and these women are consumers of these consumable goods, these ready made shoes. and so this this allows us to bring in some of those reasoning processes we have to use on the dv. q in this case, we can think about historical situation, the context. and so a student should remember this is really during the time period of the first industrial revolution where many goods, especially clothing, was beginning to be mass produced in factories and textile factories, specific quickly in the american northeast. and one of the earliest articles of clothing that were mass produced during this time period were shoes everybody needs shoes. and what it allowed for was the making of relatively inexpensive ready made shoes that consumers could then purchase already. so sized, and then they could go purchased, purchase them at shoe

stores like this rather than to a shoemaker. so this also falls under the context of that first industrial revolution in a historical situation which is significant to the image and helps us better understand how this publication, goatees lady's book, probably made on a steam powered press for mass disturbed fusion for women who are interested in women's issues. and here we have an image presented back to these women who can see themselves purchasing this consumable good made in a factory that is a product of that first industrial revolution. well, let's stay in that time period for a minute. and matt ellington of cheat of a yalla high school and chino hills, california, who was david wilmot and what was his proviso speech? 1947. sure. okay. so david wilmot was a representative to the house of

representatives from the state of pennsylvania. and in 1847, david wilmot authored a piece of legislation. and the excerpt from his legislation, the wilmot proviso is basically a bill that would have banned slavery in any newly acquired territory from mexico. it did pass the house, but it did not pass the senate, and so it was never ratified into law. but of course it created a lot of great controversy at the time because it reopened that very difficult issue about the extension of slavery into the territories. well, i want to read a little bit from his speech on the house floor. i make no war upon the south, nor upon slavery in the south. i have no squeamish, sensitive ness upon the subject of slavery nor morbid sympathy for the slave. i plead the cause of the rights

of white freemen i would preserve for white free labor, a fair country, a rich inheritance, where the sons of toil of my own race and own color can live without the disgrace which association with -- slavery brings upon free labor. i stand for the inviolable lability of free territory. it shall remain free so far as my voice or vote can aid in the preservation of its character, doesn't read like a real ringing endorsement of anti slavery position, does it? no. and indeed it's not. and so i think that that's one of the things that very important for students to realize that the meaning is pretty clear in this speech and the excerpted portion that you just read, wilmot, is clearly laying out a position that is against the extension of slavery

into this invaluable territory. however, he doesn't have any sympathy for enslaved people. and so if we back up a little bit and we take a look at again, starting with the source line, students may already know, maybe not very much about wilson himself, but hopefully they know about the proviso. most textbooks, including fabric, cover it, and many teachers talk about it. but if they don't know, then they can look at the year 1847 and they really should know that during the mexican-american war. so we're talking about the the acquiring of all of this land from mexico. and then that question of what's going to happen with that territory. and so one of the most important things for students to do, as jason already mentioned, is to think about the context. so we have an immediate context

of a raging war that is that is about done, where we've already annexed texas polk is he's already worked out half of the oregon territory, and he's manufactured a war with mexico in order to gain california, which is one of his campaign promises. and he's on the verge of doing that. and, of course, acquiring the land in between california and texas. what we know is the mexican cession and and that ought to prompt students to think about this issue a little bit. and going back to the reasoning process is that jason and i have already talked about there's a third reasoning process. so is causation there's continuity and change, but there's also comparison. and i think there's a really good to be made here between the wilmot proviso, this attempt to ban the extension slavery into new lands and a similar attempt a few decades earlier known as the talmadge amendment. talmadge amendment was also a

bill that passed the house but died in the senate in 1819, when missouri was on the verge of applying for statehood that would have banned slavery in missouri and in the remainder of the louisiana purchase territory. that had not yet been divided into states that created a political firestorm, ultimately leading to the missouri compromise of 1820, which allowed missouri to come in as a slave holding state. maine was later brought in as a free state, a geographical line. the 3630 line was drawn on the map, saying that all states that come in from louisiana, territory above that line would be free. and then below that line would be slave. and most importantly, it said a precedent of maintain a sectional balance. and so what we see in the admission states after the missouri compromise is every time a slave or a non slaveholding state is admitted,

very shortly thereafter, the other is admitted to keep a balance. and so now with the acquisition of what we're on the threshold of the acquisition of all that land, this question is really open and it also creates a political firestorm. but back to your original question, peter, it's very clear that will mont is not advocating about the evils of slavery. that's not his argument. and so the other thing that students really ought to notice from this document is that what wilmot is proposing is part of a free soil doctrine or ideology that the land should be for free white people and that that enslavement should remain where it is in the south. and if you look at the language that he uses, you know, his morbid sense of this kind of morbid sensibility about and about people who are enslaved,

it's obvious that he doesn't have sympathy enslaved people. and this is an area where sometimes students struggle because they grab hold of this idea of abolitionism and they're inclined to think that many northerners were abolitionist. and while some were, it's a small minority in the 1840s, there's a much larger population of free soldiers, those who are fine to leave slavery in the south, but don't want it to extend in to any new western territories. in fact, in 1848, in that presidential election, there's so much support for this free soil ideology that a third party emerges. the free soil party, they nominate former president martin van buren as their candidate. they win 10% of the electoral vote. and the reason they gain so much support, which is the most of the third party, never gained up to that point, is because of the frustration of many northerners who believed in a free soil

ideology that neither the whig nor the democratic candidate in the 1848 election would strongly oppose the extension of slavery to the new territories. and that's going to remain an while. there's overlap between the free soil and abolitionist groups, and some people will support both ultimate least the free. so party is going to be swept into the republican party in the in 1854 as at a party party emerges after kansas-nebraska act and the demise of the whig party and that indeed becomes the central platform. this free soil ideal largely for lincoln and the republicans who win in. 1860. and one of the reasons that southern states secede is because they know that lincoln and republicans will not allow for any expansion of slavery. and they believe that slavery is

restricted to the states, that it exists and it will eventually die out, that it needs to grow and expand. otherwise it will ultimately be doomed. and that's one of their reasons for secession. so there's a lot for students to see in this document and it's a reminder of the ongoing political debates during the time. and so if students can connect to a contour, either the mexican war, polk's expansionist platform, if they can compare perhaps to the talmadge amendment or even look at the some of the similar treaties and differences between the abolitionists and the free soldiers, then students will have really been able to use this document to its fullest on the ap, us history exam. matt ellington is it fair to say that the national conversation on slavery was being held in 1847, 14 years before the start of the civil war?

well, i think it was an ongoing conversation. that conversation is only going to ramp up what the mexican war does is it forces the issue because with the acquisition of all this land, with a treaty of guadalupe hidalgo in 1848, there is the question of what's going to happen and many people, i'm sure, thought that at least they would have some time before they had to make those hard decisions. but we know what happens. in 1848, gold is discovered in california. by 1849, there's a gold rush in california has hundreds of thousands of people and quickly jumps from unorganized backwater territory with relatively few u.s. citizens to applying for admission to the union. in california, of course, comes in with a compromise of 1850, which breaks that precedent of keeping a balance between free and slave states and in return,

the south gets a much fugitive slave act, which is ultimately going to backfire because that generates growing resentment in the north and it actually fuels abolitionist sentiments. so, yes, the conversation is definitely going on and it's only going to get much pronounced as we get closer to the civil war and as we continue to look at some potential topic areas for the us history advanced placement test. professor jason stacy of southern illinois university. i'm going to read a quote from 1889 and then we'll let you put it into context. quote, in bestowing charity, the main consideration should be to help those who will help themselves. the best means of benefiting the community is to place within its reach ladders upon which the aspiring can rise. free libraries, parks and means of recreation by which men are helped and body and mind works

of art. certain to give pleasure and improve the public taste and public institutions of various kinds which will the general condition of the people in this manner returning their surplus to the mass of their fellows in the forms best calculated to do them lasting good. andrew carnegie, 1889 yeah, this is one of those document ments where the source line is almost as important as the actual source itself, so that if students look at that source line, they should remember andrew carnegie as one of the either captains of industry or robber barons, depending on how they look at it from that time period and carnegie steel is one of the exam apples that students often remember when go to the test. and of course, that's going to be outside information they could use. but when they look at this

document, they can see that carnegie is talking about something very different than just steel. he is talking about what he calls the gospel of wealth, which is an essay he publishes in 1889, providing a recommendation to other powerful industrialists during the second industrial revolution, recommending what they can do with some of their wealth. and in this document, he's suggesting that much of that wealth should go back to the community in the form of grants to help construct institutions that will serve, according to carnegie, as a kind of social uplift parks, museums and most famously, the carnegie libraries. my little town of edwardsville, illinois, still has a carnegie library in it that was originally funded by andrew carnegie. through this idea of the gospel of wealth. and so when a student brings that to mind, there's a number

of reasoning processes that they can use to analyze it. but the one i like to think about in terms of this document is the reasoning process of comparison. and so as students can recall, there's an easy comparison to this gospel of wealth, which assumes that the wealthy industrialists during the second industrial revolution should provide some kind of social uplift to the rest of america. and that comparison would be to the ideology known as social darwinism. first generated by an english theorist named herbert spencer. and it was the application of charles darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection to modern societies. and it is that some individuals succeed in modern society and some individuals do not, and that society is improved as

those who are more successful, continue to thrive, and those who are less successful do not. it's a very cold ideology and is a comparison in opposition to andrew carnegie social gospel. whereas andrew carnegie is arguing that some social uplift can be provided by the excess wealth of those who were wealthy in the second industrial revolution. the ideology of social darwinist ism not only says there's really nothing to be done for those who are not succeeding, but that it in fact is the natural order that they do not succeed and both of these ideologies were in play during the late 19th century, and they they really establish some of the historical situation that students can use when they're sourcing this document. they can situated chronology. within the second industrial

revolution, the enormous changes that came in work life in american cities, in the variation and stratification of classes during this time period, and in calling to mind all of that historical situation, they'll be able to better source this document. professor stacey, could this be also considered an antique socialism by government at creed? well, it's certainly is not an advocate of socially ism, and students should know that andrew carnegie was not only anti socialism, but he was pretty ambivalent about unions as well. and i think it's important to note and students should note this if they if they're able to recall it, that the that the that the gospel of wealth really assumes that it will be private, individual in this case,

industrialists who will provide these grants for for the betterment of society overall. and that any kind of government regulation would only further in andrew carnegie's opinion, weaken prosperity in the united states, which he saw as ultimately provided by individual wills that were able to take the free market system and to build economic institutions, corporations that not only provided them with wealth, but as he saw it, provided benefits to the society at large. matt ellington we're going to show another image. this is from 1970 time food will win the war. what are we looking at? well, we're looking at a wartime proposal later by the us government, specifically by the food administration. so in this poster, we have what

appear to be a group of immigrants coming from europe, honest ship sailing into new york city. you can see the statue of liberty and behind that, the new york skyline. and then a lovely kind of rainbow go over the new york skyline. and then there's some language on there as well that encourages these immigrants to remember why they came and is exist escorting these immigrants to be patriotic, to conserve, to use less wheat to help win the war. so the first thing that students always want to do, of course, look at the look at the image, make sure that they see the various elements in it. and then again, look at the source line. and so the source line tells us the obvious. this is a war time poster. so in a set and it's in 1917. so then students ought to step back and think. and jason has already talked about this, that the historical context or in this case the

situate station. so some back story, of course, the war is raging. this is the biggest war in human up to this point with tens of millions of soldiers. this is in many ways the first kind of modern industrial war that the united states has fought in. and there is a mass mobilization effort that's afoot. and so with with that context, then students can look at this document and they can start to to pick different elements from it that they can use to help them on the exam. so one of the tasks that students have on a db q which is 25% of the ap us history exam, it's the third part after the multiple choice in the short answer and before the long essay, students will have an essay with seven primary source documents, and it could include a document like this. and one of the skills that

students are asked to do when they analyze this kind of a document is to think critically about the document. like a historian would. and so that means looking at the historical situation and the intended audience, the purpose or the authors point of view and we've talked a lot about historical situation and and that's that's the that my advice to students is often to think about the historical situation see if if you can connect this document to another event in the time period or right before that helps explain the setting. and so students could situate this document or contextualize this document by remembering that not only is this is this a war, but they could think about wilson's rhetoric about how this is a war to make the world safe for democracy, a war to end all wars. they might also think about the fact that there are immigrants on this ship.

and that's right. this is an era of large immigration from europe to the united states. but beyond just the sourcing or i'm sorry, beyond just the situate nation, students might also look at the intended audience or the purpose. oftentimes, i find in my classrooms that students are gravitate towards those because they seem to be the easiest. well, the intended audience are the immigrants who are coming over or the purpose is useless. sweet. but of course that's too simplistic. what college board really wants to see and what we want to see in our classrooms is the students can go beyond just identifying who the audience is or what the purpose of the author was to why is that significant? so if we take the audience, these, you know, immigrants, why is that important? well, what we know if, we think about immigration patterns is that there's been a shift in immigration that has happened

starting in the 1880s, where there is a continued immigration from traditional places, whether it's whether it's from ireland, from germany, from. but then there is a huge wave of so-called new immigrants coming from southern and eastern europe on top of immigration. and that, of course, is causing some backlash and a rise of nativist and indeed is quite possible that this is not just targeted at european immigrants, but it's targeted at perhaps immigrant who might be sympathetic stick to the central powers to germany to austria-hungary, to turkey. and so this is a call to immigrants. but to those people in particular to assimilate to the united states, to embrace the role, the purpose of the war. as wilson has laid out, to do their patriot duty.

and so the purpose, of course, is to conserve and to use less wheat. but again, students need to step back and say, why is that important? well, it's because it's in the context of this huge war with tens of millions of soldiers and the united states is playing an invaluable role in providing goods and in particularly providing farm goods, food for not just our soldiers, but for allied as well, because many of those countries are having difficulties ramping up their agricultural production. and so students can make those connections and tie those two things together. the intended audience and the purpose by not just identifying who the document is for or what the author wants, but why. that's important. then students can demonstrate a much more sophisticated understanding of that document

and use that to support their argument. it's also can remind students of some other things that going on. for example, this call to patriotism is being echoed throughout the united states. there is this is a piece of wartime propaganda. in fact, there is a wartime propaganda agency. the committee public information that's pumping out thousands of these kinds of posters. there's a lot of pressure on people to show their loyalty, to show their patriotism. in fact, the us congress even passes laws. the espionage and sedition acts, which curtail free speech, which make it illegal to undermine the war effort or to be overly critical. and hundreds of people are going to be arrested during world war one for speaking out against some aspects of the war. and the supreme court in both the abrams and the schneck cases, are going to support

those restrictions on civil liberties during wartime. and that sets, of course, important precedents for what we see in world war two, both in terms of mass mobilization, in terms of the creation of this wartime agencies. in fact, the food administration and their calls to sacrifice is going to be amplified by other wartime agency fees. we're going to see that even more in world war two. we're going to see herbert hoover, who's the head of the food administration, be able to use his role as kind of a launching pad for his political career. he will be elected president in 1928. not a good year to, be elected president because of the great depression that starts the next year and we also see these same wartime agencies, the same kind of wartime propaganda and even a similar but different kinds of restrictions on civil liberties during world war two. so there's so even though it's a it's a poster with what appears

to be a pretty simple message, if students can contextualize, if they can think about what they already know, they can think about not just what's in the document and what they know, but how that connects and why these things are important, why this audience was targeted, why there was a call for concern zation and for sacrifice, and the impacts of that. then they'll be able to use this document to its fullest and really able to incorporate it well into a dv queue or any other part of the ap exam. now, gentlemen, we have 10 minutes left. we're going to try to get to more example urls that may be on the ap, us history exam in about 100 years after the wilmot proviso. here's this quote jason stacy if you could respond, the loyalty of the -- people is not a subject for i challenge the loyalty of the un-american

activities this committee maintains an ominous silence in the face of the lynchings and the violence and unpunished murders of scores of -- veterans by white supremacists since v-j day. it is not the soviet union that threatens the rights of -- americans. the threat comes from within those who menace our lives unchallenged by the un-american activities committee. paul robeson, 1949. yeah this is one of those documents that students are going to look at, and at first they're going to be a little intimidated. it perhaps they don't know paul robeson, perhaps 1949, doesn't immediately call to mind anything significance if they're thinking about the second red scare, they might be thinking about the 1950s. but there are some things in the source line that will be useful to them. not only the title, but the term the house un-american activities committee, which they should recall is part of that second

red scare. and then then as they read into document, they could see that this is a very early example of a civil rights document, but that it also pulls together the begin king of the red scare of the 1950s. and so when students are analyzing this document, you know, they should think of it in terms of continuities and changes that are going on. obviously, some of the continuity is are that first of all, that race continues to be an issue of great debate and reasons for great oppression in the united states in the 1940s. and paul robeson of students happen to recall is a prominent civil rights activist through the 1930s and well into the 1950s, an all-american athlete and also an actor and a singer. and so in this regard, robeson

is part of a continuous chain of civil rights activism that stretch all the way back to the 19th century. but some of the change that they can see here, the second part of that reasoning process, continuity and change, some of the change that they can see here is that the house un-american activities committee is supposedly investigate soviet infiltration into the united states after the second world war, and that should keep them in. oh, we're now at the end of the second world war. there is some paranoia about the soviet union infiltrating the united states and that this individual, paul robeson, is is speaking on behalf of black americans and seemingly saying that, in fact, the threat is not from the soviet union, but the real un-american activity, those that are taking place here, the united states are the continue attacks on black americans that

continue in the aftermath of the second world war, which was supposed oddly partly a war against a racial totalitarian society like nazi germany. and so it's a it's a very poignant critique that is a product of some changes after the second world war. and this calls to mind some of that that sourcing that students need to do the historical situation in which paul robeson is making his statement and it's coming back. it's coming not only in the aftermath of the second world war, but the beginnings of the civil rights movement that will take place in the late 1940s and 1950s. the, for example, desegregation of the us army in the late 1940s and of course the enormous civil rights activism that will take part during the 1950s in tandem or at the same time as the red

scare itself is going on. and so this is a very powerful document for thinking about the historical situation that gives rise to this statement against, this anti-communist house of representatives investigating committee, where robeson is calling to mind black americans continue to suffer oppression even after the in the aftermath of the second world war and just at the cusp of that civil movement of the 1950s, matt, what are the time frames again? what's the latest time frame that you look at in history? okay, so period nine is 1980, which is the election of ronald reagan to the present. but of course, the presidents always changing and the tests are actually made a couple of years ahead of time so that they can pilot the questions so they appear years that the latest the college board will likely go

this year would be the administration of george w bush. so students would need to know the events of 911. students would need to know the invasion of afghanistan and the invasion of iraq and possibly the great recession. and i think it's extremely unlikely that college work would go any farther than that. so it is much as it's fun and interesting to talk about in the modern stuff with obama, trump and biden and their presidencies, students do not need to review that material for the ap us history exam. a question from jamison lake braddock secondary school in burke, virginia. as someone who uses all of the time aloud to complete my exams, do you have any tips for time management? if i'm stuck on a question or unsure of my answer, i'm sure i got a few tips. number one, 2 minutes. matt. i'll be brief then.

number one, i would encourage that student, any student to take some practice tests that are timed in the same in the same format that the ap us history exam is. that way they can kind of practice that they've got one minute for multiple choice questions, they've got about 13 to 30 minutes for essay cue, they've got 60 minutes for db q and about 40 minutes for the long essay question. i'd also encourage students to trust themselves, right? don't overthink, don't second guess. usually the answer on a multiple choice question is going to be something that connects to a more important, fundamental process event or development of students are running short on time. they can simply look at the source line and if it's something that they they know well, then they can just use their information about that and go ahead and try to tackle the question without reading through all of the source matter. they can just go back and skim

to make sure it says what they think it's going to say. it's also important, i think, for students to have a watch so that they can pace themselves. they can check every few minutes to make sure they're on pace. and i would encourage students on the essay portions to look at the directions, which are really a summary of the rubric, which are the tasks that students need to be able to accomplish and make a plan. do a little bit of an outline and think about are you able to accomplish all of these? and if you're not, if you if there are several document, for example, that you don't know what to do, then you can go ahead and ignore those knowing that you're giving up. maybe a point or two, but then focus your efforts on writing an essay that will accomplish all of the other points. and then the last piece of advice on the multiple choice don't, don't take too long on a question. they're all worth the same amount of points. one point there's no extra credit for getting the hardest one right. but don't skip anything either. just go ahead and quickly make a guess. and if you've got time at the end, you could go back in debated, but make sure you stay on track and just bubble

something down because you still have a one in four chance of getting it right, even if you don't know what the is. friday, may 10th, 8 a.m. local time, is when the ap us history exam will be administered nationwide for the 400,000 who are going to be taking the exam this year. jason stacy and matt ellington have written a book called fabric of a nation a history with skills and sources for the ap u.s. history course. gentlemen, as always, we appreciate your time here on american history tv. good luck, everyone. thanks,

i shall resign the presidency