Skip to content

Interdisciplinary CurriculumCurriculum

Your learning stays with you.

Support Independent Learning

© 2026 Commensurate Ventures. All rights reserved.

Interdisciplinary CurriculumCurriculum

AP US History

College-level American history from Indigenous civilizations through the modern era. Aligned to the College Board AP US History Course and Exam Description. Emphasizes historical thinking, causation, and change over time.

14 Units

45-60 minutes per unit

What You Will Learn

College Board Aligned

All nine AP US History periods — from pre-Columbian societies through contemporary America.

Historical Argumentation

DBQ practice, LEQ strategies, and SAQ reasoning aligned to AP exam rubrics.

College Credit Potential

A qualifying AP exam score can earn 3-6 college credits at most universities.

All Units

Contact and Exploration (1491-1607)

Examines Indigenous societies of the Americas before European arrival and the transformative consequences of contact, exploration, and the Columbian Exchange.

•Analyze the diversity and complexity of Native American societies before 1492
•Explain the motives and methods of European exploration and colonization
•Evaluate the demographic, ecological, and cultural consequences of the Columbian Exchange
+1 more objectives

Colonial America (1607-1754)

Examines the establishment of distinct colonial regions in British North America, labor systems including slavery, and the tensions within and between colonial societies.

•Compare the economic, social, and political characteristics of New England, Middle, and Southern colonies
•Analyze the development of chattel slavery and its centrality to colonial economies
•Evaluate the causes and consequences of colonial conflicts including Bacon's Rebellion and King Philip's War
+1 more objectives

Revolution and Republic (1754-1800)

Traces the path from the Seven Years' War through American independence, the Constitution's creation, and the contested first decade of the new republic.

•Explain how the Seven Years' War transformed British-colonial relations and triggered the independence movement
•Analyze the ideological foundations of the American Revolution and evaluate how widely its ideals were applied
•Compare the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution as solutions to the problem of republican governance
+1 more objectives

Expansion and Reform (1800-1848)

Examines the Market Revolution's transformation of American society, Jacksonian democracy's contradictions, westward expansion, and the antebellum reform movements that reshaped American idealism.

•Explain how the Market Revolution transformed American labor, transportation, and social organization
•Analyze Jacksonian democracy's expansion of white male suffrage alongside its exclusion of Indigenous peoples and enslaved Americans
•Evaluate the causes and consequences of Indian Removal and westward expansion
+1 more objectives

Civil War Era (1844-1877)

Traces the sectional crisis from Manifest Destiny through the Civil War's causes, course, and consequences, culminating in Reconstruction's contested vision of freedom.

•Analyze the escalating sectional crisis over slavery's expansion from 1844 to 1860
•Evaluate the relative importance of slavery versus other factors in causing the Civil War
•Explain how the Civil War transformed the federal government, the army, and the lives of enslaved people
+1 more objectives

The Gilded Age (1865-1898)

Examines the transformative industrialization of post-Civil War America — the rise of big business, labor conflict, mass immigration, urbanization, and the Populist challenge to industrial capitalism.

•Analyze how industrial capitalism transformed American society, creating both unprecedented wealth and severe inequality
•Evaluate the strategies of labor organizations and assess the obstacles they faced
•Explain the causes and consequences of mass immigration and the nativist response
+1 more objectives

Progressive Era and WWI (1890-1920)

Examines Progressivism's response to industrial capitalism, American imperialism in the Pacific and Caribbean, and the transformative experience of World War I and its aftermath.

•Analyze the Progressive movement's diverse reform agenda and evaluate its achievements and limitations
•Explain the ideological and strategic arguments for American overseas expansion in the 1890s
•Assess how American participation in World War I transformed domestic politics and civil liberties
+1 more objectives

The Twenties and the Great Depression (1920-1939)

Examines the cultural ferment and economic contradictions of the Roaring Twenties, the catastrophic collapse of the Great Depression, and Roosevelt's New Deal response.

•Analyze the cultural conflicts of the 1920s including modernism vs. traditionalism, immigration restriction, and the Harlem Renaissance
•Explain the structural economic causes of the Great Depression beyond the 1929 stock market crash
•Evaluate the New Deal's achievements and limitations as a response to the Depression
+1 more objectives

World War II (1939-1945)

Analyzes the causes of World War II, American entry, the home front mobilization, diplomacy of the Allied coalition, and the moral complexities of the atomic age.

•Explain how American foreign policy shifted from neutrality to intervention between 1939 and 1941
•Analyze the home front's economic mobilization and its effects on different American communities
•Evaluate the military and diplomatic decisions that shaped the war's outcome
+1 more objectives

Cold War America (1945-1975)

Examines American foreign policy from containment through Vietnam, McCarthyism's domestic impact, the Korean War, and the escalating conflict in Southeast Asia.

•Explain the origins and key elements of the containment doctrine and its application in Truman's foreign policy
•Analyze how Cold War anxiety produced domestic political repression through McCarthyism
•Evaluate the decisions that led to American escalation in Vietnam and the war's ultimate failure
+1 more objectives

Civil Rights and Social Movements (1945-1980)

Traces the civil rights movement from its postwar roots through legislative victories and the emergence of Black Power, alongside the women's movement, environmental activism, and other social movements of the 1960s-70s.

•Analyze the strategies, tactics, and leadership of the civil rights movement and evaluate their effectiveness
•Explain how the civil rights movement achieved legislative victories and why those victories were incomplete
•Compare the goals and strategies of different civil rights factions including NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, and the Black Power movement
+1 more objectives

Conservative Resurgence (1968-1992)

Examines the rise of modern conservatism from Nixon's Southern Strategy through Reagan's revolution, the end of the Cold War, and the transformation of American political culture.

•Analyze the causes of conservative resurgence and the coalition that brought Reagan to power
•Evaluate Reaganomics as an economic theory and assess its consequences
•Explain how Nixon and Reagan used foreign policy to restructure international relations
+1 more objectives

Modern America (1992-2010)

Examines post-Cold War America through the Clinton years, the contested 2000 election, the September 11 attacks and War on Terror, the Iraq War, and the 2008 financial crisis.

•Analyze how the end of the Cold War reshaped American foreign policy debates in the 1990s
•Evaluate the consequences of the September 11 attacks on American domestic policy, civil liberties, and foreign commitments
•Assess the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and its strategic and humanitarian consequences
+1 more objectives

Contemporary Debates (2010-Present)

Examines the defining challenges of contemporary American life: polarization and democratic stress, immigration, inequality, technological disruption, and the ongoing struggle over American identity.

•Analyze the causes and consequences of rising partisan polarization and democratic stress
•Evaluate the debates over immigration policy within the historical context of American immigration history
•Assess the relationship between economic inequality, technological change, and political instability
+1 more objectives

AP US History. College-level course aligned to College Board CED. Replaces US History Since 1877.