AP US History · History & Social Science

AP United States History: free lessons and course outline

1491 to today, argued from primary sources, not just memorized dates. Every period is taught through the documents historians actually use, every unit ends with a stimulus-based review, and the essay sections let you write DBQs and LEQs against the real College Board rubrics with a top-score response to compare against.

3H 15M EXAM 55 MCQ 3 SAQ 1 DBQ 1 LEQ 95 LESSONS 108 REVIEW QUESTIONS 10 ESSAY PROMPTS PREREQ: WORLD HISTORY

AP US History follows the nine periods of the College Board course framework, and every lesson follows one or two topics of the official course and exam description (95 lessons in all). Each lesson opens with a Required content box that quotes the learning objectives and key concepts it covers, then teaches them with a primary source and HIPP sourcing, worked source analyses, an Exam focus box, and six practice items. Periods 3 through 8 carry almost all of the exam's weight, and the essays are drawn from them too: the DBQ always comes from Periods 3 to 8, and the three LEQ choices span Periods 1 to 3, 4 to 6, and 7 to 9. Every unit ends with a stimulus-based multiple-choice and short-answer review, and the two essay sections at the bottom of the outline hold five DBQ and five LEQ prompts with a writing space that scores against the official rubric.

U1Period 1: 1491–16074–6%
U2Period 2: 1607–17546–8%
U3Period 3: 1754–180010–17%
U4Period 4: 1800–184810–17%
U5Period 5: 1844–187710–17%
U6Period 6: 1865–189810–17%
U7Period 7: 1890–194510–17%
U8Period 8: 1945–198010–17%
U9Period 9: 1980–Present4–6%

Writing the DBQ? Read the US History DBQ guide.

Writing the LEQ? Read the US History LEQ guide.

Writing the SAQ? Read the US History SAQ guide.

Every lesson, unit by unit

U1 is free to read below. The other units open with a free month or a paid plan.

U1 Period 1: 1491–1607 4–6% of the examFREE

U2 Period 2: 1607–1754 6–8% of the exam

2.1 Colonizing North America: Spain, France, the Dutch, England
2.2 The regions of the British colonies
2.3 Transatlantic trade and mercantilism
2.4 American Indians and Europeans: alliance and conflict
2.5 Slavery in the British colonies and resistance to it
2.6 Colonial culture: Awakening, Enlightenment, Anglicization
2.7 Comparison across the colonial regions

U3 Period 3: 1754–1800 10–17% of the exam

3.1 The Seven Years' War and a new imperial relationship
3.2 Taxation without representation and the road to war
3.3 The ideas behind the Revolution
3.4 How the Patriots won the Revolutionary War
3.5 Revolutionary ideals: slavery, women, and the wider world
3.6 The Articles of Confederation and the Northwest Ordinance
3.7 The Constitution: compromise, ratification, and structure
3.8 A new nation among rivals: borders, Europe, Native nations
3.9 Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, and the first parties
3.10 Developing an American identity, 1754 to 1800
3.11 Movement, frontier conflict, and slavery's expansion
3.12 Continuity and change in the revolutionary era

U4 Period 4: 1800–1848 10–17% of the exam

4.1 Jefferson, the courts, and the Louisiana Purchase
4.2 Regional interests and the first sectional crisis
4.3 The Monroe Doctrine, treaties, and American expansion
4.4 The market revolution: industry and transportation
4.5 The market revolution: work, family, and migration
4.6 Expanding democracy for white men
4.7 Jackson, the Bank War, and Indian removal
4.8 A national culture and the Second Great Awakening
4.9 An age of reform: temperance, abolition, women's rights
4.10 African Americans in the early republic
4.11 The South: cotton, slavery, and a regional identity
4.12 Causation: what built an American identity, 1800 to 1848?

U5 Period 5: 1844–1877 10–17% of the exam

5.1 Manifest Destiny and the push to the Pacific
5.2 The Mexican-American War and the Mexican Cession
5.3 The Compromise of 1850
5.4 Immigration and nativism before the Civil War
5.5 Slavery and the two societies: North against South
5.6 The failure of compromise: Kansas, Dred Scott, new parties
5.7 The election of 1860 and secession
5.8 The Civil War: why the Union won
5.9 Lincoln, emancipation, and changing war aims
5.10 Reconstruction: plans, amendments, and politics
5.11 Why Reconstruction failed, and what it left behind
5.12 Comparison: how the Civil War changed American values

U6 Period 6: 1865–1898 10–17% of the exam

6.1 Context and the economic development of the West
6.2 Settling the West: conflict and the reservation system
6.3 The New South and the rise of Jim Crow
6.4 Technological innovation and the new economy
6.5 Industrial capitalism: big business and the trusts
6.6 Labor in the Gilded Age: wages, unions, and strikes
6.7 Immigration and migration in the Gilded Age
6.8 Responses to immigration: Americanization and restriction
6.9 The new middle class and the Gospel of Wealth
6.10 Reform in the Gilded Age: alternatives to the new order
6.11 Government, parties, and the Populist challenge
6.12 Continuity and change, 1865 to 1898

U7 Period 7: 1890–1945 10–17% of the exam

7.1 America becomes a world power: the imperialism debate
7.2 The Spanish-American War and its effects
7.3 The Progressives: goals, reforms, and conservation
7.4 World War I: from neutrality to the Treaty of Versailles
7.5 World War I at home: loyalty, fear, and migration
7.6 The 1920s: technology, mass media, and consumer culture
7.7 The 1920s: cultural and political controversies
7.8 The Great Depression: causes and effects
7.9 The New Deal: relief, recovery, and reform
7.10 Interwar foreign policy: isolationism and the road to war
7.11 World War II at home: mobilization and its social effects
7.12 World War II: the military victory
7.13 Postwar power and diplomacy
7.14 Comparing the first half of the twentieth century

U8 Period 8: 1945–1980 10–17% of the exam

8.1 The Cold War from 1945 to 1980
8.2 The Red Scare after World War II
8.3 The postwar economy, suburbs, and the Sunbelt
8.4 Mass culture and its critics
8.5 The early civil rights movement, 1945 to 1960
8.6 America as a world power: Cold War responses abroad
8.7 The Vietnam War
8.8 The Great Society and liberalism at its height
8.9 The civil rights movement of the 1960s
8.10 The rights revolution expands: women, Latinos, and more
8.11 Youth culture, protest, and the counterculture
8.12 The environment and energy, 1968 to 1980
8.13 Society in transition: conservatism, Watergate, distrust
8.14 Continuity and change, 1945 to 1980

U9 Period 9: 1980–Present 4–6% of the exam

9.1 The conservative turn: Reagan and the role of government
9.2 The end of the Cold War
9.3 A changing economy: technology, services, and inequality
9.4 Migration and immigration since 1980
9.5 Challenges of the twenty-first century
9.6 Causation and national identity since 1980

Keep going in the full AP United States History course

All of U1 (Period 1: 1491–1607) is free to everyone, with no account. The course has 95 lessons, each with worked examples and practice problems that come with full solutions. A free account can also start a free month of the whole course, with no card.

Open this lesson in the course See the whole course