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Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Allow two weeks to teach these two chapters as a unit. Combined, these chapters provide an overall view of the United States economic and societal developments between the 1870s and the 1890s. In teaching about the West, focus on the federal government's policies toward Native Americans and settling the West.

The multiple-choice section of the U.S. History AP* exam is divided into clusters of six to ten or 12 questions that move through U.S. history from the earliest to the most recent periods. One way for students to eliminate answer choices in the multiple-choice section is to first understand to which time periods the question and each of the possible answer choices is referring. For example, if a question shows a map of the United States and asks students to identify a shaded area, students should determine the time frame of the preceding question and of the following question to determine what time frame the map might be showing. If the previous question is about the War of 1812 and the subsequent question is about the election of 1828, then the map might be showing the area involved in the Missouri Compromise (1820).

The following four major themes are developed in Chapter 17: (1) the economic changes in agrarian America, (2) racial conflict on the Plains between Native Americans and whites, (3) the developing New South, including racial conflict between African Americans and whites, and (4) farm protests against falling prices. The latter can be compared to the urban labor unrest described in Chapter 18.

The focus of Chapter 18 is the transformation of the United States into an industrial nation between 1865 and 1900. The chapter describes the rise and importance—economically and politically—of big business. Among its effects were the development of an urban workforce and rapid urbanization as well as an unpredictable economic cycle. Labor unrest is discussed and the living and working conditions of urban workers are juxtaposed with the rise of the new middle class.

To provide students with practice in viewing visuals analytically, have them choose one visual from among those in Chapters 17 and 18 and answer the following questions in a brief essay. The illustrations may be paintings, photographs, posters, or drawing, but not maps.

You might also find these additional readings useful in developing students' background knowledge or for DBQ activities: