THE BEST OF APUSH RESOURCES
APUSH REVIEW BOOKS (PDF)
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Recommended Films & TV series for AP US History (*denotes R rating)
The Last of the Mohicans (1992): French & Indian War (starring Daniel Day Lewis)*
John Adams (2008): HBO series (Amazon Prime & Hulu), 7 episodes (starring Paul Giamatti & Laura Linney)* The Patriot (2000): American Revolution (starring Mel Gibson)* Glory (1989): 54th Massachusetts; all black regiment during Civil War (starring Matthew Broderick)* Lincoln (2012): President Lincoln & the 13th Amendment (starring Daniel Day Lewis & Sally Field) Gangs of New York (2002): lower east side Manhattan, gangs, during and post-Civil War (starring Leonardo DiCaprio & Cameron Diaz)* Far & Away (1992): Gilded Age - Irish immigration (starring Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman) Hell on Wheels (2011 - ); TV series (AMC, Netflix) - building the railroads, the West Tombstone (1993): the Old West (starring Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer)* Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee (2007): Native American reservation system (Not Rated) Lonesome Dove (1989), TV mini series: Cowboys (starring Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Diane Lane) The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000): golf in the 1920s (starring Matt Damon & Will Smith) Boardwalk Empire (HBO series): Atlantic City crime and corruption in the 1920s (starring Steve Buscemi) * The Godfather (1970s, trilogy): organized crime (starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, etc.)* Public Enemies (2008): 1920s/30s - organized crime, John Dillinger (starring Johnny Depp) * Cinderella Man (1998): boxing in the 1930s/Great Depression (starring Russell Crowe & Renee Zellweger) Band of Brothers (2001), HBO mini series: US soldiers fighting in Europe during WWII (directed by Tom Hanks) * Good Night & Good Luck (1996): 1950s & 2nd red scare (starring George Clooney, Laura Linney, etc.) J. Edgar (2012): FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and 50 years of anti-communism (starring Leonard Di Caprio) * Remember the Titans (2000): Virginia high school football team deals with school integration in the 1960s (starring Denzel Washington) All the Way (2016): LBJ assumes the presidency after JFK assassination - civil rights, Vietnam, political war (starring Bryan Cranston & Anthony Mackie) All the President's Men (1976): Watergate (starring Dustin Hoffman & Robert Redford) American Gangster (2007): 1970s New York drug empire (starring Denzel Washington) * Charlie Wilson's War (2007): Texas congressman's covert dealings to aid Afghans from Soviet takeover in 1979 (starring Tom Hanks & Julia Roberts) * Argo (2012): Iranian Hostage Crisis (starring Ben Affleck) * |
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Recommended Novels & Works of Non-Fiction AP US History
Works are arranged by chronological or sequential order as best possible.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne - Puritan New England (skip the prologue) (K) The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper - French & Indian War (K) 1776 by David McCullough - American Revolution military strategy (NF) Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen – American Revolution The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd - Grimke Sisters, plantation daughters turned abolitionists Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - Antebellum slavery (K) Walden by Henry David Thoreau (NF) Moby Dick by Herman Melville Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass (K, NF) Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - South during the Antebellum, Civil War, & Reconstruction Eras Beloved by Toni Morrison - Escaped slaves living in Ohio during late Antebellum period The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane - Civil War (K,) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith - Gilded Age, Irish Orphan Train: A Novel by Christina Baker Kline - Gilded Age, Irish immigration A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner - Gilded Age NYC & September 11, 2001 NYC parallel Elizabeth Street by Laurie Fabiano - Gilded Age NYC, Little Italy, Mafia, from perspective of Italian female immigrant The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap by Paulette Mahurin - intolerance in 1895 Nevada Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston - racism in early 20th century Florida The Jungle by Upton Sinclair - Meat-packing industry, Chicago, Progressive Era (K) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - 1920s, New York A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway - 1920s, Paris The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway - 1920s, fishing The Aviator's Wife: A Novel by Melanie Benjamin - 1920s - 1960s, Charles "Lucky Lindy" & Anne Morrow Lindbergh Some Luck by Jane Smiley - chronicle of an Iowa farm family from the end of WWI, through the Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, and WWII Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - 1930s, Great Depression, Okies In Harm's Way: the Sinking of the USS Indianapolis & the Extraordinary Story of its Survivors by Doug Stanton - WWII, Pacific theatre (NF) Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay - WWII, France, Holocaust The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows & Mary Ann Shaffer - WWII, London The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams - post-Depression play set in 1930s Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison - early 20th century U.S. race issues On the Road by Jack Kerouac - 1940s, coming of age Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - 1950s, nonconformist The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot ethics, race, medicine (NF) The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley - 1960s, civil rights (NF) The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy - 1960s, Daufuski Island, South Carolina (NF) Silent Spring by Rachel Carson - launched 1960s environmentalist movement (NF) The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien - Vietnam War The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - 1970s Afghanistan to US Growing up Bin Laden by Omar Bin Laden, son, and Najwa Bin Laden, first wife (NF) (K) indicates a work available for free via Kindle (NF) indicates a nonfiction work |
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