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AP US history summer reading
For history, we have to read two books and write a paper on both. One we have to read, and the other we pick from a list. Any recomendations?
The books are:
-1876 - Gore Vidal
-The Alienist - Caleb Carr
-All the President's Men - Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
-The Autobiography of Malcom X (as told to Alex Haley)
-The Brethren - Bob Woddward
-Burr - Gore Vidal
-The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson
-The Feminine Mystique - Betty Friedan
-Flags of our Fathers - James Bradley
-For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway
-The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinback
-The Jungle - Upton Sinclair
-Lies My Teacher Told Me - James Lowen
-The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe
-Roughing It - Mark Twain
-Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe
-Undaunted Courage - Stephen Ambrose
-Vernon Can Read! - Vernon Jordan
We have to summarize the book, explain the authors perspective on the subject, and explain what we liked/disliked about the book. I was going to read Lies My Teacher Told Me, but then I thought it would be too hard to summarize and write a good paper on it, since every chapter is something different. Any suggestions would be great. Also, any tips or things I should expect going into AP US history? Thanks!
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I would go with The Jungle and The Grapes of Wrath. We talked a great deal about both of these in my AP US History class.
Tips for AP US History: Take good notes and participate in class discussions. In my class last year, if you did those two things, you could easily pass. First semester I took notes half the time, talked to my friend during class, and never read the whole chapter. I got a C. Second semester, I always took notes during class, and I talked with the class instead of a friend, and I always read the chapter. I got an A plus. Paying attention makes all the difference.
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Hm, well if it were me, I would choose either Uncle Tom's Cabin or Flags of our Fathers for the following reasons:
-Uncle Tom's Cabin is a CLASSIC and was very controversial in it's time and, like the last person stated, is considered one of the causes of the war.
-Flags of our Fathers was also made into a movie. I saw some of it, but I didn't finish. I think it would be an interesting read, but even more importantly, it would be VERY helpful to you once you get to the WWII portion of the class.
I took APUSH last year. We didn't have any summer reading, but we learned about a good deal of these books. If you look into the two I mentioned and aren't interested, the next ones I'd recommend just from what we learned about them is The Autobiography of Malcom X, Grapes of Wrath, and The Jungle.
I understand what you mean about the Lies book being hard to write about, but I'm definitely going to look into that book once I get done with my summer reading. It looks like an interesting read, even though I probably know all of it by now. :)
One piece of advice that may help is going on Amazon, reading the summaries of all the books, and seeing which YOU would be most interested in. Because, as we all know, the hardest books to read are the ones that bore you to death.
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i know that Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin", was refered to by abraham lincoln as "the little lady who started teh civil war." and is an epic book of its time. i think you would benifit from reading it going into US history.
also, i saw the movie Flags of Our Fathers, and it was extrodinary. so id suggest reading those one of those two.
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