2023 AP United States History Free-Response Questions (Set 1) Study Guide

Overview of the 2023 AP United States History Free-Response Exam

The $2023$ AP United States History Free-Response Questions (Set $1$) were issued by the College Board. This examination consists of two main sections: Section I, Part B (Short-Answer Questions) and Section II (Document-Based and Long Essay Questions). Section I, Part B allows for $40$ minutes of completion time for three questions. Section II allows for a total of $1$ hour and $40$ minutes, divided between one Document-Based Question (DBQ) and one Long Essay Question (LEQ). Responses must be written in complete sentences; outlines or bulleted lists are not permitted for credit.

Short-Answer Question 1: Comparative Perspectives on the New Deal

This question requires an analysis of two historical interpretations of the New Deal, based on excerpts from Lizabeth Cohen and Ira Katznelson.

Lizabeth Cohen, in her $1991$ work Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919–1939, argues that the New Deal created a broad "New Democratic Coalition." She describes working-class Chicagoans—including men, women, Black and White individuals, and immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe—who began voting Democratic to secure an "activist federal government" committed to the "welfare state."

Ira Katznelson, writing in $2013$ in Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time, offers a more critical perspective. He emphasizes the New Deal’s "intimate partnership" with Southern advocates of White supremacy. Katznelson asserts that the New Deal succeeded only through the support of Southern members of Congress and that it "permitted, or at least turned a blind eye toward, an organized system of racial cruelty," thereby collaborating with racial hegemony while advancing liberal democracy.

Students must: a. Describe one major difference between Cohen’s and Katznelson’s interpretations. b. Explain how one event or development from $1932$ to $1945$ (not in the excerpts) supports Cohen’s argument. c. Explain how one event or development from $1932$ to $1945$ (not in the excerpts) supports Katznelson’s argument.

Short-Answer Question 2: Muckraking and the Standard Oil Trust

This question focuses on an excerpt from journalist Ida Tarbell’s $1904$ work, The History of the Standard Oil Company. Tarbell describes the Standard Oil Trust as the "most perfectly developed trust in existence" and the "preeminent trust of the world." She highlights the trust’s control over transportation as the key to its mastery of the industry. Her ethical concern lies in the "subterfuges" (tricks), "sophistries" (lies), and "aggregations" (accumulations) of capital obtained through "special privileges" and secret efforts that opposed the "spirit of the law."

Students must: a. Describe one point of view suggested in the excerpt (e.g., Progressive Era criticism of monopolies). b. Explain how one specific historical development between $1865$ and $1904$ (e.g., the rise of horizontal integration or railroad rebates) contributed to the development Tarbell describes. c. Explain how ideas like Tarbell's resulted in a specific effect between $1904$ and $1920$ (e.g., the breakup of Standard Oil in $1911$ or the passage of the Clayton Antitrust Act).

Short-Answer Questions 3 and 4: Agriculture and Society

Students choose to answer either Question $3$ (Colonial era) or Question $4$ (Gilded Age).

Question 3 ($1607$–$1776$): a. Describe one way agriculture influenced migration to North America (e.g., the headright system or the demand for indentured servants/enslaved labor for tobacco cultivation). b. Explain one similarity in how agriculture influenced the development of two regions (e.g., the focus on cash crops in both the Chesapeake and the Lowcountry). c. Explain one difference in how agriculture influenced the development of two regions (e.g., the family-farm model of New England versus the plantation system of the South).

Question 4 ($1865$–$1900$): a. Describe one way agricultural interests influenced societal debates (e.g., the Populist Party and the debate over the gold standard vs. bimetallism). b. Explain one similarity in how agriculture influenced the development of two regions (e.g., the expansion of commercial farming facilitated by railroads in the West and the South). c. Explain one difference in how agriculture influenced the development of two regions (e.g., the system of sharecropping in the South versus mechanized wheat farming in the Great Plains).

Section II, Question 1: Document-Based Question on Commercial Development ($1800$–$1855$)

The prompt asks students to: "Evaluate the extent to which commercial development changed United States society from $1800$ to $1855$."

Document 1: General Association of Connecticut (1812) This report from an association of churches recommends that farmers, mechanics, and manufacturers reduce the consumption of "ardent spirits" (alcoholic beverages) among laborers. It suggests substituting other drinks or providing additional compensation to those who abstain, reflecting the link between the Market Revolution and the Temperance movement.

Document 2: Baltimore Steam Engine Advertisement (1831) An advertisement from Machett’s Baltimore Directory depicting one of the first railroad locomotives made in the United States. It illustrates the technological advancements in transportation and the growth of the manufacturing sector.

Document 3: Henry A. Tayloe Letter (1835) Tayloe, a plantation owner in Alabama, writes to his brother in Washington, D.C., regarding the high price of "Negroes." He offers to bring enslaved people from Virginia to Alabama to sell them, aiming to "make a fortune" through industry and economy. This highlights the expansion of the domestic slave trade driven by commercial cotton interests.

Document 4: Elias Nason Letter (1835) Nason, a college student in Rhode Island, advises his parents against putting their children in cotton mills. He characterizes factories as "schools of vice" (sin) that make children "pale and sickly" and associates factory labor with the "lowest order" of society, expressing concern over the moral and physical toll of industrialization.

Document 5: Joseph Wilson, Sketches of the Higher Classes of Colored Society in Philadelphia (1841) Wilson describes the wealthy free African American community, noting their refined parlors with carpets, sofas, and pianos. He emphasizes their observance of temperance and their ability to maintain a respectable society despite the "oppressive prejudices" of the White community, showing the emergence of a Black middle class.

Document 6: Josephine L. Baker, Lowell Offering (1845) Baker acknowledges the trials of factory life but highlights the "brighter side," including prompt wages, evening schools, lectures, and libraries. She posits that factory life offers a sense of freedom and access to personal improvement not found in other situations for women.

Document 7: Frederick Douglass, North Star (1848) This article argues that "Slavery degrades labor" and lowers wages for free working men. It calls for Northern workers to oppose the "slave power," warning that the degradation of laborers in one part of the country will eventually reduce all laborers to a state of near-slavery.

Section II: Long Essay Question Options

Students must complete one of the following three essay prompts, ensuring they provide a defensible thesis, historical context, and specific evidence while using historical reasoning (comparison, causation, or continuity/change).

1. Question 2 ($1607$–$1776$): Evaluate the extent to which the growth of transatlantic trade changed British North American colonial society. Key themes include mercantilism, the Navigation Acts, the Triangular Trade, and the consumer revolution.

2. Question 3 ($1840$–$1898$): Evaluate the extent to which changes in United States foreign policy contributed to territorial growth. Key themes include Manifest Destiny, the Mexican-American War, the acquisition of Oregon, and the Spanish-American War.

3. Question 4 ($1945$–$1991$): Evaluate the extent to which growing concerns about national security contributed to changes in United States foreign policy. Key themes include the Cold War, Containment, the Truman Doctrine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the collapse of the Soviet Union.