Past Forward

Over the last fifteen years, undergraduate U.S. history courses have made great progress in incorporating primary sources and diverse voices into the survey. However, teachers still struggle to find professional writing by working historians in a format useful to undergraduates. Also, in 2014, the College Board redesigned the AP U.S. History curriculum and assessments to require students to demonstrate a critical approach to historical writing by professional historians. These facts have increased demand among teachers for access to high-quality secondary material by professional historians in a single, convenient publication.

James Sabathne teaches AP U.S. History at Hononegah High School in Rockton, Illinois, and is Co-Chair of the College Board AP U.S. History Development Committee. He is a coauthor of Strive for a 5: Preparing for the AP* World History Exam (2013).

Jason Stacy is Associate Professor of U.S. History and Social Science Pedagogy at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of several books, including Documenting United States History: Themes, Concepts, and Skills for the AP* Course (2015), Walt Whitman's Selected Journalism (2015), and Walt Whitman's Multitudes: Labor Reform and Persona in Whitman's Journalism and the First Leaves of Grass, 1840-1855 (2008).